Senator John Warner wasn't just the senior Republican Senator for Virginia; he was one of the legendary senators, a member of Congress for thirty years with centrist views and stand-up values. In his retirement speech, this former Marine speaks about the impact his education at the University of Virginia law school had upon his life, and the decisions that took him to and from Charlottesville. He was one of five remaining WWII veterans in the Senate; the Greatest Generation produced some of our greatest legislators.

In this segment from CNN's "American Morning," two college students are asked to predict the '08 nominees for their respective parties. Republican Laura Elizabeth Morales picks Ron Paul, sending host Rick Sanchez into a near-apoplectic fit of disbelief.

Co-host Kiran Chetry tries to reign things in, explaining that while Morales has every right to prefer Paul, the question was about the likely nominee. But Morales just sticks to her guns, mitigating her choice with "idealistically." Well, "idealistically," I could hope that if I step in front of a bus, I don't get hit, but that does not actually affect my statistical chances of becoming a pancake.

Democrat Rachel Moore goes Morales one better and simply refuses to pick any candidate at all. She just blathers for a while about how anyone would be better than Bush, and all that matters is that some Democrat wins. She also can't be nailed down on the most important Democratic issue. In fact, when it comes to answering questions directly, Moore makes Morales look like a genius.

As a woman, I think it's great that "American Morning" found two college-aged women to represent the younger segments of the parties. But did they have to find these two?

Last night marked a watershed moment in American politics with the inaugural CNN/YouTube debate. Not unpredictably, the event had its champions and its critics.

For a good round-up of the critical reaction, check out this article on Wired.com. Most of the criticism, quite justifiably in my opinion, has been leveled at the final list of 39 questions (culled from more than 3,000 entries) that were picked by the event's organizers. Simply put, CNN/Youtube could have picked a much better way to represent the American people to the candidates and to the rest of the world.

This debate had the potential to have a massive impact on how candidates respond to questions, -- it could have made canned answers become candid ones. So why in the hell did they choose this question, which happened to be the most-viewed on the entire site? This kind of stuff belongs in The Onion, not in a nationally televised event that should help determine the future of a country enduring one of the biggest collective political crisis in its history. A little editorial discretion would have come in handy, don't you think?

For a comprehensive round-up of all the clips, check out the PoliticsTV YouTube channel.

From the non-threatening slogan of "Let the Conversation Begin" to toning down the hairspray just a tad, it seems that Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is currently focused on softening the candidate's image. You know, making her seem like one of "the common folk." Just a regular dame.

So perhaps it was an accident, leaving Hillary's mike on during the Star-Spangled Banner at this Iowa rally. But as Tony Kushner so eloquently put it in Angels in America, "The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing. He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it." It's nice to know that Hillary is just like the rest of us, vocal cords scrambling for that final note, knowing we'll never hit it.

Maybe next time, though, she can double-check that the mike is off? Fantastic. America can only take so much.