For a number of reasons (trying to exemplify "open minded" to my students, wearing my "ONE" t-shirt, and wondering what the hell the attraction is) I went to the Huckabee rally today at Clemson. Honestly, having just seen Edwards speak here, I wondered how alike they would be. And I can say now that they were almost exactly the same. Except that one of them was kind of a scary, backwards, freakshow.

I had the chance to see John Edwards "up close and personal" when he held a small rally at the University where I work today. Turnout was quite respectable, especially for a university as solidly conservative as ours. They introduced him by saying he'd been a walk-on for our football team his first year of college. I had not known that.

He looked as handsome and put-together as he always does, but you could tell (if you were close enough, as I was) that he was a bit tired. Nevertheless, he gave a rousing speech, replete with his familiar stories--Nataline, James Lowe etc. More importantly, though, was the way he connected with South Carolina. It gave me hope that perhaps it isn't over for John Edwards, no matter how much the media want to call the primaries for the front-runners already.

Two weeks ago, Joycelyn Elders spoke at a conference I was attending in Little Rock, and among the bits of wisdom she shared was this: We don't have a health care system. We have a sick care system, because the system doesn't care, until you're sick, and even then they don't care unless you can pay. (That's as close to word-for-word quote as memory allows.) Her words resonated with me, because I'd just had the experience of accompanying my daughter to the emergency room, after a car accident. It was my first opportunity to see just how sick this system really is.

Many of you already know me, from my frequent correspondence, asking you to support or fight against various pieces of legislation. Today, however, I am contacting you with a different sort of request. I need a favor from you, and it will take a while--at least until the end of the 2008 election cycle. Here's what I need: A personal commitment from each and every one of you not to do anything illegal, unethical, or especially anything sexually embarrassing.