I miss George W. Bush.

Here's why...he's a flawed, but fundamentally decent human being. One with whom I disagreed on a great many things, of course, but still a decent person. While he was taken advantage of by narcissistic assholes, I truly believe he wanted to help people and the country as president. It was often tied in too closely with his Christianity for my taste, but I believe he wanted to make the world a better place. There was kindness and grace in the man's heart, and he truly cared about the men and women he put in harm's way. He did not take being president lightly. I think he was a disastrous president, but he made decisions I disagreed with for philosophical reasons. I don't think he did them to screw people over or boost his ego.

I feel the same way about Romney, McCain and Boehner. We disagree on a lot. I think they're wrong about the role government should play, and they'd probably think I'm naive. But I believe they care about public service and want to make the world a better place.

Trump is a sick person. It makes me sad that someone can be so awful and people of principle, like Rand Paul, still say "I'll support him as the nominee!" I don't think he'll be a tyrant. I think it's far more likely that he'll lose interest in the actual job after a few weeks and just embrace the celebrity aspects of it. He'll force his aides to cover for the fact that he doesn't pay attention during security briefings or know how the Constitution works. I see it developing into a Cheney situation where someone he picks has way more power than they should, and we saw how that worked out the last time.

I hate the false equivalencies that are coming out - "Hillary will be just as bad! She's just as corrupt!" That's bullshit. Hillary is John Boehner with more national security experience. She's been somewhere between a centrist and a slight Republican her entire adult life. She's not evil. Read her emails and you'll see that she actually cares about her staff and operates mostly in a sort of awkward kindness. She'll do dumb shit, because she's a Clinton, and they're habitual line-steppers. But they acknowledge that the lines exist. Trump will build a casino on the other side of the line where Putin will have the blackjack dealers murdered.