When your Presidential campaign can't reach the Mendoza Line in the polls, you can take your ball and go home like Gov. Tim Pawlenty or you can suck it up and find a way out of the  Phantom Zone and come within a whisker of the office, like John McCain.

Many a political career wrecked on the shoals of anonymity, (Dick Gephart anyone?), where three-percent is the high water mark, an albatross and a millstone around your Presidential ambition, (would Rudy Guiliani please pick up the white courtesy phone in the lobby). 

One minute you're smiling for the cameras, the next minute your Fred Thompson shilling reverse mortgages, or worse the ultimate who the heck is he and where is he now, "yawn" Grover Cleveland Mullins...

Yet the big surprise is these guys can shoot from the hip, no spin doctoring allowed, they're grateful to get an interview with the Poughkeepsie Shopper, they tell it like it is cause they only get one shot...that's why I like them, no focus groups, media handlers, bus tours, unless they're taking Greyhound, and no talking points...the shake your hand at the luncheonette cause that's real politic in the US of A...