We are locked in

It is official, I am going to Oslo and Copenhagen and Hamburg for the honeymoon. Now all we have to do is find a way to pay for it. The usual spacy guy who misspells and leaves out crucial words here managed to book hotel rooms, buy a Eurail pass, and a ferry berth for two.

This past week was difficult for me, partially the school work and partially the events going on in the real world. I keep hoping that I will wake up and Bush won't have won, that Condi Rice won't be our new Secretary of State, or that Alberto Gonzales won't be our new Attorney General. At least in Ashcroft we got a guy who was more interested in seeming important than slavishly following the orders from the President. At least in Powell we got a guy trying rather weakly to have his views spread around the world, instead of slavishly parroting the Presidents.

Another interesting Washington Parlor game, who will replace Colin's son, Michael at the FCC? Which White House puppet will it be? How much money will Michael make in the private sector? Even if Colin wanted to run against Hillary or Spitzer in his native Empire State, would he have a ghost of a chance? I think not. After all, he bungled miserably on the international stage. I would say he is a good man but a terrible leader and terribly weak and indecisive. He failed to pursuade the President when it counted. While his people tried to get the press to say going to the UN was his idea, it really was the one requirement of Tony Blair's, not Powell's.

To think he could have been either parties' Nominee when he retired from the Army, to think that he might have beaten Bill Clinton in 1996 for the presidency. Colin Powell will now go down in history as one of the least effective, least influential Secretary of States in our history, especially considering the circumstances. Maybe his tell-all biography will recast his image some, but I expect it to tarnish Bush more than shine Powell.