g. keillor weighs in....

ok, so this from my favorite left-wing radio host/storyteller.....from salon.com.......

Garrison Keillor is the creator and host of the nationally syndicated radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," broadcast on more than 500 public radio stations nationwide.

I've run into a lot of people over the past two years who said, "I just don't understand why people can't see through Bush," and they were right, they couldn't. They lived in Republican-free neighborhoods and read the New York Times and listened to NPR and so the political feelings of half the country were a mystery to them. To be successful in politics, you have to cross over the river and see where the other half lives. In the races that I know anything about -- in Minnesota -- Democrats managed to cross that line and talk to Republicans and came back winners. A hard-charging Army National Guard sergeant named Tim Walz stumped everywhere in the 1st District, where two years ago Democrats offered up a symbolic candidate, and beat a six-term Republican. The star of the evening was Amy Klobuchar, blowing a White House-picked Republican out of the water by 20-some points. She is 46, feisty, a county prosecutor, a tireless campaigner of the old school who showed up everywhere, didn't camp out in the latte precincts of the Twin Cities, fought on all fronts, and struck an aggressive tone with hints of populism that rang true this year. She told stories in her stump speech about how the rich and powerful game the system that swayed people more than statistics could. She got a little boost from the fact that her dad was a popular sportswriter and columnist -- who was the last Democrat to throw a fundraiser starring football players? -- but she did the heavy lifting herself, in her bright blue suit, her husband and child at her side.

Tim Walz is a beefy high school teacher and coach who doesn't quite fit the mold of the pale pursed-lipped Minnesota liberal. He gets hyper at rallies, jumps around, whoops, waves his arms, gives two-handed handshakes. You can argue that voters wanted change and were upset about Iraq -- that they saw through Bush -- but you still have to put candidates out there whom voters like. Howard Dean said, "It's an insult not to ask people for their votes." That's a big change for Democrats, something they learned from Bush.

The Current Occupant campaigned in Minnesota and though he did help to elect a lunatic in the Republican 6th District, he didn't make a big impression. He will be graceful and conciliatory in his press conference Wednesday, but he knows that he spent the last of his political capital this fall. I'd expect him to hunker down in the White House, wrap himself in the flag, stick with whom and what he knows, fight against same sex stem cells, and dare the Democrats to come after him. I doubt that he'll be jetting around the world in a quest for amity among nations. Which surely they will. The Bush administration is a rich tale of corruption and incompetence and the story begs to be told. And so the 2008 campaign begins.