FROM ME TO JOHN ELDER (http://www.jelder.com)

Dear John:

Granted, my site is not a "hug a republikkkan" kind of environment... but…

You are brilliant, really.  In your letter, you put your finger on something that I have been vaguely conscious of, but haven't been able to express.  Basically, "Why are the republicans acting so irrational and threatening, when it appears their guy is going to walk away with the prize?"

You have some fabulous explanations, and they made me think of one more:

Al Gore got more votes in this election that any first-time nominee for the presidency, even Reagan, who won in an admitted landslide in 1980.  Add into this the Nader voters which are very unlikely to flip to the GOP.  Add to this the surveys indicating that, of those Americans eligible to vote, who chose not to vote in 2000 but now wish they had, 65% report they would have selected Gore.

And this is to say nothing of the gains democrats made in the House and Senate (especially the NY Senate seat that went for Hillary Clinton), and the gubernatorial seat dems picked up.  Or the fact that the media, and their candidate, prepared the republicans for victory in a walk.  No one seemed to even entertain the possibility that Al Gore would beat Baby Bush by a cool 350,000 in the popular vote.

I believe the reason for the current republican bizarre-behavior-fest is that they see the handwriting on the wall.  They are reacting a lot like a guy whose wife is walking calmly out the door threatening to leave him for good.  Only in this case, it is the American people that are walking out the door, and I believe they ARE walking for good.

Perhaps, as a holiday gift to myself, I am engaging in a little wishful thinking, but I think probably not.

-The Diva

JOHN'S REACTION

I loved your explanation...the jilted (cuckolded?) husband syndrome! Hey, probably a bit of wife-battery that led to her leaving, eh?

Thanks,

Elderbear