“If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” -Adolf Hitler

I read a paragraph on Gregg Henson’s blog today. Normally, I agree with him, but today he just rubbed me the wrong way because something he wrote was insanely wrong, but it’s something I’ve talked about here before.

In talking about President Obama’s disheartening end of the federal funding for embryonic stem cell research ban, he said the following.

I’m really happy that Barack Obama reversed George Bush’s partial ban on stem cell research.

I think George W. Bush’s biggest mistake was not allowing scientists to use EVERY available avenue to find cures for disease. Bush allowed the nut bag right wingers to push him to ban stem cell research and I think he will always be disgraced for his decision. His ban put us 7 years behind in the search for cures for everyday diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer. I will ALWAYS hold it against him that he let the nutty right make the call.

Hitler was right. Apparently, if you tell a lie long enough, people start believing it.

First of all, there is not now nor has there ever been a ban on stem cell research in the United States. That’s not open for debate or interpretation and anyone who argues otherwise is grossly uninformed. No matter how much you try to pin this on “Jesus freaks,” there is no such ban, Gregg.

As I’ve said before, there is a halt on federal funding for new lines of stem cells created from embryos. What that means is that under President Bush, there would be no new lines of stem cells created from embryos done with federal money. You could start your own pharmaceutical company tomorrow, grow your own lines, and harvest the hell out of them without fear of prosecution or arrest because there is no ban on doing so; you just won’t be able to get federal grants to do so. In fact, if you apply for it, you can even use any number of existing lines of stem cells created from embryos that the federal government already has in its stores!

Doesn’t seem like standard operating procedure for something that was, with the stroke of a pen, made illegal, does it?

It always strikes me as odd when I read someone who’s a generally open-market type complaining that without the federal government’s intervention, embryonic stem cell research can’t go anywhere. It strikes me as even odder that we’re constantly hearing about the potential for embryonic stem cell research as if it’s the only area where progress can happen, while other countries who have no such funding freezes are making tons of advancements using adult stem cells like this one, and this one, and this one, and of course this one.

For a similar example of verbal gymnastics, check out IT.tv Episode 43, where I come out against driving.

I’m really disappointed that Gregg not only fell for this stupidity, but also went along and perpetuated the myth. I guess in that way, he does agree with President Obama.

Lefties hold a rally hoping for President Bush’s continued success. (via Theodore’s World)

Boy oh boy did Rush Limbaugh cause a kerfuffle when he said he wanted Obama to fail if meant an increase in liberal programs in the US and socialized medicine. People were downright indignant that he would dare wish ill on the President. Let’s forget that for the past 8 years, we’ve had nothing but a howling bunch of lunatics on the left doing everything from calling for the President’s head on a platter to burning him in effigy; I’m sure that means they wanted great success for him.

In 2003, Nicholas De Genova, a professor at Columbia University in New York City wished success upon President Bush. He was very straightforward in his desire for the war in Iraq to succeed, and made no bones about his desire to see the war end with a victory parade. Here’s an article from Salon explaining De Genova’s high hopes for American success:

Then last week, someone actually came out and said it. Columbia University professor Nicholas De Genova hoped at an “antiwar teach-in,” hosted by left-wing writer and historian Eric Foner, that there would be “a million Mogadishus” in this war. To translate: This guy wants to see a million young American troops subjected to war crimes, shot and mutilated, and paraded through the streets. No one in the crowd objected. “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military,” he elaborated. And to loud cheers from an Ivy League college audience, he thundered, “If we really [believe] that this war is criminal … then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine.”

Notice how de Genova parroted Saddam’s propaganda that the dictator and the “Iraqi people” are indistinguishable. But notice something far more obvious. If de Genova’s comments aren’t an expression of a fifth columnist, someone actively supporting the victory of a vicious dictator over the troops of his own countrymen, then what, please tell me, is? And please, don’t give me the old McCarthyite “J’accuse.” De Genova has every right in the world to say what he believes; and I would defend his right to say it anywhere, free from any governmental interference. By the same token, I am allowed to say that his views are morally repugnant.

Wow. He really did want success for President Bush, didn’t he? I mean, he expressed it somewhat awkwardly, but we all know what he meant. Saddam celebrating and our soldiers murdered and tortured would be a rousing success for this country, wouldn’t it? I tend to think so. Then the left-wing media could get those soldiers’ coffin photos they so cherish and run them all night long as we watch weeping widows cry, children get consoled, and some pompous douche in an awful tie telling us how tragic it all was as they exploit every second of it on an Alphabet network or cable news outlet.

