Finally someone who has reached the same conclusions I have. Wedge-issues are the main problem with our government. If a candidate is republican but he is pro choice he will never be elected. The fanatics of each party are in control and each time a candidate has views that do not meet their parties exact specifications they are destined to lose. Most people argue that Gore lost to Bush because of the Green Party. The real reason he lost is he got almost no republican votes because of his positions on wedge-issues. He could have won handily if he had been willing to compromise his values. However he wasn't and George W Bush was our president for the last eight years because of it.