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Republican Gordon Smith isn’t just running away from President Bush in his bid for a third six-year term in the Senate from an increasingly Democratic state. He’s practically leaping into the arms of Barack Obama and other Democrats.

His campaign ads tout his work with Obama as well as Massachusetts Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and John Kerry on issues such as alternative energy and hate crimes. Above all, Smith clings to his fellow Oregon senator and close pal, Democrat Ron Wyden.

It’s not working very well in a year when the GOP brand — in Oregon and nationally — is in free fall. Smith’s seat is one of up to a dozen in the Senate that Democrats could take away from Republicans two weeks from now in what is still an uphill effort to put together a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority.

Asked how he counters a Democratic wave, Smith quipped, “I’m a big boy. I can take it. I’ll just learn how to surf.”

Wyden, who once answered phones in Smith’s Senate office and has long called him a partner, has asked Smith to take down a campaign commercial touting the pair’s longtime friendship and collaboration. Smith refused. Wyden also has appeared in a TV ad promoting Smith’s Democratic opponent, Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley.

Polls show Merkley pulling narrowly ahead.

Merkley believes he’s gaining momentum not just because of the backlash in Oregon against Bush and Republicans, but also because the economy is faltering.

In campaign stops around the state, Merkley taps into that anti-GOP tide, telling crowds that Smith is a Bush Republican who’s more interested in bailing out Wall Street than helping folks on Main Street. Smith supported the recent $700 billion economic bailout, while Merkley and Wyden opposed it.

“If we don’t have living-wage jobs, we don’t have a middle class in this country,” Merkley said at a union rally at a pulp mill in Halsey, Ore. “We’re a nation of the few rich and the many poor struggling to gain traction. That’s not the vision of America I believe in.”

Democrats clearly see an opportunity. A surge of new registrations has brought the number of Democrats in the state to 43 percent, compared with 32 percent Republicans. Those Democratic gains are keyed by big increases in Portland and other urban areas.

Democratic groups and the Merkley campaign have spent at least $15 million on Merkley’s behalf. Much of that money is from outside groups such as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

Republicans, meanwhile, have spent at least $22 million, including at least $12 million from outside groups such as the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the conservative Freedom’s Watch and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Smith, 56, said he believes Oregon voters will again endorse his record of working cooperatively with Wyden and other Democrats.

He also cites his seniority on key committees — including the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee. “Oregon gives that up if they tell me to go home,” he said.

But Smith has stumbled, particularly when on the attack.

Last week, he apologized for a Republican ad that showed Merkley continuing to eat a hot dog while fumbling a question about Russia’s invasion of Georgia.

The ad, which featured footage shot by a video tracker hired by Republicans, “caught me in an unflattering situation,” Merkley concedes. But after being shown frequently on Oregon TV stations for weeks, the commercial may have backfired to Merkley’s advantage.

“The ad made me angry at Smith,” said Veronica Esaqui, who met Merkley at farmers market in Tigard, Ore., a suburb of Portland. “What do they have — a paparazzi watching a guy eat his food? It actually made me want to support you,” she told Merkley.

A frozen-food magnate once better known for his expensive suits than his legislation, Smith has emphasized his sharp criticism of the Iraq war, as well as efforts to increase mileage standards for cars and extend hate crimes protection to gay men and lesbians. Some analysts compare Smith to former Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who was cast out of office in a Democratic wave two years ago.

Smith “has been a fairly popular senator,” said political scientist Melissa Buis Michaux of Willamette University in Salem, Ore. “I don’t get the sense there’s a lot of animosity against him personally. But it does seem to be a Democratic year, so he may be swept up in the winds of change.”

Smith cites a recent National Journal study ranking him in the ideological center of the Senate. More importantly, he said, he has repeatedly shown a willingness to break with his party on key issues — a claim he says Merkley cannot make.

“I’m proud to say I was the senator who blocked $50 billion in cuts to Medicaid” proposed by Bush and backed by fellow Republicans, Smith said.

