Question 1:  Violence in this society is primarily due to:

• A:  Poverty and the unfair obstacles to opportunity that confront the underprivileged.
• B:  The deterioration of personal responsibility, self-control, and discipline that parents should be instilling in their children.
• C:  Something else

Question 2:  If liberals are supposedly bent on helping the less fortunate among us, how can they support lotteries which exploit that very same demographic as the have-nots cough up their scarce and hard-earned dollars to take that one-in-oh-so-many-million chance at riches?  (I've never understood that one!)

Question 3:  Many of my readers have been against the military action in Iraq from day one.  Since then, much good has happened along with much suffering.  My question is - and this is for everyone, not just those opposed to the war in Iraq - what set of circumstances would have come about in this world as a result of the US military involvement in Iraq for you to say, hey, you know, maybe that was the right thing to do?  (Don't use this question to bash President Bush's policies...just answer the question)

Question 4:  And finally, who's going to win the Final Four and why?

Conclusions?  First, liberals really do love their taxes!  (hehe)  Second, we now have a concrete reason why red state electoral votes keep increasing while the blue states keep losing them - most people, the aforementioned liberals notwithstanding, don't really care for oversized tax bills.

Dear Mom and Dad,
March 15, 2004 began as any other day.  Just 4 days earlier I celebrated my birthday.  I was disappointed to have missed your phone call, but the sound of you two singing Happy Birthday on my voice mail was wonderful.  How could I have known that those precious few words would be the last I would ever hear from you on this earth?

The phone rang on the morning of the 15th.  It was Leia.  She was calling me from home, as she often does, but this time the words she spoke sent a chill down my spine.  "Scott, there's been a shooting in Iraq."  Iraq, while a very violent place, is large and shootings were common, so I was uneasy but not overly concerned.  Then a second call from Leia came just a little while later. The shooting had been in the area we knew you were traveling.  I headed home at this point, anxious to know what had happened.  Shortly after arriving at home, we received a call that confirmed our worst fears - your car had been ambushed and both of you were gone.

We all knew when you guys set out for Iraq that it was a dangerous country, yet your children and our spouses all felt peaceful knowing you were answering the call of God in your lives.  As you often said, there is no safer place to be than in the center of God's will.  It is an irony only those who know Jesus can understand that even in violent death, you guys were in God's will and secure in His providence over your lives.

A year has now passed since that fateful day.  Your children and our families are faring well.  Not a day goes by that we don't think of you and long to hear your voices and feel your embrace.  But we are comforted by the knowledge that you are enjoying your reward, to the glory of God, for all eternity.  So many things I'd like to share with you.  So much has happened.  You are no longer here with us in body, yet your lives and your example continue to have an enormous impact on so many people.  Truly you lived out Jesus' command when He said, "Live in such a way that men may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

I am grateful to God that He allowed me to see how willing and obedient, yet imperfect humans can be used by Him in such a mighty way.  May He continue to be glorified through your example!  Your witness, your unshakeable faith, and your steadfast commitment to Him have been such an encouragement to me as I try, through His strength, to follow His will in my own life.  I'm sure countless others would say the same thing.

I don't know if you can read this letter from where you are.  I'm too mortal to understand how eternity and heaven all work.  But, if you can read it, I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, "I love you, Mom, I love you, Dad." Someday we'll be together again.  Nothing can fully take away the pain and loss we still feel without you, yet that assurance provides comfort that is real and substantial.  I can't wait to see you again.  It brings to mind another truth that Paul referred to when he said, "Oh, death, where is thy victory?  Oh, death, where is thy sting?"

Your son,
Scott

Since November's landmark election, I've been mulling over the different forces that played a part in the result and tried to evaluate what they will mean three years and eight months from now.  In addition, I've tried to conceive what new dynamics will exert their influence on the next election as well. Characterizing these future developments is obviously difficult since I am no prophet.  However, in looking back, I've come to realize that even the realities of last Election Day serve as poor predictors of the next one.

So, here's a list of my conclusions as I look back and the questions that arise looking ahead.

First, just as I predicted last September, the GOP get-out-the-vote effort was indeed the most powerful contribution to Bush's eventual victory.  Karl Rove, et al, knew exactly what was needed to match the Democrats and exactly how many volunteers, team leaders and, eventually, voters it would take, precinct by precinct, to surpass them.  It was an incredible feat of logistical planning, pinpoint focus, coordinated effort and precise calculation.  The result was a convincing GOP win in a high-turnout election in which President Bush received almost 12 million more votes in 2004 than he did in 2000!  To put all this in perspective, John Kerry tallied nearly 5 million more votes than any presidential candidate before him in United States history...and lost by 3 million!

Yes, the GOP GOTV was monumentally successful last year, yet past performance does not insure future success.  Instead, questions abound.  Will the leadership team in place at GOP campaign headquarters in 2008 be as resourceful and ingenuitive as Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman and the rest?  Will the enormous legions of volunteers come out in force again? Is the strategy employed last year duplicatable?   In other words, now that massive GOP grassroots organizations have been formed, will they be a fixture of future campaigns independent of the GOP candidate or will the degree of their involvement be dependent on the charisma and drawing power of the nominee?  Only time will tell if the gains made in getting Republicans to the polls will become permanent or if they were only a temporary phenomenon due to the skill and hard work of the current leadership.

Second, as George W. Bush exits the political arena in 2008, he will leave a huge emotional vacuum, politically speaking, in his absence.  Never before, certainly in my memory and perhaps ever, has a president been the focus of so much love and so much hate all at once.  Across this country, the number of people ambivalent to President Bush is dwarfed both by those who hate him and those who love him.  Even Clinton (that would be Bill), for all his scandal and swagger, could not compare with Bush in this regard.

To continue in the vein of looking ahead by looking back, how can we possibly determine what effect a Bush-less ballot will have in 2008?  Will anyone be able to stir up the excitement and loathing we saw last year?  Will turnout be historically low as voters find they just don't have that fire in them this time?  Or will GOTV efforts by both parties prove impervious to the personalities and ideologies of their respective nominees?  If turnout is low, who will that benefit more, the Democrats or the GOP?  It could be the Democrats if the Repuplican candidate fails to connect with conservative Christians.  Conversely, it could be the GOP since a lot of the hatred that motivated so many to vote in November will be without its perferred target.

Or will there be a sense of Bush fatigue, the flipside to the Clinton fatigue that plagued Al Gore in 2000?  Certainly one could surmise that, just as the nation tired of Clinton's bad boy antics, we might tire of Bush's insistence on promoting high morals and values as well.  (It is my fervent hope that our nation would never tire of such standards, but I am aware it could happen.) The future looks clear as mud, doesn't it?

The shadows these past effects cast on the next presidential election are long indeed.  As a political aficionado, I would like to post in this space a definite prediction concerning who is likely to come out victorious in 2008.  I would like to be able to look back at 2004 and pick out patterns emerging that would give me a sense of the ebb and flow of our political tide.  Alas, the water is murky at best - truly either party's pick could win in 2008.

Last February when I wrote Twenty-one Reasons Why Bush Will Win, I had a keen sense of optimism in my man's chances.  That article proved to be mostly true.  This time, don't expect any such proclamations from the keyboard of The Blogging Caesar any time soon.  And I've only addressed the past; when one factors in the unknowns of the future - the eventualities in the War on Terror, the unpredictable state of the economy, and the political circumstances of our rising ladies, Hillary and Condi, three years hence - any prognostications for Election 2008 should be taken with a healthy portion of snake oil elixir.

Hat tip:  Lorie