Wankers galore and me without a gun.

Never mind the gun thing, I'm joking. Actually, I'd say most the world's population falls into the wanker category one way or another, including meself, OK.

Wish I knew what's happening with Blogger. I read the last few 'news' updates and noticed that some folks were having problems getting their new posts published - which is what's happening with me - but a later post indicated the problem was identified (though not fixed yet, I suppose).

Nonetheless, it's frustrating when I get through posting a long stream of prose, rhetoric or musing only to have nothing change when I view my blog. As Charlie Brown would say, 'Rats!'

But I'll continue trying until I figure out what's what.

So it looks like Kerry is going to be the Democratic contender against the Bushmeister. Dean has all be conceded, though he's hanging his hopes on Wisconsin and said he'll hang in until that primary. But if he loses there, he'll drop out. Man, politics is such a sophisticated hardball game definitely not for the faint of heart. I must say, I don't believe Kerry can beat Bush, despite all the ammunition the president has inadvertantly given him. I can't explain exactly why I sense this, but what I can say is, Kerry is vulnerable on issues like special interest, marriage (his wife is rich and the GOP has a nasty habit of using scurrilous tactics to defame Democratic candidates - very effective scurrilous tactics), his Senate voting record, which does not give one a clear indication of his pro-Democratic position given his alternating decisions, e.g., he opposes the Iraq war in 1991, but approves it in 2001 (bad move), he rails about special interests but he's demonstrably the most prolific recipient of special interest cash and, while his war record cannot be challenged, it won't be enough to overcome the fact that Bush has staked out the 'war on terror' and, with our post-9-11 consciousness still queezily floating just behind the fear over losing our jobs, homes or autos, Kerry will have to make a solid case for unseating a president who, in his own words, is a "wartime" president. That's a tough nut to crack.

I'm sure Kerry can take Michigan (they've lost 3 million jobs) and probably carry the New England states. But the south, midwest and west (California and Oregon aside) are still strongly leaning toward Bush.

So even though Kerry - whose public persona is not exactly crackling with energy (he looks like an undertaker, forgive the comparison) - will take a strong wave of Democratic support into the national nomination conference and, ultimately, the race against Lord Bush, it's the undecided voters who will determine who sits in the Oval Office for the next four years, and I think Bush has a strong bloc of silent Americans who will follow him blindly no matter what course he chooses as his platform. It's that damn 'incumbent' phenonmenon. It's tough to unseat a sitting president, doubly so under wartime circumstances (check your history re: Roosevelt). I can only hope that Bush will make a misstep again before the election that will be so provocative, even those blind sheep who bleet along with the Bush choir on command will be awakened from their semi-slumber state long enough to change their minds.

Of course, if more jobs are created between now and November (a nearly absolute likelihood), Kerry will have an even steeper mountain to climb, because as it stands, his strongest weapon against Bush is the economic 'pimple' that no one in the administration wants to acknowledge. The GOP is counting on the fact that 70 percent of voters in the last presidential election held stocks - in other words, jobs were less of a concern for them than market variables - and the hope that the Dow Jones will continue to climb. With that scenario, even if Bush's economic plan creates a piddling 4,000 jobs per month while another 100,000 per month are laid off, the president still holds the high ace card.

Kerry's only real hope is to get out the vote - and I mean get out EVERYONE who's eligible to vote, because those are the people who are feeling the pinch of Bush's policies; those are the people who feel disenfranchised and haven't voted in the last four presidential runs; those are the people who, in the end, will either turn this nation around (politically) or let the status quo rule, simply by not voting.

That's my take on the situation today. But as they say, a week in politics is an eternity and anything can happen. So we shall see, come what may.