It seems that Asher is a step behind. Rudy's imminent demise may soon be matched by Hillary's thus when Asher hypothesized that Rudy was the only GOPer who could beat Hillary, he missed the target a little. Who's going to beat Obama? Hopefully no one although I still, in a corner of my heart, wish it would be Edwards.

Today Ted Kennedy will endorse Obama. Yesterday, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg did. Those endorsements from two Kennedy icons may seal the deal for Obama because they will cover his weakest spots.

I share a Catholic heritage with Rudy and although my Catholicism may not quite be what the Vatican thinks of as Catholicism, my attitudes towards politics are formed by the Gospel of St. Matthew and the over-riding, over-arching obligation to love. To paraphrase Vince Lonmbardi's comment on winning: Love isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing.

Another hang-over from my Catholicism is a distinct aversion to apostates who abandon their faith for reasons having nothing to do with faith. The example which upset the religious who taught me in grammar school and high school was the Catholic who became a Mason in order to get ahead in business. (That's a little ancharistic today, but a few decades ago it was prme time concern for nuns.)

In 1972, Rudy was a Democrat who supported George McGovern. However, to get ahead, he became a Republican and now burns incense to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Ironically, Hillary went the other way, from Goldwater girl to Arkansas Democrat.

What they share in common, or at least what they project in common, is the "It's all about me" attitude.

You simply don't get that from Edwards or Obama. Obama, has the drop on Edwards because he has found away to articulate it better and excite a new generation of voters and like Hillary, we are infatuated with the historical aspects of his candidacy. Both Edwards and Obama do share one thing in common that Rudy lacks: they have authentic spouses. Both Michelle and Obama and Elizabeth Edwards are real persons in their own right. Judy Giuliani's first job involved killing dogs as a part of a SALES (!!!) demonstration and seems to be as involved with herself as Rudy is with himself.

Rudy the apostate is getting what he deserves. All politicians have to have strong egos but the best ones sincerely empathize. His personal life. as well as his political life, demonstrators a total lack of sincere empathy. It may be a day premature, but he's toast.

Rudy is not a tragedy. Hillary may be. But she made a devil’s bargain with Bill Clinton and one suspects that what kept her in her marriage is more ambition than anything else. She cries. Did she cry because of thwarted ambition or for the poor and literally dispossed. “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

So my point to Asher is simply upgrade your computer. The struggle will be between Obama and McCain or Romney.

Here’s hoping that Romney’s millions buy him the Republican nomination. His empathy is on a par with Rudy’s. McCain is the real problem for Democrats. Don’t tell anyone I said that. Let’s keep it a secret.

And don't forget Sister Souljah (sp. When Bill Clinton wanted to prove a point in the 1992 election, the first person he threw overboard was a female back rapper in a "in you face" presentation."

I don't mean to defend offensive Rap lyrics. I think Rap has become a new link in the chain of African-Americans, an escape from the reality of what it takes to succeed. I happen to live in an NYC Coop that has among his cooperators, two former black college Presidents one of whom was a Tuskegee airman who arguably was the first pilot to shoot down a jet fighter in air to air combat. ("There were other guys who shot down jets while they were taking-off, but this was air to air combat" R. Brown. Black or white, pilots are pilots.)

There was a point to be made but B. Clinton chose to make it in an in your face moment to a Black audience. It was a shrewd, but totally cynical ploy. I was shocked, but not so much by the gist of what he was saying, but by the cynical use of the Blacks to make his racial bones.

In 1968, Normal Mailer caused a firestorm when in an piece on the Republican convention, he made the comment, that listening there, absorbing the GOP mood, he was suddenly "tired" of the Negro. I think my problem is analogous. I am tired of the Clintons. The biggest problem for the Democrats if Hillary is nominated, is that a majority of Americans may be tired too, although unlike them, I will vote for Hillary - if it comes to that.

I don't mean to clog the comments list, but after posting my last comment, I read the issue on whether Obama was black. I hope we can all yearn for the day when that question will be as relevant as whether John Kerry was Irish (He wasn't. But the same question has been asked of Tiger Woods whose mother was Asian and whose father, like most Blacks, had more than an trace of white blood.

Tiger and Barack are of one piece. Like Jackie Robinson's promotion to the Dodgers presaged the Civil Rights movement, Tigers dominance of professional golf may well have prepared us for our first Black President. Golf, like Presidential politics, is no longer a White man's game.