I know that the DNC came and all the while you've all been waiting for Kendra to give you permission to practice popping out those chads AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT??? In all seriousness, I have felt a little bit sheepish about posting about Election '08 because I'm more of a local political scenester, and even here in my little hot pocket of civic engagement, it's easy to get jaded. But I suppose I'm on the Obama bus. We listened to the Audacity of Hope a couple of months ago. Even though it's 95% stumping, you really can't beat that gravelly voice, so enthusiastic is Barack about the foundations of this republic. However, the whole time we listened, we were wondering when he was going to talk about hope, and the audacity thereof. But we never got to it. Maybe our literal HOPES were too high, or maybe it was just the abridged version cutting out the meaty stuff?

I liked Michelle, aka Mamabama's speech. Did not love it, thought she was a little robotic in the delivery, but I'm a tough critic of speeches. First of all, my father is a brilliant orator, just someone I admire immensely for his theatrics and slinging images like paint on a canvas. Secondly, I don't really admire politicians for their oratory. I really think public service should be more deeds not words, but of course this would contradict my opinion of Dubya, which is to say that he often reminds me of the kid in 1st grade who would eat a lot of Elmer's glue from off his hand. Perhaps that explains why he would sometimes copy my handwriting papers, such that the teacher knew immediately whereby he had achieved such polished results. He always copied down my name.

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Did I ever tell you about the time I met Helen Thomas? I was 20. She said George W. Bush made Dan Quayle look like a Rhodes Scholar. What a corker she was.