I haven't seen the Newsweek article, but if the gist is, as it seems to be, that there has been some sort of radical change in the way whites in the South vote, there are going to be a whole lot of disappointed people come November. The white vote in the South, remains the same racist, monolithic block it's been since the time of FDR. I know. I live in the South.

If Obama needs a Southern state to win, he's going to lose. Simply by running, he's insured increased voter turnout in the Deep South by poor whites and religious conservatives, and that will more than overcome any amount of organizing on the part of Democrats. A possible exception is in Georgia, where a Southern native son named Bob Barr, a deeply conservative almost fascist politician who lost a hard fought battle for a congressional seat in the northern suburbs of Atlanta to another Republican, and who is running as the Libertarian candidate. Georgia has never been big on third party candidates, but Barr may take enough votes away from McCain to allow a narrow Obama victory. I don't really anticipate that he will, but it's possible.

Reasons for the hardcore conservative outlook in the South are hard to pin down. Partly it's an educational system that lags 20 years behind anywhere else in the country. Partly it's the power of the Southern Baptist Association, the most fundamentalist of Christian groups. Partly it's because of the South's attitude towards organized state supported theft that is American Big Business (look at the Governor of Georgia, a real estate magnate whose first act in office was to force through a measure exempting himself, and only himself, from huge taxes on a deal he had just completed), and the corresponding immigration of all those predatory capitalists from other parts of the country with more humane laws governing business behavior. Partly, God help us all, it's Nashville, and growing up on a steady diet of military propaganda disguised as pop records and "old timey religion". And partly, at least as far as I can see, it's resentment of Northern attitudes towards the South, and the corresponding eagerness to impose upon the rest of the world the value system Southerners think so much of. The South was settled by a mostly Scots and Scots-Irish population drenched in the Presbyterian thought of John Knox and his followers, and most of them still follow the same belief system that burned at the stake those not willing or able to conform to the Creed.

So, take it from someone on the front lines of the political system in the South, don't look for a resurgence of the Democratic Party down here anytime soon, or you're just going to get to be cynical and burned out before your time.

Sort of brings up an important point for Americans, namely what to do with ex-presidents of the Democratic persuasion. Being rather simple creatures at heart, the Republican exes are content to retire into the business community and continue their long standing interest in personal wealth acquisition and taking care of those who took care of them through lobbying. Democrats are different, mostly because they tend to have a worrisome thing called a sense of responsibility, and it doesn't go away. Jimmy Carter, God bless him, is still traveling around the world causing trouble after all these years.

Clinton will undoubtedly be with us for another 20 years, and it's increasingly clear that something needs to be done to keep this man from destroying everything we believe in by continuing to insist on his own inclusion and importance in the political process. Short of brothel inspector it's hard to imagine a position that would satisfy and occupy this bitter self-righteous and self-indulgent man enough to keep him out of the public eye.

Do any of you have any influence with the Governor of Nevada?

Everybody loves Julia! The news about her CIA role has been out there for years. I've even heard Sara Moulton talk about it. So, this is nothing new.

Julia was just plain cool anyway you look at it. Even the famous Ackyroyd (sp) parody on the funny years of SNL was more a loving tribute than a cruel mocking. Julia gave us back fresh ingredients, taught us to love complex cuisine, and made it okay to have a glass of wine every now and then. Even in her later years, when she mostly stood there and observed while other cooks did the work, she always taught us something. She was just the Grand Old Lady of American food.

Her work for the OSS came at a time of high anxiety, while the West struggled with defining it's relationship to the Soviet Union and fought a surrogate war with both the USSR and the Chinese under Mao in Korea. Patriotism isn't bad by itself, blind patriotism is the problem. I doubt that Julia was ever blind about anything.

For myself, I miss her terribly, and I'm about as far from a girl as a human can get.