Can We All Just Say, "Well, Duh, Becs" and Move Along?

I'm belatedly trying to get myself up to speed for the presidential election. So far, I've taken out two books-on-CD and read 1 1/2.

I read / listened to Carl Bernstein's biography of Hillary Clinton. I found it very hurried toward the end with not much mention of her record in the Senate. I have always been predisposed to dislike Hillary because her naivete about her husband's philandering was just too much to believe.

And yet.

I found a common feeling between us, however faintly, in her years up to and through college. I know the type she was and am not one of them - the kind who always was struggling to get more Girl Scout badges, deliberately stood out and begged for attention. I was, however, a great suck-up but only to teachers I liked.

As I see it, her life went off the rails when she married Bill Clinton.

When I finished the book, I didn't have much of a feeling one way or the other about her but I knew more about her than when I started.

Now I'm listening to Kitty Kelley's family biography of the Bushes. Yes, I know he's a lame duck and thank God for that. Yet I think this can give me some insight on the current political situation.

I can forgive Prescott Bush (Dubya's grandaddy) for being a prick because that's the way it was then. But Prescott Bush, for all his social climbing, had some clear moments of conscience and was a very loyal man.

He wasn't all social push. There seem to have been genuine moments of doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do and not necessarily because it was politically expedient.

George H. W. has been called "Poppy" all of his life because when he was a youngster, he was the spitting image of his father. Hence "Little Pop". Hence "Poppy". I am finding out that with each successive generation from Prescott Bush, the line has thinned, weakened, and is now basically worthless.

My face is kind of being pushed to the window for me to look at a bunch of privileged, rich, absolutely brainless jocks.

I had never believed Dubya could be that stupid. Really. After all, how do you get to be President of the United States if you're that stupid?

How do you get into Yale if you're that stupid? And then I remembered: Legacies.

There were no legacies in my family. My best high school friend BJ was a legacy to the University of Virginia because her mother went to nursing school there.

Dubya grunted through Yale on a gentleman's "C". He really is that stupid. Oh my God. I honestly couldn't believe it until now.

And now were are left with Obama, who is largely an unknown, and McCain.

There are a couple of things about McCain that I don't like. The first is what he said today about being in Iraq for five more years. Five more years? But what's his plan? Then what? We know it's all about oil. And we know now we still need oil and in five years will likely still need oil. How can we stay? How can we go? Is there a plan? Anything coherent?

Another reason: Look, I'm sorry he was a POW and tortured for five years. It has to have been horrible beyond my imaginings and I can imagine a lot. But you know, it's got to have turned him funny. Somewhere deep in the McCain brain is a malfunctioning unit that is so badly damaged that it's not to be trusted.

Probably the main reason: His first wife was horribly injured in a car accident while he was a POW. When he came home, she was disabled and had gained a great deal of weight. McCain promptly dumped her and got himself a shiny trophy wife whose daddy is the biggest beer distributor in wherever.

I like what Obama says. I just don't know if he can back it up.

So here I am, consider this my one requisite rant on the political state of the 2008 election.

I can only shake my head. It doesn't look very good at all.