John Edwards is about to endorse Barack Obama — in Michigan. And at the same time Hillary is scheduled to appear on a lot of evening news programs.

Sweet news! Brilliant tactics. Overshadow Hillary Clinton’s huge but meaningless victory in West Virginia yesterday. Steal the headlines, the limelight, and maybe the time slot. And top it off by making the announcement in Michigan, where the voting status of the delegates is in dispute.

Edwards’ motives in making the announcement, and in making it now, are open to interpretation, and heaven knows the pundits are interpreting and analyzing like crazy. He might want to be vice-president; he might have simply decided that Obama is the inevitable winner and he wants to get on board — perhaps for a cabinet post. In any case, it brings backs memories of Obama and Edwards doing their tag team routine against Hillary in that one debate. At the very least, the endorsement, coming from a man who champions poor and working class Americans, may help with the voting sector that Obama lost in WV.

Interestingly, Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, is not with him in Michigan. The pundits seem to think it might be because she supports Hillary. I’m more inclined to think it might be because of her health. The last few times she’s appeared on TV, I’ve thought she looked unwell, as compared to her appearance at the beginning of the campaign.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! John Edwards endorsed Barack today.

It should be enough for any Obama supporter that Hillary Clinton lose this never-ending Democratic primary. Pulling ahead of her in the superdelegate count this week has been sweet. So, too, the idea of moving on to the general election, winning in November, and finally bringing to an end the long, ugly Bush presidency.

It should be enough just to relish the non-inevitability of another Clinton co-presidency. A winner, after all, should be a good sport, someone who doesn’t gloat publicly about winning. (Of course, no one likes a sore loser, either. Or a guest too oblivious or ungracious to leave when the party’s over.)

It should be enough, this snowballing roll toward an Obama victory. But it isn’t. So as the Obama campaign turns its attention to John McCain and the Republicans, supporters can begin to savor what might turn out to be the most deliciously satisfying part of this entire election cycle — watching the Clintons’ unstoppable, irreversible slide into irrelevance.

North Carolina and Indiana are having their presidential primaries today. Can you sense my excitement? yawwwn …

You may have been astute enough to notice I’ve gone somewhat apolitcal recently. Frankly, I’ve grown colossally tired of this campaign. I’m just waiting for it to be over. Or it least move on to the conventions and general election.

My involvement for several weeks has consisted only of running errands with an Obama sticker on my bumper (it comes off as easily as it went on, if that becomes necessary).

Nevertheless, I do have and few comments and observations:

• Obama’s my candidate if he doesn’t shoot himself in the foot between now and November.
• Rev. Wright was becoming an increasingly irrelevant old man who hurt Obama, intentionally or not. Then he made his very intentional appearance at the National Press Club last week and confirmed that he is egomaniacal, vindictive, and quite possibly not playing with a full deck.
• Clinton will say anything to anybody to get elected, and neither she nor McCain can do a damn thing about gas prices this summer (Bush won’t let it happen). Can you say P_A_N_D_E_R?
• Michigan and Florida delegates should be seated at the Democratic convention out of politeness, but not allowed to vote, because those are the rules agreed to by everyone before the primaries started.
• Howard Dean has been a weak, mealy-mouthed party chairman who allowed the Mich/Fla mess to happen. (It never should have become an “issue” to be settled; those two states took themselves out of the game before it began. End of story.)
• McCain is a warmonger with a notoriously hot temper. I don’t want his finger on the trigger or his belligerence at the negotiating table.
• Whoever said Hillary has “testicular fortitude” must have their genders confused. Then again …  maybe not.
• Whether I like them or not, I have nothing but admiration for the sheer physical stamina of the candidates in maintaining the pace they have for so long. Me, I get tired just hearing about it.

The legendary Kentucky Derby was run today. And as I do almost every year — indeed, almost every time a horse race is televised — I watched it. And once again I’m wondering why I did.

You see, I was one of those stereotypical horse-crazy little girls … almost half a dozen decades ago. And I never really outgrew it. I’ve never stopped thinking horses are beautiful, majestic animals, a pleasure to watch. So I watch horse races, not because I bet on races or care anything about the racing industry, but just because I love to watch horses run.

