Politics is, and has always been, a very dirty game. There are books lining shelves describing every era back to the beginning of our country that describe each generations way of conning "the American people" into one voting block or another. Democrates and Republicans and Independants all do it.

The problem as a voter, as I see it, is to plow through all the garbage and truthful information until I have enough to make up my own mind. But then I am influenced by my own history. Can't help that. We are who we are. So I read Conason. I read Rove. I see the world through a multi-cultural, multi-religion, multi-color prism, because that is the kind of American family I was raised into and became myself. And I evaluate each bit of information through that prism, as we all do through whatever prism we were raised with.

Democracy is a lot of work to maintain. I hope for a President this next time that is able to be a mediator, not a divider, to bring to the table our countries many divides, and to address the divide that has developed between us and the rest of the world over the past seven years. Idealist, and hopeful for the first time in many years.