NP: Allan Holdsworth, Secrets (CD)

Look out, I'm going political.

Q. Is it too late for Wesley Clark to have a chance at the Democratic presidential nomination?
A. Lots of people would like you to think so, but I have to imagine that with recent polls indicating that the majority of Americans can't even identify a single Democratic candidate, how do you figure? Granted, I don't remember the details of said poll, and it was certainly before Howard Dean graced the covers of both Time and Newsweek, but I still think it matters.

The ultra-localized nature of the primary season makes it tough to gauge from my comfy perch in Chicago, but the field seems awfully wide-open right now, and the amount of press surrounding Clark's announcement dropped him in the race just behind Dean and John Kerry, again according to polls.

Q. Is the president's admission that Saddam Hussein wasn't at all involved in 9/11 going to hurt him politically?
A. I'm really curious to see how this plays out, because I honestly have no idea. On the one hand, the Washington Post has trumpeted the finding that a full 70% of Americans think Hussein was involved, and the Bush administration has been mentioning Hussein and 9/11 in the same sentence for nearly two years. On the other hand, they never expressly stated he was responsible, in an awfully Clinton-esque campaign of wordplay for an alleged "straight shooter" like Dubya.

Even Dick Cheney, in highly publicized and ridiculed comments over the weekend, didn't actually say that. He implied it very strongly, though, and the big unknown is whether or not the same 7 out of 10 who thought the administration and their media allies were making the explicit connection will blame the source for misleading them, or blame themselves for falling for it and let Bush off the hook. I know the other 3 of us are dying to find out.