A response and a hat tip to VodkaPundit

First off, go read Charles Krauthammer's utter evisceration of John Kerry and John Edwards's political posturing regarding stem cell research. He reserves particular contempt for John Edwards's recent statement that:

If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again.

Krauthammer himself is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, a fact about him I did not know and never would have guessed. He leads a good life as a disabled person, and in the capacity of a counselor has helped other disabled people lead good lives as well. For John Edwards to imply that getting out of your wheelchair and walking is a consequence of electing the right politicians is beyond despicable.

How many gaffes will this campaign be allowed? If Kerry and Edwards were Republicans, the media would give them the full Dan Quayle.

Big tip of the hat to VodkaPundit for this.

But what I really wanted to respond to was his post "How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People", on his take on partisanship. I agree with you, Steve. I'm a libertarian as well and I could certainly vote for a Democrat... if I didn't believe that he would screw up the war, dramatically increase the size of government, engineer a government takeover of the health care system, and impose gun control.

This blog has been unabashedly pro-Bush, and you might consider it overly partisan. But if I'm partisan, at least I'm not blindly partisan. As a libertarian, I'd rather see Bush in the White House than Kerry. I'd rather see Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist calling the shots than Nancy Pelosi and Tom Daschle. For that reason, I'll be voting straight R this time around.

I've taken some cheap shots at Kerry, but there's a good reason, and it's not because of blind partisanship. My last post was about sports fans, and I too am a sports fan. Not baseball. I grew up with the Detroit Tigers, and couldn't name a single current player. Not hockey, except during the playoffs. Definitely not basketball, about which I couldn't care less. And I do follow my Michigan Wolverines, but that's about it.

No, my sport is politics. I have no idea who leads the league in RBIs this year, but I could probably rattle off all 100 Senators without much trouble. I follow the news, I follow the campaigns, I am a fan in the true sense of the word. And fandom is always more fun when you have a team to root for.

Fortunately for me, since I have such a strong preference in this election it's easy for me to pick which side I'm on. So I root for the Republicans, I cheer their political successes, I mourn their political defeats. I cheerlead. Part of being a fan is razzing the opponent.

I say this because when you mentioned Blogs for Bush and dailyKos (one of which I read religiously, the other of which I occasionally visit for laughs), there was a subtext of contempt. Maybe it wasn't deliberate. But I just wanted to stress the point that "partisan" doesn't necessarily mean "inferior." And I think it does a disservice to many partisan blogs, some of which have done outstanding original research this election cycle, to distill their viewpoint to "All [Republicans][Democrats] are evil."