It was not well-intentioned pragmatism that killed Casey Sheehan, it was greed and lust for political power, absent any real regard for human life.

Obama may be following Dubya's precent in way too many ways -- and I think he is, so far -- but he is not doing that in all regards and it's both unfair and, I think, unwise to say that there is no difference. The Bush administration instituted many policies that not even the middle-of-the-road, triangulating, soft-on-international corporations Clinton administration would have approved of.

Bush may have been consistent too, but IMO he was consistently on the wrong side of the issues. Cindy and Dennis and Ralph may be consistent but neither will ever be President, and I doubt that Dennis could ever even be elected to the Senate as long as our "mainstream media" are so dominated by big money.

Cindy Sheehan might well have been elected to Congress had she run against a weaker incumbent, preferably a Republican or a "blue dog Democrat," or for an open seat. But when she ran against Pelosi, it was an exercise in futility and IMO a waste of the money and time of her supporters.   And trying to get Obama defeated in 2012 or the Congress taken over again by the Republicans in 2010 just because you're disappointed in Obama and the Democratic-dominated Congress is likely to result in another 8 years or more like the Bush-Cheney years.