Trying to Understand Adsense.

Google adsense ads are content driven. I don't know the technical jargon, but Google has a way of analyzing the content of a website or blog and attempts to target the folks most likely to be visiting said blog or website.

Yesterday, while posting on my D'offus of the Big-Doofus blog, I noticed that the ads across the top of page were all directed towards folks applying for welfare.

The little Google crawlers or spiders (or whatever they're called), picked up on "Obama" and "Hillary Clinton" and "Joe Biden" in the blog content and decided that most of the visitors to that blog must be interested in signing up for government assistance.

I guess you can't really expect Google crawlers or spiders (or whatever they're called), to understand parody. As Al pointed out in his comment on Washington sends $1 Food Stamp Checks ;

"Kind of scary when what starts out as a spoof actually becomes reality, isn't it?"

Another Update on Another Post.

Last November, I received an email with a gif called "recess at the asylum".
Someone had taken a snippet from "Ace Ventura" and pasted on the heads of an assortment of Democratic Party loonies.

It's interesting to note the placement of the heads. Hillary Clinton is the main character....with Obama in the background. I wonder if the person would have put Obama in front had he created the gif after Obama's coronation.

I thought the gif was funny, so I put in up on my blog. [Recess at the Asylum]

Funny thing......since then, that post has generated more than 50% of all the traffic this blog gets on any given day. Type "recess at the asylum" into the Google search engine and my blog is number one.

That post also comes up first using Yahoo and Alta Vista.

Even though the post gets a lot of traffic, the bounce rate for that page is high too. That means that not too many of that page's visitors go one to look at other areas of my blog. I don't know how to correct that.

I'm going to try an experiment. I'll put the same gif on my D'offus of the Big-Doofus blog and we'll see what effect, if any, that has on the traffic for the Big Doof.

Updates On Earlier Posts.

In an earlier post [The Red Envelope Project] I described a grassroots plan to send President Obama empty red envelopes with the following message written on the back;

"This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception."

It wasn't easy finding red envelopes. Although I wasn't able to find any locally, I was able to order a package of 50 from Office Depot.
50 envelopes...$4.49....no shipping.

Of course, it took a few days for the envelopes to arrive but, arrive they did.
Mailing 50 envelopes at 42 cents each comes to $21 postage.....a good Lenten penance.

In the post written the Friday before St. Valentine's Day, I mentioned receiving two books I'd ordered from Amazon.com . Namely:
No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers.
by Michael Novak.
and
Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam.
by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera.

Honestly, I haven't had time to read "Without Roots" but I have started reading "No One Sees God."
I doubt that any review I'd write of that book would do it justice. Suffice to say, after starting the book, I ordered another copy to give as a birthday gift. I'd like a couple of atheist/agnostic acquaintances to read the book too, but I seriously doubt they would appreciate the gesture.

In January, I wrote a piece entitled Am I being Intolerant? in which I described my disdain for a "pro-choice, Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion" and asked if I was being intolerant in my attitude towards her.
I was expecting comments from my regular readers, but none did.

I only just recently received an anonymous comment from someone telling me that I was being intolerant towards the person in question. The rather lengthy comment was written by someone who is, obviously, not Catholic and clueless as to what I was really writing about.

Concerning tolerance, in a recent address delivered at the University of Toronto, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver said it better than I ever could;

"We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue. Charity, justice, mercy, prudence, honesty -- these are Christian virtues. And obviously, in a diverse community, tolerance is an important working principle. But it's never an end itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of serious evil. Likewise, democratic pluralism does not mean that Catholics should be quiet in public about serious moral issues because of some misguided sense of good manners."

Shrove Tuesday.

According to some, my being a first-born has had an influence on certain characteristics and traits that I possess.

First-borns have been described as "perfectionistic, reliable, conscientious, list-makers, well-organized, critical, serious, scholarly; achiever, self-sacrificing, people-pleaser, conservative, supporter of law and order, believer in authority and ritual, legalistic, loyal, and self-reliant".

I can't argue with any of that.

