On 11-08-10, ROSS SAUER said to TIM RICHARDSON:   
      
      
      
   TR> But had the republican party gotten behind the Tea Party candidates,   
   TR> lent them solid support, instead of (in some cases) sniping at them   
   TR> from the side lines, the GOP would be in control of both houses of   
   TR> congress right now.   
      
      
   RS>The GOP, and the (now former) Tea Party candidates are distancing   
   RS>themselves from the Tea Party, since far too many are reactionary   
   RS>demagogues.   
      
      
   You need to get your head out of the sand and take a breath of fresh air once   
   in awhile, Otto. Being Klahn's sock puppet is robbing you of your ability to   
   think for yourself.......oh wait! You never could think for yourself, could   
   you?   
      
      
   RS>The Tea Party itself is fragmented, and fragmenting further, into   
   RS>factions, that are gleefully slamming each other.   
      
      
   You better look again, Otto. Tea Party candidates got elected all over the   
   place!   
      
      
   RS>> This is the typical Tea Party/reactionary right-winger response to   
   RS>> making stupid mistakes.   
      
      
   Taking the House away from democrats in the biggest hit job since the late   
   1940's isn't a `stupid mistake'.....except of course, to you and Klahn.   
      
      
   Here's a few other things for you to stew over:   
      
      
   Of Course Sarah Palin's 'Unfit': She's a Republican - Larry Elder - Townhall   
   Conservative   
      
      
   How much of the "Sarah Palin is not ready for prime time" criticism is   
   sincere? When the harping comes from the left, it's difficult to take it   
   seriously. Try to follow the bouncing standards.   
      
      
   Barbara Walters gushed over John F. Kennedy Jr. and foresaw a political future   
   for him. Never mind that the young man had flunked the New York bar exam --   
   twice.   
      
      
   "Dumb" former President George W. Bush, caricatured as a slacker in an Oliver   
   Stone movie, made better grades in college than did Al Gore, his opponent in   
   2000. Gore dropped out of divinity school after earning five F's. Then he   
   entered law school and dropped out. He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his   
   anti-global warming crusade, and his documentary won an Academy Award, but   
   Gore got a D in science at Harvard. Bush also scored higher on his verbal SAT   
   than did Rhodes scholar and "brainy" presidential candidate Bill Bradley.   
      
      
   "Dumb" former President Ronald Reagan majored in economics. But the late Sen.   
   Edward Kennedy, who ran for the presidency, got expelled from Harvard for   
   hiring someone to take a Spanish test.   
      
      
   "Dumb" Republican former President Gerald Ford was ridiculed as a bumbling   
   doofus by Chevy Chase on "Saturday Night Live." Democratic former President   
   Lyndon Baines Johnson famously quipped that Ford, who played football for the   
   University of Michigan, "spent too much time playing football without a   
   helmet."   
      
      
   But Ford graduated from Yale Law School, the same school that produced Bill   
   and Hillary Clinton.   
      
      
   The worldly and literate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who ran for president in   
   2004, didn't exactly kill on his military aptitude test. He got half the   
   questions right and half the questions wrong -- dead average. He explained his   
   poor showing by insisting, "I must have been drinking the night before."   
      
      
   Vice President Joe Biden's 1988 quest for the presidency evaporated when he   
   plagiarized a speech by a British politician. When someone questioned his   
   academic credentials at a campaign stop, the offended Biden claimed that he   
   had a full academic scholarship at law school and graduated in the top half of   
   his class. In fact, he had a need-based half-scholarship and graduated near   
   the bottom -- 76th out of 85.   
      
      
   Biden, in his political career, has stacked up enough gaffes for a dozen   
   politicians. Where to start? How about the time, during a 2008 campaign rally,   
   when Biden stood at the podium and implored a local lawmaker to "stand up."   
      
   The man in question was in a wheelchair. Or at a campaign rally when he said   
   the opponent's plan would do nothing about "a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-   
   S, jobs."   
      
      
   More importantly, what about Biden's judgment? Shortly after he became senator   
   in 1972, he voted to cut off funding the South Vietnamese in their war against   
   the North Vietnamese invaders despite President Richard Nixon's promise to   
   provide financial support and military airstrikes against a North invasion.   
      
   The country's failure to make good on this promise led to hundreds of   
   thousands of Vietnamese "boat people" and to the murder of an estimated 2   
   million Cambodians by the Khmer Rouge. Biden opposed the Reagan military   
   buildup and the Strategic Defense Initiative, which even some Reagan-haters   
   grudgingly concede hastened the demise of the Soviet Union. Biden called   
   Reagan's pursuit of SDI "one of the most reckless and irresponsible acts in   
   the history of modern statecraft."   
      
      
   Biden opposed the first Gulf war, the "good" one. He voted for the Iraq War   
   and co-authored a Washington Post op-ed piece in which he warned that our   
   involvement would take a decade and urged the nation to show patience. When   
   the war went south, along with public opinion, Biden suggested breaking Iraq   
   into three parts. Then Biden reversed his support, said he regretted his vote,   
   and opposed Bush's successful "surge."   
      
      
   Former CBS reporter Dan Rather tried to prove -- based on documents that   
   turned out to be fraudulent -- that Bush received preferential treatment in   
   getting into the Texas Air National Guard. Former President Bill Clinton, on   
   the other hand, used familial political and social connections to deliberately   
   delay issuance of his draft notice until after he began his first year at   
   Oxford.   
      
      
   Ordered to report for induction the next summer, Clinton again used   
   connections -- including the approval of Arkansas Selective Service director   
   Willard Hawkins -- to join the University of Arkansas ROTC while he attended   
   law school, getting him a reservist deferment and nullifying his draft notice.   
      
   But Clinton then returned to Oxford, not Arkansas. When the draft lottery   
   placed him at the back of a very long line, Clinton wrote an explanatory   
   letter telling Hawkins that he "loathed" the military. With the Vietnam War   
   winding down and other draft requirement changes making it extremely unlikely   
   that he would be called up, Clinton symbolically asked his draft board to drop   
   his deferment and reclassify him "1-A."   
      
      
   Palin, if she decides to run, faces a grueling series of challenges -- just   
   like the other candidates. Except she'll not benefit from the selective   
   standard that liberals apply when evaluating "their own."   
      
      
   Larry Elder is a syndicated radio talk show host and best-selling author. His   
   latest book, "What's Race Got to Do with It?" is available now.   
      
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