And I’ll never get used to seeing a horse “break down,” or suffer an injury in a race. The injuries are almost always fatal, not in themselves but because the horses are euthanized. The euphemism “break down” tells the story. That the racing industry could invest so much time and money in these animals and then be so cavalier when the animal literally dies for them, is a tragedy. These are sentient beings, after all, not machines.

I’m trying not to over-romanticize horses and what is just a business for so many people. Horses are high-strung animals and racing stresses their bodies to the max. Their lower legs and “ankles” are no bigger around than your arm, and those fragile legs support and propel an animal weighing some 1200 pounds, plus a rider. To that add their breeding and training, so all they know is to run as hard as they can. It’s a wonder they don’t break something every time they take a step.

If a horse dies while racing … well, that’s the nature of the business. It is called gambling, after all. If those were equally matched robots out there on the track, there would be a tie every time. Where’s the sport in that?

A filly named Eight Belles died today at the Derby. She was out there running with the guys (you’ll have to excuse me for being a bit partial) and finished a strong second, winning a hefty chunk of change for her backers. Then she collapsed on the track, both front ankles broken.

But hey, that’s the way it goes, right? Business is business. Things happen. Racing is, after all, much more humane these days, and race tracks are well prepared for these unfortunate (but obviously not unforeseen) occurrences. Eight Belles was euthanized almost immediately as she lay there on the track between two horse ambulances; a licensed veterinarian was on the scene. What progress. In the old days some bystander would have just pulled out a gun and shot her. Either way, a beautiful animal is dead. Some sport.

So here I am, in tears, because I chose to watch another horse race. The racing industry bet that people like me would watch. And they won. I bet I could enjoy watching another horse race. And I lost. Again. (Remember Ruffian? Barbaro?) Lesson learned.

At a town hall meeting in Denver today, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona revealed what he thinks about oil and U.S. involvement in the Middle East:

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will — that will then prevent us — that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

The remark was made at a Jewish community center before a crowd of about 300 people, as McCain replied to a question. Without Sen. Joe Liebermann there to whisper a correction in his ear, McCain’s remark stands. And it certainly sounds as though he is saying oil is the only reason the U.S. is in the Middle East. End our need for Middle East oil, and we’ll never, ever, fight there again.

Gaffe? We may never know what McCain meant to say; the video only shows what he said. Blood for oil. What some have been saying all along.  

Originally posted in 2004, and recently expanded:

1. People who ding my car
2. Hangnails
3. Telemarketers
4. Paper cuts
5. Door-to-door hustlers
6. The “F” word outside of “R” rated movies
7. Reporters who mangle the English language (when did our schools stop teaching grammar?)
8. Religious people who think I should be
9. Bosses who know less than I do about my job
10. Anyone or anything that wakes me up
11. Zits (not fair at my age!)
12. Single-ply toilet paper
13. Ambulance-chasing lawyers who advertise on TV (e.g: Jim ”The Hammer” Shapiro)
14. Headaches
15. That lone mosquito in my bedroom that I can hear in the dark … waiting …
16. Honorary degrees (they dishonor real degrees and the people who earn them)
17. Rain on my parades
18. Canker sores
19. People who own vicious dogs (I blame the owner, not the dog)
20. Paper towels that don’t absorb
21. Detectable lip-synching
22. Sheet marks on my face (Me, napping? Nahhh!)
23. Ridiculous use of the word frack in “Battlestar Galactica”
24. Voice mail (this is customer service?)
25. Flyers taped to my front door
26. Clear packing tape that won’t relinquish a strip until I’ve picked away half the roll
27. All those unwanted phone books that seem to breed on my porch
28. The perverseness of inanimate objects (you know the ones I’m talking about)
29. Sun in my eyes when I’m looking for that “must-not-miss” exit sign at 70 mph
30. Nail polish that wasn’t dry after all
31. Food caught in my teeth
32. That one little bristly hair on my chin that I can feel but can’t see to tweeze
33. Doctors who say “discomfort” when they mean ”pain”
34. Pouring a cup of coffee, then discovering I’m out of CoffeeMate
35. Indestructible, hermetically sealed, tamper-proof, absolutely unopenable plastic packaging
36. Dead car batteries that don’t announce themselves until I have to go someplace
37. Four-year-olds spouting four-letter words
38. Shipping charges that exceed the cost of the item
39. An eyelash in my eye
40. 200-tablet-sized bottles sold with 20 tablets and a big  wad of cotton
41. Knowing that as soon as I post this list, I’ll think of something else …

