Election season is always fun. I remember spending the waning days of the 2000 recount right there at ground zero -- watching the chad-counts on the local West Palm television stations, even as the dreaded roto-virus silently took hold of our intestines.

And this year, in a campaign already weighed down by gratuitous images of the Vietnam conflict, we have the spectacle of Dan Rather immolating himself in the public square -- hoping beyond hope to convince everyone to please, please come to their senses and properly HATE BUSH as much as he does.

As for me, I'm loving every minute of it. It's not that I ever trusted Dan Rather to report real news -- the networks are entertainment shops. But for so many years Dan Rather convinced himself that he was the gatekeeper -- the man behind the curtain who could control what people knew, control the terms of the debate.

And now it's all over for the old man. I almost want to think it's sad but it's not. It's friggin' beautiful. And I love watching it unfold.