One year to go: The Agony and The Ecstacy

The good news is that we have just one more year of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The bad news is that we have an entire year left of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

One test of how bad they are is how good they make the presidential candidates look. I mean ALL the presidential candidates, right down to Rudy "9/11" Giuliani, as creepy as he is.

Just imagine, every last one of these presidential aspirants has worked hard enough to learn how to pronounce "nuclear." I've often wondered whether a president who cares so little about saying the word cares enough to know that nuclear weapons are, like, the ones that could know, incinerate the planet, including Texas.

It just feels so cozy and comfortable to have alert, articulate and intelligent people running for the highest office in the land. Sure, some of their ideas are crazy and they occasionally screw up, but at least you don't get the feeling that they have just emerged bleary-eyed from some dynastic cocoon and are looking to pick a fight.

These candidates, compared to Bush and Cheney, all seem so, well — ADULT.

One year to go. Keep your fingers crossed.