The Kerry campaign gets bigger and bigger as if bringing more people on will improve efficiency. Joe Lockhart was the Sandy Berger of Press Secretaries. He was never very impressive. Clinton apparently wanted to surround himself with basically dim bulbs so he could always shine brightest. I don’t think the Rebulicans are shaking in their boots over Kerry’s acquisition of Lockhart. It’s sort of like an NFL team picking up a punter off waivers.

I don’t think there’s such a thing as a lock at this point-much too early and too much can change. Maybe you are sensing that the Republicans feel confident, but hopefully they are not getting over confident. I respect your concern about social issues, but I don’t think that Presidents can do very much about them, except via their appointments to the judicial branch and blabber about them. And you won’t exactly have to share a cross country RV trip with Sean Hannity if Bush wins (unless you want to :>)). I’m in favor of legislatures making laws, even when I am unhappy with the outcome. At least I know that something resembling the popular will is at play.