Of course, Genova’s wish for success is no different than the one shared by 51% of Democrats polled in 2006 about President Bush’s success and their desire for it following the mid-term elections. When asked very plainly “Regardless of how you voted in the presidential election, would you say you want President Bush to succeed or not?”

There’s no room for ambiguity in that question. Luckily, Democrats provided no ambiguity in answering it. Keep in mind this question was asked in 2006 while our soldiers were fighting two wars.

via Patterico

Now on its own, I don’t give a damn what Democrats or Republicans have to say. Frankly, the outrage-o-meter gets cranked whenever the other side opens their mouth and we have to hear demands for apologies, resignations, and firings for days on end. My question to the outraged Democrats is very simple, however. For eight years, you begged publicly for President Bush to fail. During the election, in fact, you called his Presidency a failure and hoped for someone else to take the reins and do their thing. You actively campaigned against the President, sided with a corrupt UN and various dictators in undermining a war you thought was criminal to the point where you were calling for the President of the United States to be brought up on war crimes charges in the Hage.

With all that being said, can any Democrat who’s now so offended by the words of one radio host really say they weren’t wishing for the failure of the President, the very same thing outraging them now, a mere few years ago?

The one thing about glass houses is that it makes it very easy to see what’s inside, and in this case it’s a steaming pile of hypocrisy.

Well, it’s almost a week since we thought we “bought” a new 2009 Malibu 2LT, and we’re in the process of looking for a replacement. It turns out Donnie’s cousin works for Manfredi in Staten Island, so we’re going to hit them up today and see what we can do. If he offers us at least what Curry was, we’re taking the vehicle; no questions asked. I just want the car in my garage and I want this whole thing to be over with dammit (although, no worries, I won’t be settling for something I don’t want; at this point it’s my car or no car).

As for Curry Chevrolet, thousands of people have seen the original story here because of Consumerist’s link love and a quick stint on Digg. The story has been retweeted on Twtitter and commented on and viewed on Facebook. In essence, I’ve done everything possible to ensure that everyone everywhere sees the story. Curry Chevrolet’s name, as far as I’m concerned, is mud right now. In fact, do a search on Google for Curry Chevrolet. Those negative stories are right there alongside their corporate page.

A few interesting tidbits before I leave this story behind.

1. I spoke to the Sales Manager on Wednesday for an extended period of time. Time and time again, she tried explaining away her actions as her just trying to get the car for us. I was misunderstanding her gesture of good will, apparently. On that day, I also bought a bridge. A nice one. In Brooklyn.

2. That same sales manager demonstrated yet again why I won’t do business with Curry. Now we hadn’t signed the financial agreement for the car at the time, but the numbers she was giving us was based on 72 months, not 60. We were told that they were doing that so that we could have lower payments. What she didn’t tell us (that we figured out) was that had we qualified for the 60 months zero percent financing (I still don’t know if we would’ve, honestly, but they hadn’t checked), we would be paying $6,000 less over the life of the loan. $6,000 less! By adding another year and a quarter to our payments, she cost us $6,000! No apology offered. Another miscommunication.

3. That same Sales Manager told us that the car we wanted was located at another dealership and we could have it for the same price. Aside from the sticker price having no adjustments made to it, why in the hell didn’t she just do that from the beginning instead of trying to “gold mist” us with colors we didn’t want on way more expensive models? Trying to clear out the non-moving inventory are we?

4. Aside from the final bill of sale, and the loan numbers on the agreement, the paperwork was done. As far as we knew, we owned that blue one we liked so much when we left that dealership on Sunday. Many people have pointed out that it didn’t look as if the deal was done because we had to go back Monday night to do the rest of the paperwork. All that was was the final numbers on the financing, but the agreement had the VIN, our tradein, and our deposit on it and was signed by both of us. The car was ours if they hadn’t already sold it.

5. To this day, I don’t believe that car was sold when we were there on Sunday. Every other car that was sold had a “SOLD” sign hanging on the rearview mirror. That one didn’t. You can’t tell me that car sold and no one marked it sold. They seemed very thorough with the other models we saw that were sold including 3 $80,000+ Corvettes.

