Let's Cause Some Senators Distress.

Our Patriotic Fervor Was The Result Of The Old And Widespread Belief In The Idea Of American Exceptionalism, The Idea That America Was A New Thing In History, Different From Other Countries. Other Nations Had Evolved One Way Or Another, Evolved From Tribes From A Gathering Of Clans, From Inevitabilities Of Language And Tradition And Geography. But America Was Born, And Born Of Ideas: That All Men Are Created Equal, That They Have Been Given By God Certain Rights That Can Be Taken From Them By No Man, And That Those Rights Combine To Create A Thing Called Freedom.

A Great Speech Is Literature.

[on President Clinton's Address:] It Was The Worst Inaugural Address Of Our Lifetime, And I Think The Only Controversy Will Be Between Those Who Say It Was Completely And Utterly Banal And Those Who Say, 'well, Not Completely And Utterly.

In A President, Character Is Everything. A President Doesn't Have To Be Brilliant... He Doesn't Have To Be Clever; You Can Hire Clever... You Can Hire Pragmatic, And You Can Buy And Bring In Policy Wonks. But You Cant Buy Courage And Decency, You Cant Rent A Strong Moral Sense. A President Must Bring Those Things With Him. He Needs To Have, In That Much Maligned Word, But A Good One Nonetheless, A Vision Of The Future He Wishes To Create.. But A Vision Is Worth Little If A President Doesn't Have The Character - The Courage And Heart - To See It Through.

I Do Not Know What The Democratic Party Spent, In Toto, On The 2004 Election, But What They Seem To Have Gotten For It Is Barack Obama. Let Us Savor.