Normally reserved, Smith showed an emotional side in winning passage in 2004 of a suicide prevention law named after his son, Garrett, who killed himself a year earlier. Fellow senators were visibly shaken as Smith tearfully described his failures as a father and his inability to reach Garrett in his final days. Four years after voting to authorize the Iraq war, he also made an emotional speech in 2006 denouncing it as “absurd” and maybe even “criminal.”

Democrats call Smith’s effort too little, too late. And they say his emphasis on his bipartisan record — including opposition to Alaska oil drilling — is misleading.

“You can’t be bipartisan and vote with Bush 90 percent of the time,” said Oregon Democratic Chairwoman Meredith Wood Smith, no relation to the senator. “It just doesn’t work.”

epublican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin defended her remark that the proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in a CBS interview airing Thursday that “we have trade missions back and forth.”

Palin has never visited Russia and until last year the 44-year-old Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. She also had never met a foreign leader until her trip this week to New York. In the CBS interview, she did not offer any examples of having been involved in any negotiations with the Russians.

Palin’s foreign policy experience came up when she gave her first major interview, on Sept. 11 to ABC News. Asked what insight she had gained from living so close to Russia, she said: “They’re our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”

The comment met with derision from Palin’s critics and was turned into a punch line for a “Saturday Night Live” skit featuring actress Tina Fey. Appearing as Palin, she proclaimed, “I can see Russia from my house!”

In the interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Palin said: “It’s funny that a comment like that was, kind of made to … I don’t know, you know? Reporters …”

Couric said, “Mock?”

“Yeah,” Palin said, “mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.”

When Couric asked how Alaska’s closeness to Russia enhanced her foreign policy experience, Palin said, “Well, it certainly does because our … our next-door neighbors are foreign countries.” Alaska shares a border with Canada.

Palin didn’t answer directly when Couric inquired about whether she had been involved in any negotiations with the Russians.

“We have trade missions back and forth,” she replied, although Russia is not among the state’s top 20 export partners. As she continued, Palin brought up Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is — from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to … to our state,” she said.

Palin has two trade specialists working for the governor’s office. The top countries receiving Alaskan goods are Japan, Korea, China, Canada and Germany, according to 2006 export data, the most recent figures published, with seafood accounting for 50 percent of products exported.

Asked why she only obtained a passport last year, Palin said, “I’m not one of those who maybe came from a background of, you know, kids who perhaps graduate college and their parents give them a passport and give them a backpack and say go off and travel the world. No, I’ve worked all my life. In fact, I usually had two jobs all my life until I had kids. I was not a part of, I guess, that culture.”

Earlier Thursday, Palin held a rare exchange with reporters outside a ground zero firehouse in New York, and declined to endorse the candidacy of indicted Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. On trial for seven counts of making false statements stemming from allegations that he concealed gifts on Senate financial documents, Stevens is running for re-election to retain the seat he has held since 1968.

When a reporter asked Palin if she supports the re-election of Stevens, she replied: “Ted Stevens’ trial started a couple of days ago. We’ll see where that goes.”

Outside the firehouse just across from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Palin took just a handful of questions from reporters. She has yet to have a news conference in the four weeks since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her to be his running mate and has submitted to only three major interviews — with ABC, Fox News and CBS.

Palin was asked if she thought the U.S. presence in Iraq and Afghanistan was helping to mitigate terrorism.

“I think our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan will lead to further security for our nation. We can never again let them onto our soil,” she said.

Wrapping up a trip to New York, the Alaska governor toured a visitors center dedicated to those who lost their lives in the 2001 attacks. She later walked past a bronze memorial built into the wall of a firehouse, which commemorates the 343 firefighters who died on Sept. 11. She touched the wall several times.

“To come here and see these good New Yorkers who are not only rebuilding this area but rebuilding America, it’s very inspiring,” she told reporters.

Palin asked several questions during the tour about progress rebuilding the trade center site, victims’ families and particularly the health problems suffered by ground zero workers, said Jennifer Adams, CEO of the tribute center. Health advocates believe thousands of people became ill from exposure to toxic dust from the ruins of the trade center site.

Palin’s parents went to New York in January 2002 to help control the rat population in Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill as part-time contract workers with the Agriculture Department, her mother, Sally Heath, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Their task for two weeks was to control the rats so that they did not disturb the debris from the World Trade Center that was being brought there and searched by forensic teams for human remains.

Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected opponent John McCain’s call to postpone the first U.S. presidential debate to work on legislation dealing with the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Obama made the statement shortly after McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona, called for Friday’s debate to be postponed and said he would suspend his campaign to help work out agreement among lawmakers on a proposed $700 billion financial bailout plan.

“What I’m planning to do now is debate on Friday,” Obama said from the hotel where he has been preparing for the debate.

“It’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess,” he said. “I think that it is going to be part of the president’s job to deal with more than one thing at once.”

Obama said he had told congressional leaders who are trying to hammer out an agreement on the bailout plan that he was prepared to go to Washington if it would help.

“What is important is that we don’t suddenly infuse Capitol Hill with presidential politics.”

Obama said he called McCain early on Wednesday to suggest the two presidential candidates issue a joint statement aimed at taking a bipartisan approach to the bailout plan.

McCain called him back this afternoon and said he was interested in issuing a statement.

Obama said he was surprised that McCain made the announcement that he was suspending his campaign and wanted to postpone the debate. Obama said he thought the two men would first issue the joint statement before making any other moves.

President Bush has secretly approved U.S. military raids inside anti-terror ally Pakistan, according to current and former U.S. officials. The high-risk gambit prizes the death or capture of al-Qaida and Taliban extremists over the sensitivities of a shaky U.S.-backed civilian government that does not want to seem like Washington’s lapdog.

Bush acted in July to give U.S. forces greater leeway to cross from outposts in Afghanistan into the rugged area along the Pakistan border. Pakistan’s central government has little control in this area, where extremists have found what U.S. officials say is a comfortable safe haven.

Already frustrated with what the U.S. perceived as a balky and incomplete commitment to hunting militants seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said the last straw came when it appeared Pakistani authorities were passing tips to militants.

One official familiar with South Asia policy said the new rules were adopted in response to increasing problems with U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism cooperation — particularly evidence that Pakistan’s intelligence service, known as the ISI, had been compromised by militants and that some ISI elements were helping extremists. The official said extremists got Pakistani help before an attack July 7 on the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

“Up to that point, the idea was to share intelligence with the Pakistanis and then proceed but there was a lot of frustration with delays and problems, including leaks to militants, in sharing the intelligence,” the official said.

“This (the new order) is a reaction to that and it was sped up by the revelations about the penetration of the Pakistani intelligence service,” the official said. “It was decided that we had no choice but to free up the hands of our commanders.”

Current and former U.S. officials described Bush’s orders covering special operations and conventional forces on condition of anonymity because “execute orders” are classified. The order was first reported in Thursday’s New York Times.

The Associated Press reported in early August that senior U.S. intelligence and military aides were pressing Bush to give American soldiers greater flexibility to operate against al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Pakistan — for example, sending U.S. special forces teams into the tribal areas to hit high-value targets.

The “rules of engagement” have been loosened now, allowing troops to conduct border attacks without being fired on first if they witness attacks coming from the region, according to a former U.S. official with recent access to administration thinking. That would include artillery, rockets and mortar fire from the Pakistan side of the border.

A senior U.S. military official last week confirmed that a U.S. Special Forces attack had taken place about a mile across Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, killing at least 15. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because the internal debate over the U.S. response to rising violence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border includes discussion of classified intelligence.

That Sept. 3 raid was the first use of the new authority, which allows military teams to target suspected terrorists in the dangerous area along the Afghanistan border, the officials said. At the same time, the administration secretly has given conventional ground troops greater latitude to pursue militants across the Afghan border into Pakistan, they said.

The focus is on militant havens that have grown on Pakistan’s side of the border at the same time a resurgent Taliban has increased attacks inside Afghanistan. The situation led Bush on Wednesday to commit to sending more troops there. Washington wants Pakistan to do more to crack down on its side of the border.

Pakistan’s inability or unwillingness to mount a counterinsurgency campaign inside the tribal area was discussed at a National Security Council meeting this week, according to notes of the meeting provided to the AP. The notes said Pakistan is still focused on fighting India and is “still denying the counterinsurgency problem.”

