We are about to be in for the fight of our lives.

[Bjorn Against]

The Democrats were supposed to have this election in the bag. For the past couple years it has appeared that the Republican Party had sunk itself, their approval ratings were in the toilet, many of their leaders were being investigated or indicted, and the entire nation was pissed off.

Early in the primary season the only Republican candidate who appeared to have the ability to win enough votes from independents and conservative Democrats to take the election had no money and no support. It looked like John McCain's presidential ambitions were about to come to an end, but then when just about everyone had written him off he made a major comeback, and he started winning key primaries.

John McCain may try to make himself appear as a maverick but make no mistake, he represents the same failed ideology that Bush has given us over the last eight years. Sure he may have acted as if he opposed torture, but his principled stand only lasted until he was asked to vote on the issue. And what did he do? He voted for the Military Commissions Act which sanctioned torture and took away Habeas Corpus. Not only did he vote for torture but he condemned everyone who did not vote for torture.

McCain is the most dangerous type of politician. He is a man who has a remarkable ability to make himself appear to be a reasonable person while he pushes forth a dangerous and destructive ideology. He is the type of person who has the ability to make people feel as if they are fighting the system by embracing an agenda that keeps the powers that be firmly in command.

Four years ago it was rumored that John Kerry was going to choose McCain as his running mate. Of course this never happened and it remains unclear exactly how the rumors got started, but the fact is there were many Democrats who thought it would be a good idea. A man who was already embraced by some Democrats as a Vice Presidential candidate is likely to get a good deal of support as a Presidential candidate from people who would generally not vote Republican. And that is not all, throughout much of his career McCain has built strong relationships with many prominent Democrats and has thus earned their praise. This gives McCain a powerful weapon to use in his campaign. He has no shortage of video of him being praised by prominent Democrats, and believe me he is itching to use this material in the general election. He will portray himself as a uniter and he will be very effective at it, even if it is all a complete lie.

McCain is a serious threat to our nation, he will pretend to be fighting against corporate interests while giving corporations even more influence. He will pretend to be working for a more sane foreign policy that respects international law while then turning around and embracing everything that Bush has done. He will do everything he can to deceive us, and his deception will work on a large number of Americans.

Make no mistake about it McCain is a very dangerous and very formidable opponent. If he gets the Republican nomination as it appears he very well may we will be in for the fight of our lives, as he will be very tough to beat in November.

We need to stop with the overconfidence and realize that no matter how bad things look for the Republicans they still hold a great deal of power. They have built a political machine that has been extremely effective in brainwashing people and getting them to vote against their best interests. And of course, they have Diebold on their side. Do not think for a minute that a Democratic President is a sure thing in 2008, we are going to have a battle in 2008 and if we are too overconfident now then we are likely going to lose that battle.

McCain can be beat do not get me wrong, this post is not about doom and gloom. If we are going to beat McCain though then we need to fight McCain, and we need to fight him with every ounce of our strength. This is a man that has gotten a free ride from many on our side for far too long, he was the maverick that many Democrats and Independents respected greatly. But the fact is they did not respect the man as he really was, they respected the myth of John McCain the maverick. John McCain never was a true maverick though, he was always a man who tried to appear as if he were an independent thinker while in the end consistently standing with the corporate and neo-con ideologies.

If we want to beat McCain we have to expose McCain for what he really is. I urge everyone hear to just step away from your own primaries for just a minute and speak your mind about John McCain. I look at the posts around here and virtually all of them are about the Democratic primary, and there are very few attacks being made against the Republican candidates. Most people here know that all the Republican candidates are horrible so few people actually talk about them because posts attacking Republicans get so little debate that they tend to sink. We must remember however that there are many people who lurk here to find ammo to use against the Republicans, and we need to provide them with that ammo. So please, you can keep posting about the Democratic primaries but please don't forget about the Republican one and try to make a conscious effort to post a thread here and there to challenge the Republicans. We can not win if we do not fight, and we are not in the comfortable position many would like to believe we are.

We have a battle on our hands and it is time to fight that battle.