It's too late to start this post, but I'll give you a little glimpse.

I went to my first Clark meetup tonight (been meaning to check them out for months, but you know how that goes). It was significantly smaller than the Denver Dean outpouring last week, but a very respectable size (45 people), and so much better organized and more interesting. The Dean folks could learn a bit from these people.

More on that soon (Tuesday evening, hopefully).

I told the Clark people up front that I was supporting both candidates--assuming they are both candidates; we'll know soon. Some of them were not thrilled with that, and I bet some of the Deaniancs will be even less so. I'm just thrilled to have two good choices. Most years I have zero.

So one former cultural phenom has decided to fuse two current ones for a moment.

Monday's Doonesbury strip instigates a flash mob in Seattle for Sept 13 at 10:35 a.m. Fans (fans?) will link arms, hop and chant "The Doctor is in!" (For Doctor Dean, which the final frame makes clear. Tuesday's strip continues the theme.

Of course publication of the strip undermines the flash mob concept, because everyone knowing--and the press presumably being present to film it--runs completely counter to the central idea. But maybe it will gin up still more publicity for Dean. I'm writing about it. But that's not so hard to do.

(Much thanks to Elias Kass for the heads up. I haven't read Doonesbury in years.)

NYT has a story in Tuesday's paper discussing how John Edwards' decision to bow out of the Senate race to concentrate on his faltering white house campaign is going to make things even tougher for the Dems in the Senate. (Note similar assessment on this blog late Sunday night.)

The piece starts there and goes on to a good early assessment of the entire 2004 battle for the Senate. It could be very close again, though it's way too early to tell.

It really was a sweet ending. And surprised the hell out of me.

I was wrong on all counts. I figured Erin would probably go for Wade as the safer bet--and hope to date Chad later, telling him (truthfully) that she picked Wade partly to save herself from separation from Chad (knowing he would pick the money). But I thought it would end horribly, because both of them would pick the money, especially that weasel Chad. (He is such a weasel. Or does he just look so much like a weasel and projects such a distasteful personality, I go for the easy swipe?)

No way did I see the weasel picking her over the money. (And I have to rain on the parade slightly by wondering if he's just been such an asshole that he's been so unsuccessful with women and getting desperate? And maybe he thought if it didn't work with her, his flying leap would make him seem like a prince to all his future prospects.) Or maybe he's just got a really great heart after all. But then where was it all summer?

I did really like Erin, though. Not somebody I'd spend a lot of time with, because I think we'd get bored pretty fast, but she is a sweetheart, no doubt about that. And the more I see of her the more I like her. I was really feeling bad for her, and it did turn out wonderfully for her. I don't see how she's going to be happy with that weasel, but she seems to think so, so I wish them luck. And if not, she's got probably 3/4 of a million before taxes.

(If you haven't read the fine print, the 1 and 2 million are a scam. She gets an annuity for that amount, which means maybe half of that. (It's like your grandma going to the bank, plunking down $25 for a "$50" savings bond which will be worth $50 in twenty years and then pretending she just gave you $50, when she gave you $25. Scam scam scam. That's why it's a bit hard to be moved by this show when the very premise is such a lie to us viewers.))

But that's not Erin's scam, and it was a really happy ending, and an unexpected one. And I'll shut up and say he apparently was a really nice and/or romantic guy to take the risk. And she was great to give him half of the second "million."

And I give the producers props for a great final 15 minutes.

Could the For Love or Money 2 finale have been any duller? It was drifting down toward Boy Repels Boy territory.

This show was bad from the beginning--before the beginning, when they cast all personality-free aging frat boys, nearly all in sales. For Love of a Salesmen. Blech. But not come up with some material for the big conclusion?

I don't begrudge them a bit milking the ending for two hours. They'll get their biggest ratings tonight and the show exists to make money, so I'm fine with that. Here's my question: why not film some material to include? Seems like they had plenty of budget. The entire episode consisted of an awkward three-way dinner where nothing was said, two brief, awkward one-on-one chats, and nearly two hours of interview clips of the three of them repeating the same obvious things over and over and over again. The same things they said all series, the same things everyone has said in every previous dating series.

And the way they cast this thing, only Erin is moderately interesting to begin with. And only moderately. She seems really nice and not dumb, but no rocket scientist either, not so intriguing. And the two slugs. Ugh.

Why not go on another series of dates, meet the parents, meet whatever. Do something. Bad planning. Or maybe the producers think these people are way more interesting than they are. But Bob Dylan on a date with Margaret Thatcher would only work for 15 minutes if they kept rolling the same paraphrased quotes relentlessly.

There must be some logic at work here. Any ideas?