Maybe that's why I've felt a need to pass on "traditions" to my young son. These "traditions" have included such things as experiencing home-made, southern style, buttermilk biscuits and banana pudding made in the traditional manner.

Of course, this passing on of traditions means bringing him up in the religion of his fore-fathers....the Roman Catholic Church.

He's only three, so some of these traditions mean very little to him right now. Tomorrow night, the priest will put ashes on his forehead even though, at his age, Lent is pretty much meaningless.

Unfortunately, there aren't any Shrove Tuesday traditions in my family. I'm going to do my best to keep him from the Mardi Gras foolishness so prevalent in today's society.

Googling "Shrove Tuesday" you'll find a connection between today and pancakes. I suppose, long ago, pancakes were seen as an extravagance and having them the day before Lent made sense. In our home, pancakes are a once a week item and having them today wouldn't be so special.

I decided, instead, to make French Toast. My son enjoys them and to my way of thinking, more fitting for a Shrove Tuesday Tradition.

A New After-Dinner Speaker Needed.

Nice Blogs......

Thanks to a recent post by LarryD -
[Pope Nancy I] - I was lead to the this blog - Standing on My Head - where I found this hilarious photo of Nancy "dressed to kill".
That blog lead me to the creator of the photo at Sancte Pater.
Nice Blogs......follow the links.

Misunderstanding Pope Benedict XVI.

After Nancy Pelosi's recent visit with Pope Benedict XVI , JTI writer, Ron Kampeas asks "The pope hectors Pelosi - does she hector back?"

In that article, Kampeas writes that Pelosi should have taken the Pope to task for his handling of the, so-called, "Williamson fiasco". Kampeas asks "where does he get off lecturing anyone about the death of innocents...."

Another JTA article has this about Williamson;
"Williamson was excommunicated in 1988 by the late Pope John Paul II for defying the teachings of the 1965 Second Vatican Council, which removed from the Jewish people the guilt of deicide."

Actually, that's not true.
William was excommunicated because his consecration as bishop was performed against the orders of Pope John Paul II and was canonically invalid. The article leaves the impression that Williamson was excommunicated because of his views on the Holocaust. The writer wants us to believe that the removal of the excommunication is a sign of support for anti-Antisemitism and Holocaust denial by the Vatican.
Williamson's excommunication by John Paul II had nothing to do with the Holocaust and neither does the removal of his excommunication.

Basically, these critics of Pope Benedict's handling of the situation want Williamson to be excommunicated because of his denial of the Holocaust.
As stupid as Williamson's belief is, it is not something over which someone can be excommunicated. Believing that William should be excommunicated shows a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of excommunication and why it was lifted in this case.

Cheers.

Obama's "charisma" and the love he generates among certain folks has lead many of Obama's detractors to make reference to his followers as "Kool-aid drinkers".
On my parody blog, "D'offus of the Big-Doofus" I've given them the name "Kool-aid drinking zombie minions"
Recently, cartoons have appeared comparing Obama to Jim Jones, the religious leader who convinced (or forced) his followers to drink a cyanide laced concoction.

Looking into the Jim Jones / Jonestown,Guyana story, I learned that, contrary to folk lore, it wasn't Kool-aid but, Flavor-aid Jones used in the mass murder/suicide.

Somehow, I don't think "Flavor-aid drinking zombie minions" has the same....huh....punch.

No Photo op for Pelosi.

Rather than get the photo op she was looking for when she visited Pope Benedict today, Nancy Pelosi received a lesson in Catholic teachings. The Vatican press release says.......

"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development."

If Pelosi thinks she can use the Pope she's sadly mistaken. She is out of her league.

Pope: Catholic politicians must protect life

Because one photo just isn't enough.......

We can never see too many photos of Muslim women protesting Hillary Clinton.

Tracking Down Red Envelopes.

Yesterday, when I wrote about the red envelope project, I hadn't thought about how difficult it might be to find red envelopes.
I checked a couple of places in town, but couldn't find any (other than the envelopes used for Valentine's Day cards.....and you had to buy the card).

