Does anyone think for a minute that George W.l Bush will ever realize the tragedy of his Presidency? He smiles and cavorts around the world, giving profound speeches while sternly looking into the camera. Does he not realize that everyone in the world is laughing at him?

Barack Obama was received in foreign lands as a celebrity. John McCain is making sure that we are all quite aware of this fact. But McCain does not understand. Obama is not received as a celebrity for his own charisma and intelligence - the world is hoping for something other than George Bush. McCain does not offer the promise of anything different.

Truly amazing, we were graced with Elvis. Elvis Presley came into my life through Ed Sullivan. The Sunday evening custom in our home was chocolate cupcakes with white icing while we watched Ed Sullivan.

My older brothers and I could not sit still on the old wood floor - while my mother and father wondered what was happening. (I sat on that same wood floor a few years later and watched the Beatles on Sullivan). The television editors of the late 1950’s found Elvis’s hip and leg movements to be too risky for family television so they broadcast Elvis from the waist up. Check out these early television videos:

Growing old does not mean growing smart.  People like to say, “It took me a long time to realize that my parents were right.”  The suggestion is older people are always smarter - always right.  That has not been my experience.

I am one who is considered ‘older.’  Some think I am pretty smart - others think I am a fool - so I guess my ages, by itself, does not defend me.  There are many baby-boomers around today that have not learned much in their lives.  How many of us know old people who are just not very wise or thoughtful.  Old people who defend and protect their errant thoughts - justifying their belief with their years.

Nasty wins in short term political elections - but nasty does not serve well as a way of life - or as a way of domestic or foreign policy. But that is what the country has experienced. So now we have a new election. The election of 2008 will be studied closely by historians. This is one of those pivotal (hopefully) global elections that either corrects or affirms the course of humanity for the next several decades.