Elections in AmericaLand

How difficult it is not to slip into bouts of cynicism, as we watch the candidates on both sides of the non-existent divide get ready to trample across New Hampshire.

There was Clinton-squared in Idaho on a flatbed truck, miming a perfect marriage, Giuliani taking heat from the largest firefighters' union over inaccurate claims made by his team, and McCain re-arranging the deck chairs on his doomed vessel of a campaign.

There was President Bush commuting Cheney's right-hand man, "Scooter" Libby, and the press blinked their eyes repeatedly, rolled over and played dead. Surely somewhere, a relaxed Rumsfield is polishing his notes for a lecture circuit that will have him laughing all the way to the bank.