Good show.

Nooooo!!! Bryan was from Illinois, too! (Born there, anyway.)

You might find yourself crucified on a cross of trolls. (Silence... coughing... wolf baying at moon).

Okay, so I clearly won this thread, according to the first rule of all competitions involving WJ Bryan -- "first one to work in a reference to the cross of gold speech wins."

Cross of Gold speech was from 1921. You might as well talk about moon landings and transistors.

My friend William Taft appeals to the better nature in us, the staunch Protestant spirit that wants to roll up sleeves and take on new challenges. His opponent, Mr. Bryant, has his sights set on exploiting petty differences, playing on petty grievances and turning them into bitterness and dispute. America finds itself in opportunity in this new century, but only William Taft has the experience to see our manifest possibilities worldwide - he has served in the Philippines and Cuba and understands the perils of war and the prosperity of peace. Little Billy Bryant may talk pretty but he understands nothing of the follies and necessities of foreign ventures. He thinks he can close the borders and stand ostrich-like with his head in the sand, and that everyone from Spain to Japan will bow down to his poetic wishes - if wishes were horses, beggars would ride they say, but the great powers of Europe are not spending their time wishing. The Tsar looks East, the Kaiser looks West, and we need a strong man to face up to their ambitions. Mr. Bryan says we can ignore them, we can isolate them, but we only isolate ourselves.

Some have had a good laugh over Mr. Taft's phrasing, that he was "instrumental in the creation of the Panama Canal", but we all know that without him the financial and political push would not have taken place. He travelled through difficult perils to meet with the Emperor in Tokyo and faced down the Pope in Rome, even while some were saying these trips were just more fodder for Mr. Hearst's yellow journalists. But more than any, Mr. Taft is the voice of reason and discerning action in a time of rash, foolhardy invective. America's shores are awash with tides of immigrants from Russia, Poland, China, while south of the border Diaz has signalled the end of his long rule. What is Mr. Bryan's view to all this? To treat all newcomers as equals, giving them the rights of hard-working citizens, come one, come all, even letting them drive carriages with no manifest. Mr. Wright is not against immigration - he knows the strengths of the American workforce are second to none in the world - but uncontrolled growth like uncontrolled corporate power is the road to corruption and neglect. Instead we need a careful hand to balance the excesses without throttling the child. We don't need to appeal to the electorate's baser emotions - we have only to appeal to its more noble faith and reason.

Its is my belief that the Filipinos will embrace the garment of America yet again, but it is with remorse but steadfastness that we face up to the obstacles that the world places before us.

Your candidate says he is against the war now, but he whole-heartedly supported it in '98, if only his little band of jingoists had been fit and ready for combat. Perhaps if he had been in office he could have put his money where his mouth is, but instead he was too busy dallying with the flatteries of his congregation, hiding behind the frock of his preacher to embrace a divisive antediluvian view of the world instead of welcoming the advances of modern science - even summoning up Darwinism and American Progress as stemming from "hate and bitterness". He cannot make up his mind whether he is a Democrat or a Progressive or even a preacher himself, and it is my mind that if he loses this nomination he will run with his third party and try to destroy our hard work. Ironically, he has raged against the support of railroads and trusts until they were instrumental in supporting his own personal ambitions to power, at which time his puffed up overblown objections abated like a sail in flagging wind. This man is a scoundrel in workman's linens, and as some have suggested, does not know exactly who he is but knows very well where he wants to be.

T.A.F.T

Take Advice For Taft, the fat rat in the corner. You don't want to see the horse he rode in on - a monstrous act of cruelty. No wonder Nellie packed him off to Hot Springs, VA.

he is incapable of fathering children due to his unfortunate expanse