Today was the solstice. Good riddance to shorter days! Today the news shows basically focused on a couple of things - one was Obama and what he is doing and the other was Caroline Kennedy and whether she should inherit a senate seat.

For the most part, Obama gets OK marks, although some of the pundits did say that he was caught a bit by surprise at the voracity at the opposition to his invitation to let the so called "pastor Rick" do the invocation at the inauguration. I'm with those opposing Warren. But, and I'm sure Obama and his team calculated this, it isn't enough for me to "abandon" Obama before he even starts.

But Obama needs to be warned that he can only push things so far, and then he really starts risking tearing apart his coalition at the left edge. If he thinks he can survive that, ok...but can he? Might not be a great strategy, and all great minds make mistakes. I do hope that Obama is smarter than that. I think he is. But we will see.

As far as the Caroline Kennedy senate appointment goes, I like her. And she does have Obama's ear. But, are we a democracy or a kingdom? I thought we had a revolution so that we didn't have a kingdom. Obama said he was going to bring change, but all I see is the same old names that we have seen before. So much for change. But then again, as I've said before, maybe he can lead the same ol' people to a different result. We'll see. The press is calling it pragmatism. I'm calling it political debt. That's the problem with the two big parties.

Nevertheless, I think she will be the next U.S. Senator from N.Y. We'll see. And I am pretty sure that Obama will be a better president than Bush. But he could stumble. We all forget our lines from time to time, and he could. But I'm hopeful that he is a good leader and will take our nation to good places.