I don’t doubt that more trouble is looming in Iraq, and that will certainly be the case until there’s a political solution. I didn’t see any progress toward that in the last three years, so it’s not like “stay the course” has any credibility left. Bush has no clue, let alone a plan.

California is pretty much a microcosm of the US, with everything from the richest stretch of farmland in the Central Valley to conservative San Diego and Orange County to liberal Frisco and LA. Two recent presidents have hailed from the Golden State, both were Republican, and neither was a religious nut. California voters legalized medical marijuana and decriminalized other drugs, banned gay marriage and affirmative action, and refused to raise taxes on cigarettes and oil. What a great state it is.

2) I don’t recall guns coming up much at all in California

3) Either way, I’d like to see your response to my initial comment

Republicans did well in California running on the issues I outlined.

“stuff like the environment, infrastructure, low taxes, and health care.”

It’s the war, stupid, to paraphrase the Clinton team….

Finally, I expect the Dems to have some real unity problems. Conyers is going to go full bore for impeachment hearings, and that will work out just as well for the Dems as the Republican windmill tilts at Clinton went.

Ultimately, the next two years will probably see something like this:

– a ton of pointless investigations, just like 1996-1998
– IF the Dems force a withdrawal from Iraq, you’ll see a bloodbath across the middle east of epic proportions. The nascent Shia/Sunni conflict that is mostly contained now (due to our presence) will explode and Iran (Shia) and the Sunni powers (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, et. al.) vie for influence in Iraq. Watch Turkey take advantage of the chaos by leveling the Kurds in northern Iraq, in order to silence their own restive Kurds.

In short, a withdrawal will look like Cambodia after Vietnam, but with the true joys of nuclear weapons and religious zealotry added to the mix. Look at the history of the 30 years war in Central Europe for a notion as to how that will go. Mind you, while that’s happening, oil prices won’t drop.

The next two years will likely be legislative gridlock and fairly nasty foreign issues. I seriously doubt the ability of the Democrats to deal rationally with the foreign issues.