The Kennedy presidency was charactarized by the musical and movie, "Camelot." The Bush administration seems to be based on a mixture of "Man of La Mancha" and "Animal House."

"Animal House" gives us the frat-boy nicknaming and cronyism. But the "War on Terror" provides the vehicle for a "glorious quest." The country answered the call to "march through Hell for a heavenly cause." Every word of "The Impossible Dream" resonates through the administration's worldview. And America bought into it.

But the majesty of the melody hides the reality that Don Quixote was half blind and completely mad.

9/11 turned the career underachiever into a heroic charactar. For a day or two, the public asked, "Why do they hate us so much?" By offering that the terrorists hate us for our freedoms, Bush saved America from facing our own sins, and the country is not ready to do that. Not until we, as a people, confront our own madness.

Shouldn't we learn from this story that there are serious consequences for hawkish rhetoric? Weren't we going to bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age? Didn't we promise shock and awe in Iraq? Didn't Saddam's threatening attitude bring about the destruction of his family and his country? Threatening your neighbors is a good way to bring about your own demise.

When the President of Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map, he is blowing smoke. There are no launch sites in Israel for its reputed nuclear arsenal; they're all on subs. If Israel were destroyed, every major city in Iran, Syria, etc. would go up in a mushroom cloud, including Tehran, Ramallah, Medina and Makkah.

But someone should point out to him and to North Korea that becoming a nuclear power coesn't make you strong. It just puts a target on your back.

And posting unneeded antimisslie sites in Poland (to stop missiles coming from Iran?) is, just as Putin says, a sure way to restart the arms race. God help us all (if He/She exists.)

The only good media attention McCain will get from now until the convention is the choosing of a VP candidate; the rest of the time it will be various skeletons opening closets.

Imagine the Democratic nomination going to the convention, with a floor fight over seating the Florida and Michigan delegates. Ugly, yes. But that is democracy. Very high in the drama department, so the media will be forced to cover it in detail. The last few conventions have been so boring that the networks only want to cover the keynote address, nomination speeches and acceptance speeches. The Democrats will get 3-4 days of free TV coverage.

Then, one week later, they will have to give equal air time to the GOP convention, which will be soooooo booooooring (zzzzzzzzzzz.) So, in order to have something to put on the air and talk about, the newspeople will be making mention of the Democratic Party.

And politics has become interesting again.

Clinton is pandering like crazy, buying your vote with your own money. Put a tax on the oil companies, they pass it along to the customers because taxes are just another business expense. So, suspend the $0.18/gal tax just for the summer, the gas goes up $0.20/gal to compensate (2 cents for expenses related to the tax.) But the price stays up there after the "tax holiday" is over.

The way to bring down fuel prices is a massive research and developement program for alternatives that can not be coopted by the oil companies. Faced with the threat of everyone switching to fuel cell vehicles, both the petroleum producing countries and the refiners will drop prices in an attempt to make the alternatives less attractive.

Hillary..... why is there any doubt?

Clinton's campaign finances are a replay of Bush's Iraq "liberation." Poor planning, insufficient resources, and failure to recognize and adapt to the unexpected.

If Limbaugh had encouraged his Operation Chaos minions to back up their crossover votes with checks, Hillary might have had the finances to stay even with Barrack. But now her only hope of getting her loans back is to miraculously win the election. Obama's campaign cannot donate a great deal to hers directly, but it can, I believe, pay outstanding debts. But the money they loaned to the campaign is down the toilet.

Sorry about that, Chelsea.

Several months ago, a reputable poll indicated that a large majority of Americans believed that the country was ready to elect a woman or a black President.

Apparently Hillary didn't believe so. She went out of her way to portray herself as hawkish as any man. That suggested that she was either as misguided as the current President or pandering, and that, not her gender, caused me to turn away from her to a different candidate.

I hope that I am still around in 2016 to vote for a female, feminist candidate. Obama gets my vote in November and for reelection in 2012.

If us men weren't "softies," you women wouldn't be able to wrap us around your finger with a shy smile.

"Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it." (George Carlin)

The researcher quoted (a man) makes an overgeneralizing statement, which is usually expected of women ("You men are all alike!") Proof right there that we aren't so different from each other.