And again the Hillary for President issue comes up. This is what I think would happen: Hillary works behind the scenes to line up a few major-name donors, then announces her intention to run. Everyone who is in the race currently becomes a side show except for Dean, and in a pure war of words and ideas Dean is beaten - not severely, but surely - in the primaries.

Then the Democrats -finally energised by the thought of having a real candidate- hop on the bandwagon, shut their noise tubes, and go on to systematically demolish each and every one of the lies, half-truths, and exaggerations that this Administration has used to satiate public opinion. And for a finale, in a race every bit as close as the last one, Hill wins by a nose hair. Republicans immediately challenge her ligitimacy because "we can't be sure that some recount somewhere wouldn't have yeilded a different result," and Hill shuts their traps by responding, "I think I'll go ahead and quote everyone in the Republican Party in 2000 and say 'We won. It's time to move on.'"

Fantasy? Of course. But then, I'm the type who would rather have a sucker like Tony Blair in charge because he can at least speak proper English.