Saw Kerry speak this week. Thousands turned out for the event, and it was at the same spot that I saw Gore four years ago. There was no comparison between the energy level at this event and the one in 2000 --- this blew the Gore appearance out of the water. The notion that people don't like Kerry, or are just putting up with him because he's the nominee, just isn't true. The crush of people to shake the candidate's hand and take his picture was far more prominent this year than in 2000. And that desire is at least significantly about the man himself, not the circumstances of the election.

Oddly enough, one of Kerry's "weaknesses" -- or, rather, "unimportant things that right-wingers make fun of him for" -- is another thing that makes me like him, and that's his general awkwardness about sports. Case in point: He mentioned the Red Sox starting to come back against the Yankees, and when people booed he said "I know, I'm in Pirates country" -- completely missing the point that the booers were Yankee fans and that the Pirates are irrelevant to the ALCS!

But see, that's good. As so many have said before me, where did this notion come from that we want our President to be a regular guy? Are people so idiotic that they want the President to be stupid too? I want my President to be extraordinary, not ordinary. I want him smarter than me, and I certainly don't want him to be the kind of guy who skips important events because there's a great game on TV -- the way I would! You want the President to be one of those guys in high school who didn't watch the Super Bowl because he was watching a PBS special about black holes. OK, ideally you want someone who loves sports and is also brilliant. But he's Constitutionally ineligible to run for another term.

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