There has been quite a bit of press about Barack Obama’s campaign, and its fundraising efforts. (He raised a record [for a Democrat] $32.5 million in the last 3 months). I discovered last week that his campaign was seeking 250,000 distinct donors by the end of June. When I logged onto his website, I saw that he was about 4,500 donors short. I decided to jump into the political process, and I made a donation. When I logged on later that day, they'd passed the 250,000 donors goal. I'm pleased to see that so many individuals want to get involved, and that maybe a grass roots campaign has begun. The other cool thing? A ticker tape of each donor's first name and home town streams across the screen, and I saw my name go by! The bad news? Having made a donation, I will be unable to answer my phone until mid-November, 2008.

As I had previously noted, I think the candidates (declared and potential) for president - both Republican and Democrat - are the most diverse we have ever seen. We have a woman, an African American, a Mormon, a Jewish man, and a frequently divorced Italian in contrast to the usual limited selection of Protestant males. It will be interesting to see which prejudices Americans hold most dear, and which we may have overcome . . .. I'm afraid though, that we haven't come far enough, and will have to endure 4 years of Fred Thompson's smugness - it's bad enough on Law & Order, let alone in a national debate. Thompson has now passed Romney as the candidate I'd least like to see elected.