6. My father correctly pointed out that they were doing nothing for us to apologize for the eff up. We weren’t getting the 0%, we weren’t shown the $2750 rebate, they didn’t take anything off the sticker. The most they offered was an additional $500 on my tradein (bringing it up to a whopping $1500) and then showed us cars that were almost $2000 more than the one we wanted to begin with. To top that off, we had to wait for our refund. Knowing we were coming in, my refund should’ve been done on Monday and we start from Square one. That didn’t happen, either. They knew they were going to sell me on some other vehicle as quickly as possible.

7. Lastly, the dealbreaker for me was the complete cavalierness with which they handled my insurance. When I added David to the “okay to contact” list on Sunday, it was in case something was wrong so he could contact them directly. Yes, GEICO still has to talk to me to make actual changes, but allowing him to talk to GEICO makes things go much smoother. New York has its fair share of forms they need filled out and proof for the bank and for the insurance company has to be exchanged 200 times before a car can be sold. With my work schedule and Beth’s, the fact that someone could do that for us was a Godsend. Many have argued that the reason that Curry was able to was able to talk to GEICO on Monday was because we were “dumb enough” to allow it. Well, that’s about 50% true. The fact that I walked out of that dealership at 8:05 Monday telling them I not only didn’t want to do business with them but that I’d be back the next day to get my refund meant they no longer had my authorization to call anyone in my name and they did it anyway. I would be able to forgive anything else that got messed up with them, and had they simply called me first, I might have even let them do it and probably would’ve picked the new car up the next day. The insurance stuff (letting the old car off the showroom floor without telling me so I could take it off my policy, and then adding a car to my policy on the night I left without authorization) is what put me over the edge in not wanting to deal with them any more.

So today I’ll make what will be the last attempt at buying this same car. I know what I want, I know what it’ll cost, and that’s that. I loved the car when I test drove it, and Chevy should consider themselves lucky I’m at least partially brand loyal. I’ve always liked Chevy as a company, and I’ve always liked their cars. Test driving the Malibu last weekend was so satisfying that I couldn’t walk out the dealership without buying it. That speaks volumes, if you ask me, about their products.

But Chevrolet’s biggest problem may not necessarily be the cars it makes or even the perception of those vehicles. It’s the frustration of dealing with shady shifty dealerships. The first Malibu, when we bought it, was the first new car I had ever purchased. We walked in, leased it, and walked out. When we went back to buy that lease, we had the worst experience to that point. This experience with Curry, just reinforced what GM ought to know already: the problem isn’t your cars, it’s the people you have selling them. I’m 0 for 2 as far as Chevrolet dealerships go.

Not a good record when you consider I’ve only been to two in the last eight years.

Against my better judgment, I went to Curry Chevrolet on Sunday with my wife. We’re in the market for a new car and despite my discomfort with buying an American car, we did have relatively good luck with our eight year old Chevrolet Malibu. We figured we would go in, look around, and see what the new one was like.

A representative took us inside, showed us the car, and we fell in love with it. It was a beautiful color, had a leather interior, and had every option we wanted all in one car. There was nothing we could ask for that wasn’t in the car. He grabbed the keys from a similar car in inventory and took us up to take a test drive. “How willing are you to sign the papers today?” he asked me. “Very willing if the numbers work out.” My wife nodded at me. We hadn’t intended on buying right away, but why wait if the numbers looked good?

We took the test drive and I was in love. The car handled smoothly, had great acceleration, and just felt like a dream. Now that I work in Nanuet, I put about 60-70 miles a day on my car so I felt comfortable spending that much time in this car. We returned to the dealership, sat down to do the paperwork, and that beautiful blue Malibu on the showroom floor was going to be ours.

As we were sitting there, our sales rep asked around if that car had been sold. Everyone chimed in that it was not, and there was no tag on the vehicle (like there was on the other sold ones) saying it was sold. While we were signing the paperwork, our rep got a phone call and when he hung up, he informed us that it was a person looking to put a deposit down on the car so we had to hurry up and sign the papers (yeah, looking back on it, I don’t believe it either). We didn’t care; we were signing them anyway. We were going to trade in our car and add whatever we needed to to make the deal.

