Barak, Barak, Barak!

They have you turning into a Washington insider!

Your dream of being a different kind of politician is dissipating into becoming a proclaimer of positions from which you will have a hard time backing away. That allows your opponents to back you into corners and disturbs those who have been your friend.

Do you actually believe there are a lot of women who wait until the last two weeks of their pregnancy and then on a whim go for a late term abortion? I hope Hilary and Michelle and any other intelligent woman who knows you has gotten on your case big time!

You almost make a save by bringing in the concern for the medical necessity to save the mother with which nearly everyone agrees. But you let the questioner or your opponent or your advisors put forward something that is so unlikely that it is an urban myth.

Those ultra-conservatives who believe in welfare queens and careless abortions won't vote for you anyway! But now you are stuck with a public statement of policy which makes you sound like a wingnut.

That's the problem. Old time politics is made up making pronouncements. You've already had to go back and try to clear up something you just said a few hours before. Try not to let anyone set you up to make you have to do that.

If you have to do that, I appreciate it that you take responsibility yourself instead of letting someone else cover a mistake and speak for you.

But as I understand your basic political mode, it is to consult with those who know something about the concern, including the victims, practitioners, opponents, students, and scholars as well as politicians before making a decision.

Your best opinions on complex issues cannot possibly be formed in 95% of the areas you are being questioned about! Who cares about your damned opinion!

I know you can't put off all statements until you've had a chance to consult across the board and across the aisle. But you can at least leave us hopeful that you have not absolutely made up your mind on more than just a few very basic things, like knowing you don't yet have a full set of information on most things!

And that you cannot see the Iraq occupation continuing any longer than the safety of our troops and of those Iraqis who need to come out with us allows.

And that you can provide your fundamental principles without necessarily prejudging the best solutions.

All the folks who wish they were President want desperately to be able to make other people take their opinions, whether fully informed or not, as the last word. The current President thinks he is the decider. And no one really pays any attention to him any more, not even himself.

That is the "old" politics which allows for partisanship which tears apart the government.

Don't fall into that mental trap!

A philosophy professor once said to our class, "How do you know what you'd know if you knew what you don't know?"

Be cool. Be humble Be open. Don't let us feel like you've already made up your mind on things we know are really tough. Tell us your starting point but be careful not to tell us your last word on anything but the most basic things important to you and about which you really do know! If you really do know, then teach us so we understand how you got there, as you did on the issue of race.

Oh yeah, it would be great if you do that on any other major decision you have to make, preferably before you set that decision in stone.

Temptation to have to offer your opinions on everything is a power game you must avoid.