Clean up, clean up...

I confess to a mild exaggeration. I haven't seen the movie of The Lion King, but I did see the play. (And I have some passing familiarity with the source material too.) :)

Re: Bonds and the smell test, if he would be embarrassed to see it reported in the press, I'd say he knows that it's wrong. There is a reason beyond the illegality that no active players have admitted steroid use. In terms of competition, I think there's a baseline in sports of playing hard and trying to win, which include keeping in shape and doing what a "reasonable person" who wanted to win would do. Going above and beyond (like crashing into walls, running full steam on pop-outs, ala Pete Rose) isn't required, and I would put using illegal, harmful substances into that category.

Re: the business argument you suggested, that's why companies strongly prefer the "umpire" to set and enforce firm rules to establish a level playing ground. (Like environmental rules re: NAFTA, national health care re: UAW or Wal-Mart, anti-bribery regulations re: MNC's, and steroids rules re: MLB.) So, while the failure of the "umpires" to act should be a mitigating factor, I still contend that the "smell test" is an awfully good common sense indicator of when wrong is being done. I appreciate your thoughtful response in not jumping on an anti-steroids bandwagon, and there are shades of gray, but let me ask you a black and white question. If your kids were in Bonds' situation, would you have wanted them to do steroids?

Yeah, McCain is a huge head scratcher. I'm still shocked that he isn't the front runner. And you're right, it is ironic that McCain, who was W's biggest GOP enemy for so long, will take the biggest political hit for W's failings. But I actually lay the blame for this mostly on McCain and not the American people. Once you set yourself up as being "not a regular politician", you have to be purer than Caesar's wife. I think "the kiss" killed McCain's maverick image (and credibility) just as surely as "the tank" killed Dukakis. An indelible image that fixed a negative character trait in people's minds. If McCain hadn't run towards Bush before running away from him, he'd be having a much easier time now.

What I do fault the American people for is their reluctance to see shades of gray and their attraction to the flavor of the month. There should be space for politicians to fail and to run again. But it seems that a loser's mantle has become an unforgivable sin. I don't think that the Democratic field would be better with Gore or Kerry, but both were far more than their caricatures. We run from cognitive dissonance so quickly (how could Kerry have been a brave soldier and also against the Vietnam War?) that we degrade ourselves and the people who feel that they need to present a simplified image of themselves to pass through the media gauntlet and get elected. I think the "old news" and the hypocrite factors are hurting McCain more than his hawkish stance on the war now. (After all, are his positions really significantly to the right of Thompson, Romney or Guiliani?)