Paperwork done, car signed for, I called GEICO and added it to my insurance and added our sales rep as an authorized contact so he could finalize the insurance. The car was now ours. We had to go back on Monday to sign the paperwork, talk to the finance guy to finalize the deal, and get our tradein appraised. Even though there was a blizzard in NYC yesterday, we made it up on time for our appointment. Our sales rep wasn’t there, so we worked with another one. They started the appraisal and we started chatting. As we were talking to him, the Sales Manager came over to us and put a piece of paper down on the table we were sitting at. “I have good news and bad news,” she told us. “The good news is that we’re going to give you the $1500 for your tradein even though we don’t think the car is worth that much. We think the car is worth $1000, but we’re going to eat the difference.”

I was fine with that. “The problem is that the car you wanted isn’t available. The rep sold it to you but he didn’t know someone else had already bought it the night before.”

My wife and I were stunned. After signing the paperwork under the pressure of “sign it now sign it now sign it now,” there was no car. How the hell did that happen? “I do have another one for you to look at, though.” She showed us a similar car in “gold mist.” Now, I’m not a pimp and I’m not 50. A gold car? Really? “It’s the same color as your car.” Oh really? My car is galaxy silver, and obviously so.

I balked at the idea. My wife and I went back to her and asked her if they had any other colors available. The Sales Manager proceeded to come up with model after model of cars that weren’t similarly equipped to the one we thought we bought, or were 2-3000 more than what we were paying for the one we wanted.

One car didn’t have a sunroof. Another didn’t have the six cylinder engine. Another had a horrid two-tone leather interior. She sensed our skepticism and told us we should sign the paperwork and let her get the car detailed for us so we could look at it tonight. I was okay with giving it a shot, but I could see my wife’s displeasure with the whole process starting to shine through. We sat down to fill out the paperwork and I realized that I was about to spend $2000 more for a car I didn’t really want from people who had just screwed me over. I told the rep to stop writing and we were just going to go somewhere else.

Yes it was an upgraded model, and according to them we were getting a great deal (I’ll admit the deal wasn’t really that bad), but it still wasn’t what we wanted. No matter how many times my wife tried to explain that we’d be “settling,” we were informed no less than twenty times how “nice” it was and how “classy” the car was and so on. I was getting EXTREMELY annoyed. I told her I’d be back today to get my refund of my deposit because, I was informed, the cashier only works until 5:30. Isn’t that great for a dealership that’s open until 8?

We finally, after ten minutes of nagging, got her to just let us go. I was told that she was having the car we didn’t want detailed anyway and I could take a look at it and I’d fall in love with it and that would be the end of it. I resigned myself to the fact that I’d have to put up with one more trip to these people so I could get my $2000 back and move on with my life. I sucked it up, and left. On the car ride home, Beth and I lost our minds. We were so aggravated at the placating gladhanding treatment we got, and the fact that they sold the car out from under us. Not only that, but in trying to make it right, they weren’t even giving us the same car and were charging us, at minimum, $2000 more for it! Then, on the way home, it hit me. I had added that new car to our insurance policy. As far as GEICO was concerned, that car was insured by me! Someone drove the car off the lot with insurance coverage I was paying for!

I lost my mind. I came home and immediately called GEICO to have the car removed. This was at 8:50pm. I checked my e-mails and saw that we had gotten a voicemail at 8:40. It was from GEICO congratulating us on the purchase of our new car and wanting to confirm the details with us. I lost my mind. I ran into the bedroom to tell Beth. “Those sons of bitches called GEICO and had the car added to our policy!” Beth’s eyes widenened. “When?” “Ten minutes ago!” Essentially, half an hour after the deal was already dead, the dealership called GEICO to add a car we said we didn’t want to our policy.

I couldn’t believe it. Now I was furious. Then we got a voicemail from the Sales Manager. She had located a blue Malibu, exactly the same as the one we thought we bought and wanted us to come in and see it when she had it transferred over from another dealer. “I don’t want it, and I’m furious that you called my insurance company to add a car after you knew the deal was dead.” After some firm and angry scolding, I informed her that I would not be returning today to get my deposit and told her at 9:30, when her cashier gets in, I want my deposit back on my card. No questions asked. She was annoyed with me! As if I had wronged her by calling her out for effing with my insurance! Here she was doing me a favor, and here I was being ungrateful.

No joke. She actually hung up on me because I was “stressing her out.” Today, that refund better be on my card or I’m raising holy hell with those bastards.

