I have not commented on the candidacy of Hilary Rodham-Clinton in this space. To do so I felt would overstate the obvious. But, taking the optimist's view as I typically do, I would say that a second President Clinton would be far better for the nation than the second President Bush has been. Having said that, a Joe Biden presidency would be far better for the nation than the current one. Almost anyone's would be. But comes now this man Barack Obama, who well could be elected based on his ability to inspire alone. I realize cynics left and right will scoff at that saying the 21st century equivalent of "Where's the beef?" Where's the policy? Where's the proposal for getting us out of Iraq, for the deficit, for a hundred other things that the current, INEXPERIENCED, INCOMPETENT, IGNORANT, and MORALLY BANKRUPT pretender to the Oval Office has screwed up. Too them I would suggest patience, and an urge to consider that this has been a nation without inspiration and imagination for 6 years. If this man were to be elected merely because he inspires us to be the America we can be, where's the harm? And if there's inspiration, imagination usually is not far behind. We could use a truckload of both right now. All this talk of "experience" is bloviated nonsense. I ask you people: we've had plenty of "experience" the last 6 years. Where's it gotten us?

Stuck in Iraq

Planet warming up

Half-trillion dollar deficits

Widening gap between the haves and have-nots

More people without health insurance

More CEOs getting rich for screwing up

Need I go on?

Some experience, huh? DO WE REALLY NEED MORE OF THIS KIND OF "EXPERIENCE"? It seems we have a rather interesting slate of candidates on the Democratic side. Let the campaign begin. May the best man or woman win.

Sadly, there may be a kind of life after Bush. Mr. Kamiya is correct. There will be a hell of a mess to clean up assuming a President Obama, or Biden or Edwards or Rodham-Clinton takes office. As they are doing now, the right wing hangers-on will still be taking their bitter defeat rather bitterly. It's kind of sad to know that people like O'Reilly and the other blowhards will still have jobs and outsized paychecks. But...there will be an end to this awful, awful period in American history if we face the fact that Bush and Co. represent the worst of the US character. He is one of us. He is our shadow. Hopefully having faced our shadow, we will learn and not repeat the same mistakes again. It will take a while to heal from this sham of a presidency, but heal we must, and there's no time like the present. Fortunately, with an approval rating stuck in the low to mid 30s, George W. Bush is largely irrelevant. We just have to prevent his ilk (Romney, McCain, Giuliani, etc) from seizing power again. Continuing the disastrous policies of these self-important, accountable-to-no-one, Armani suit wearing, amoral pigs would be an atrocity this nation, which has suffered too many already, could possibly not recover from.

Before I add my own comment, I will simply repeat what he said.

And my apologies, sir if I get a word or two wrong.

By the simple rules of morality we were raised with as children, what we're doing in Iraq is wrong.

I never imagined that the day would come that we here on the "anti-war left" would be advocating for a clear, unambiguous statement from our elected leaders that this war is wrong and has been. That, rather than arguing for what conservatives call "moral relativism" (which is a loaded phrase), we are fact asking, demanding, that they do what is right, what is just, what is human. It's not even about "Give Peace a Chance". It's "Give common sense and people who are acting from a truly moral center a chance." I've never in six years heard George Bush once talking about the right thing to do. This war is a lie that continues to claim lives by the dozens, by the hundreds, every day. Our part in this was to kick the tinderbox that exploded into this massacre. Bush wants to continue it into the entire Middle East. Everyone knows this. Everyone knows it's wrong. Everyone wants it to end. All we're asking is that on this unambiguous point, our leaders do the right thing. END THIS WAR. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME. STOP THIS MADNESS. NOW.

"Dr." Condoleeza Rice has been spotted lately making a few comments about people like Barack Obama. She says things like it's a sign of progress in this country when we can actually see a black person in the White House. She says he's an extraordinary person, etc, etc. All well and fine. She's right of course. About that one thing. About everything else, she is the administration's opportunistic Aunt Tom and she needs to SHUT HER GODDAMN PIE HOLE!!