I consider myself a seasoned pet person.  My husband and I have shared our lives with 14 cats and one dog in our 30 years of marriage;  we had cats long before we had kids and have always had at least 2 cats at a time.

    But I admit I was surprised to come home two days ago, open the refrigerator and find Cat #14--a black and white kitten we called Max, who found our pet-loving house a mere six days ago--sitting on a carton of eggs in the middle of our refrigerator, blinking as the light went on.

           Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.
                                                 -- Maori proverb
       
          When I wrote this diary last New Year's Eve I shared my happy, frequent daydream about the transfer of  power next January from Bush to the next president.  The diary ended this way:

After Bush takes his place the new president-elect rises to take the oath of office.  

       He has a background, face and sensibility unlike any previous president.  It's a start. We have elected him and the world is, for the most part, ready to at least give us a chance again.  

      The time is here. The nightmare is over. AT LAST.  At long last.

      Then Barack Obama steps forward and our future finally begins.

               

        How does Ralph Nader behave when he thinks few people are watching or caring?   Here's an anecdote about him;  you can make up your own mind.

        Christmas Day, 2006.  
     
        My husband,  our (then) 15-year-old son, 7-year-old daughter and I open up our presents and then head to Chicago's Midway Airport to begin a week's vacation in California.   We are booked for a Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland.

       

 

       What were they thinking?

        On the night Barack Obama trounced his opponents in South Carolina, viewers were treated to one of his most magnificent speeches to date--a rousing, inspiring feast that also bristled with a few well-aimed barbs towards Hillary and Bill Clinton.  It was triumphant, eloquent and memorable.  And, as in the Iowa victory speech, it was a masterfully arranged visual tableau.  We saw a good-sized venue, lots of "Change" signs, a hyped-up crowd.  Most importantly,  viewers saw rows and rows of a diverse and engaged group of supporters arranged behind Obama while he spoke.  They were all ages, all races, both sexes and they all looked ecstatic to be within such close proximity of their candidate and eager to listen to his speech.

         And Hillary Clinton.....?

(It's the waning days of the candidate diaries and I thought, why not?)

For years I have  anticipated the last day of George Bush's presidency;  fantasized about it, if you want to call it that.  I picture a cold but sunny January Inauguration day. Bush looking like a fidgety junior high student in a too-big formal winter coat.  He's desperate for the day to end so he can retreat to Crawford and do whatever history's least popular president does with the rest of his life--I couldn't care less.  I despise the guy.  The enormous crowd is respectful of the day's solemnity but they are  still restless, exuberant, eager to celebrate the end of the nightmare.  The world is watching.

     And then Bush finally takes his place to wait for the new president to take the oath of office.

Now, I begin this with a disclaimer:  My older child is a boy who I adore, worship, and think is the smartest, handsomest high-school freshman in the world.  I'll pause while you dispose of your barf bags to admit that yes, he's, um, lazy sometimes, and loves Wii too much, and his midterm report card could have been a lot better, and I still have to remind him to put on deodorant.....

Think about it.  What was Bush's political resume before 2000?  Like it or not, he has permanently lowered the bar for presidential candidates (and this is not a slam against Obama, by the way).
       I actively campaigned for Wes Clark in 2004 and I was furious with the treatment he got from the sluggish, pay-your-dues, stand-in-line Democratic partisans. This inertia is endemic to the party and it's how we got stuck with Kerry as a candidate, and that's how we'll keep getting stuck with well-entrenched party hacks who LOSE presidential elections.  
       Do you think Republicans diddled around and debated the party purity and experience of Bush pre-2000?  Hell no.  They snatched him up, embraced him  and made him their candidate.  We MUST do the same with Obama if we want to win.  If you want to navel-gaze and discuss whether or not Obama is "seasoned" enough to run, see you later--I'll be working to draft him for president.