Thanks – very good observations – I agree.

On point 1 you made me laugh – how true that is.

I just wrote a comment on Connie Schultz’s article in this morning’s PD on my blog. Its a bit brutal but I have to be consistent. There was a time in my life where, if I had been you in the situation you described, I would have been beyond rage at the unfairness of it all.

And it IS unfair. Really it is and I understand being mad about it. But in the end, as I wrote in my post, you have to come from the perspective that you are going to have to be shrewd and cunning and play the game when necessary to get what you want.

When I didn’t play the game, I lost careers in both radio and print journalism. Looking back on it now, its hard for me to say that I regret what I did. But in retrospect, I think I might have moderated my speech and actions a little bit. Who knows, I may have had a syndicated radio show now that so much of the electorate has come around to my way of thinking.

I did learn one thing from all of this – it was helpful to illustrate to my young son the way the world really works. Daddy took a strong stand and paid the price – someday you’ll probably find yourself in a similar situation and you’ll have to make your own decisions about what hill you want to die on.

On this subject, Naymik did make it sound like the PD made their decision based on superficialities. I don’t have a lot of respect for the PD editorial board anyway, so none of this nyahh-nyahh stuff in his column is the least bit surprising. But I think I hear you saying that the PD should have chosen the candidate who is putting forth the best policy platform for the country. And instead, they chose the candidate who seemed to articulate the best vision in a manner that made them ‘feel good’ about the candidate. In that way, they behaved like the American electorate.

This is why I think Obama has been a brilliant politician and I do not expect him to fail at this.

As for newspaper endorsements, well, in this case I believe the PD made themselves look silly, which is par for the course. John McCain seemed to have little time to humor them which says a lot about the respect, at least the right, has for newspaper endorsement. I think print endorsements make much of a difference anymore. Most people hardly pay attention to newspaper views anymore anyway, sad to say. Get a celebrity endorsement and it will have longer legs and more reach.

I’m beginning to think I may have missed my calling as a political consultant.