I am by no means suggesting that there is corruption in the Arab world, there is corruption everywhere, but I'm sickened by your post which is a pitiful attempt to mitigate responsability and avoid reality. The "Arabs made us do it"... Are you serious?

And we wonder why our country has been in decline and bereft of good ideas...

If you look back over the past 8 years of the Bush presidency at the numerous epic failures and systemic breakdowns I think the one unifying element you would find in each example would be the placement of personal and policy based almost entirely on ideology. Decisions and appointments were made wholesale with complete disregard for ability, viability or repercussions (at least in terms of benefiting the nations rather than simply the party). In fact in most cases reality was intentionally hidden or ignored. The path they chose has proven to be disastrous - a result anyone with at least one foot in reality could have foreseen. I believe that politicians such as Cheney and Rumsfeld personify this myopic and misguided approach to governing a nation (that they personally know best) and as such should rightly be pointed to as being responsible for the dire state we find ourselves in. They deserve to be portrayed as villains because they are villains. Villains to reason. Villains to truth. Villains to the ideals upon which our nation was founded and must continue to aspire to. To view Dick Cheney's actions through such a narrow lens as a "simple political power play" and no worse than any politician in Washington is disingenuous to put it kindly. You need to weigh the entire body of work and how it was performed.

And on the related note - The last thing our nation needs is for Biden to take ANY notes from Cheney other than "what not to do and how not to do it". How one does something is at least as important as what it is one does. I understand that we are a nation of laws and governed by them. That being the case, all one needs to do is change the laws in order to do what one wants. I'm fine with this system if, and only if, those changes are driven by thought and reason and not ideology. And the process needs to be inclusive not divisive (which has been the central Republican strategy for years now) or you will get an inherently unjust and ultimately destructive result. These are extremely important differences and I believe the past 8 years have illustrated that quite clearly.

Aren't there like 261 people in the entire state of Alaska? I think more people live within a one mile radius from me than in that entire state. How the hell long do you need to count the damed ballots?

If this is an example of the kind of people they have handling things up there then maybe Steven's and Palin are not mere aberrations...

I also agree with what happened during the primaries. I think that we saw that MANY candidates reaching for the mantle had as much to do with the divergences within the party as it had to do with no VP stepping in to run (can you imagine if he had?) There's a complete and utter lack of leadership within the party and if you think about it, it was inevitable. A party structure that's built upon the kind of "loyal" people that we've seen out of the Republican party in recent years is going to fall short in talent and foresight when they start combing those ranks looking for leadership. Those are loyal followers not leaders.

I personally think that this is also in part the fallout of the "Big Tent" where they invite a wide variety of constituencies in with only a few tenuous wedges holding them together (like abortion). It was a bomb with a very short fuse and it seems to have detonated on the Republican party at possible the worst possible time. It's going to be interesting to see how this all unwinds.

There's an obvious toxicity to this "New Guard" and there's a very specific demographic to which this is appealing for the long term. I believe that this "New Guard" will likely be the loudest and the flashiest (which unfortunately ensures that FOX News is not going anywhere anytime soon although it's viewership will continue to fall). But all in all I personally think that it takes a certain type of individual to remain content being filled with so much hate-driven ideology. It's simply too exhausting. I think that this "New Guard" over time will eventually wedge itself into irrelevance. Or at least I hope that is the case. Evolution at work.. :D

The idea of "Old Guard" Republicans lining up in the ranks of the Democrats seems extremely far fetched. There are simply too many fundamental differences between them, and too much history (and mythology). We could however see some minor thinning of their ranks as a few who truly are very close to that mythical "center" seek to participate more fully in Washington and who's constituents too are more moderate in their positions.