I've missed MSNBC like crazy during the Olympics; today, they're running a full slate of programming, starting with a five hour Morning Joe right now.

Technically, it started with an hour of Alex Witt at 6, but I'm not a fan.

Who else is watching? And why does Joe look so red? Is it my TV? Or did he fall asleep in the sun?

Reading some of the comments in the recommended Tony Snow diary this morning reminded me of something that I'm sure isn't going to be popular around here:

With few exceptions, the other side -- the Republicans -- even the ones in the Bush administration -- even Bush himself -- aren't evil people. I know it's tempting to draw comparisons to fiction -- Cheney is Voldemort! Karl Rove is Roland Flagg! -- and I know the temptation to compare these folks to Hitler and his crew is also strong, Godwin's Law be damned -- but really, I think it's off-base.

Don't get me wrong -- I think there are some of them who actually do rise to the level of evil, and more on that in a moment -- but for the most part, I don't think Republicans -- whether rank-and-file or party leadership -- are evil because they're opposed to (big D) Democratic ideals; they're just misguided and mistaken people, who just like us, are trying to do their best.

I don't know what I did to get on the AFA's email list, but I do love having fun with their "action alerts" when they come through, usually once every week or two.

Today's frantic email implores us all to email our United States Senators to express our support for the "Marriage Protection Amendment of 2008, which would make marriage legal only between a man and a woman."

As usual, I changed a few words in their pre-written missive to better reflect my personal views, and clicked to send.

EDIT: I am talking about the USERS of this site, not the site itself. It's a user-driven community. I don't expect Kos to put up an Obama banner up top.

You know, this just struck me in a Louisiana results thread, and I'm going to say it here as well:

Some say this is a pro-Obama website.

Well, why shouldn't this be a pro-Obama site?

Stating my bias up front: I'm an Obama fan, trying to be pragmatic. I like Hillary; I like Bill. I like the image of conservatives frothing at the mouth and having to put up with eight more years of a Clinton in the White House. I like the idea of Elliott Spitzer appointing Bill to fill her Senate seat.

I like all of that, but I love Obama. I think he changes the conversation, and I think he makes it possible to escape the partisan hatred that we've been living with so long. I think he can attract disaffected Americans from both sides to work to make this country great again.

So, that's my overall perspective and bias. I don't think Hillary is evil; I don't think we lose if she's the nominee -- I just prefer Obama. Here are some specific thoughts.

Let me show you them:

This is going to aggravate some people.

That's OK.

For me, personally, the single most important quality in the President of the United States is his or her ideology. Meaning, their general stance on the issues that matter the most to me. To that end, I'd back any of the Democrats in a general election -- if we go to a brokered convention this summer and come out with Mike Gravel as the nominee, he's got my vote.

That out of the way, once I know we're on the same page at that level, I'm interested in the personal characteristics -- the leadership ability -- of the person I'm voting for.

Apparently, there's some attempt now to claim that the evil media selectively edited the Clinton comments about Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson in an attempt to make it appear that Clinton was actually answering some previous question, and not the one we heard on the tape, when he started talking about Jesse Jackson's wins in South Carolina.

I'm sure you'll be completely shocked to discover that didn't happen.

Let's say that somehow -- suspend your disbelief -- somehow, God comes down, surprising the hell out of you, especially if you don't actually believe in God, but play along for the moment:

God comes down and says to you, "Hey, how's it going? Look, I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is I've decided a Republican is going to with the next election. It's going to be one of the ones already running, but I'm not sure who I want it to be.

"The good news? You get to pick."

You know, I really enjoy politics.

As I sat here drinking coffee, eating breakfast, and typing this up this morning, I realized that this is really pretty fun for me. I like thinking about who would make a good VP pick. I like looking at polls and wondering who's going to be closest today in South Carolina (Fox, I bet, because they have McCain winning by the most, and it's snowing upstate, where Huckabee's support is strongest.) I like making the occasional wise-ass comment that aggravates people.

Politics is really just another sort of fandom; it's got its fan theories (OMG MEDIA CONSPIRACY); it's got its own version of fanfic (CLINTON/OBAMA UNSTOPPABLE TICKET) (though, you could argue The West Wing is our most epic (and awesome) fictional production); it's got its share of overinvested fans with entitlement issues (I'M VOTING GREEN IF XXXX ISN'T THE NOMINEE!).

Hmm. I should actually make that my first unpopular opinion -- that politics is fun -- and change the title, but nah.

Six more, likely unpopular, opinions:

I used to tell people that I really liked Barack Obama, but that I wished he'd been able to get in a term or two as Illinois governor before running for the presidency. You know, because then he'd have "executive experience."

At some point, it occurred to me that this was probably a silly argument to make. Being President of the United States is vastly different than any other job in the country, and really, in the world; being governor even of a state the size of Illinois (or Texas!) probably has as much relevance to being President of the United States as being in student council has to being the president of your state senate. The scope of what you're managing is so vastly different that there's just no comparison to be made.

That was easy enough. Bogus argument put down. End of diary, right? Wow, why did I even post this?

Oh, right.

MY CANDIDATE HAS MORE FOREIGN POLICY EXPERIENCE THAN YOURS DOES!!!!!

ETA: Looks like this is probably a hoax. I'd delete it entirely, but with 75 comments, that seems wrong to me. But what the hell do I know? I got suckered by a hoax, apparently. My first diary ever.

I'm in Montreal on a business trip.

The banner headline on the newspaper waiting outside my door this morning, The National Post, is as follows:

IRAN EYES BADGES FOR JEWS
Law would require non-Muslim insignia.

I've had CNN on since I woke up at 6:30 this morning. Not a word from the O'Brien's about this.
Nothing on the front page of MSNBC or CNN.com.
Nothing at Drudge.
Nothing here -- yet.

Dear God, what is going ON in the world? And how is this not the top story everywhere? Is my lapsed Jewish background suddenly poking through? Is that why no one else is freaking out about this yet?

I'm just stunned.