but can you fool all of the people?

As I write this, a different kind of writing is on the wall for the Kerry campaign. Let the smugness begin. I mean, I am going to sit back smugly and wait for Bush and his cronies to demonstrate that (a) they talk to God and God talks to them, (b) we really are winning the war on terror, (c) our economy is doing just fine, and (d) the Bush Administration is of such high moral caliber that we will not, during the next four years, see a single episode of corruption or feeding at the public trough by any Republican office holder or business executive.

Go ahead. Show me. After six decades, I am a patient man. We survived the Cold War and "duck and cover" drills (cower under your school desk to protect yourself from the atomic bomb aimed at MacDill Air Force Base that we all knew would miss and hit us instead). We survived Nikita ("We will bury you") Khrushchev and Fidel's Russian missiles. We saw the Berlin Wall come down (for which Reagan claimed entirely too much credit) and the USSR fall. We survived Reagonomics, although he embodied a hatred for government that still cripples the ability of the government to serve the people. We survived Ford and Clinton. We survived Newt Gingrich and his Contract on America. We have survived the first four years of George W. Bush, although few can truly say we are better off today than we were four years ago.

So, go ahead. Show me. I frankly do not believe you know God's will any more than Osama knows Allah's will. I do not believe we are winning the war on terror (a contradiction in terms), and do not believe any of the other "heifer dust" you have thrown at the people during this campaign. But I expect campaign promises to be kept. You have four years to demonstrate that you are as good as you think you are, even though a second-term President is answerable to no one.

In the meantime, may God help us all, if we are still worthy of his help.