What do Democrats and Al Qaeda have in common?

They both want American defeat in Iraq. It really is just that simple.

Harry Reid, the nation’s top Democrat recently said the war is lost. We heard it a million times from Nancy Pelosi, Abscam Murtha, Howard Dean, John Kerry and the whole crowd. Ted Kennedy has parlayed his expostulations of American moral failing and defeat into a septuagenarian achievement of his career objective of rock star status, albeit on Al Jazeera. Read the floor debate when the Democrats passed the “Defeat on Demand” war resolution.

In response, Al-Qaeda released it latest epistle on the state of the war. They claim the Democrat War Resolution places them-the terrorists not the Democrats-on the eve of victory, although the Democrats also express a shared definition of victory with Al Qaeda as well.

What conclusions are possible from this confluence of Al Qaeda/Democrat Iraq policy? Shouldn’t the burden of demonstrating one's patriotism fall on those who share a political position with our national enemies? We'll have to wait for their answer, though. They’re all watching CBS and NBC blame the Kansas tornados on W right now.

Republicans strike back...........

............ or how we are diminishing the technological learning curve. Check out QubeTV. This is brilliant!

Now, hopefully no one has video of that lamp shade incident.

Sam Brownback

Positives: Sam is proving to be perhaps the most articulate and thoughtful spokesman the pro-life cause has yet produced.

More importantly, when asked if he could support a pro-choice nominee, Sen. Brownback made perhaps the most important point of the night.

"... somebody that's with you 80 percent of the time is not your enemy, that's your friend and that's your ally. And this is a big coalition party. And it's a coalition party that's governed for a number of years in this country. And it governs because it governs with a coalition of economic and social conservatives, and people that want to be strong for the United States.”

That answer, and it was immediate, are the words of a party statesman. The Real Sporer says it often, our nominee is going to be far more representative of virtually every Republican than any Democrat, and those are the only choices. The converse is also true; pro-choice Republicans need to support a pro-life nominee. The principle is almost universal-there is really no one issue that should separate any Republican from our nominee.

Negatives: Sam almost does seem too nice. Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington when we just might need John Wayne in “In Harms Way” or “The Longest Day with the immortal line about our WW2 enemy “Send ‘em to Hell”.

Speaker Points (0-30) 25

The format dishonors ............

…………… all of us old debaters. The Real Sporer and our panel of debate experts (nerds) have had a good chance to talk over the contenders' Reagan Library rumble last night. One thing’s for sure, it certainly wasn’t the Thrilla in Manila. The conversation was dominated by criticism of the uninformative format that is now passing for “debate” in the Lincoln Douglas tradition.

First, how utterly apropos` it is that we would choose the shrillest and silliest of the liberal networks to host our debate while the Democrats fled from Fox because of perceived, but unevidenced, bias. MSNBC, particularly Chris Matthews (Carter White House speech writer/Tip O'Neill Chief of Staff) and Keith Olberman are the most radical of the liberal talk show hosts, although precious few actually watch their shows so their collective influence should earn the cover of Time. The choice of MSNBC was obviously meant to emphasize the difference between the party of dialogue and the party of liturgy.

Second, the content and demeanor well display the enormous difference between our candidates and theirs. What kind of a world is it where Hillary Clinton is the most masculine opponent we face? Of course, Evita Peron and Lucretia Borgia had pretty rough political elbows. (Republicans would be well advised to bring an official taster to White House meals should our latter day Evita return to power without Bill to restrain her more bloodthirsty instincts.) Where we offer optimistic realism married to the courage of our convictions, their debate offered little more than hatred tempered only by a desire to pander to the political winds of the time.

Third, why do we need moderators? While some journalists might at least try to ask important questions, certainly not the buffoonish Matthews who opportunely seized the moment to grind his mindless axe of Bush abhorrence, their contribution inherently limits the debate. Every second a moderator talks is a second that a future President is silent. Whose thoughts do you think are more relevant to your life? Why would any person who proposes to lead the free world in WW3 fear openly expressing, defending and demonstrating the superiority of their ideas and character? Perhaps we should demand more than merely avoidance of the catastrophic mistake from the dialectic by which we select the Commander in Chief.

Perhaps worst of all, these almost benighted moments of shared camera time is being globally juxtaposed against the lively face to face confrontation the French, yes the French, Presidential candidates had this week. Why can’t they ask each other questions? Why are the debates being broadcast to the nation’s smallest TV audience? Why shouldn’t all public broadcast networks be required to show the debates, and the conventions gavel-to-gavel for that matter? Maybe a little forced education, unfiltered by the network spin, would benefit the electoral process? Just a few questions that arose today.

Coming next, each player's TPC evaluation.

Poll Reset....Debate Review Preview

The first debate is now history. We watched it twice.

Has the first debate affected opinion among our audience? The only way to tell is to reset the Real Poll here at the Real Sporer.

I am going to give the old debate coach’s review tomorrow, the hour is too late for lengthy analysis, but my pre-sleep impression is three of the underdogs stole the show. Perhaps the arms of Morpheus will provide a different conclusion?