Top U.S. and Pakistani military officials held a secret strategy session in August on an aircraft carrier off Pakistan to discuss the problem.

Bush’s decision to approve cross-border attacks without alerting Islamabad appears to undercut Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari days after his election. Zardari, widower of assassinated Pakistani political figure Benazir Bhutto, was chosen last week to replace Pervez Musharraf, who had been Washington’s point man in Pakistan. Musharraf resigned under pressure in August, done in partly by the perception that he was too close to Washington and took his orders from Bush.

Zardari and other politicians have called the cross-border attacks unacceptable and a violation of their country’s sovereignty.

U.S. counterterrorism operations along the border are highly unpopular in Pakistan. Many people in that country, including some now in government, think military action only invites further extremism.

Pakistan’s prime minister on Thursday backed a harsh rebuke of the U.S. by the Muslim nation’s military chief, a sign of a strain in the anti-terrorism partnership forged after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful but media-shy army leader, said a week after a deadly American-led ground assault in Pakistani territory that Pakistan would defend its sovereignty and that there was no deal to allow foreign forces to operate inside its borders.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the powerful but media-shy army leader, said nearly a week after the American-led ground assault that Pakistan would defend its sovereignty and that there was no deal to allow foreign forces to operate inside its borders.

He said unilateral actions risked undermining joint efforts to battle Islamic extremism and warned that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be defended at all cost.”

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, in comments reported Thursday by state media and confirmed by his office, said Kayani’s words reflected government opinion and policy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he will press Pakistan to allow U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan to take a new approach to hunting Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants who slip back and forth between the neighboring nations. But Brown offered no specifics on how the border could be better defended.

The U.S. forces were apparently seeking specific Taliban or al-Qaida leaders. The senior U.S. military official said the assault targeted “individuals who were clearly associated with attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan.”

The United States says it shares Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s concerns about civilian casualties caused during fighting in that country and that an investigation is under way.

Karzai has fired two Afghan army officers following a joint Afghan-U.S.-led operation that he says killed at least 89 civilians.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters Monday in Crawford, Texas, that NATO forces in Afghanistan “take every precaution to try to avoid innocent civilian casualties.”

Asked about Karzai’s concerns about civilian deaths and injuries, Fratto said an investigation was under way. He said the Defense Department believed “it was a good strike.” He had no details on the number of dead civilians.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East next week, a spokesman said on Friday as the Bush administration continued efforts for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal this year.Rice will travel to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Sunday, a statement by State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

“There, she will meet with senior Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials to discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues,” he said.

These would include “ongoing efforts to create positive and lasting peace in the region and progress towards the shared goal of a peace agreement in 2008,” McCormack said.

He provided no details of her schedule or meetings, and did not say how long Rice would remain in the region.

The United States has said it hopes to conclude a framework peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before President George W. Bush leaves office in January. But the talks have stumbled on disputes over Israeli settlement building and the future of Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Israel’s chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, said a Palestinian uprising could reignite if the international community piled on too much pressure on the sides to rush into an agreement by year’s end.

A State Department spokesman, responding to Livni’s comments on Friday, said the Americans would not push the parties beyond where they were willing to go.

“This is a difficult process, and we still believe that an agreement can be reached by the end of the year,” the spokesman, Robert Wood, said. “But there’s no attempt by the U.S. government to push the parties beyond where they believe they can go at this point.”

He said both sides had committed to working out an agreement. “We will be there to support them and they can count on that,” Wood said.

Rice last held meetings with Israel and Palestinian officials in Washington on July 30, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, hit by a corruption scandal, said he would step down after his party chooses a new leader in September.

Many people in Medicare with diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions stop taking their medicine when faced with picking up the entire cost of their prescriptions, researchers say.

About 3.4 million older and disabled people hit a gap, known as the doughnut hole, in their Medicare drug coverage in 2007. When that happened, they had to pay the entire costs of their medicine until they spent $3,850 out of pocket. Then, insurance coverage would kick in again.

About 15 percent of those hitting the coverage gap stopped their treatment regimen. That rate varied depending upon illness. For example, about 10 percent of diabetes patients stopped buying the medicine, as did 16 percent of patients with high blood pressure and 18 percent of patients with osteoporosis.

