President Obama may be tied down on the domestic economy and may have to essentially outsource part of the important job of re-engaging with American allies. She brings star power and credibility on the world stage. And if the economy gets worse, which it could well, how often is he going to want to be photographed with a million screaming Parisians? And here's a big one: If the president-elect decides to keep Secretary Gates (now THAT, I'm skeptical of), her nomination could be a counterweight to that decision. Finally, would you rather have the Clintons inside the tent, or outside the tent?

3rd parties in other countries don't exist in a vacuum. They cut deals with the other parties with whom they share a majority of stances and they compromise with those for whom they share a few.

In one sense, the US does have multiple parties; they're just absorbed into the major parties as factions. Democrats have blue dogs, union/worker's rights folks, socialists, populist progressives, race-based caucuses, etc. Republicans have the religious right, neocons, libertarians, states-rights conservatives, fiscal conservatives, etc. I'd argue that if the intra-party factions aren't able to push certain pieces of their own agenda to the forefront, they're in no position at all to try breaking away to influence from the outside.

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise."blockquote>

"It has been said that we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bind up the wounds of the man beaten by thieves, pour oil and wine into them, set him on our own beast and bring him to the inn, because we receive ourselves pleasure from these acts... These good acts give us pleasure, but how happens it that they give us pleasure? Because nature hath implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses... The Creator would indeed have been a bungling artist had he intended man for a social animal without planting in him social dispositions. It is true they are not planted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions; but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general rule."

"Private charities as well as contributions to public purposes in proportion to everyone's circumstances are certainly among the duties we owe to society."

"The laws of humanity make it a duty for nations, as well as individuals, to succor those whom accident and distress have thrown upon them."

"This world abounds indeed with misery; to lighten its burthen, we must divide it with one another."

"Though we cannot relieve all the distressed, we should relieve as many as we can."

My dad never saw live combat as a Navy yeoman, but even still he prefers talking about the guys he served with and the places he visited offdeck a lot more than what he did while working.

Ohio turnout was down 5% overall this year from 2004. For what it's worth, Obama's margin of victory was larger than Bush's.

Reasons for higher turnout in 2004 might include the ballot measure for banning same sex marriages and having a senate race on the ticket as well. Reasons for lower turnout in 2008 might include voter distrust after the issues in 2004, or a lack of confidence in either candidate.

I disagree that the war on drugs is a priority for the administration, though. I'll be happy if the above happens, and if we tone down our shit in South America. Rescheduling isn't realistic, though -- the economy, health care, and yes, the war in Iraq, are more important to a majority of Americans and will require the vast majority of political capital the new administration has. Exhausting it on drug policy would be a mistake.