Democrats, take heart. When our candidate is chosen (it appears it will be Obama), he will be well vetted and well hardened. I am a 66-year-old geezer who resents blatant ageism, but McCain is too old to be President. He has doddered on the Iran-Al Qaida issue several times and the sight of Senator Lieberman telling him what to say in his ear like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy was not encouraging. He will make his share of mistakes in the campaign, and no doubt his temper will get him in trouble. The name and legacy of George Bush, Jr. will become a ubiquitous anchor for the retired naval officer. He believed in Bush and his policies and with few exceptions supported them.

While personal resentments between Clinton and Obama will not disappear, we have seen worse intra-party fighting for the nomination as during the Vietnam War, and it should be the candidate’s duty to support the nominee. Either Obama or Clinton may have to wait their turn, but they will not have another turn if they do not wholeheartedly support whoever is nominated. The Republicans have said vile things about each other, too, as in the case of the Karl Rove and co. assault on candidate McCain in 2000. So keep remembering that as the summer approaches and election nears, more eyes will be on Senator McCain and his record and much of the Democrats’ campaign vitriol will be forgotten.

But enough already! Elections that last four years are hazardous to everyone’s health and peace of mind, not to mention obscenely expensive. The commercials are designed to sell the candidates using precisely the same techniques that are used to sell Buicks. Truth is the stepchild. The end, victory, is seen as justifying the pettiness and the kowtowing to those with the money and agendas which are the means. As for the hundreds of millions that have been spent: think of all the after-school centers that could have been built in Iraq (to foster goodwill) and there would even be enough left over to add a tanning salon to the U.S. embassy to lure reluctant state Department employees to serve there. Perhaps the more vain among them would suppress their fear of living in an out of control war zone, as the dating scene in Baghdad has improved with the surge; an improvement that the left wing press seems reluctant to report.