well, thank you to anderson cooper who gave us all the excellent idea to drink along with the democratic presidential candidates. despite the dire warnings of how the debates were deadly dull from the normally reliable daily show, tonight's forum was (is) actually damned entertaining. first, i'd like to point out that if dennis kucinich's rap video didn't doom him tonight, it sure as hell should have. howard dean's would have been embarrasingly bad, with the jock jams soundtrack. i can't believe how many of these campaigns' media staffs seem to have yet to even discover imovie. anyway, back to anderson cooper, who's really doing a fine job. seems to have taken a dislike to mr. dean--he's pointing a lot of sharp questions and follow-ups his way. carol mosely braun seems very presidential, in the sense that she has the gravitas and dignity that are important intangibles. unfortunately, next debate i'll be drinking every time she points out that she's a: black, b: a woman, or c: both. i loved the question to kerry about the red sox, although i'm sure the tampa bay buccanneers will take exception to his comment that the marlins' victory was the first legitimate victory in florida since 2000. but everybody knows what he meant. it was funny. wesley clark is also very dignified, but rather dull. what strikes me is is the number of things john kerry keeps citing. yeah, it's kinda tooting his own horn, but on the other hand, tooting one's horn groundlessly is suicide in this setting, so we must assume it's the truth. i think i linked it before, but the globe had a really good article about him a few months ago, that pretty much convinced me that he's the person for the job. what's unfortunate is that i'm less confident that he's capable of convincing everybody that he is. he may not be. and that's kinda too bad. howard dean's bandwagon is a remarkable achievement and a potent reminder of exactly how powerful people our age actually are. but there is something about the whole dean phenomenon that reminds me of the early days of the linux phenomenon when everybody installed it because it was what everyone was talking about it. i know i did. but a month later, i realized it didn't do anything i needed it to do and uninstalled it. bandwagons are a wonderful thing for the person driving, but i'm going to check to see where it's going before i get on. of course, none of these people are nearly as good as president palmer, as i turn the channel to last week's 24. and good job to the girl who asked the candidates if they used a mac or a pc. i couldn't quite tell who said what, i know that braun and sharpton did, and one other, too, was it edwards? this wasn't an issue last election--both bush and gore used a mac. is it important? no, not really. it's amusing though to have that particular question take a national stage.