Just finished my second session, I talked a lot about myself and my own insecurities and how they've made me the man I am today. Afterwards, I heard the always bright tones of the voice of Mrs. Susan Southard, which as always, brought a smile to my face.

George Tenet resigned today, as I am sure you are all aware, citing personal reasons. I do know that Al Gore called for his resignation a week ago at his speech that has been taken way out of context by the right wing and their media outlets. The speech was for the most part very calm and cerebral. I don't mind Al Gore being upset and shouting, I don't question his sanity as the right wing does in an attempt to marginalize his views. Do I think he's bitter about 2000? Yes, but then he likely has a right to be. He knows that with him as President, we likely would still have had September 11th, but the response, and the way we have used the good will of the world, would have been far more tempered and even handed. I've seen other speech makers do far worse.

The PBS station in Chicago has a wonderful nightly program called "Chicago Tonight" which runs for an hour at 7. Every PBS station in the country that can afford to should consider doing something like this, because a long form show like this can really explore issues that the commercial stations won't discuss. Last night the show featured a panel discussing the senate campaign in Illinois. It featured a higher up from both the Ryan and Obama camps, as well as a veteran journalist, all being interviewed by Phil Ponce, who does a very good job moderating these discussions. I don't know how many of you from not Illinois saw this, but the Jack Ryan campaign has a man who follows Obama's every public step, up to the men's bathroom. The Ryan campaign is hoping to get inconsistencies from Obama in terms of what he says "in Springfield and in Chicago". The aide has a small digital camera, its really quite weird. Obama has taken to asking people if they would like to meet his stalker.
I'm telling you about this to illustrate one thing. This is really stupid. Jack Ryan has a bunch of things going right for him, he's young, good looking, has a good story (he left his investment firm to teach at a South Side High School), and is very rich. But he also has some things going against him. He has mysteriously sealed divorce records from his marriage to Jeri Ryan (by the way...YOU WERE MARRIED TO MARRY TO JERI RYAN AND GOT DIVORCED? HOW F****** STUPID ARE YOU?)George Ryan was the last governor and has been indicted on charges of patronage, and the last name might make people wary in a statewide race. More than anything though, Ryan is very conservative in an increasingly Democratic state. The senator that Barack Obama and Ryan are running to replace, Peter Fitzgerald, is a Republican, but he's more liberal on a lot of issues that the standard Senate Republican. I don't believe a conservative like Ryan can win in Illinois. Even if he gets 75% of the vote downstate, he still will lose huge in Chicago, just because of the R next to his name. The Tribune poll last night had a figure of 52% to 30% for Obama with the rest undecided. That means that if all the undecideds went to Ryan, he still would not win. The defense the Ryan man made was that it was early, and maybe the support for Obama was soft. But...both candidates had to face primary battles. Each are known to a lot of people because they saw them on TV early. Obama got more votes in the Democratic primary than all the Republicans put together got in their's. Ryan is a desperate man doing desperate things. I really think he has a bright future, just not here. Obama has too much star power, to much appeal to blow it. And Jack Ryan being an idiot doesn't help him at all.