"His warnings about the dangers of militarization and the need for international cooperation were prescient and he would have made a much better president then Truman."

My mother would agree with you completely mulligas. She hates Truman. I had to sneak David McCullough's biography into the house when I was a senior in high school. Whenever she saw it she conventiently moved it to the oddest places, like in the cabinets under the kitchen counter.

Her parents grew up in Missouri in Jackson County when Truman was the country court judge, which was essentially the town surveyor at the time and later when he was Senator. They said he was atrocious, foul, took odd measurements when it came time to survey the land and was a complete political lackey.

They hated him until their dying day, maintained there was a good reason he left office with such low approval ratings and my mom apparently inherited that hatred.

Nothing I've told her since has even made a dint in changing her mind. Also, interestingly, although Truman is popular with the majority of historians a few (like Geoffrey Perret) charge him with creating the executive presidency.

To me he's a hero: helped win WWII in Japan, desegregated the Armed Forces, the Berlin Airlift, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine. But it is interesting how, even in death and mass veneration, he never managed to gain much traction with progressives. Oh well, just one of those things I guess.

1.) Pay equity would be a big one, to me the most glaringly obvious unfair disadvantage women face. All candidates should be pushing for it and it should be a no brainer. Ditto full enforcement of the Equal Rights Amendment, college tuiton for welfare mothers, and real sex education.

2.) Obama will have to do precisely what you propose on the promised appointment of a certain number of women to judicial and cabinet positions. Am one of those who believes he should lay out his potential cabinet before he runs. And if the next appointment to the Supreme Court is anything other than a qualified Latino woman (both in terms of demographics and the emerging set of issues that is going to need to be dealt with in this country) I think the next president would have a lot of explaining to do.

3.) With regard to child sexual abuse especially with an emphasis on incest wondering if you've seen this:

"At the Johnson County Courthouse, Governor Sebelius signed Jessica's Law, which is aimed at sex offenders who prey on children."

Not going to bore you with details again but suffice it to say Kathleen Sebelius has a proven track record on this. This was followed by her campaign to protect children from online sex predators. She also has a strong record on supporting and growing the Kansas State Nurses Association. She has sponsored two major iniatives that helped Kansans save money on any medication they might need to buy.

And Sebelius made her name as the state's insurance commissioner where she brought the governmental agency away from under the umbrella of industry interests and fought extremely hard for children's healthcare. She is still considered probably the strongest advocate of this in the nation. Sebelius has also drastically increased Early Childhood Education state funds (despite Republican protests) and has increased education funds at all levels. She's also proposed some of the secondary education funding you support.

The only recent knock on her was in a Washington Post article where conservative columnist Bob Novak took her on for being TOO pro-choice. The Catholic Archbishop of Kansas has since

asked her to stop taking communion. Which she's wisely ignored.

Point is Sebelius is excellent on the issues you outlined. Not saying anything more than that.

It's all on her website: http://www.governor.ks.gov/

Understand this is viewed as a canard by many to simply replace Hillary on the ticket (which is why Sebelius probably won't get it.) It's not. The fact remains she's excellent on these issues as well as some more forward-looking, futuristic ones I care about (specifically alternative energy which is going to be the major problem of the 21st century. She just finished giving the keynote address at the American Wind Energy Association’s Wind Power 2008 Conference and Kansas has long been a leader in alternative energy under the governor.

You, yourself, admitted in your post jeb that Obama needs to be tough like McCain.

Well after people have tried to force Obama to put Clinton on his ticket he may have to do exactly the opposite. He may have to say no. Even Ed Rendell, who is a huge Hillary supporter, admitted this was a big mistake.

My guess is that Obama still does it. Just barely. And Caroline Kennedy pushes it.

But Clinton's chance to be on the ticket was hurt by her public surrogates standing up and demanding it of Obama. Telling him he had no choice but to do it. They would have been better served to exert pressure behind the scenes. As it is they've backed Obama into a corner. And he might have to push back.

They should have looked to LBJ who forced his way onto the ticket, but whose surrogates were smart enough not to get on national t.v. and demand it.

Anyway who knows. Hillary's speech today was excellent and went a long way towards bridging the gap. She, herself, has done everything she can. God preserve her from her friends though.