I do not think it is out of place in a primary campaign to call for unity.  In fact, with only three top tier candidates to their five, I think we are likely to have unity far more quickly than the Republicans.  The core of what I will write below has been crossposted as a comment on the New York Times story "Kerry Endorses Obama."  I am fairly sure the majority of the posters there who called Kerry a loser are actually Republicans, but some may fall into my second category.

Political junkies can take a lesson from baseball fans in the latter's devotion to statistics.  There's a reason when it appears a major (or even a minor) achievement is about to take place, the sportscasters inform viewers in a caption at the bottom of the screen when the last time someone did this was.  You understand the game much better if you know its history.

In this spirit, I took a hard look at the Democratic and Republican fields.  The former consists of 6 Senators, 1 Governor and 1 Congressman.  The latter is more balanced in terms of "heavy hitters"; it consists of 4 Governors, 3 Congressmen, 2 Senators and 1 Mayor.  Under normal conditions, a Governor is a heavier hitter in Presidential politics than a Senator, sitting or former.

Continuing the baseball analogy, I had to ask when the last time a Senator defeated a Governor in a Presidential race was.  The answer took me all the way back to baseball's golden age when Ruth ruled the batter's box.

As chief proofreader at my company, which shall remain nameless for reasons that will become obvious, I really work not for my technical boss, but for whomever requests and conceives a project to be turned into something that can be mass-produced and sent to the sales force.  This morning, I got an assignment from a very special project requestor, a Peruvian immigrant in her late twenties who arrives and leaves at this building long before I do, and whose job is to keep it sparkling for us suits (well, today is casual Friday, but you get the idea).

She had written four paragraphs in response to four questions selected from the takehome final she got in the sociology course she is taking at our local community college.  Reading what she wrote, I really wished she was single, as I recently became.  

I can only hope that her instructor is not a Kossack, because she's turning this in today.  Perhaps if he is, he will let me buy him a beer, over which we can discuss my changing careers.  

Before I go ahead and actually identify the winners of last night's Democratic Presidential debate, let me tell you my criteria for establishing who they are:  More than half the people (Collin County, Texas Democrats) watching at the bar & grill in Plano, Texas had to applaud at something they said.  

DISCLAIMER:  I was not there for the first half of the debate, never having been to the Bavarian Grill before, and not being able to get off work before 5:15 Central time (the debate started here at 6).  So I didn't see all the serving Senators decline to endorse Cheney's impeachment.  It may have been their decline -- but it was someone else's fall.

MSN is reporting that an unnamed Iraqi government official attributes the kidnapping of the Iranian second secretary to their Baghdad embassy to "a unit (of the Iraqi military) that reports directly to the U. S. military."  I generally do not believe in making reporters give up their sources.  However, if the U. S. military doesn't find out who this guy is and what he knows about the kidnapping, it is highly probable that we will find ourselves in war with Iran.

Most denizens of Kos probably have no doubt that the Bush administration is gunning for a hot war with Iran.  If in the next few hours or days the administration concedes that it ordered the kidnapping, they will be proved right.