you truly don't understand how the world works, and our place in it. As much as you might wish to the contrary, we depend on the rest of the world. Why? Because we don't have the raw materials and natural resources within our own borders to be completely independent of the rest of this planet. Therefore, we, like almost every other nation, must make deals and alliances with others to get the things we need to survive and prosper. Every nation on earth is out for themselves, America included.

You want to be number one militarily, economically, educationally, with respect to personal freedoms, personal property, and individual independence. Here's a news flash for you: we haven't been number one in most of those areas for years, and repubs have made sure to lower our rankings in them. We still have the biggest military, but so much of it is bogged down in Iraq that we can't respond to actual crises, such as we saw in Georgia recently. In terms of the economy, we are the biggest debtor nation in the world, owing over a trillion dollars to China alone, and with most of our manufacturing outsourced by the very corporations you say we should prop up. Educationally, we are far down on the list, not because of dems, but because Americans as a whole have become so lazy, arrogant and greedy that they can't be bothered to do much more than graduate high school these days. Your personal freedoms disappeared with the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA bill, all at the behest of a repub administration. Protection of personal property was squashed when a conservative Supreme Court supported Eminent Domain laws that allow corporations to take your property against your will if they can assert that they can make more money from your property than you can.

Wealth distribution is something you should be very concerned about. Historically, when gaps in wealth between the highest and lowest become large, revolutions occur. The US is moving into that area now, with the average worker not seeing any increase in their inflation-adjusted income in 30 years, while the ultrarich have benefitted to a disproportionate expense.

No one is stopping you from investing your own money in stocks or whatever you want. You willfully forget the fact that Social Security was never meant to take the place of a pension, savings, or investments. It is a supplement, and it also serves to help those who are disabled and can't work. Privatizing helps only the rich brokers on Wall Street, who will charge you big fees to manage your money, often badly, while the government manages it without fees. Like it or not, social security is a highly successful and efficient program. Only privatization could screw it up. Just ask other nations that have tried it, like the UK and Germany. The poverty rate among the elderly is absolutely staggering.

I won't even go into the dishonestly-named "fair tax". It is an unfair, regressive tax that steals from the lower and middle classes to give to the rich. At this point, the rich pigs have gotten fat enough. Time to have some of that bacon for ourselves.

Just provide the last breakout numbers you provided about Obama's delegate count
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The last delegate numbers I provided about Obama's delegate count were:

2008 Democratic Delegates

2,118 needed to win

Obama: 2,229

(note that 2,229 is more than 2,118)

--By SJerseyIndyAugust 20, 2008 - 3:05pm

I'm glad I could be of help providing you with the only delegate total that matters... again.
____________________
"We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace."
"Power to the peaceful..." --Franti