But if I had to pick someone alive, I would say Joe Biden or Gary Hart.

Of the actual candidates who made it into the running, only Obama and Clinton stood out. Clinton had the street-fighting instincts and knowledge of the system you need to crush your opponents and get what you want. Her drawbacks were an unprincipled ambition and ruthlessness that I find disturbing, but which I also recognize may be what we need now. These are skills the Republicans abound in, and if they don't possess them themselves, they hire Karl Roves who do.

Obama has a fine mind and a charisma and articlate communication which has never been recognized for the leadership asset it is by Americans. We're so hung up on not being elitists we keep on electing used car salesmen and game show hosts. Damn it, if the President can't be an elitist, who can? And being an elitist doesn't mean you despise or will exploit the common man, either. Look at Teddy Roosevelt, the last intellectual Republican, and a true and unapologetic aristocrat, but he knew better than anyone you can't trust a businessman alone with the American economy. Well, not the last, Herbert Hoover was a bonafide intellectual, but he never would have busted the trusts like Teddy did, and to the end he went down denying there was a Depression.

But just as Hoover turned out to be an ineffective intellectual, Obama may be one too. We know absolutely nothing about him, and he is inexperienced and an unknown. He may turn out to be a winner, but then again, we haven't a clue.

Of the Republicans, the one I liked the most, and genuinely liked, not just grudgingly respected, was McCain. His values were traditional Republican values but without the Vegas sleaze, Texas arrogance and California young Republican skinny-tie crew-cut hypocrisy that has taken over the GOP. And he was ready to take on that Nixonian Neocon vermin if he had to. He was an Eisenhower, Dole, Goldwater kind of Republican. The kind of man you could completely disagree with and still trust completely, and follow unreservedly. As far as his heroic military service is concerned, I honor and respect it, but it has nothing to do with his fitness as President.

But since being nominated, I fear he has sold out to the fascist side of the party, with their corporate PR goons and bible-banging hillbilly hypocrites. I think we have lost him. It's either him or Obama, so there is no hesitation about who I'm voting for as far as I'm concerned.