GOP Absent at Debate...

If you are a GOP Presidential candidate you need every opportunity to gain votes. The political climate for the GOP is not friendly when considering the issues of Iraq, Health Care, Energy, Environment, etc. Traditionally, when the GOP has the opportunity to slice into the Democratic voting base...they smile and swing away. Apparently, not when it comes to Minorities...soccer moms are OK but the major contenders for the GOP have taken a pass on the Thursday Republican Debate hosted in Baltimore. So the hits keep rolling for the GOP...from the left and the right. Why is the GOP scared of black voters?

Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts Calls Decision Not to Attend 'Stupid'

Click here for ABCNEWS Video Report.

The Ugly Side of the G.O.P. by Bob Herbert @ NYT

President Bush at the United Nations

For all their nasty fights, maybe George W. Bush and the United Nations were meant for each other. They speak the same wide-eyed language of idealism, setting goals that are heavy on optimism and light on planning. And they love to strike heroic notes in the face of discordant reality. Bush tapped into that romantic synergy at the General Assembly Tuesday, calling on the U.N. and its members to rise to the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and using that founding U.N. text as a sounding board for a speech on global liberation from tyranny, poverty and disease. More on President Bush's speech

Hillary...more Harry Truman than Howard Dean?

In the beginning of August, liberal bloggers met at the YearlyKos convention while centrist Democrats met at the Democratic Leadership Council’s National Conversation. Almost every Democratic presidential candidate attended YearlyKos, and none visited the D.L.C.

At the time, that seemed a sign that the left was gaining the upper hand in its perpetual struggle with the center over the soul of the Democratic Party. But now it’s clear that was only cosmetic.

Now it’s evident that if you want to understand the future of the Democratic Party you can learn almost nothing from the bloggers, billionaires and activists on the left who make up the “netroots.” You can learn most of what you need to know by paying attention to two different groups — high school educated women in the Midwest, and the old Clinton establishment in Washington. Read more of David Brooks @ NYT

Tactics from 1970 don't fit '07 reality

Just when it looked like Detroit's auto industry was poised for a breakthrough deal, the United Auto Workers strikes General Motors Corp. and we're back to 1970 all over again.

But it's not 1970, except here in Michigan. GM doesn't dominate its home market; foreign-owned rivals do. The UAW doesn't represent the growing work forces at rivals operating down South -- and probably won't anytime soon should this walkout become a recruiting poster for anti-UAW forces from Alabama to Texas.

What happened? continue @ Detroit News