And yet you've had your frustrations with the Democratic Party this election cycle ...

As a registered Democrat, I'm depressed about the mediocre field that the party was able to launch. It's really amazing. One would think that the Democrats, energized by the progressive principles of my 1960s generation, would at least have a flair for political theater. But it's incredible how poorly Kerry's team has managed this campaign. A good example is that fiasco of a midnight rally after Bush's hyper-cinematic acceptance speech at the Republican Convention. It was painful to watch -- disorganized, rambling and graceless, with atrocious visuals.

I'm definitely voting for Kerry, however. I voted for Clinton twice and then Nader the last time around. But I wouldn't dream of voting for Nader this year, and not because he doesn't have a right to run -- any American does! But Nader exposed himself as a narcissist by being an invisible man for the past four years. Where the hell was he? I was eagerly looking to Nader to launch the Green Party, an authentic third party movement in this country that could challenge the ossified two-party system. I'm bitterly disillusioned with him.

At any rate, Kerry, I feel, is a genuinely thoughtful character -- perhaps too much so for in-the-trenches political warfare. As a campaigner, however, he seems to lack the kind of managerial ability and decisiveness that one expects in a president. For heaven's sake, if you're not even able to manage your own campaign without going backwards and recycling Clinton retreads, then there's something seriously deficient that doesn't bode well for your ability to appoint a Cabinet and referee disputes among them. Kerry sometimes seems like this sepulchrally isolated figure floating out there without the ability to make instinctual gut decisions the way Clinton always could.

Another thing is Kerry's total lack of facility with modern media communication. Clinton's genius for this -- for good and ill -- is becoming clearer and clearer. Kerry can't even work with a camera -- he doesn't understand it; he doesn't feel it's there. In speech after speech since the convention, he'll be delivering some sober, substantive policy address, and his eyes are going from left to right to left again, his head swiveling like a kewpie doll on a spring. He looks from one teleprompter to another and never lets the camera see him frontally. With those heavy lidded, hooded eyes, he rarely looks toward the lens. It's no wonder people feel as though they don't know him! By the third debate, he finally looked directly into the camera, and it was fantastic. It was the one debate where he finally started to connect with the American people. But as soon as he went out on the road again, it was gone again.

When we look back at Clinton's town hall debate with the first Bush, we can see Clinton's shrewd media skills. In fact, it practically makes you sick -- Clinton is so blatantly turning his face and body to get in full camera range, when even Bush is talking. There's one classic moment when Bush is standing and giving an answer, and Clinton is practically falling off his stool as he tries to get into the picture! So we had this preening parrot in the White House who would squeeze out fake tears at funerals as soon as the cameras turned on. It's incredible that Kerry seems to have learned no lessons at all from Clinton's mastery of mass communications. On the contrary, for months, Kerry as an unknown quantity, let himself be defined in the media by his right-wing opposition.

Recent Stories