I was thinking these are your hot buttons. Don't know why, but it kind of occurred to me that was what was driving your thought process.

An FYI on the gay marriage thing. I absolutely agree that the amount of attention paid to it during the elections was extremely excessive. Notice how it went away as soon as the election was over.

I don't trust Karl Rove for a second. But he does have expertise in understanding the voting public. If you've look at the polls thru the last couple months, as Bush's rating continue to slide, amoung evangelicals his rating have held strong. Rove figured out that this section of voters would be dependable, that they could be mobilized to come out and vote in strong numbers. So they found wedge issues that Bush could use to his advantage.

The issue of gay marriage came up right before the election due to Bush lagging somewhat in the polls. And it did an awesome job of galvanizing people.




>But there is only so much time in my life for politics. I don't see the US drifting into a theocracy any time soon; the courts have enforced separation of church and state repeatedly, therefore I'm not that concerned. My hot-button issues are military matters, gun rights, and the incredible amount of waste in government spending.