If Koizumi doesn't kill the old LDP, the Democrats will. The old LDP system no longer works.

What's key is how profoundly he's disliked by Democrats, ... The Bush endorsement would be like being in Crawford, Texas, and endorsing John Kerry.

Just on grounds of being evasive, he will probably get a core of Democrats who will vote against him. But his nomination is not imperiled by any means.

The Democrats have every incentive, knowing there will be rolling blackouts in California this summer, to try to get a bill to put price caps on utilities. It's good politics to blame the energy companies for high prices.

And all this public assistance that will be streaming in is going to benefit the Democrats, and I resent it as a Republican,

They think it will reduce the number of Democrats who'll vote,