as if we needed any more proof that the ’08 presidential campaign season is too long, we now have even more people considering jumping into the race. i’m not sure if this says more about the quality of the current candidates or about the monstrous egos of the other possible candidates. either way, it’s an amusing little circus and it gives bloggers more interesting storylines than we would have otherwise. to that end, i applaud the dark horses, vampires and other assorted persons who could shake things up while the republicans are deciding whether rudy is really their guy or not.

apparently senator chuck hagel believes that there could be a hole for him for him to fill in the republican field, but he’s not ready to save us from all these pro-war candidates just yet. he says that he has more important work to do in the senate before he could even consider doing us the favor of running for president. how considerate of him. how selfless of him to put the needs of his constituents first. if only all politicians were like chuck hagel! so he calls a press conference, and the media are all a-twitter…what will he say? will he run for president? not quite. he simply announced that he might have something to announce in the future.

what a disappointment for the media that was. this is a bad tradition mccain started, and it needs to stop. having press conferences or going on letterman to announce that you might have a big announcement later on is just obnoxious. if you want to have separate pressers announcing the exploratory committee and the official “i’m in” statement, that’s fine, but press conferences announcing nothing in particular are just silly.

if you are still unconvinced about the field of democrats and republicans who want to be your next president, you are in luck. there are other options. our favorite vampire jonathan sharkey, in addition to running for governor of minnesota, is also running for president as a member of the vampires, witches and pagans party. as dave barry would say, i’m not making this up. i have no doubt that he would be tough on crime, but i’m not sure the country is ready to be represented by a vampire. mormons? sure. women? no doubt. african-americans? why not? i think, however, that we must draw the line somewhere.

welcome to the circus, ladies and gentlemen. grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

tags: ’08 election, jonathan sharkey, chuck hagel