I CRIED buckets when I realized that a prior commitment would prevent me from going to the rally for Barack Obama in Vernon Park in Germantown on Saturday.
Instead, I dutifully got up at 4 a.m. to drive to the state capital to fulfill my other professional obligations and promote the CHIP at Family Day held at Harrisburg High School.
I sent two of my daughters to see Obama and report back to me on their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in history in the making.
The 21-year-old, who dutifully took her 12-year-old sister and bought two Obama shirts for her boyfriend, was duly chastised for not bringing me one.
But I softened up as the warrior of my four daughters, who normally keeps her emotions under wraps, said that Obama moved her to tears.
"It's the way that he inspires people," she told me enthusiastically, still in awe. "McCain is so stiff, he always looks like he's mad." I agreed, especially when he's pointing to "that one," as he calls Obama.
The latest Newsweek poll shows Obama leading McCain 52-41 percent, and McCain looks like he's ready to implode.
That same poll indicates that 82 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo and that President Bush, who has historically low ratings, is leaving the nation in financial shambles.
'MAVERICK" or not, McCain looks frightened and bitter and seems to lack the confidence he had when he introduced Sarah Palin.
Plenty of voters now realize that her role was to distract us from the issues as she got a chance to practice for the future. French film legend-turned-activist Brigitte Bardot calls her a "disgrace to women," but I take those sentiments a step further.
Palin's not only a disgrace to the rest of us who wear lipstick and heels, but also to the entire GOP. Whoever had the idea of anointing her as McCain's running mate has made a mockery of presidential politics.
After her first disastrous interview with Charles Gibson and the subsequent one with CBS' Katie Couric, voters caught on that she isn't exactly the sharpest tack in the box.
And her (wouldn't answer any questions) debate with Joe Biden was further proof of her intellectual limitations.
