Understood, Bobert. The ravages of the self-actuating mouse.

But in any case, "obit" might be a little premature. There are grassroots organizations like "The Backbone Campaign" and others who are backing Democrats into corners every chance they get and telling them that if they don't start genuinely embracing and articulating the kind of progressive principles that the party is traditionally supposed to embrace instead of wimpishly searching for some sort of mushy, mythical "middle of the road," then they are dead meat!

At the same time, there are a lot of liberal and progressive Christians who are fed up with having a loudmouthed minority of self-proclaimed "Christians," who don't know much about what Jesus taught, but take The Book of Revelation and a long list of supposed "sins" as the be-all and end-all of their religious view, claiming that they, and only they, know the Mind of God. "Screw the poor and go to war" is not one of the Commandments, and liberal Christians are pretty tired of a president who acts as if it is, and represents himself as a fine flower of Christian virtue.

If these folks can get their act together, especially if they can start working together (and there are a few signs that this might be happening), then it should be a pretty interesting campaign come 2008.

Don Firth