If Gore stepped up today I think I would swing for him; and I agree he has grown a lot since the day when he used to be the next President. But he is not going to.

I also concur that the backlash is inevitable -- see my earlier remarks about hoping his fields can take the shit that will be thrown at him.

Barack has the potential -- not promise -- to be a genuinely great President. But he has to run the bloody gauntlet of the campaign first.

If he wins the nomination, as seems likely, the Repubs will, I agree, try to make race an issue, in all their sanctimonious self-righteous stupidity. It angers me to see stupidity intnetionally deployed to do harm, but after eight years of this crap I am not going to be surprised by it.

More power to Obama's shields. He's gonna need them.


A