This is what I had to put up with. Despite knowing better, and despite the relatively crappy experience I had the last time I bought a Chevrolet in 2001 (and again in 2004), I went to a Chevrolet dealer again. If Chevrolet wants to know why no one wants to buy American cars any more, maybe they should look at their dealers. The high pressure crap, the sneakiness, and the outright lies (you’re not marking the car up at all? Really? Then why are you so desperate to sell it to me?) convinced me to never deal with Chevrolet or any other car company (with one exception; my dad’s dealer who he got his Pontiac G6 from was awesome and I would give him a shot if the opportunity arose) under the GM umbrella again.

Curry Chevrolet is a disgrace, plain and simple. Chevrolet should be embarrassed that their name is on that awning.

Don’t Eff With 50.

Classic stuff.

Look… I’m not saying Kelly Clarkson is a disaster. I’m not even saying she’s not attractive. Her weight isn’t an issue for me. Not in the slightest. In fact, I think she looks good with a little more curve to her. What annoys me is the absolutely ridiculous amount of photoshopping done on her new album cover. Look at those two pictures side by side. Can you honestly say they didn’t slim her down, photoshop the hell out of it, and then put it on the cover?

I get the whole “we have to project an image” but Jesus Christ, can the album cover at least remotely look like the person whose voice is recorded on the album?

(Don’t forget to watch it in HQ to get the full effect)

No one is going to change my mind and I still think Lebron is the best player in the league (and will likely, at some point, be called the best player ever) but there’s something about Dwight Howard that’s just so great. He’s a good kid, a nice guy, and he’s super talented. That, to me, is the kind of guy you want as the future of your league.

Just to prove his spectacular 10 point slam at the Slam Dunk Challenge wasn’t a fluke, he did it again on Letterman last night.

(Watch it in HQ to fully appreciate it!)

Nate is the only reason I watch Knicks games.

Seeing as everyone is remixing Christian Bale’s tirade, I figured I’d try it myself…

For the last few years, Nate has been one of the very (and I mean very) few bright spots on the New York Knicks. This dunk is just insane, ridiculous, and amazing all at the same time.

Kudos to Nate Robinson for winning the slam dunk competition this year. It was well-deserved.

(To fully enjoy the video, click the triangle in the lower right corner once the video starts playing and switch it to HD)

A lawsuit happy passenger with cerebral palsy on a LIRR train has decided that telling everyone that the train was held up because they needed to help him get off the train is grounds enough to sue.

In the suit, Faggiani says he notified a conductor as he boarded that he would need a ramp to get off. But the conductor apparently forgot, and when Faggiani arrived at his station, his father had to summon help. That’s when they heard the announcement that the train would be delayed because of a “wheelchair patient.” Faggiani tells Newsday, “He just kept emphasizing ‘wheelchair,’ ‘wheelchair,’ ‘wheelchair.’ You could just imagine all those eyes staring at me.”

Apparently Faggiani objected to the rest of the train being told that his special need for assistance in leaving the train was the reason for the delay, and objected to the fact that he was in a wheelchair being pointed out to other riders. For that “embarassment,” Mr. Faggiani is seeking “unspecified damages.”

I wonder how much money makes all that horrible pain and humiliation go away?

(Photo courtesy of LIRRhistory.com)

New Yorkers… Well… At least some New Yorkers… Are starting to bristle at how much it’s expected Mayor Bloomberg will spend on running for office for the third time. He was asked about putting a spending cap on his campaign at a recent press conference.

When the issue was first posed to him at yesterday’s press conference, he snapped back, “I think it’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I can’t quite understand it, so we will come back to you later.” When asked why he would need to spend what some are projecting to hover around $80 million to get his message across after seven years as mayor, he responded, “Sometimes—I know you will be shocked by this—sometimes some reporters don’t accurately describe what we have done, or what we will do, so we have to find another venue.”

The general consensus by a lot of New Yorkers is that Bloomberg’s spending is disproportionate to any opponent that runs and many are calling for it to be outlawed to “make it fair” for other people running. The obvious counterpoint to that is… Well… Was anyone raising this kind of stink when Barack Obama was outspending John McCain ten to one during the November elections? As 62.2% of the people in New York State went to the polls and pulled the lever for Barack Obama did they care that he dwarfed the spending of every single candidate that ever came before him? Did they also care about the fact that his inauguration cost almost double what George W. Bush’s inauguration cost a few years earlier; an event that was panned because it was considered excessive during a war and a weak economy?

