I'm a Democrat and as I said, I'm not fond of Bush OR the Iraqi mess. But I now have a modicum of respect for the man for placing himself, at least a little bit, in harm's way.

There are many ways to die on a battlefield. Forget about the plane being shot down -- should the other side have found out and been able to get it together in time a mortar attack or similar thing could have made Cheney president. Even enough fanatics for a suicide attack....

Hillary Clinton, too, has earned respect for going into danger.

But let's face it: neither the President nor the Senator is likely to be visiting where the bullets are actively flying around. The military would be criminally culpable to let them be exposed to that.

As for the press, well, I apologize, but over the years I've lost a lot of respect for the press. Too much non-news news, too many photo ops, too little respect for human dignity, too little ability to know when to keep its mouth shut, too little ability to know what is news and what isn't.

Still doesn't mean that I'd vote for either one of them for President.