Next Tuesday, 4 March 2008, voters in Texas and Ohio will go to the polls, perhaps to decide the Democratic POTUS nominee for 2008. The same day will mark exactly 8 months before the general election.
And how long is 8 months?
Well, 8 months before March 4th was July 4th, 2007.
Irving "Scooter" Libby had just been pardoned... oops pardon me, "commuted".
England's new Prime Minister (Gordon Brown) had been on the job for two weeks.
France's new President (Nicolas Sarkozy) for six weeks.
Pundits wondered if Fred Thompson was really going to run. Polls showed him behind Rudy Giuliani but ahead of the moribund John McCain (RG 33, FT 21, JM 16) while on the DEM side Hillary Clinton polled almost as much as Barack Obama and John Edwards combined (HC 40, BO 28, JE 13)
The DOW was pushing to clear 14,000 for the first time (up 29% from 10,800 in a year) and the FED reassured everyone that the difficulties within the "subprime" market had been "contained" and the "slump" in housing sales had "bottomed" already.
The "Surge" had not yet been fully implemented, but American KIA's in Iraq came down from over 100 per month to less than 80.
And despite calls from within his own party, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not resign for another 10 weeks.
... and that was just 8 months ago. a long time ain't it ?
