I'm not sure that the numbers are down everywhere, Chris. Some new places, like Fayetteville, NC, with regional help, had their largest yet. And I agree it wasn't a 'bad day' for us; it had its strong points and weak points. My point is we need to do much better, that we're disproportionately lower than some other big towns, and we have to figure out why. We can't just repeating our previous ways, while blaming supposedly anti-Palestinian liberals, disgusted and bored anarchists, or people who think elections are important.

I agree it's politics, in at least two ways: first, Bush won his election, giving him some energy; second Bush held his election in Iraq with all the carnage surrounding it, sowing confusion in the short run.

These events have created both a more militant pro-Bush minority alongside a mass majority sentiment in the country that's fed up with the war and think it was a mistake, but a good number of them think that the US can't just get out, but somehow has to clean up the mess its made and thus are reluctant to join the ranks of active opposition.

We know this is a delusion, that the US occupation is the cause of the problem, not part of the solution. But we still find it echoed, even in the debates on CAWI's own e-groups, in the debates in the more moderate and mainstream churches and in the families with members deployed to Iraq, and certainly in the ranks of the GIs themselves.

To me, and most of us, I hope, finding the path to dispelling those delusions is the critical task in front of us that we need to think more creatively about. Mike McConnell and the AFSC's 'Eyes Wide open' boots project is part of the answer, Lilah Lipscomb's Gold Star Mothers vs War is part of the answer, Code Pink's spotlighting the costs of war and Tom Hayden's spotlighting the evil of torture are too. Certainly building Iraq Vets Vs the War.

We have to find some ways to breach the walls between those passively disgusted with the war but who still see themselves as patriotic, and those actively engaged in opposition to the war. I don't think we unleash the energy of those who have yet to become active by sniping at elected officials who have come out against the war, especially when those officials are held in high regard by them, even if those same officials don't follow our lead on every point.