Poll results and personal notes:

Let's start with the poll results:

On the Republican side, 24% of you would ask Condi Rice not to run for president. 17% voted John McCain and Sam Brownback, and four other candidates all received 7 to 10%. A pretty even split.

On the Democratic side, a full 45% of you voted Hilary Clinton least desirable, giving her a wide margin over Gov. Vilsack (21%) and John Kerry (16%). Only one other candidate received 5% (Al Gore).

Finally, 47% of you thought candidates for office should answer any and all questionnaires. 35% of you would decide based on the importance/credibility of the sender and 18% felt candidates shouldn't answer questionnaires at all.

Now, on to what's next for that space on the sidebar. As my long-time readers (both of you) will know, this hasn't always been a political blog. It used to be my personal space to rant on whatever. Very few people read it. Looking back at the content, I'm not surprised.

I don't intend to turn this blog into that again, but I do feel an urge to inject a little more of my personality back into it. So I've created some space over there for my three current hobbies:

Pro wrestling: It's possible I'm the only person on Earth whose interests include both politics and pro wrestling. The people I shock by admitting my love for it usually ask questions like, "You know it's fake, right?" and "So you must love the Rock's movies, right?"

The answers to those questions, before you ask, are: "There's a big difference between choreographed and fake," and "No, in fact I can't stand the Rock's movies."

I'm considering starting another blog to talk about the local pro wrestling scene in Iowa. Until I decide on whether or not to do that, though, I've put a schedule of Iowa events for September on the sidebar. If you're curious about local wrestling, check one out. Momentarily I'll be posting rules for submitting your own shows.

Books: This is usually pretty socially acceptable. I read books on recommendations from people a lot. For example, right now I'm reading "The Great Good Place" based on the recommendation of a man I met at an event for Bill Richardson. I'll post reviews of books when I think they warrant it, but I won't if they don't.

Video games: I play a fair amount of video games, depending on my other schedule and my addiction level to the current game. Atelier Iris has gotten me to the point where I get up early to play before work. That doesn't happen often.

The new sidebar entries will be up in a few minutes.

KL