Watched the vice-presidential debate last night. As far as I’m concerned, Dick Cheney’s the only one of the four people involved in the race who would actually make a decent president. He obviously has a much better command of the issues than Bush, and his conservatism is far more libertarian than Bush’s.
Just an observation — I’m subscribed to a bunch of feminist/pro-abortion mailing lists, and I keep receiving press releases about how if Bush wins its the end of legal abortion in the United States, but it’s really odd that the abortion issue hasn’t yet really come up at all. I’m pro-abortion, but I think the anti-abortion movement has really done an amazing job transforming the issue and moving the terms of the debate to areas that are far more friendly to it (such as the whole “partial birth” abortion controversy).
Part of the problem, IMO, is that pro-abortion groups are so far to the Left that their message alienates moderates and libertarian oriented conservatives who might otherwise be more receptive to their message.