The drug benefit, which began in 2006, has come in under budget. Most participants report they are satisfied with the program. But many lawmakers and health analysts say improvements could be made.

“If a new president and Congress consider changes to the drug benefit, it will be important to keep in mind that the coverage gap has consequences for some patients with serious health conditions,” said Drew Altman, the chief executive officer and president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation conducted the study with researchers at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago.

The Republican-led Congress in 2003 crafted the doughnut hole as a way to make the drug benefit more affordable for the federal government.

The researchers based their findings on pharmacy claims data provided by IMS Health, a company specializing in collecting health care data. They excluded people who get extra help in paying for their drug coverage because of their income; they do not pay the full cost of medicine even when in the doughnut hole.

When looking at spending by people who did not receive the extra help, researchers could determine when they hit the coverage gap, which began at $2,400 in total drug spending. They also could determine when they passed through the gap and catastrophic coverage kicked in.

The researchers focused their analysis on eight categories of drugs. Those least likely to stop taking their medicine were Alzheimer’s patients, at 8 percent. Those most likely, at 20 percent, were patients taking medicine for heartburn, ulcers and acid reflux disease, 20 percent.

Jeff Nelligan, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the coverage gap kicks in after participants have saved about $1,600 on their drug costs, on average. He also noted that many plans offer some coverage when beneficiaries hit the doughnut hole. Those plans cost at little as $28.70 a month, and are available in every state for less than $50 a month.

“We urge beneficiaries to choose wisely when selecting their drug coverage,” Nelligan said. “Again, we emphasize that any changes to the coverage gap would need to come from Congress.”

The share of Medicare recipients who reached the doughnut hole varied widely by region. About one-third in Arkansas and seven states in the Northern Plains hit the coverage gap in 2007, but only 12 percent in Nevada did.

Researchers said such regional differences may occur because of physicians’ prescribing patterns as well as overall health of the population. A separate factor may be enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans. Such plans offer comprehensive health coverage on top of the drug benefit. Regions where Medicare Advantage plans were most prevalent had fewer enrollees hit the coverage gap, which could reflect stronger management of drug use.

Democratic lawmakers have led efforts to let the government use its purchasing power to negotiate cheaper drug prices. They say the savings could be used to reduce the coverage gap, though the Congressional Budget Office projected that the legislation would not lead to any significant savings.

About 5 percent of the people who hit the Medicare coverage gap switched to another medication, most often a generic drug, while 1 percent reduced the number of medications they were taking in a particular class of drugs, the report said.

A man barged into the Arkansas Democratic headquarters and opened fire Wednesday, fatally shooting the state party chairman before speeding off in his pickup. Police later shot and killed the suspect after a 30-mile chase.

Police said they don’t know the motive of the suspect, who they described as about 50 years old but whose name has not been released. However, they said that moments after the shooting he pointed a handgun at the building manager at the nearby the Arkansas Baptist headquarters. He told the manager “I lost my job,” said Dan Jordan, a Baptist convention official.

Chairman Bill Gwatney died four hours after the shooting. The 48-year-old former state senator had been planning to travel to the Democratic National Convention later this month as a superdelegate. He had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton but endorsed Barack Obama after she dropped out of the race.

Clinton and her husband, former President and former Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, issued a statement saying Gwatney was “not only a strong chairman of Arkansas’ Democratic Party, but … also a cherished friend and confidante.”

Witnesses said the gunman entered the party offices shortly before noon and said he wanted to see Gwatney.

“He said he was interested in volunteering, but that was obviously a lie,” said 17-year-old party volunteer Sam Higginbotham. He said that when the suspect was refused a meeting with Gwatney, he pushed past employees to reach the chairman’s office.

Little Rock police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said the suspect and Gwatney introduced themselves to one another, at which time the suspect “pulled out a handgun and shot Gwatney several times.” Hastings didn’t say what the two discussed, but said their discussion was not a heated one.

After the suspect avoided spike strips and a roadblock along U.S. 167 near Sheridan, police rammed his car, spinning it, said Grant County Sheriff Lance Huey. He got out of his truck and began shooting, and state police and sheriff’s deputies fired back, striking him several times, he said.

