What's your favorite color.

What about, the “Axis of Allies”?

It is pretty big. I really don’t think I need the whole TB but it was on sale and I had $25 bucks in rewards certs from Best Buy so it was pretty cheap compared to even the other 1TB drives and per gig cheaper than the 500GB drives.

I’m still kind of having trouble wrapping my head around it really. I remember my Dad bringing home those giant serving platter sized ‘floppies’ that were something like 16KB.

I’m still a little freaked by my 30GB iPod with video.

Wrath of Khan is not bad, but i prefer First Contact.The borg are scary and Borg Queen is the ultimate enemy!

LOL… I"m listening to Hellbilly Deluxe right now  :evil:

Gas is stilll cheap. it is 2.30 where I live and my driving habits are yet to change. At least suv sales are down 20%.

@TG:

Most likely. Though my money is on the West (Midwest). That’s where all the nukes are…

I knew there was some reason I put up with these HUMID summers. Now I remember why! :D

Jeepers :) I think we can all agree that “ctm” is right. Let’s leave it at that

I think most of the backing came due to two facts:
(1) the USSR needed reforms, that was obvious.
Still, they probably wanted a long term leader that could be influenced => a younger one, after the two short reigns of Andropov and what-was-his-name… Probably, the influentials wanted some change, but surely not that much that it would threaten their power-base, one of the reasons for the coup that failed due to Jelzins help for Gorbachev.
(2) The general secretary and all the other positions he fills made him the most powerful man in the USSR. Probably, whoever put Gorbachev into place, underestimated him. Pretty much the same underestimation that Hitler faced when he was appointed Chancellor, but luckily Gorbachev used that to reform positively, and i consider the new freedom of information, the right to ask wether the party is right and that the crucial reform.

So, I don’t think that there was “real” backing, i believe Gorbachev was kind of a compromise candidate, kind of a makeshift. Of course, once he was into power, you ccouldn’t remove instantly, that would have meant that the party made a mistake (which was not “allowed” before Gorbachev). And he was clever enough to stay into power, and use his popularity at the beginning (which soon, after the economy started to collapse openly, was reduced to more or less nothing) to enforece the reforms.