Now you're trying too hard to argue with me. You make it sound as if I'm advocating picking a president solely on emotional factors, but that's not what I said. I simply observed that that's how Americans have picked their presidents for a long time now, consistent with the general celebrity culture.

You know as well as I do that so many Bush voters claimed to have made their choice out of a desire to hang out with Dubya and drink beer. Sounds like you'd have to agree with me that that was a lousy criteria to apply and we got the disaster we deserved.

But even the trauma of George W. Bush isn't sufficient to kill the celebrity culture. As I see it, the way to make lemonade is to at least pick a celebrity President who appeals to our higher, rather than lower, natures, and can quite possibly provide some inspirational leadership.

It's what we have to work with in modern America, and moaning and complaining about it won't change it one little bit.