Look at the record:
We are losing the war on terror because of Bush's incompetence.

Clinton's actions in Yugoslavia-- or whatever--
were successful.

Reagan cut and ran in Lebanon

Nixon pulled the troops out of Vietnam.

Ike settled for a draw in Korea.

FDR won WW II.

Wilson won WW I.

McKinley won the Spanish-American war.

So you have to go back over a century to find a republican that actually won.

Boy, never confuse you with the facts.

I know, you are going to claim Reagan won the cold war. He didn't do anything different from what ever cold war president had done, he continued to implement the containment policy that was started under Truman. So he spent some more on the military, but as a share of GDP his military budget was smaller then every cold war administration but Carter. Moreover, the pressure on the soviet economy from Reagan's extra military spending was offset by his negotiating arms reductions. Reagan did recognize that the new leadership in the USSR was ready to change the system and worked with them to implement these changes. That was a fantastic achievement and he deserves great praise for that. But also remember almost every conservative opposed these moves at the time.

Steven obviously subscribes non-ironically to the headline of the famous Onion Article "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over"

I'm a project manager, software developer, and former QA lead. The first thing I see in any given proposal is where the edge cases lie, and how those could be used to circumvent the proposal's intent. So I asked the manager the first thing that came to my mind.

"Do you accept *debit* cards for lottery tickets?"

"Yes," he responded.

So perhaps the ban isn't quite a gambling-prohibition maneuver at this point, but more of a gesture.

The reality that my words connect to can first be observed by the basic stand on issues each party holds. Certain "conventional wisdom" points such as Dems being more aligned with big labor, Dems more in favor of increased spending on social program, Dems being more inclined to grants rights to non-citizens, Dems favoring government planning over free market mechanisms, Dems essential belief that government can solve almost all problems.

Like I said, the complaints about Republicans are true. Some of that is lack of discipline and some of that can be traced to the compromises of politics. By making noise the conservatives in the party can move them back toward the proper positions but voting them out moves the country in exactly the wrong direction.

A rational voter would be wise to look at the party platforms and positions on issues and vote according to those. It is irrational to vote against them because they are not conservative enough and deserve punishment. Punishment is not what our political system should be about. It should be about which candidate represents our views best.

I would rather have a wishy washy conservative Republican than a disciplined, principled socialist. It isn't great but it is what it is.

In what sense are they better on security issues? Because they talk about it more? The Republicans don't really take it any more seriously than the Democrats too. Just look at Iraq. A party that really believed it was the 'central front in the war on terror' would be doing everything it could to win there.

Instead we have a party in total denial. It's obvious to anyone who cares to study it that our current strategy is failing. Instead of correcting what we're doing wrong, the Republicans stubbornly insist we keep following this strategy without any deviation as though it will magically start working if we simply want it hard enough.

This is a party that's more concerned with being right than with winning a war. In my book that doesn't make them very good on security issues. It will take more than good intentions to win the war on terror, and the Republicans completely incompetent execution is hurting us just as much as doing nothing.

People forget the Democrats will be worse.

That's a fine piece of "conventional wisdom", Steven, but considering the vast number of their of core principles the GOP has completely folded on & abject failures they've presided over since taking power, I don't see how your words connect to reality.

The planning of the Iraq campaign (whether or not the campaign itself was a good idea). The management of contracts related to rebuilding Iraq. Securing our ports. Keeping our budget out of free-fall. Basic contract oversight. Not losing an entire major city to a hurricane. All these things, and many more, could have been avoided by the single, solitary, simple action of:
appointing vaguely competent people to the jobs instead of talentless political hacks.

That's something the GOP have made abundantly clear - nay, they are proud of it! - that they will _never_ do.

People forget the Democrats will be worse. More government programs will force their way into our personal lives, taxes and spending would rise, liberalism with all it's political correctness and moral relativism would ruin our children.

As usual the choice is a lesser of evils. That's real politics. There are no perfect candidates or perfect parties so look at your options and hold your nose when you vote.