It looked like my only option was to purchase the envelopes online. The online stores recommended at redenvelopeproject.org seemed a bit too costly for me....particularly when you added in the shipping cost.

I finally tracked down a good place to get the envelopes at a reasonable price.......Office Depot.
A pack of 50 bright red holiday envelopes priced at only $4.49.

The catch......the nearest Office Depot is 25 miles from here.
The good news......the envelopes can be ordered online with NO SHIPPING.

Mine are on the way.

The Red Envelope Project.

I'm not sure who came up with this idea.....I learned of it from the blog, Les Femmes - The Truth

So, here's the plan.

Get a red envelope.On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington , D.C. 20500

On the back, write the following message:

This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception.

Put it in the mail, and send it.
I'll be buying my red envelopes next time I'm out.

Links:
redenvelopeproject.org
sendaredenvelope.org
redenvelopesforlife.org

Friday's Post

Saturday and Sunday are usually "family days" so there's not a lot of blogging done then. Normally, I'd try to spend Friday getting things together so I might be able to just copy and paste a weekend entry.

Doesn't look like that'll be the case today.
If the weather's nice, I'll spend some time outdoors with my son. He really hasn't had much chance to get outside and run around......it's been either too cold, too wet or both.

My wife and I will be going out Saturday. Valentine's Day type evening.
If I some how manage to get any free time in the next few days (which is doubtful) I have two books to read. Just arrived from Amazon.com;
No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers.
by Michael Novak.
and
Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam.
by Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera.

If you don't hear from me, you'll know where I am.

My Aunt's Obituary.

Later this afternoon, we will be attending the funeral of my aunt, Gwen.
She was my mother's older sister and the last of my parents' siblings to pass away. I am posting her obituary as found on the funeral home's website.

Mrs. Gwendolyn P. Gilliland, 89, of Dalton, passed away Saturday, February 7, 2009. She was born October 19, 1919 in Sugar Valley, Gordon County, GA.

When her mother (Winnie Joyce Parker) died suddenly in 1937, she became the housemother, cook and counselor for her father (Oscar T. Parker), two older brothers and a younger sister ( all of whom passed away several decades ago).

For thirty - nine years she was married to the late Harold C. Gilliland, who passed away prematurely in 1978. She was a grateful member of Trinity United Methodist Church. Her Husband was a career U. S. Soldier, who served in Korea and other tours of duty. During her working life she was employed in the textile industry and retail sales.

Although her husband’s military career caused occasional relocation of the household, Dalton was her home where she grew up, married and reared her children and lived for more than eighty years.
She was a wonderful cook and loved to Garden.

Gwendolyn is survived by two sons, Cullen Gilliland and his wife Jeanne of Atlanta, Stephen Gilliland and his wife Suzanne of Ft. Lauderdale, FL.; grandchildren, Andrew Gilliland of Cleveland, TN., Alice Gilliland of Chapel Hill, NC.; great-grandchildren, Claire Gilliland, Benton Gilliland, Kate Gilliland, Edie Gilliland; sister-in-law, Elizabeth Edwards; nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be 2 P.M. Wednesday at Trinity United Methodist Church with the Rev. Fred Johnson and the Rev. Rhoda Howell officiating. She will be buried next to her late husband in West Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends at Love Funeral Home Tuesday from 6 to 8 P.M.
Words of comfort may be sent to the family at www.lovefuneralhomega.com. Love Funeral Home, 1402 N. Thornton Ave., Dalton (across from Hamilton Medical Center) is in charge of arrangements.

Regarding Pierre Noth's comments on Rush Limbaugh.

In a recent editorial, Pierre Noth, the Editorial Page Editor of the local Rome News Tribune, took a swipe at radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh. Sadly, I cannot link to an online copy of this editorial (the newspaper is far too low tech for that).
Below is my letter to Mr. Noth in response to his editorial.


In his recent editorial criticizing radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, Editorial Page Editor Pierre Noth betrays himself to be less familiar with Mr. Limbaugh's program than he would have us believe.

