All bullshit aside, including shit like Obama is muslim and Palin is the grandmother of an illegitimate grandchild, what do you all have to say about the real issues?

Agree / disagree : which party has the solutions you want?

1: the economy is screwed. Including Greenspans lack of action on the housing bubble, massive trade deficit, stagnant wages.

2: Gas prices are astronomical. Intentional devaluation of the dollar to save wall street at the expense of consumers/tax payers. Lack of regulation of the futures market. Intentional stirring of the pot in areas of the world where oil comes from.

3: Perpetual war : Iraq? no comment. 1 billion$ aid to Georgia wtf? Defensive missiles in Poland? Iranian nuclear hopes dashed in one fell swoop of plutonic fission? Do we have any spare troops for north korea?

4: Federal defecit : Who the fuck is going to pay off this shit? Isnt fiscal responsibility a staple of the repulican party?

It is the same MO as 2004. distract the voting populace from the real issues and get them to vote on the reality show head of household / power of veto issues. People, please stop bantiring about pregnant teenagers, and lets get back to real issues. kkthx

Real issues? Nobody even understands them. The economic direction has been obvious for decades even though the forces moving it are deliberately hidden from the public eye and to this day are NEVER discussed and reported on by anyone in the TV or print news.

Everyone can bitch about speculation driving up the price of gas but nobody stops for a second to wonder where the hell the evil speculators are getting trillions of dollars in funny money to do it with

Iraq? Georgia? Dude, those places are far away and that's complicated. It's hard, like math. Nobody has any idea what the hell is gong on in Georgia, there is ZERO information on it in the public sphere until Russia invaded it, so we have no context whatsoever to understand that. If over the last year our aid, belligerence, and the NATO issue had ever once made it above the 90th page of some high-fallutin lefty-liberal nooooz paaaaper only read by coneheads, maybe any of the invasion might have been more than a trailer for a real-life Jerry Bruchheimer movie that wasn't in theaters and is already forgotten until it's a big explosion again in a few years.

The Federal deficit has become such a joke that it's obvious no one currently in politics has any intent of ever addressing it as long as it comes due after they're out of office.

This MO is way older than 2004. Your plea falls on the ears of the dumb, not the deaf.

It's blatantly obvious what the real issues are, at least in certain parts of the country. In other parts of the country the issues are outlawing abortion, what books should be banned, outlawing condoms and killing muslims who want to take our freedoms away, and is the president someone you'd like to get drunk with. Unfortunately it seems these are the people who vote.

Watching the republican convention, as someone who is concerned with the real issues you mentioned, is like slipping in a video tape of every republican convention since 1980 the script is the same.

The speeches are the same, they all say throw out the government and cut taxes yet this, as is blatantly obvious, is not what happens.

These are the same people who had 100% FULL control for almost 8 years and all we got was taxes raised on the lower and middle class, a bullshit war in Iraq, habeus corpus is a thing of the past, deregulation has done little more than raise costs, our military is in a shambles, foreclosures are at an all time high and I'm certain there is other good news.

Now we see the same bullshit attacks on the media. If these people get placed in office again we are plainly and simply fucked.

I have to disagree Malse. There is plenty of information on those issues, for people willing to study them. The problem is the average voter isn't paying enough attention, they're more worried about this week's pop star.

The economy/value of the dollar should be a huge topic, maybe one of the biggest. The same category includes our deficit and relations with countries like China. Toss gas prices into this category. It takes work to maintain the economy, and it scares me to have a man in power who openly admits he doesn't really understand economics, or believes a tax break on gas is going to solve a problem.

The war in Iraq - regrettably, forget Georgia for the moment, the bulk of our resources are already tied up. I think, without access to classified information, that we really have two options. One is a long term occupation, LONG term, and you can check history to see how that has worked for nations like England. Second choice is to bug out now, which preserves our resources but ends up being another case of the US starting a problem and not actually solving it. All I really ask is that the president listen to experts this time around, and not dismiss military commanders who disagree with him.

Honestly, domestic issues are not as big of a deal to me at the moment. As a teacher education is always high on my list, but it's less of a concern to me this go around than those two issues. Certainly civil rights issues are always a topic, including abortion or gay marriage, but there are more factors which affect those topics than just who the president is. '04 wound up being a huge gay rights debacle, and ended with too many people ignoring other issues. Repeat this in your best redneck voice, "We might be gittin' deeper in war, dollar gots no value, an' the feds is spyin' on us, but at least them gays ain't gettin' married!"

You forgot the "yeeee hawww" and "we ain't gonna have some darky as our president"

I blame American Idol. Clearly the fact vastly more people vote for that than in elections is the root of all evil.

Doesn't American Idol allow multiple votes per person?

Don't forget that this is the most-bailing-outest administration since FDR. First Bear Stearns, today FannieMae and FreddieMac and before the year is out the 3 domestic car manufacturers will need bailing out.

Don't forget that this is the most-bailing-outest administration since FDR. First Bear Stearns, today FannieMae and FreddieMac and before the year is out the 3 domestic car manufacturers will need bailing out.


$1 billion to aid Georgia in rebuilding, and how many billions to bail out the mortgage lenders? Bush is making sure he leaves the cookie jar empty before leaving. My grandchildren's children will still be paying for this corrupt, inept, disgusting administration.

Well, FreddieMac and FannieMae, weren't both corporations set up by the government? And they're taking them back over now.

I am not very clear on how the whole thing works, but I always thought they were sorta government or at least very closely regulated.

They were publicly traded companies.

The government might as well take over Delta or GM. Oh wait, they just might yet at this rate.

Highest Unemployment Rate In Five Years

Housing Crisis

Stretched Military

Resurging Taliban in Afghanistan

Energy Drought

Never-Ending War

Growing Nuclear Enemies

Global Warming

Lack Of Healthcare

Underperforming Schools