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Let the race begin, or maybe not. The announcement that Gen Clark was entering the race would seem to fill the dance card with 10 candidates. At least that is what I thought, until the NY Daily News reported that Bill Clinton said that his wife is a maybe. Presidential politics is great theater, and as we enter fall in NH we are only seeing Act One. It should be fun

If you are John Kerry do you wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, wondering how in the world a Governor from Vermont did this to me? The Dean craze is unbelievable.

This evening I got a call from Ted Kennedy. Well, at least his recorded voice. (In the previous weeks, I’ve gotten a similar call from John Edwards, and a real call from an Iowa-based pollster for Kerry. If you’ve ever voted in Iowa, come caucus-time, people want to talk with, or at, you.)

Senator Kennedy was calling to invite me to a reception this Saturday at a Waterloo, Iowa church for his good friend Senator John Kerry. Kennedy’s voice briefly recounted all of the good things that Kerry has done, but notably left out anything about Kerry’s stance against the war in Iraq.

Dateline: Hamburg Inn, Iowa City Sept 19 The General didn't order the famed Hash Browns Deluxe but instead served his own remarks to a gathering of health care workers, University of Iowa students and veterans from WW II, Korea and Vietnam.

This group of about 50 listened as Clark spoke and answered questions about his recently announced campaign. Later that day in a speech in the University's student union, Clark addressed an enthusiastic crowd of 1,000 concerning foreign policy the bulk of which is contained in Clark's forthcoming book WINNING MODERN WARS (Perseus Press. October release, $20).

Candidates mean well. But frankly, as long as the Boston Red Sox are still in the playoff hunt, most folks in New Hampshire won't pay a great deal of attention to their other favorite sport -- Presidential politics. This fact was implicitly acknowledged by candidates Kerry and Dean this week, when Kerry "went negative" on Dean, charging him with, of all things, being a New York Yankees fan. He may as well have called the man a Communist. Dean responded quickly with a denial, saying he had converted to Red Sox nation in 2000, and was now loyal to the Olde Towne team. Personally, I don't know if I could trust a candidate who was ever a Yankees fan, but the question for me now is about Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, from that "neutral zone" between Massachusetts and New York. So, Senator L., Red Sox or Yankees?