having read the books he read isn't an indication of good judgment nor is it an indication of good character (someone who says what they mean and means what they say, etc). America looks up to ivy league degrees and those who read a lot. I know this because i've gotten through life pretty easily so far riding on my test scores and reading comprehension, because people seem to respect those quite a bit. However, that in itself doesn't mean I have good judgment or character or am right for a position with important responsibilities. It just means I've studied and read a lot of books, some of which have informed my world view and some of which haven't, and due to my high test scores and grades I've gotten a lot of respect from institutions and scholarship money and admission into tough programs. Obama's the same, except since he went to an Ivy League and knows that people are looking for a smarter president to replace the dumb one we have now, he is milking the academic parts of his resume and reading interests as much as possible. I have had friends like that...friends who planned to go to Ivy League schools because they knew the "brand name" of the school would get them the best jobs and opportunities after graduation. People who make sure they have read any book the mention of which would make them sound smart, and instead of name-dropping, do some title-dropping during conversations with new people to signal just how intellectually well-formed they are (in addition to having graduated from an Ivy League school). I've seen Obama's ads on TV-- the "after graduating from harvard law, where he was president of the harvard law review, ...." etc. Obama knows how Americans look up to the ivy leagues and impressive-sounding titles (which aren't actually so impressive since these books he's read are mostly covered in bachelor's/undergraduate programs) and how fed up they are with Bush's illiteracy, and he is taking full advantage of that. Some people will be fooled by this of course; god knows I have oftentimes erroneously assumed that a highly intelligent guy must be a good guy just to find out later that the possession of intelligence or intellectual development is neither necessary nor sufficient for the possession of good moral character.

Yes, yes, but tell us when the Beast is due to arrive!

There is nothing in your list of works to indicate that Obama will be "likely to govern from the center." On the contrary, Obama is primarily a marxist opportunist, and like the radicals in the French Revolution he is likely to embrace his opponents and "make compromises" only on the way to guillotining the opposition once he achieves power.

That, essentially, is the Alinsky way. ACORN is about as left-wing a group as possible, wearing religion and "practical solutions to real problems" like predatory wolves hiding their way into the sheep herd on the way to seizing ideological control of the pasture.

This crafty backroom dealmaker is absolutely the worst candidate for President in our nation's history.

Funny you should mention this. I also only saw it once, and walked out thinking "Did I have a blackout during that or something?" I was just left feeling like the thing hadn't really got started yet, with exactly what you mention, no viable alternate route out, and again as you mentioned (and what really troubled me very much) precisely the degradation of the intelligent woman who represented the one possible way out.

I think I need to watch it again. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just confirms my worst suspicions. A shame, too, because Spike Lee is one of my favorite directors. I would love to see a free-for-all between him and Eastwood! It might be more enlightening (and entertaining) than that verbal slapfight between Mailer and Vidal.

Does the darling left-wingers know this? It certainly come as a rude awakening for them to discover they have pushed a novice up the ladder only to have him now turn his back on them and govern from the center.

I don't think Obama has a clue how he would govern given that he has never really governed, has he? Will the governing be on the teleprompter?

No Obama won't be governing from the center. He'll be pandering to the center with crap like his reversal on partial-birth abortion, faith based walk-around money (call it what you will, it's still church pay-off funds that are not accountable to any taxpayer out here), FISA, and now Iraq.

I simply cannot bring myself to vote for this guy.

Cool it Cookie Monster.

I could use some cookies right about now.

I might be an elf.

The Scandinavians are the experts on trolls but we had our own mystical creatures that rural people tried to propitiate (Disneyfied as leprechauns). In my lifetime they have been no more than a joke but previous generations took them very seriously. Superstition made green an unlucky colour because it was THEIRS (the "little people", I mean) and bringing the flowering hawthorn into the house was also regarded as inviting their wrath because that also was THEIRS. Anyway, I discovered that the hawthorn and the oak had been sacred to the Druids and it's surprising that some of this superstitious awe could persist into the 20th century. Now we're all globalised and homogenised so we can't be having any of that.

As for Greeks bearing gifts, I suppose you could consider Arianna Huffington who, before her reincarnation in the USA, was the female companion of the late Bernard Levin, a very clever and undoubtedly conservative columnist for "The Times" (London). To the best of my recollection, Arianna never displayed any left-wing tendencies while she was living in the UK and Margaret Thatcher considered herself on a par with (if not better than) the Queen. I only came on to these blogs last January and was amazed at the slant of "The Huffington Post" (should I call it Huffpo?) and the totally vindictive nature of its campaign against Hillary Clinton. Knowing just a little bit about Arianna (a Greek bearing gifts?) that immediately put me in Hillary's camp, although, prior to that I'd scarcely given Hillary a thought. I hope that explains everything because I'm really just a simple-minded soul living here on the backside of Europe and trying to make sense of it all. May all that's good and holy look after you, Dolores, and, before I go, I've got to tell you that I might be a changeling - Yeats wrote about those children snatched away by "the little people" and replaced by one of their own.