...represent the people of Illinois.

Imagine how a downstate nonprofit group would benefit from selling $25 tickets to a crowd of 1,500 who want nothing more than to listen to Barack Obama speak! But, well....that isn't happening. Illinoisans from all parts of the state that elected him are now LAST in his line up of speaking engagements as far as I can see. Sadly, this has been the situation since the beginning, as opposed to our senior Senator, Richard Durbin, who really believes in keeping in touch with his constituents. And always has! (As did Senator Paul Simon, who actually did make a bid for the presidency, but maintained his close ties to Illinois.)

So, this is what I predict will happen. If Barack Obama is elected president in 2008, we should expect to see a lot less of him anywhere in this country. He'll be busy writing books, travelling and making speeches in the European Union, Central America, Canada, Africa, the former Soviet states, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia--anywhere else but here, in other words.

And if somehow, in the near future, we form a single world government, and he's elected to head that, he'll spend his time writing books, travelling and making speeches on the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter---in other words, anywhere else but here.

And for clarification purposes, I supported and voted for him, and am not a neocon Republican blasting a rising (risen, is probably a more apt word) Democrat star. I'm just a disappointed resident of Illinois who thought she was electing a senator to represent her and her fellow Illinoisans.

...and why do they think they should be president? In addition, how will we ever get to know them if they drop out too soon?

Frankly, I wish the primary season would be reduced appreciably, with penalties for noncompliance. If any candidate starts his/her campaign too early -- Hillary has been running forever! -- they're automatically dropped from ballots!! (Oh, and of course limits on campaign spending to even the playing field.)

Most important, I wish Barack Obama would finish up his book tour and get out of the way so we can have a look at serious candidates. He served his purpose in changing the rhetoric in the mid-term elections and helped elect Democrats (and his "mentor" Joe Lieberman!), but he's beginning to be an annoyance, making viable candidates disappear into the background and eventual oblivion. This is no game, after all. And antics (clearly dreamed up by his handlers) like his "announcement" during that Bears game aren't appreciated by many of us--in addition to being in poor taste.

Oh, and forget the Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket, folks. Remember, both are Illinoians--Hillary by birth and Barack by choice. Both are from blue states. Both are urbanites. There is no balance except for the gender/race thing.

Daddy Bush and his good pals need to take the kid to the woodshed and beat some sense into him. I don't mean metaphorically, either.

But, you say, we'll still have Dick? There's a simple answer to that, too. Just promise Lynne Cheney a big politial post that will bring her into the limelight and she'll do the job of dumping Dick all on her own--relegate him to the backstage role he played when she was a baton twirler all those years ago.

One writer says:

there was one study which showed that boys that are raised by lesbina parents

start to have sex later than other boys.

And that's a bad thing? Hmmm...

...you shouldn't indulge her. So please stop. She's a loser and not worth even thinking about let alone reading her nonsense.

I don't think you can blame Ford for what Rumsfeld and Cheney subsequently became, but in the ultimate contradiction, the moderate, congenial Ford may well become known as the president that foisted those two radicals upon the world, and changed the course of American history for the worse.

I'm not saying Gerald Ford was naive, but he, unfortunately, was far more trusting then he should have been. Moreover, he placed his trust in the wrong men---ones that would learn the ropes in his White House and on his campaign. Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein, co-authors of VICE, start out the second chapter with these words: "On September 29, 1974, thirty-three-year-old Dick Cheney...was personally presented to President Gerald Ford as his new deputy chief of staff. Cheney would later describe it as the day he and Donald Rumsfeld 'took over the White House.'" Later, Cheney would be appointed to run the Ford election campaign. Without the ability to buy the votes, manipulate the machines, or count on appointees to the Supreme Court, Cheney was in way over his head and the result was that Ford - a good man - lost to a man who would carry the neocon banner forward toward near destruction of the republic carefully constructed by our founders. And, of course, both Rumsfeld and Cheney found ever-increasing roles in subsequent administrations.

What's sad but too often true is that even good people make bad mistakes. And his mistakes helped put this country where we are today.