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I feel a little guilty about that last post. What I said about Spitzer's wife. It was ingracious. She's not old. I do that once in a very great while -- say something unfair because there's a joke in it. No harm meant.

Same with Geraldine Ferraro. She said something about Obama, and had to resign from Hillary's finance committee. “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept." Is she right? Irrelevant. She can be wrong. Point is, she had a sincere and actually harmless opinion, and expressed it.

Have you noticed how many people have to resign because they've said something, expressed some mere opinion, mind you, that certain others claim to have found "offensive"? Samantha Power, a former Obama campaign adviser, resigned from Obama's staff after calling Hillary a "monster" -- off the record. It's the word police, the Opinion Stasi. We're not allowed to have disapproved-of opinions. Ms. Ferraro, and Ms. Power, and so many lefties, are hoisted on their own peecee petards. (A petard is a bomb, which hoists via an explosion.)

This is why fairness and a certain expansiveness of spirit is required. We all make mistakes. Sometimes our mistakes aren't even actually mistakes. They're just opinions. Someone has to resign for it? Pathetic.

Spitzer had to resign because he broke laws. You may think prostitution should be legal. But it's not, and he wasn't engaging in civil disobedience, heroically laying his life on the line that others may have a fuller expression of their civil rights. He just wanted some number of orgasms, with a strange woman. I saw her picture by the way. She looks like a female George Hamilton. I've never considered going to a prostitute. But I know I wouldn't pay 5000 dollars to be with one, let alone this weasel.

Speaking of weasels, Obama's preacher is in the news. Wright. He was going on in some speech -- it couldn't have been a sermon, what with all its politics and campaign rhetoric (there are tax laws after all, and I'm just so very sure that Rev. Wright would never dream of breaking the law) -- about how Hillary hadn't ever been called a nigger -- "nigger". Oh, and by the way, he says, from the pulpit, in his ecclesiastical vestments, "God damn America." And so on. Yes, there is a historic and on-going opprobrium attached to blacks. History is what it is. We'll have to have God explain to us why it is this way. I can only make guesses. And there seems to be no word that cuts as deeply as that one. Perhaps that's why we hear it so often on the basketball court and from the pulpit. A way of desensitizing, disempowering the word. A tactic that could backfire, since if it's okay for one group, what consistent argument can forbid it from another? Only courtesy. But as I say, I don't really get it. I heard a black man on the radio say that when it comes time to get really insulting, there that word is, and "it cuts to the bone." I can't argue with it.

But don't tell me I don't understand. I don't understand that specific. Do you imagine there aren't things in my own past that don't lacerate me? Is it the same? No, it's different. But what monster of egotism would say that the pain of one group is unapproachably different than that of some other, or of some individual? I have pain that might cause me to commit murder, on sight. Sometimes I cannot breathe, for rage. It's not about a word, with me. But of course it's never about a word.

We want respect. We want to be taken on our own merit, rather than stereotyped because of some appearance or assumed characteristic. You see my point. Ferraro has a right to her opinion. She thinks Obama would not even be a contender, were it not for the fact that he is black. I sincerely disagree with her. I think Obama is exceptional. He is an amazing speaker, at his best, and his charisma is palpable. Nothing to do with black. Anyone with his talent would be where he is, regardless of gender or race. How could Ferraro miss that? For whatever reason she has. So what.

I would love for one of these mannequins to stand up and defend their fallen friends. Hillary should have said, 'I disagree with the opinion of my good friend, Geraldine. She has offered me her resignation from my campaign. But I will not be accepting her resignation. She is valuable to me, as a person and as an adviser. In my campaign, as in my administration, honorable service will be met with loyalty.

'My staff is allowed to be human, which means they will make mistakes. I, as president, will make mistakes. Every executive, even the most successful, makes mistakes. Anyone who doesn't understand this has never been a leader. Far more horrible than some human failing, is to demand perfection. The most we can strive for is excellence. This is my goal, and one of the signposts along that path is recognizing mistakes. When we find such error, we do not knock down the signpost -- we correct our course. How will we arrive where we want to go, if we cannot turn back once in a while from false paths?

'The world, like history, is what it is. We must be strong, and gentle. For these reasons, I for one forgive my dear friend for any mistake she has made in this. I would pray that anyone who has been offended by her opinion will open their hearts to a similar forgiveness. When we yearn for a great and good America, this must be what we mean. A land filled with people whose demand for upright character starts with themselves, and whose souls are strong enough to bear the weight of offense, and with forgiveness make that burden insubstantial.'

I like writing fantasy speeches. Might we expect such a thing from Ms. Clinton? Or from Mr. Obama, for his friend and mentor the Reverend Wright? Or from Sen. McCain, who apologized for a man who dared utter Obama's middle H-name? Time will tell. Let's not be cynical.

As for Geraldine, man, that bitch is old.


J