While Hillary Clinton has billed herself as THE experienced candidate on the Democratic side, I wonder if she would consider Laura Bush as having 8 years of relevant experience if she should file for political office based on her "years in the White House." She's certainly not very far ahead of Edwards and Obama in terms of resume, and she's quite behind Biden and Dood, and possibly Richardson. I've never understood her harping on herself as a found of experience.

Clinton also does have a sharp, nasty edge that lurks not very far below the surface. I don't think it would serve the country well in a president.

Her decision to be a war hawk to prove her masculinity has definitely not served the country well - why, oh why, don't we have an opposition leader running for president - or an opposition leader at all?

Although I would vote for Bill Clinton for president again if he could run, I don't think he could keep himself from upstaging his wife if she were in the White House. The resulting foreign and domestic kerfluffles and political cacophony would devolve into a Republican take-back of the Congress in 2010. Memories of the Bush years would be thrust into the distant past.

However, since it looks as though the NIE wasn't enough to detour Cheney and Bush from starting a conflict with Iran, here comes a manufactured incitement to bomb them and then it's going to be President McCain. More violence, more conflicts and the American public will not elect any of the Dems in the field. They couldn't even make something of 2006 elections in Congress. Cheney and Bush haven't been slowed a bit.

The only satisfaction of the whole thing is that Giuliani and the Puppy Killer will have to go chant "911" someplace out of sight.

How long does it take to become unjaded?

One of my criteria for a candidate is a person who will start to kick religion (and the ridiculous term "faith-based") out of our government.

I am an atheist and am beyond fatigued with the holier-fantasy-than-thou crowd pushing their agenda into our secular public life.

Based on what I'm seeing here, Obama will not get my vote. If Edwards can keep his religion in his back pocket, I'll write him in.

If a candidate panders and panders and panders we do not even know what the hell we're getting. I want a candidate who has integrity, takes solid stands, has real plans and programs, honestly tells what they are - and a public that demands real debates rather than the talk shows we're subjected to.

It's got to start somewhere!!!!

Is it possible that Edwards has suffered not only from the media tossing him out of the race months ago but also from people voting for Obama as a vote against Hillary or for Hillary as a vote against Obama?

I'm really wondering whether the negativity of the campaign is carrying over into voting against rather than for these two candidates.

Of course Hillary wants debates - this piece was posted right above one about her campaign staffers giving up their pay. Debates would be cheap nationwide publicity, with the added benefit of tying Barack Obama down in time and space.

She could at least have issued a call to debate specifics first, and then set a number.

Her campaign turns defensive and spiteful every time things aren't going her way - we don't need four more years of a petulant president, a president who is a controversy before she gets up in the morning.

I look forward to voting for a woman president someday, many of them - but women who aren't using their husbands' coattails to claim the seat as their inevitable right.

And speaking of coattails, I haven't seen any speculation out there about who would have longer coattails in November nationwide. After looking at the map of wins on Super Tuesday, it sure looks as though Obama could pull in a bunch of congressional seats in places that don't normally go Democratic. Especially if he's bringing in new voters to the party.

With that thought in mind, I'll send him another check.

Hillary's skin is not as thick as she's been claiming. She's been through it all with the Republicans for 16 years and Obama could never ever stick up to them the way she can - but now when she needs the free publicity she throws the victim card on the table. My distaste for her grows by the day.