O brave new world, that has such candidates in it

OK, now the Trojans have lost and I have read the entirety of B.O.'s speech, and I would say those are two big disappointments for the evening.

As far as I can tell, his speech was about unifying blacks and whites, although eventually he brought the Asians and Latinos into it, and then in the eleventh hour managed to throw Native Americans (yeah, remember them?) on the list. And I have yet to see him say anything other than flowery calls to Make Things Better. How? We'll never know...

Yeah, I must say, it really frustrates me -- perhaps more than it should -- when I ask repeatedly WHAT specifically it is about B.O. that you are all fawning over and all I get is "He is inspiring." It's so evangelical ... but it's also annoying and illogical.

I'm tired.

Here are a few people who I find very inspiring: Gloria Steinem. Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi. Bob Dylan. John Adams. Thomas Jefferson, too. And you know what I can tell you about them? Accomplishments. Specifics. Thoughts that can be articulated.

Whatever. You can't reason with this kind of evangelical fervor. Just like you don't reason with people when you want to dominate them; you give them soma and feelies.

And once again I must point out that I don't even dislike B.O. himself. (How could I? I don't know anything about him. I literally know more about his wife -- because of the recent piece about her in The New Yorker.) That's the whole thing. Unlike Monster Dubya Bush, ol' B.O. seems like there's nothing particularly malicious about him. But his followers...