Slate reports:

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—"I want you to stand, raise your right hands," and recite "the Bush Pledge," said Florida state Sen. Ken Pruitt. The assembled mass of about 2,000 in this Treasure Coast town about an hour north of West Palm Beach dutifully rose, arms aloft, and repeated after Pruitt: "I care about freedom and liberty. I care about my family. I care about my country. Because I care, I promise to work hard to re-elect, re-elect George W. Bush as president of the United States."

For those of you not paying attention, that was about two thousand Bushies reciting an oath of loyalty to George W. Bush. Not an oath of loyalty to America, or our Constitution, or even the President in general, but to George W. Bush himself.

I'm not the only one freaked out by this: Brad DeLong, The Talent Show, Whiskey Bar and, movingly, Kevin Drum.

Adults are children with large vocabularies. We feel threatened and we want to be able to say, well, if I just listen to this person, do what this person says, I'll be safe. It'll be okay if I do what the Lord or Bush or Uncle Joe wants.

And we want to be right. We'll ignore other people's opinions and contrary evidence because we want to be the good guys, doing the right thing. We'll ignore video proof, if it challenges our convictions.

So Bush has an advantage there. And the bin Laden tape is good for him too. Not many encouraging signs. Here's one, though: a life size Kerry cut-out in the local mall.



The kid with the cardboard is Orion, whose quirks I'll be exaggerating into a character for a movie. Orion O'Ryan, Irish child of hippie parents.

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