As someone who spent a lot of time in American high schools as a kid, it is a bit unnerving to see this struggle between the class president (whom everyone despised) and the class clown (whom everyone liked but never respected). I suppose that is why there hasn't been rioting in the streets -- can you imagine what would have happened if there was a charismatic candidate for the poor who was in the situation Al Gore is in? Or a seriously fascist demagogue in the place of George W.? I have been in countries where both of these have happened (including demagogues for the poor) and it is way less pretty than this.

yours, Peter T.