Wal-Mart started it. The $4 generic prescription deal. Saves hundreds of dollars for millions of patients. Or does it?

Recently my supermarket pharmacy joined the $4 prescription parade so I’m finally going to get an up-close look at all the hoopla. Until now, convenience has trumped price shopping, and I haven’t been willing to drive to Wal-Mart for my scripts.

When I picked up my refills last week at my supermarket’s pharmacy, the first thing I noticed was that I was charged exactly $4 for the least expensive refill. Curious, I checked my old receipts when I got home and, sure enough, previously I’d only paid $1.52 for the same drug.

Having recently changed insurance plans, such comparisons are going to be a bit complicated for me. But however it shakes out, it got me thinking. Retailers of all kinds are in business to make a profit. They don’t give you something for nothing. So, Thought #1: A lot of old generic drugs have cost less than $4 for a long time. Have their prices now been raised to the magic $4? And Thought #2: How much have the prices of higher cost drugs — generics not on the list and brand name drugs — been raised to offset any actual losses with the $4 drugs?

I picked up a slick little brochure listing all the drugs on my pharmacy’s $4 list. It made interesting reading. The first thing I noticed were the non-prescription drugs that have been available over-the-counter (OTC; without a prescription) for years. Guaifenesin DM (guaifenesin with dextromethorphan), an expectorant/cough syrup combo, is available OTC as Robitussin DM, Musinex DM, and a generic. I don’t know if it’s cheaper from the pharmacy or off the store shelf, or if the strength is the same. Certainly that should be checked out. On the other hand, the last time the doctor gave me a prescription for Musinex DM and I presented it to the pharmacist, she referred me to the boxes out on the store shelf.

Another drug on the list is ibuprofen, in three different strength tablets and a liquid. The name is as ubiquitous as aspirin for most adults, because it has been available OTC as Advil and in generic form for many years. If the dosages don’t match the strength your doctor recommends, adjust accordingly by taking more or less. Unless, of course, the pharmacy’s $4 is a cheaper way to go; but won’t that require a prescription from your doctor? Is it worth it to you to get a prescription?

Naproxen (aka Aleve), another pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, also appears on the list. It, too, is an OTC drug, available generically. The same is true with ranitidine (Zantac), a stomach acid reducer.

Loratadine is on the $4 list. It’s sold OTC as Claritin or Alavert, an antihistamine. Recently it has become available OTC as a generic, too. So which is cheaper, off the shelf or from the pharmacy? And if you get an actual prescription, is the pharmacist going to fill it from her stock, or direct you out to the open store shelf? If you then buy it off the open shelf, will you pay $4 because you had a script, or will you end up paying more (or less)?

Further complicating the picture is the issue of generics vs. brand names. In the past there has been great concern that generics were less effective than brand names, or perhaps of lesser or varying quality. I shared that concern for a long time, perhaps because I was so close to the world of medicine and Big Pharma. Without question, it was to Big Pharma’s advantage to promote this thinking and keep us buying their brand names. Today, though, with my budget being as big a concern as my health, I’ve taken a wider view; generics, after all, are regulated by the FDA (for whatever that fallible agency’s regs are worth).

Bottom line, I don’t believe Big Pharma is sitting idly by while $4 price plans reduce their profits. And pharmacies still have to buy their stock somewhere. And they all want to make a profit. So call me crazy (it wouldn’t be the first time), but I have my doubts about how much the pharmacies are actually saving us with these $4 drug programs.