Let’s face facts as New Yorkers. Bloomberg isn’t being asked to spend less out of fairness. He’s being asked to spend less so that whatever warm-body braindead Democrat they get to sacrifice in the next election will have at least a monetary chance. Bloomberg’s popularity is still easily high enough to win his upcoming election and the New York State Democratic Party not only knows it, but they can’t do a thing about it.

That’s why they’re organizing faux outrage at the term limits issue and the money issue; it’s the only shot they have at weakening a Mayor who’s in a pretty strong position to keep his job no matter who runs against him.

When we went to Vegas over the summer, we had to contend with a crappy US Air plane whose air conditioning was, at best, mediocre. Beth sums it up rather nicely.

I don’t want to give away spoilers, so I’m hiding them after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Just trying out my Motionbox account.

Every once in awhile, I hit the nail on the head in such a profound way that it bears repeating. On February 1, 2005, I wrote the following.

Most of my Republican friends would undoubtedly love to see Howard Dean running the Democratic National Committee. The thinking behind that is that with Howard Dean running the show, the Democrats would almost be relegated to the farthest left annals of the political spectrum.

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

I have a very left wing feminist friend. We discussed the elections a great deal and discussed every single debate every single morning afterward. It was the topic of discussion from somewhere around September all the way through the election, and for days afterward. One topic that kept coming up was the dire straits the party was in and how John Kerry was quite possibly the worst person to run the show.

At one point, I actually hit on something and it kinda surprised her coming from a right wing lunatic windbag:

“Dean would’ve been a better candidate. At least you know where he stands on the issues. He didn’t try to take every position on every issue and he stood for something; that’s where Kerry is lacking.”

Well you know what? I still think that.

Let’s think about what really turned the election. Was it John Kerry’s lack of leadership in the Senate? I doubt it. Most people outside of the inner informed circle probably don’t know anything abou that.

Was it about his time in Vietnam? Not really. While pundits brought it up again and again, the President took the high road on numerous occasions saying that he served honorably and that was the end of the discussion.

Was it about his attrocious and obnoxious wife? Honestly, who votes on the calibre of the first lady?

What turned the election was the brilliant way that the Republican National Committee managed to turn John Kerry from a Senator with 20+ years of experience and numerous war decorations into a cowardly flip flopping weeble wobble. Some of it was well-deserved, but there’s no doubt it was out there for all to see the entire election.

Kerry’s multiple positions on Iraq, abortion, gay marriage, the budget, taxes, and so on were his demise. Undecideds may have voted for Kerry, but the truth is that most of them (from the interviews I heard) had no idea what his positions were. I saw an interview on the web with numerous people. They read John Kerry quotes, and then attributed them to the President. The voters they questioned went on rants about how it was typical Bush and how it was the exact reason they weren’t voting for him.

Then they cited the quotes to who they really belonged to, and the voters seemed dumbfounded and couldn’t reconcile Kerry’s quotes with Kerry’s positions, and that was his problem.

Now put Dean in that position. The former Governor of Vermont was nothing if not consistent. He was anti war, pro socialized health care, pro civil union, pro abortion and so on. But none of those positions were flips and flops like we’ve come to expect from John Kerry. Dean had a vision for his candidacy, his party, and so on, and he stuck to it from minute one. Imagine how the election would have been different if Dean had run. No more “flip flop.” No more assault on the military records (deserved or not). None of it. The choice may have been a lot clearer because you don’t get a right winger, and a left winger who won’t commit to left wing issues.

I think the people who are praying for Dean to take over are extremely short-sighted. A strong vocal leader with definite points of view and a consistent group of positions is the last thing anyone on the right should want. Regardless of how far to the left Dean may be, he is a strong vocal leader with an easily understandable group of positions and he will unite the party in a way it hasn’t been since they started on their historic losing streak.

Terry McAuliffe isn’t that guy. He’s proven that.

John Kerry certainly isn’t that guy. Neither is John Kerry.

Howard Dean is, and the people wishing for him to take over just might wanna watch out because they just might get what they wish for, and it won’t be good news.

Shortly after that, the Democrats took the midterm election, retaking the House and the Senate. A mere two years later, after eight years of a Republican President, the Democrats retook the White House in pretty convincing fashion electorally.

All of this with a man at the helm of the DNC that the right was begging for.

Some of us, at least, were smart enough to see it coming.