The sport of politics. The politics of sport.

The big story of the Chesapeake primary is that Independents are abandoning John McCain.

On his right flank, our latest military hero/presidential candidate is being challenged by evangelist Mike Huckabee. There is no center in the Republican Party for McCain to hold onto. Any center that remains has been weakened by Independent defections.

The Republican Party has pushed itself so far to the right, so far away from traditional Republican values and so far into the arms of religious fundamentalists, that smart voters in 2008 won’t continue to follow Republican Pied Pipers down a path of futility — especially in Iraq.

We’re not into making predictions, but American voters look like they’re taking charge of their own destiny for the first time in decades. They are less and less willing to be manipulated by right-wing talk show hosts with a reactionary agenda.

Do we at RZP wish it hadn’t taken eight years of a bad war, diminishing civil liberties and a right-wing takeover of the Supreme Court? Sure. But we’ll take this moment of public lucidity with a grain of gratitude — and pray it lasts.