@Andrew -That's my viewpoint in a nutshell

@Jared - It seems that way. I think there is a harmony that can be reached between themes and plugins but some themes appear to be moving in that opposite direction you mentioned.

@Brian - Well, you mentioned analytic integration and although that can be handled by a plugin, it certainly is nice to have that as part of the theme. I'd group that specific feature into theme functionality, not so much the plugin realm anymore. This is where things start to get subjective.

@Ken - I think that's how it should be in a perfect world but when is the last time you experienced what you just described?

@Michael Fields - That throws my mind for a loop. As I talked with Chris Jean, he mentioned Plugins can perform just about the same functionality as themes which turns this all into a mess for me. I thought there would be more of a distinction between the two but I guess not.

@Chris Jean - This makes it pretty confusing to me and this must be the core of why so many themes have plugin functionality built into them since the two are roughly the same. I like your attitude towards theme development and what you stated is what I tried to state as my interest in the poll/post.