The left is devastated.
      For the better part of four years it heaped an unprecedented amount of vitriol upon George Bush. It will continue to do so.
      But for all the certainty with which the left believes that Bush is intolerably repugnant, for all the emotion and money it poured into defeating this illegitimate, fascist dunce, it miserably failed in persuading America. Indeed, the largest electorate in American history gave George Bush the largest number of votes ever received by a presidential candidate.
      In Florida he improved upon his 2000 margin of victory by 700 fold. Not even the migration of Naderites to Kerry on the auspices of ‘anyone-but-Bush’ made a difference, nor did “extra” votes in Philly or illegal electioneering in Colorado. Nor did the always anticipated but never realized turnout of young voters.
      Democrat Tom Daschle became the first Senate party leader to lose reelection in more than fifty years. For the first time since reconstruction Louisiana will send a Republican to the Senate, nearly completing the complete Democratic surrender in the South. The GOP picked up Senate seats in Florida, both Carolinas and cemented a decade-long grip on the House by adding at least 2 seats to their majority.
      What does the left do? If what it puts forth as the self-evident fact of Bush and the GOP’s backward ideology and harmful policies isn’t enough to move voters to the enlightened, “progressive” choice, what can? On what grounds will it oppose the agenda to be implemented over the next four years, without losing even more support in the future?
      Who knows? Certainly not the Democratic party, which has yet to discover the reverse correlation between leftist policies and electoral success in America.
      So the question becomes: north to Canada, or transatlantic to Europe?

      Questions are posed by the moderator to each party, who is allotted 2 minutes to respond. 1 minute is allowed for rebuttals. Questions from the audience are to be written on note cards and submitted to the moderator, who selects neutral questions and asks them to the respective parties. Closing statements are limited to 2 minutes.
       Sounds like some pretty simple debate rules, right? Well, last night it became clear that these instructions were too complicated, too complex for the organization UM Votes to understand.
      But incase is wasn't enough to break the debate rules which we, working with the Democrats and Libertarians, had set up 3 weeks prior, UM Votes also needed to use the debate to advance it's own agenda. In the heat of the debate, the UM Vote moderator asked the CR debaters why we had not "joined" with them to get out the vote in the 2004 election. Well UM Votes, it's pretty simple. The CRs aren't going to work with an organization that isn't intelligible enough to get a debate right.

      Excluding the inexcusable blunders of UM votes, the debate went extremely well for the CRs. Lauren, Sam and Mike all spoke eloquently and bested the Dems and Libs across the board. Once again we'd like to thank the College Democrats and the College Libertarians for giving it their best, it's always a pleasure. Lastly, in the spirit of getting out the vote, we'd like you to remind you to vote Republican in November.

      On the weekend of September 25-26, your very own CRs ventured into the battleground state of Pennsylvania (on second thought, Bush will cream Kerry....more on that later). The five of us who went stayed in Ambler, PA, for the weekend, in northeast Philadelphia. We had boots on the ground for congressional candidate Melissa Brown, who is involved in one of the tighest House races in the country against Allyson Schwartz.
       We met up with three Loyola CRs and other volunteers for the Brown campaign (including a young lady from UC-Berkeley, of all places! Won't hold that against her.) at UMBC on Saturday morning. On our chartered bus on the way to Philly, we played a little cards and discussed Melissa's platform and her opponent. Basically, Melissa is an optometrist who is concerned about the high medical malpractice costs in her district, which encompasses Montgomery County, PA. Opponent Schwartz, or the darling Dem in the battle, ran into some problems in her earlier political career, staunchly supporting corrupt Philly Mayor John Street and refusing to pass along Megan's Law, a measure aimed at fighting child abuse.
       That afternoon, we broke up into small groups and walked door-to-door in precinct neighborhoods. We ran into Eagles fans upset that we had interrupted their game, a guy who would have been buck naked if not for boxers and a graveyard with a vicious dog that wanted to nip us in the rear. That night, we crashed in a Holiday Inn, where a wedding party was getting out of control. No flashing of body parts, but plenty of staggering drunkards, of which the bus driver was not immune. We were relatively cool, calm and collected.
       On Sunday, we took part in a street festival right outside of campaign headquarters. There were hippies, kids and dogs galore; we patrolled the block with literature for Melissa. We ended the day by swinging on swings in a playground. Never could say we are kids ourselves.