… but the People have spoken and they prefer the go-it-alone fraternity president to the lets-take-some-friends-along Eagle Scout.

Kerry’ll have to face the music in the next couple days and admit he needed more than an Electoral College strategy. He needed a way to win Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, the Carolinas.

Now the spectre of Republicans running virtually everything has come to pass. They own the White House, the Congress, the Courts, the boardrooms of every American corporation, and, oddly enough, the loyalty of the most devoted Christians.

One thing they don’t own is me.

To vote Republican I would have to believe that the rich white guys who already control 90 percent of the cash and influence in America need little ol’ me to help ’em get a fix on that last 10 percent. Sorry guys — mind you I’d trade places in a heartbeat — but you’ve got all the help you need.

And stop telling me that the gays, the minorities, the poor, the intellectuals are the enemy. They’re my neighbors and they’re fine folks, for the most part. It’s annoying to be told they’re dragging the country into the gutter. It’s just a dirty old lie designed to trigger the basic human fear of anybody who’s different.

I don’t need that, and neither does the country. But you’ll never go broke telling people what they want to hear and keeping ’em scared of people they’ve never met. And you’ll certainly keep on winning elections.

Till the People wise up. Funny thing is, they always do.