In the last full day of campaigning before Tuesday's crucial primaries in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton says “I'm just getting warmed up.” She's battling to come back after Barack Obama's 11 wins in a row.

And to those who say Obama hasn't the experience nor has he elaborated on any single topic. Very true. I'm hoping that, like Bush only more competently, he surrounds himself with experience. Regardless, though my heart goes with whomever brings back the jobs and our economy, I have to vote to end the war. If that sounds like I'm throwing away a vote on a tunnel-vision view, so be it. There are still soldiers dying and being maimed daily. So what if the surge is “working”? There's no such thing as a winnable war, it's lie we just don't believe anymore.

I'm ashamed of what they did then, but I'm not ashamed of what they've done lately. Democrats have faithfully been trying to force an end to the war for the last year, but have been thwarted by vetoes and Senate filibusters. It's easy to blame them for “not getting the job done,” but it's not accurate. I wish there had been more ranting and raving in oversight hearings, and perhaps an impeachment trial or two, but the Dems clearly are hedging their bets and waiting for a landslide in November. THEY'D BETTER BE RIGHT.

The only beef I have with Dems since they took the majority is that they should have filibustered Bush's wiretapping bill in '06. I am proud of the House for (so far at least) saying “enough's enough” and letting that unconstitutional piece-of-shit law expire.

We can go back and forth on this all day (and we pretty much have). Yes, Jeff, Gore fucked up every way to Sunday–except for that annoying fact that he actually was the choice of the majority of people in this country–and his inability to carry either his state or Clinton's was inexcusable. (Though it wasn't altogether surprising, between Southern disgust with Clinton's cock and the fact that Gore actually tacked to the left of Clinton, with his whole “People vs. the Powerful” message.)

However, despite all the idealistic stuff about rights and responsibilities to run for office, out here in the world where elections are actually won and lost you'll never convince me of the utility in launching a third-party candidacy that takes votes from only one side of the electorate, with the potential result that the very issues you're arguing for are likely to languish for four to eight years.

Nader could have worked in all sorts of ways to change or improve the system, from grass-roots third-party advocacy and organizing at the state and local levels to lawsuits targeting big-money influence. Instead, as it turned out, he (and those who voted for him, either out of idealism or other reasons) set back his/their very own causes by peeling off enough of the Democratic vote that Bush was allowed to game the system in Florida.

And now he doesn't even have the Green Party–or, really, anybody at all–behind him, yet he still feels he has to throw himself into the breach. When you're a far-left contrarian and Bill Maher and Michael Moore are on their knees begging you not to run for president, maybe you should catch a clue.

What the DNC never wanted to acknowledge is that Nader filled the vacuum the party left when it moved to the center. But hey, if you want to sum this up as me blindly digging my heels in, have at it. I'll be quiet and follow the party line. That's what good Democrats are supposed to do, right?

In a democratic society, if you think you've got something to offer the people, then it's your right, if not your responsibility to run for office. It's the voter's responsibility to learn about you as a candidate and cast an informed ballot. Nader ran, and a few people voted for him. The level of indignity still being felt by Democrats all these years later is utterly absurd. Useful, not useful, whatever… it was a campaign. Clearly, it resonated with a segment of the voting public that had been abandoned by the Democrats.

Sure Nader had a right to run, but we're just gonna have to disagree on whether it was useful for him to do so. I thought he was pissing into the wind back then, the same way I do now. If his rationale in running this time is basically the same as it was in 2000–to argue that there's no difference between the two parties–then he should at least have the brains to recognize that the last eight years have proved the exact opposite is true.

I have more than enough anger to go around.