By Catherine O'Neill
Special to the Reporter

You know who your friends are when they pass your foxhole test. Your foxhole is the place where you engage in the battles of life and these people are right beside you holding the flank, never leaving. Even though in moments of madness you may have given them reasons to retreat, they hold steady and true.

It's painful when you unknowingly allow impostors in that sacred place. More painful still watching them retreat.

How many people do you think Hillary Clinton is watching scurry out of her foxhole? I can't imagine the professional and personal pain she must be experiencing. But she's soldiering on, gracefully, I might add.

She and her husband probably are responsible for lots of the super delegates being super delegates and they are fleeing from her. This is a surprise to whom?

Politics is a tough business and for some reason women candidates get crushed particularly around these parts. Just ask Jane Swift or Shannon O'Brien. Have you ever stopped to think why Nikki Tsongas is the first woman to represent Massachusetts in either the United States House of Representatives or United States Senate since 1983, when Republican Margaret Heckler left office?

But one good aspect for Hillary is that after this is over, win or lose, she never will have to doubt who her friends are again. And I hope she does a little friendship-cleaning when the dust settles. I'd like a ticket for that show. It's true, ya know, Hillary: What goes around comes around; you just have to be patient.

I've never been a Hillary Clinton supporter, My candidate was John Edwards and I voted for Barack Obama. But if the Massachusetts election were held today, I would vote for Hillary Clinton.

A conversation I had recently with a friend of mine who happens to hold elected office really scared me. We were talking about the Patrick for Governor campaign and the Barack Obama for President campaign, and how they are mirrors of each other.

"But there is one huge difference," he said, looking very serious. "If Barack Obama wins, he'll have an army at his command, unlike Deval Patrick, and a finger that can push lots of buttons." Since that chat I have been in overdrive thinking about this possibility, and a lot of other things.

What would Barack Obama's equivalent of Curtaingate be? Or Helicoptergate? Or Cadillacgate? Would he shave his head? (What was up with that?) Is he really ready for this job?

I know there is a list of presidents circulating around who had little experience before being elected, but really -- that was before terrorist flew planes into buildings, and before so many countries had nuclear weapons.

Not that Barack Obama is going to casually push the nuclear button, but let's be real here. Have we vetted this guy enough? I'm just not comfortable any more with the notion of on-the-job training; not when there is so much at stake.

Is it enough now to be a good orator to win elections? Doesn't it scare you that people seem delighted this election is following the same script as the West Wing television show? What happens when there is no written script to follow? Our men and women in Baghdad probably don't think much about television shows.

Well, speaking of television shows, if Barack Obama does win, at least we have Oprah. She won't let him stray too far from his mission.

Can you imagine how good it would be to have Oprah Winfrey in your foxhole?