Hastings said investigators found at least two handguns in the suspect’s truck.

The state Capitol was locked down for about an hour until police got word the gunman had been captured, said Arkansas State Capitol police Sgt. Charlie Brice.

Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat who served with Gwatney in the state Senate, had been on a flight to Springdale in northwestern Arkansas. He returned to Little Rock and joined an impromptu vigil at University Hospital after what he called a “shocking and senseless attack.” Gwatney had been Beebe’s finance chairman during the governor’s 2006 campaign.

“Arkansas has lost a great son, and I have lost a great friend. There is deep pain in Arkansas tonight because of the sheer number of people who knew, respected and loved Bill Gwatney,” Beebe said.

Karen Ray, executive director of the Republican Party of Arkansas, sent her workers home early “out of an abundance of caution.”

“Our hearts go out to everyone at the Democratic headquarters. What a tragedy,” Ray said. “This is just a very upsetting, troubling and scary thing for our staff as well.”

Sarah Lee, a sales clerk at a flower shop across street from the party headquarters, said that around noon Gwatney’s secretary ran into the shop and asked someone to call 911.

Lee said the secretary told her the man had come into the party’s office and asked to speak with Gwatney. When the secretary said she wouldn’t allow him to meet with Gwatney, the man went into his office and shot him, Lee said.

Last November, a distraught man wearing what appeared to be a bomb walked into a Clinton campaign office in New Hampshire and demanded to speak to the candidate about access to mental health care. A hostage drama dragged on for nearly six hours until he peacefully surrendered.

The confrontation brought Clinton’s campaign to a standstill just five weeks before the New Hampshire primary. Security for her was increased as a precaution. She said she did not know the suspect.

1. Absolutely!!

2. No. The President needs to be intelligent and powerful enough not to be a puppet.

3. Nope.

4. Oh my god no. She is the freakiest person I ever heard of. She makes absolutely no sense when she talks. She speaks in that government speak and does not make any sense. Have I mentioned she makes no sense?

5. Possibly, a black woman being president would be GREAT, but I don’t think there’s a chance she would ever run. She does seem to agree with EVERYTHING Bush does, other than that I think she could handle the job.

6. From what I have seen of her, I would seriously consider her as a viable candidate.

7. I would sooner vote for Condie than for Hillary

8. Helllllllllllllllllllllll Nooooooooooooooooooo!

9. It depends on who she ran against but she is definitely very highly regarded by me.

10. nope…no way …not a frig’n shot, she’s as bad as bush and darth cheney

11. Possibly, yes. IMHO, she’s the most qualified woman in America. However, she has never held an elected position in government. I say that she’d be a good VP running mate for the republican party … that would get Hillary’s and the democrat party’s panties in a bunch!

12. I would vote for her before I would Hillary Clinton. And with the way she handling foreign relations and the mid-eastern peace talks I think she would make a good president.

13. Maybe, depend on the other choice

14. She was so weak as the national security adviser and the Secretary of state that Donald Rumsfeld and the defense department bullied their way in to dictating what state department policy should be.

She would be a weak president.

15. depends on her stances and ideals, but i wouldn’t out right rule it out.

16. You bet. It’s nice to have a leader with class. And she’s tough and is a good speaker.

Joey, what a great idea!

17. No, since I never voted for her in anything in the first place. I want to know who the People get to nominate? All we get is a premade selection of choices that I would never make in the first place.

Liberty is the essential heart of freedom. Liberty means being able to choose one’s own actions, without intrusion by government. Every law that restricts your movement, your actions or your words is one that restricts your liberty.

Privacy is the notion that the government will not intrude upon actions that you intend to be private. For instance, intercepting someones mail violates their privacy, as it is expected that only the recipient of the mail will read it.

Every infringement upon privacy can therefore potentially result in a infringement of liberty. For example, a wiretap could lead to an arrest.

People have a right to privacy, that is, they have a right to expect that the government will do as little as necessary to intrude upon their rights. This right is expressly provided for in the bill of rights. These rules govern due process. This is why the police must obtain a warrant to do a search