I want to be excited about Obama ... but can't. He's rushing it, already being way too cautious with his statements, and surfing a wave that might not even exist. He runs and loses the nomination or the election and he's just another pol, a scant four years after reaching the Senate. That would be a shame. God forbid that doddering phony McCain wins the GOP nod (followed by you and the rest of the press kissing his "centrist" ass on a daily basis, ignoring his statements, record, flip-flops and pandering) and then the election, Obama could rid of the certain disaster in 2012. Right now, anyone but Hillary can beat anyone the GOP coughs up with the exception of the Maverick Saint. Romney? Please. John Edwards all the way, or Wesley Clark. Or Edwards-Clark.

Know why you are wrong? Check the "letter" from the gentleman (woman?) who calls him or herself "Dems Are Dung" (so clever). Then multiply it times 25 million voters or so. I say bring back Barry Goldwater's saw and let Schaller have the first crack at letting Dixie float off. We should have let them secede ... our country would be so much better off today.

Rudy led people away from collapsing buildings. The man is not only a hero, but a genius! Luckily for the casualty count, no one came between him and any TV cameras. For God's sake -- can we someday end the nonsense about this jackass? In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man, etc., etc. Yeah, Bush on 9-11. And Cheney. And so Rudy -- the mayor, where else was he gonna be? -- was left to be a warm body. B.F.D. Let's remember who put the city's emergency response center in the Twin Towers. And who stood by in the days after when Christy "Political Whore" Whitman and the Bushites told everyone the air was safe. Thankfully the rubes, bigots and crackers that populate the GOP will end the madness in the primaries. Of course, we could be left with Maverick Saint Phony McCain. Rat poison, citizens? Or would your prefer battery acid?

Damn them all. They're liable to spoil the fun of all the experts at Time and Newsweek ... you know, the ones like Howard Fineman, who once called Bush "Our Boyish Knight With His Helmet of Graying Hair" and Joe Klein (examples of his arrant nonsense too numerous to mention). Democratic primary voters know Hillary Clinton has the same chance of winning a general election as Beelzebub. The press's worship of "big names" and story lines makes them all look like Dick "Hillary v. Condi" Morris. We can only hope actual voters can counter your completely predictable next-two-years ass kissing of Saint John McCain of the Imagined Center, even in the face of his genius, popular position to send MORE troops into the Iraq meat-grinder.

Mr. Shapiro, you keep this up, you'll be drummed out of the Beltway Broder Club! Didn't you mean to write about how the Democrats are dead in the South and will never ever win another election? Wow -- the GOP dead in the Northeast. It's only taken -- how many years? -- for someone to notice.

Anyone calling himself "McG" ... and having the media accept it and do the same ... just can't be taken seriously.

Someone with this mental acuity belongs in the Bush Administration. Hey Salon -- I used to love my cats, then I decided I hated them and killed them! I might eat them for Christmas! Will you interview me?

Reason enough to dislike him. In 2004, there was an exchange of fumbles during a Patriots game in October ... Madden says "What a flip-flop." Michaels says "Well, wer'e in the right state for it." Har, har. A Kerry flip-flop slam. You're a real wit, Al ... half, dim and nit. Nice President you got there.

The demonstrations you favor would be "covered" by the press ... as they have always been ... as a fringe event evcen if they were populated by 100,000 grandmothers from Nebraska. The strength of the antiwar movement today is that it ISN'T Vietnam-era, when Nixon could claim the "silent majority," and basically be correct. Check the election results, Gary ... and don't tell us they are meaningless in results (just two weeks after the changeover) or in any other way. 75 percent of the country wants out ... and quite frankly it doesn't matter what the Democrats do, because the delusional sociopath is still in the big chair. If this country elects McCain in 2008 (the media will do all they can to make it so), then all bets are off.

Geezus ... if there was any justice, this whiny liar would be a comeuppance somewhere, somehow, and soon. Nice job, you 35 percent of Connecticut Democrats who got suckered in by this knob. I could understand GOP dead-enders voting for him, since he's one of them, but the rest of you might have been a little more awake.

GET a comeuppance ...

"Finally realizing that my nomination and subsequent 65-35 loss would destroy the Democratic Party from the Presidential ballot down to dog catcher in Loup County, Nebraska, I have decided to drop out of the race."

I mean, Matt. These people you accept awards from think you are perverted scum, and as soon as you wear out your usefulness to them, they'll drop you like a used rubber. For God's sake, man ... wake the hell up.

You know this blowhard will soon launch some GOP political bullshit ... the viewpoint from some war lover making about $300,000 PER WEEK is always pretty valuable and insightful.

I'd love to share your confidence, Gary, but I too remember 2000 and 2004 ... and see the specter of certain-loser Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. Really, unless she is stopped, all will come to shit in 2008, and we can say hello to Rudy or St. McCain or Newt or whatever wretched clown the GOP coughs up.