2004 Elections: Democratic Party Contenders

Al Queda recruited, trained, funded, acknowledged, claimed, and lauded the mostly-Saudi hijackers. Al Queda is a stateless entity, the membership of which comprises citizens of a wide variety of countries. Not even The Nine Also-Rans and their most egregiously hysterical followers can negate those facts.

It would not be beyond Al Queda's perfidy specifically to have employed a preponderence of Saudis in the attack by way of calculated effort to exacerbate US/Saudi tensions.

9/11 detainee: Attack scaled back

As to The Detainees, well, from what I understand, they are suffering to the point of having gained weight and benefitting from dental and optical care evidently unavailable to them in their previous environs.

It's from a 'senior US official' (is anyone else sick to death of press releases from unnamed government sources?) and it contains information which we have absolutely no way of judging.

In the latest CNN/USA-Today/Gallup Poll, registered voters were presented with a hypothetical head-to-head match-up and asked their choice for president. Wesley Clark led President Bush 49% to 46%, within the 3.5% margin of error.

CNN Polling Director Keating Holland says a number of factors contribute to Clark's popularity. "Part of it is his resume, part of it is his announcement bounce, part of it may simply be that he's a fresh face. He is, after all, the flavor of the month."

This from a candidate without huge name recognition. Nearly half the general public surveyed is not familiar with Gen. Clark.

Still, political experts say Clark's catapult is not the most surprising thing about this poll. "Bush is sinking, Clark is surging," says Bill Schneider, a CNN senior political analyst. "Clark picked exactly the right moment to make his announcement."

Indeed, the same CNN/USA-Today/Gallup Poll shows President Bush falling fast. According to this poll, the president has a 50% approval rating, the lowest of his presidency and a 10% drop from last month.

Timing aside, is there an "Ike Factor" with Wes Clark? A parallel exists between Clark and another former supreme allied commander in Europe, who rode in on a white horse in 1952 and captured the White House.

According to CNN's Keating Holland, that theory may hold some water. "He does particularly well with those over 65, for example. And that's the crowd that remembers Gen. Eisenhower. That's the 'Greatest Generation' that sort of stands up and salutes when they hear the world 'general'," says Keating.

49 percent said they would vote for Clark, compared with 46 percent for Bush. Each of the four other major Democratic candidates came within three points of Clark's showing in a hypothetical head-to-head race with the president, the poll found.

Kerry narrowly outpaced the president, 48-percent to 47-percent. Bush held a slim lead over Dean (49 to 46 percent), Gephardt (48 to 46 percent) and Lieberman (48 to 47 percent).

Nimh, that's obviously a lefty, commahnist anti-american, unkrischun poll!