"He had the experience of being right on Iraq"?????

THAT's the best you can come up with? And with whom was his fight about that? My gosh, was there a titanic struggle over Iraq in the Illinois legislature, and we just somehow missed it? Did ANYONE even bother to criticize him about his principled but unpopular stand, in 2002? Was Rush Limbaugh calling him a traitor, maybe, and I've just forgotten about it?

In the US Senate, on the other hand, there is a political cost to standing up against the will of the American people. And, pardon me, but here on Planet Earth in 2002, the media and the huge majority of citizens were all set to torch a US senator who stood up against the war. Plus, the Congressional Democratic leadership were applying plenty of pressure to vote for the war. Many Democrats voted against Gulf War I in 1990, and a price was paid for that.

Please spare me any more gusts of wind about Obama's great judgment. He may have it in aces and spades, but if so, we ain't seen it yet.

"But I don't find your argument compelling anyway. We don't elect representatives to blindly follow the will of popular opinion. We elect them to make sound judgments in spite of how the wind is blowing that month."

By the way - have you personally contacted your Congressional representatives about telecom amnesty, as I have been doing for months? You talk about the wind when it's blowing from behind the guy you're swooning over. Are you doing anything about the biggest political issue of our time, that no one seems to care anything about? We're talking about the destruction of the US Constitutuion, and the institution of a police state. The differences between Clinton and Obama are tiny in comparison. In point of fact, neither Clinton nor Obama are leading that fight. Dodd was, but it didn't exactly sell, did it?

So much for your guy's vision and judgment. He's a politician, just trying to get elected. And what about Harry and Louise, by the way? Don't try to tell me that didn't stink.

"But I don't find your argument compelling anyway. We don't elect representatives to blindly follow the will of popular opinion. We elect them to make sound judgments in spite of how the wind is blowing that month."

Anyway, my point was, the wind was blowing pretty darn hard through the halls of Congress in 2002; while Springfield IL was eternal sunshine, just like the entire rest of Obama's charmed life.

Whenever the impossible happens, like a parking space suddenly opening up in front of us, my wife yells, "That's just the sort of thing that would happen to Barack Obama!" Call me back when he's done something besides looking pretty.

"Gutter politics is what Hillary has chosen."

Tell me again, what was Harry and Louise? Obama is beneath the gutter with that one.

"Are you saying Obama's success is based on nothing but pure good luck?"

If you need to ask that question, you don't know anything about how Barack Obama got to the US Senate in the first place. The answer is: yes. His success is based entirely on luck. If we elect him President, we'll all be counting on his luck to hold. It's sort of like all of us going to Las Vegas and expecting to win big.

"...all I can say is, don't blame Obama just because Jeri Ryan is so sexy her husband wanted to have sex with her in public.... No legislative skill? No organizational skill? No leadership?..."

Right, and very little experience, including no crisis management whatsoever. He can run a campaign for the White House, therefore he ought to be President. Is that what you all are saying? Isn't that kind of circular?

It wasn't just Ryan, by the way. Carol Moseley Braun could have prevented him from running in the first place, but she decided to run for President instead. His Democratic primary opponent, who was way ahead, also imploded in divorce fireworks. And his speech at the 2004 convention only happened because the Dems wanted to give this young unknown a leg up, in hopes of retaking the seat, once Ryan bit the dust. The doors all opened and the dominoes fell in line. Pretty nice.

By the way, I have no idea what Gerri Ferraro was trying to say, but in fact the most persuasive pro-Obama argument I have heard so far is that he is of African descent. I think it may have been Richard Cohen in the Post, who thinks Obama will cure our racial dilemmas by setting a positive role model for the young brothers. Of course, he hasn't been involved in racial politics the way the Clintons have, but no matter. Skin color may work, so might as well give it a try.

Right, because I think we all agree he hasn't any.

Two words:

Harry, and

Louise.

Obama's grandma isn't a typical white person, to him. To Obama, typical white people are Harry and Louise.

I've decided you're right. Obama got 4,000 people to vote for him in Wyoming, which completely trumps the million or so that voted for Clinton in New Jersey. The superdelegates shouldn't take any of that into account. How dare Clinton continue to run for President, just because the race is tied? How dare she thwart the will of blondeone?

Note to blondeone: go look up "solipsism" in the dictionary.