AND....

I'm back.

Well, almost. We'll arrive back in Athens on Friday. I've done lots of reading, watching and listening that I want to write about. Also...lots of great food and activities I want to write about.

I'll have pictures.

But until then...read this interview with Elizabeth Edwards. As you all know, I feaking LURVE this lady. She is so fantastic. I want her to run. But I'll settle for her being the next First Lady.

Pay particular attention to her analysis about Hillary Clinton [and her good second wave feminism pitch in the midst]. So many people ask me why Clinton isn't my pick for 08. I struggle with my answer. Edwards articulates it SO much better than I do. All I've been able to get out is "She isn't as left on women's issues as she claims..." And then I start talking about Bill* and centrism in 08**.

Look, I'm sympathetic, because when I worked as a lawyer, I was the only woman in these rooms, too, and you want to reassure them you're as good as a man. And sometimes you feel you have to behave as a man and not talk about women's issues. I'm sympathetic -- she wants to be commander in chief. But she's just not as vocal a women's advocate as I want to see. John is. And then she says, or maybe her supporters say, "Support me because I'm a woman," and I want to say to her, "Well, then support me because I'm a woman." The question is not so much how she campaigns -- that's theater. The question is, what does her campaign tell you about how she'll govern? And I'm not convinced she'd be as good an advocate for women. She needs a rationale greater for her campaign than I've heard. When she announced her candidacy she said, "I'm in it to win it." What is that? That's not a rationale. Same with Senator Obama -- I've yet to hear a rationale. John is extremely clear about what he can accomplish and why he's the one to do it.

* Love him

** Against it