You know, sometimes I feel a little out of place.

I live in a sleepy little village in Republican-leaning upstate New York. It's a part of the country that politicians generally ignore, for reasons that escape me.

Well, maybe they don't completely escape me. State-wide and national candidates (like Ms. Clinton) don't bother coming here because there aren't enough people to make for impressive looking gatherings and generate lots of press. And, until Kirsten Gillibrand erupted on the scene, there were really many viable Democrats for more local offices.

And even with Kirsten, I had to fight with her campaign people to get her scheduled to come over here.

Then, too, I'm not in here blogging on a daily basis about things like Iraq or executive branch malfeasance or anything like that. Here, we're more concerned about bread and butter issues, which is what happens when your local economy is stagnant and a third of your population lives below the poverty line.

And what it all comes down to is that, as a Democrat, I'm feeling just a wee bit left out.

This is a big place and I bet there are probably a lot of people posting here about other stuff, just like I am. They're not necessarily easy to find, though ... unfortunately.

And I'm not enough of a ham to ATTRACT ATTENTION TO MYSELF just for the sake of ... well ... attracting attention to myself.

I do believe that there are some domestic issues, like economic policy, where Democrats can make some major inroads on traditionally Republican territory. But nobody seems to be talking about that stuff these days, either.

So, I guess I'll just keep beetling away in my corner of upstate New York and hope to connect with like-minded Democrats up here who know why I care about the stuff I care about and who maybe care about that stuff, too.