Experience, my ass.

Who cares whether Hillary or McCain or Barack has "more experience"? When any of these three candidates sits down in the Oval Office next January, they're going to start with a clean slate. It'll be day 1 of a new administration and they'll all start off on the same footing. What they've done in the past won't matter, except as an indicator of how they'll behave in the presidency.

As we go about the business of choosing the next president, what matters is not experience, but judgment. And on that basis, both Hillary and McCain have demonstrated very bad judgment in authorizing Mr. Bush's Iraq boondoggle.

The only one of the three who opposed the Iraq misadventure from the start is Barack Obama. I'd say he's demonstrated better judgment than either Hillary or McCain.

Here in Columbus, we have torrential rain and gusty winds. Up in Cleveland and Toledo they're having a snowstorm. The weather is bad throughout the state.

There's no question the bad weather will depress the voter turnout. My guess is that more Hillary supporters than Barack supporters will choose to stay home, but that's just a guess.

Then there's the factor of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts urging their listeners to go out and vote for Hillary because she'd make the weakest Democratic candidate in the general election.

My guess is that the weather will make a lot of those dittoheads decide to stay home and oil their gun collections.

Hey, what's wrong with McCain and Huckabee? In marketing terms, their slogan could be:

Old white guys......they were good for America in the 19th and 20th centuries, and by damn, they'll take us through the 21st century!

Bobby Knight will be the best thing that's happened to sports reporting since Howard Cosell passed.

We need obnoxious, opinionated, knowledgable, highly intelligent analysts to cut through the cliches and mindless hero worship that are so much a feature of sports.

Okay, so maybe Knight is an abusive bully. And Ty Cobb was a nasty asshole and a racist and Pete Rose had a gambling problem.

What do you want, plaster saints or analysts who will tell it like it is?

It was already shaping up as a bad year for Republicans. Their House and Senate candidates were facing uphill fights and McCain was going to have a very difficult time beating Obama. McCain's age and his insistence on tying himself to the failed Bush foreign policy had already put him way behind the 8 ball.

And now this.......

You might as well start practicing how to say it, Republicans....

Pres-i-dent O-ba-ma

Yes, I know it's difficult. But start off slowly. Say it 5 times a day to prepare yourself for next January.

Left and right, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican.......they've all lost their meaning for me.

This year, I could've gotten behind either Ron Paul or Barack Obama. One is pretty far left (Obama, of course) and the other is so far right, he makes Ronald Reagan look like Fidel Castro.

So what does that say about me?

For one thing, it says that personal integrity is more important than where the next president lands on the political spectrum.

I used to be a partisan right-winger. Over time, my right-winger-ness eroded and I became quite liberal.

These days, I'm everywhere and nowhere on the political map. I wonder how typical I am.

If the Clintons try to get the Florida and Michigan delegate votes counted, using some horsecrap rationalization about racism, or if Hillary tries to steal Obama's committed delegates, they will only make themselves pariahs within the Democratic party. The party elders will assert themselves at that point. They will step in and put an end to the Clinton maneuverings, by whatever means necessary.

The Clintons have already made themselves quite unpopular with the rank and file Democrats by their nasty tactics in South Carolina and Hillary's desperate attempts to discredit Obama by whatever means necessary.

If they try any further behind-the-scenes chicanery, they will really stamp themselves as pariahs for all time.

1. McCain has tied himself to the disastrous, discredited Bush foreign policy in Iraq. He cannot beat Obama because of this alone.

2. McCain is older than dirt. He is a grumpy old man in a rumpled suit and he contrasts badly with Obama's youth and energy and..........style.

3. After 8 years of Bush and Cheney, after 8 years of Republican scandals (remember Larry Craig?) and assorted GOP horsecrap, the voters are turning to the Dems in droves.......droves, dude.

4. The energy and motivation are all on the Democratic side. Dems are jazzed up to take back the White House and will turn out in huge numbers. The Republicans can't even unite behind McCain; the conservatives still haven't accepted him. A lot of GOPers are just gonna stay home in November and watch the 700 Club on TV.

Obama will beat McCain like a drum. Take it to the bank.