A perfect example of this is Noth's accusation that "Limbaugh repeatedly says that his abilities and self proclaimed wisdom 'come directly from God '". As even the most casual listener to the radio show knows, the actually catch phrase is "Talent, on loan from God". Rather than see this as an example of an inflated ego, I have always taken that phrase to be Rush's clever play on the clichéd term "God given talent". Perhaps, this is just a wee bit too clever for some to appreciate.

Like most of Mr. Limbaugh's detractors, Mr. Noth finds it necessary to make snide, offhand remarks about Mr. Limbaugh's weight. This is the sort of thing I would expect from a second rate comic like Al Franken, but I would have thought that a first rate journalist would be above poking fun at someone's physical appearance.

Mr. Noth goes on to suggest that it's Rush's $100 million a year income that explains his support for "tax cuts for the rich". Are we letting our jealously and envy get the better of us, Pierre? I'd say earning 1 percent of that income would be impressive for someone who "flunked out of college" and "failed a course in ballroom dancing".

Noth writes that Limbaugh wouldn't dare to run for political office because his loss would expose how much in the minority his viewpoints really are. I suggest that Mr. Noth run for office, as he most assuredly believes his views to be more mainstream. Besides, we all know that newspapers are rapidly losing readers to the Internet news sites and Mr. Noth may be looking to make a career move sooner than he'd like.

Mr. Noth says that there are two sides to an argument....unless Limbaugh is a participant, in which case he will shout down the other person and not allow a word in. Any listener to Rush Limbaugh's program knows that the quickest way to get bumped to the head of the call-in list is to be critical of Rush. Contrary to what Mr. Noth would have us believe, Limbaugh does not browbeat callers who go against him. He'll allow even the most pointy-headed Liberal to have his or her say.

The same cannot be said for the Rome News Tribune editorial page. Mr. Noth has complete control over which letters get published and which do not; a letter may not see the printing press if it contradicts one of Mr. Noth's pet beliefs.

Having written that, I know that Pierre may very well prove me to be a liar by printing this. If, however, this is published in the newspaper, it will not go unedited nor without a misleading and inflammatory headline at the top.

Warner's Dream.....Our National Nightmare.

There's no question that we are living in difficult times. The economy is in shambles and no one is optimistic that the situation will change for the better any time soon.

A year ago, during the primaries, I had supported Mitt Romney.....someone who had experience running a business and a state government. The President of the United States is the country's chief executive and we need an executive in charge.

Now, instead of a chief excutive, we have Barack Obama; someone who has no clue how to run a business....someone who has only modest experience as a legislature and less executive experience than a typical small town mayor.

Why?
How did Obama manage to get elected POTUS when John Kerry failed ?

One word. Personality.

For far too many elections, it's been the candidate's persona that tips the scales just enough to carry the election. As I've pointed out before, the candidate that wins is the one most Americans prefer to have over to the house for beer and pizza. Qualifications, policies and experience be damned.

In a New York Times article, [Sometimes a President Is Just a President] Judith Warner gives us a look into the psyche of the Obama voter.
Having the candidate over for beer and pizza is no longer enough. Now, the voters are picking the more sexually attractive candidate......the candidate that erotic dreams are made of.

Warner tells us of her dream of Obama "taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house."

According to Warner, she isn't the only loser Kool-aid drinking zombie minion Obama supporter who dreams of the Adonis. Warner writes that she "launched an e-mail inquiry" She claims that, "many women — not too surprisingly — were dreaming about sex with the president".

She goes on to tell of others who fantasize about Barack and Michelle.

This is how we choose a President?

Time will show that our current President is the most incompetent President we've ever elected.
All because he's a "hunk"?
Pardon me while I throw up.

Punchline Needed.

When I came across a recent photo of Obama on Drudge's website, the expression on his face was so classically doofuesque that I couldn't resist downloading it and modifying it ever so slightly.
Now, all that's needed is something appropriate to fill into the word bubble.
Suggestions welcome.Place your suggestion in the comment area. (note that it must be able to fit inside......don't make it too long).

Fun With Fonts.

Just having a bit of Fun With Fonts.

Server Problems.

