I don't understand the complaints from presidential candidates and their campaigners, about press and other candidates being ugly to them.

Have they not noticed how Pres. Bush has spent the last 7 years being called everything but a child of God? Do they truly think he called all that down on himself? I'm not talking about criticism of specific policies - I'm talking about people blaming him for Hurricane Katrina and wishing he'd choked to death on that pretzel, which I'd forgotten about till I saw that lovely sentiment expressed just recently.

News flash - whoever's in the WH is going to get it. Don't know why that is, and I wish it weren't that way.

But since it is, I think the candidates ought to view this time as a kind of boot camp. See what you're made of. See if it's more than you want to deal with - unlike the military, you can drop it now if you don't like it. If unfair criticism is keeping you up at night, do yourself and us a big favor and just stay on the porch. If you stay in, for pete's sake, pull your socks up and quit complaining about "he said X about me" and so forth. If you win the presidency - you ain't seen nothing yet. To act like you think what's going on now is egregious or unexpected makes you look like a naive fool.