My question is how many people are there like Jon who will continue to call themselves "liberals", "progressives", "Democrats" and "Obama supporters" but will pull the lever for Romney once that curtain closes behind them in Nov? 

My sister is a Georgetown lib and her husband has always supported Dems.  He sacrificed alot by leaving a steady job with a good salary and they lived in a tiny apt in Boston while he was getting his internet co started 15 years ago.  Now, three comapnies and several million$ later, they live in a huge house in Princeton and vacation in Europe every summer.  I've recently noticed he is less inclined to argue against me with my sister when the subject of Obama comes up.  At Easter while we were having a drink he privately told me that he is probably not voting for Obama at which I nearly choked.  He made me swear to not tell my sister who would be really pissed!  So he will go on pretending to be a good Dem and Obama man, but will vote for Romney.  I suspect there are LOTS of folks like him out there.

The biggest problem as I see it is a matter of perspective.  Let's assume that Obama is right about the gov't creating the internet.  Where his logic fails is that no one in the gov't targeted this specific technology as the "wave of the future" as he has done with green energy .  An infrastucture was created by the military that eventually evolved and grew organically into what exploded decades later as the internet that we know today.  That is a far cry from the gov't picking an industry and throwing billions of tax payer dollars at it.

News flash - this mouthpiece Ben, Obama and every single power person in the Dem party know this about business.  They just hope that 50.1% (at least in swing states) of the population DON'T know this and they are going to do their darndest to push ignorance as a compaign strategy.

Yes it will exist.  The headlines will read "Obama's budget unanimously rejected by obstructionist GOP". 

Was it anything more than that, ever?

My 1st presedential election was for Reagan who is still the greatest president in my lifetime.

I also want to add to Peter that this post is reason number 1,001 why your life has been so damn cool and why I listen/read your stuff as often as possible.

I'm an Italian male and therefore don't understand all the hubub.  We've been incredibly vain and have had a very unhealthy preoccupation with "what you project externally matters, almost more than anything else" in my neck of the woods since Julius Caesar famously combed his hair forward lest he show the tiniest bald spot! 

Really?  You think the likes of Michael Moore and Susan Sarandan would suddenly become warriors because Obama is killed?  You think Sean Penn and his ilk would demand retribution on a quasi-midieval level?  I'd love to think this would be the case, but I think the response from this crowd would be akin to "poor Obama, another victim of American aggression". 

What I understand of their particular brand of psychosis is that everything bad that happens anywhere in the world is the product of American imperialism and aggression.  Killing Obama would just be another exhibit in their case for American capitulation. 

Honestly, if someone had told you in 2000 that Islamic terror groups would knock down the WTC and kill 3000 Americans, wouldn't you have expected a sustained, crusade-like reaction from a vast majority?  I know I would have.

They couldn't get away with that.  The only legit 1/32 Cherokee is running for the Senate in MA. 

"which begs the question, wasn't the white hispanic hispanic enough"

Just remember that there is a definite hieracrchy to liberal victim groups with blacks oppressed by whites as the biggest and holiest sacred cow of them all.  So when a story like this breaks, if they need to throw a few white hispanic,gay & lesbian, social worker, community organizer, teacher, union shop, islamic, palestinians under the bus - then golly, that's just a sacrifice they're willing to make!!

Wait, so James are you saying you're NOT a card-carrying agent of Satan?!  

How can we expect our stalwart, hard-working State Dep't to get anything accomplished in China when they are focused like a lasar beam on the terrible human rights crisis happening in the police state of Arizona where, heaven forbid, someone may have to show proof of residency in the USA when pulled over for a traffic violation!!!

It's as if my snarky comment allowed these people to breathe a sigh of relief and speak their mind.  While I think this election will be difficult and the GOP field is pretty awful, there are many, many folks out there like these 8.  They've been fed a constant diet of the Obama cult for 4 years (including the '08 POTUS campaign) but know that there is something rotten in Denmark and are afraid to speak out because they are embarrased and think they are alone.  Polling this time around will be useless as there are just too many people that won't admit to another human being that they dislike Obama but won't vote for him when that curtain closes behind them. 

With Obama the MSM has gone beyond the typical DEM support they show for every left politician.  They have actually pulled off a quasi-Pravda effort of deifying Obama and making educated moderates afraid to believe their own eyes and brains!!

Just an anecdote from me, so take it with a grain of salt as it has no basis in scientific polling.  I was at a school function for one of my kids this weekend and a bunch of the folks were talking politics.  I know that of the 8 in the group, seven are moderates, but ardent Obama supporters in '08 and 1 is a right leaning moderate who pulled the lever for Obama as well.  The subject of GOP primaries came up and they rolled their eyes at Newt and made fun of Mitt's lack of personality and Rick's crazy social values.  I jumped in and said, "hey, none of these guys could be any worse than the inexperienced buffoon sitting in the oval office now".  I half expected them to walk away in disgust, but a funny thing happened: one of them agreed with me!  Then most of the others said they might not vote for the GOP, but they definitely would not vote again for Obama.  And then the conversation turned to how bad Obama has been.  (continued)

When my parents moved our family from Italy in the early 70's, they had several destination choices: we had relatives in Australia, UK and Argentina and my dad had people from his small town who had moved to W Germany.  For them, there really was no choice though, and the US was the only place they wanted to raise their family.  Now throughout my life, I have heard rumblings of extended family members back in Italy and a desire to move here as well.  Sometimes it's been very serious and sometimes it was more wishful thinking.  However, those voices have died down and I haven't heard of or spoken to anyone over there who mentions a desire to move here in a long time.  In fact, we have several relatives and friends who have vacationed here the past several years as a cheap destination to fill up an empty duffel bag with clothing and other items purchased at local outlet centers.  

Who said it's BAD when peple WANT to come here? 

Your math doesn't work either vis a vis the "spread across more people" statement.  A legal immigrant working, paying taxes and not in the shadow ecnomy, YES.  An illiegal, working for cash, not paying taxes and typically a net recipient of govt largesse, NO!!