On Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:53:50 GMT, "Tom Littleton"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
Which
brings us back to a paraphrasing of my question: just what kind of pol
is this sumbitch, what did that piece of **** Kennedy get out of the
deal, and just bad is it gonna wind up ****ing _me_?

Rick, can I put out the possibility that you are overanalyzing this? From a
purely partisan politics standpoint, perhaps old Teddy calculated that
Hillary can cause the Republicans to suddenly get united, in a way Obama
can't. Knowing it will take a wave of support to keep the party from
nominating Hillary, he may have gambled on the path most likely to sweep
more Dems into office, without any big-time tradeoffs. Certainly, his
political goals don't differ so much from Obamas as to necessitate a 'deal
with the devil', and in recent years, Kennedy has been a rare example of
trying to work deals between GOP and Dem groups.

Possible? Sure. Likely? I don't think so, _unless_ Teddy has _really_
changed in the last year or two. Heck, you seem to acknowledge that
whatever went down, Teddy calculated - and I'd offer that it was every
angle he could think of. He's the son of Joe, perhaps moreso than any
of them (certainly neck and neck w/ Bobby), and I'd bet big he's still a
scheming POS who doesn't do jack **** unless it benefits him and the
Kennedy machine. And I question the "Hillary unites the GOP..." thing -
Hillary is a longshot with a broken leg and a fat jockey; I'd offer that
the GOP could come up with Cheney/Rumsfeld '08 and about all it would do
is make it a horserace for second place.

Given the landscape right now this minute:

I suspect McCain/just about anyone except Obama beats
Hillary/_anyone_, including Bill about as bad as is possible, say,
57%-43%-ish, the unlikely McCain/Obama beats _anybody_ else _at least_
75%-25%, and the likely McCain/whoever vs Obama/anyone but Hillary
goes 51%-49% or closer, flip a coin but _probably_ McCain. If Obama
screws the pooch and picks (or gets saddled with) Hillary, it's McCain
by 5 or so and Obama can get tips on dealing with ****ing away national
aspirations from Lieberman. Hillary's done - it looks like Barack van
Helsing put a stake right through her undead heart about December and
Teddy knew it before he got anywhere near that stage...and I'm pretty
sure this one ain't gonna have a sequel where the monster wasn't really
dead...

TC,
R

Tom