The host for my website dumaguetecity.net is giving me problems today. As I write this, the site is down......don't know when the problem started.
Not only is the website down, but some of the images and ads I have (such as the Big Doofus gif and the pen pal blog ad) aren't available now either.
The server is also where I have the "Hail to the Chief" Wav that I use for the background music on the Big-Doofus blog.
It's a pain in the butt. Hope they fix the problem soon.
It's bad enough when the free stuff on the Internet goes down, but I'm paying for the use of the server.
!@$#@@$^7%)#!!

Update:
No sooner than I publish this post then the server comes back up (as evidenced by the gif of the Big Doofus on the right).

Further thoughts on Genealogy.

Some of the comments from my last post got me thinking about ancestors and distance relatives and just how complicated the whole thing is.

Most of us don't really stop to think about the number of ancestors we all have. We usually only think about our parents, grandparents and maybe, our great grandparents.

We don't often think about the staggering number of couples that got together......couples that had offspring that had to be produced for us to be here.

Every person has, of course, two parents and four grandparents. You've also got eight great-grandparents, sixteen great-great-grandparents and an amazing thirty two great-great-great-grandparents. And everyone of those thirty two great-great-great-grandparents of yours had thirty two great-great-great-grandparents themselves.

Go back three or four hundred years and you could have more than a thousand direct ancestors. That's more than five hundred couples that had to have had the children they did for you to be here.
Any change in that and you wouldn't be here.

I've tried thinking about just how many descendants those five hundred couples could now have. The thought is so overwhelming, I can't really fathom the possibility.

You can't pick your relatives.

Back in the early 90's I became interested in searching for my ancestors and filling out the details my family tree. I wasn't doing the research in hopes of finding a kinship to any famous historical figure, but simply to discover my roots.

When I started doing genealogy, I knew practically nothing about my ancestors. I knew a little bit about my long deceased grandparents and the name of only one great-grandparent. Fortunately, there were 2nd cousins on my mother's side who had done some work, so I had a starting point.

In those days, very few of us had PCs in our homes and only the nerdyest of nerds were connected to the Internet ......and through dial-up at that.
If you wanted information on your family tree, your choices were talking to those in the family who had some memory of those long gone folks, or else going to courthouses, libraries and cemeteries in the areas where your ancestors once lived; you collected birth certificates, marriage records, death certificates and spent far too much time looking at census records on microfilm.

After a few years of this research, I'd gone about as far as I wanted to take it.
All four of my father's grandparents had come to the United States from Poland (which was technically part of Prussia at the time). Finding the death certificates of these great grandparents gave me the names of their parents; citizenship records gave me the locations of their births.
I'm really not able to take that much further. I'm not likely to visit Poland and as I don't understand the language, a trip there would be pretty much pointless.

Finding information about my mother's side of the family was a different matter all together. Nearly all the branches of her side had been in Georgia since before the American Revolution. Even the late comers, who arrived in Georgia just prior to the American Civil War, had ancestors who'd been in what would become the United States since Colonial days.

A post in my D'offus of the Big-Doofus blog Saturday, [ Obama Bhang] lead me to reading the wikipedia articles on former President Jimmy Carter and his brother Billy. It was these articles which caused me to revive my interest in genealogy.
Their mother was Lillian Carter. This was not news to me. I was around when Carter was governor of Georgia. What was news to me, however, was Lillian Carter's maiden name - Gordy.

My maternal grandfather's grandmother was named Missouri Elizabeth Gordy and I had done a little bit of research on that particular branch.
Some of this gets a bit difficult to explain as the first names of some the Gordy men who were in Georgia early on have the same first name.
To make a long story short, there was a Leonard Gordy (born in Maryland) who died in Hancock County Georgia in 1809. I am descended from Leonard and, of course, his father Peter Gordy.
Ms. Lillian (and of course, Jimmy) are descended from Leonard's brother Peter. Peter (the younger) and Leonard's father - Peter (from Maryland) is our common ancestor.

As bad as this is.....it gets worse.

The Peter Gordy from Maryland was the son of yet another Peter Gordy and the grandson of Adrian Gordy. Are you all still with me on this?

