Iowa gives us hope, which something we haven’t felt in quite a while: hope for America’s political future.

Our pick won, handily, as an underdog — with record-setting turnout, and in a state whose demographics (older, very white) do not favor his natural constituency (younger, more diverse).

The GOP, on the other hand, picked a raving nutbird fundamentalist who is unabashedly anti-gay, anti-evolution, and anti-choice, and frankly we couldn’t be happier about that, either. By pushing the party to the right and picking those hotbutton issues, they’ll drive more centrist nominal Republicans to cross the aisle in November.

And just maybe, wouldn’t it be nice to have a president who can speak again, who can actually lead without smirking, and who embodies not a life borne of generation upon generation of inherited privilege, but one of uniquely American opportunity? From Obama’s victory speech:

Hope! Hope is what led me here today, with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. Hope is the bedrock of this nation; the belief that our destiny will not be written FOR us, but BY us, by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. That is what we started here in Iowa, and that is the message we can now carry to New Hampshire and beyond.

But go listen (YouTube link in the “won” link above); this starts at about 12:20 into the video. And then consider donating to the cause; I believe 2008 will be the most important election for some time to come, and that Obama represents the best choice of the available candidates. No Republican need apply at all (unless you like the idea of anti-evolution, anti-gay and anti-choice positions; the status-quo in Iraq; the escalation of the “wars” on drugs and obscenity, more regressive taxation, no health care solution, and immigration policies that make Bush look smart), and the only viable Democrats are Obama, Clinton, and Edwards. I do not believe Clinton can win in November, and I am not comfortable with her lapdog behavior during her Senate career anyway. Edwards feels thin to me, but he’d do in a pinch. Obama, however, feels like the real deal, and he needs support to power past Clinton and the rest in the remaining primary states.

So give. It needn’t be much, since it DOES add up quickly. But do it. We did, and for the first time ever. Go here. Forgo a night’s bar tab, or a good dinner out, or a bottle of fine wine. You won’t notice, but the campaign will, and it just might help the right guy get to 1600 Pennsylvania.

Someone’s laid out the GOP primary candidates as Buffy villains. Excellent.

Go read this editorial in the NYT.

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.

[…]

Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.

In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.

We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.

[…]

These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.

We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.

We’re particularly excited that January 2008 means we’re only a year away from January 2009, which is when our above-the-law president finally leaves office.

Just so you’re caught up, here’s a fine collection of the Administration’s 10 most absurd legal arguments of 2007, including whoppers like “waterboarding isn’t legally torture” and “the Vice President’s office isn’t part of the Executive Branch.”