Email From the Heartland

A reader writes:

I just wanted to relate something that happened to me the other day and made quite an impact. I live in Jacksonville, Florida, an area that is both heavily Republican, and predominantly Christianist. Northeastern Florida,  a particularly red corner of an overall red state, and a military town to boot, literally represents Bush's core base. Anyway, this past weekend I pulled something in my shoulder, so Monday afternoon was spent in my acupuncturist's office. I walked into the waiting room and found four elderly gentlemen discussing the events of the day. As  I sat reading, I listened as these four men, veterans all of them, discussing their dissatisfaction of the competence of this administration in prosecuting the war, and with the reliance on torture in particular. The money quote, so to speak, was:

"We're supposed to be better than them".

What struck me so strongly that afternoon was that if Bush has lost this crowd, then it truly is over for them.

We can hope.