Adrian was the first of the Gordys to come to this country from Scotland. No one seems to be 100% certain of his date of birth.....it's listed as circa 1650-1660. I don't know if anyone knows for sure when he arrived from Scotland.

Besides Peter (#1), Adrian had a house full of children. There were also sons Moses and William and a daughter named Mary. This is so far back.....three hundred years ago.... I can't say there weren't even more children.

At any rate, unlike today, folks in the early 1700's had lots of kids. Those kids had lots of kids.
It would be impossible to list every descendant of Adrian Gordy.
I'm one of his descendants, as is (yikes) Jimmy Carter.

So is, I'm equally horrified to say, Barack Obama.

It's a very small world, indeed.

From http://genforum.genealogy.com/gordy/messages/446.html:

Mary Disharoon m. Adrian Gordy
Mary Gordy m. John Holloway
John Holloway m. Frances Bradford
Elijah Holloway m. Elizabeth Showell
Armel Showell Holloway m. Anna Maria Godfrey
Josiah Holloway m. Martha Mallow
Charlotte Holloway m. Falmouth Kearney
Mary Ann Kearney m. Jacob William Dunham
Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham m. Ruth Lucille Armour
Stanley Armour Dunham m. Madelyn Lee Payne
Stanley Ann Dunham m. Barack Hussein Obama Sr.
Barack Hussein Obama

Update:
A descendant of Adrian Gordy [named Joseph] left this comment:

"Adrian Gordy was my 11ggrandfather. He was born in Virginia and brought to MD as indentured servant of Capt. William Brereton at age 14. Adrian married twice. First to Mary Disharoone with whom there was only one child, Mary. She is 9ggrandmother of Obama. Second marriage was to Rosamond Crouch. They had only two children, twins named Peter and Moses. These boys were almost certainly not Adrian's, but adopted by him upon marriage to Rose. So, while there is a connection, there is a blood link to Carter but not to Obama unless you are a Mary descendent."

As a descendant of Peter Gordy, it turns out that I am not related to Adrian Gordy - because was his adopted son......not his biological son. Therefore, I have no biological connection Adrian's daughter, Mary. The good news - no common ancestry with BHO. The bad news - I'm still distantly related to Jimmy Carter.

Obama's Vietnam.

In Obama's "historic" July 24th, 2008 Berlin speech, he stated that we need to stay the course in Afghanistan.....even to the point of sending in additional NATO troops.

"This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers who sell drugs on your streets. No one welcomes war. I recognize the enormous difficulties in Afghanistan. But my country and yours have a stake in seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success. For the people of Afghanistan, and for our shared security, the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan people need our troops and your troops; our support and your support to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda, to develop their economy, and to help them rebuild their nation. We have too much at stake to turn back now."


The Europeans, completely infatuated with the Messiah, must have, somehow, missed that portion of his speech. The Europeans are not inclined to send more troops into Afghanistan. It's not likely that their love for Obama will cause them to change their minds on that.

President Obama is determined to send 30,000 American troops to southern Afghanistan. [ see guardian.co.uk and bloomberg.com]

Recent articles in such completely different sources as arabnews.com and washingtontimes.com pose the same question:

Will Afghanistan be Obama's Vietnam?

It's to be expected that arabnews.com would be critical of any American war in Afghanistan.

In the Washington Times article, Jeffrey T. Kuhner notes that the media has insisted on comparing Obama with John Kennedy. The media are casting both Kennedy and Obama as "sophisticated internationalists" when the truth is far different.

Of JFK, Kuhner writes,
"Kennedy was not only inexperienced but reckless. He brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. More importantly, it was Kennedy who gave us Vietnam, a military disaster from which America has never truly recovered."

Kuhner goes on;
"Mr. Obama is now following Kennedy's footsteps. Afghanistan will be his Vietnam. And when the body bags of dead American soldiers start coming home, Mr. Obama's liberal base will turn against the war - just as they did in the 1960s. This will split his party and break his presidency. He lacks the stomach for a protracted campaign. He will cut Afghanistan loose - just as the liberals cut Vietnam loose."