Josh Marshall is exactly right about Hillary Clinton. If she gets the Democratic nomination in 2008 and the Republican nominee is anyone other than Voldemort (as in, someone who really has to be beat at all costs), I'm voting for the Green Party candidate.

Okay, those are my words, not Josh Marshall's. And as bad as Hillary's policies and leadership would be, she's still a lot better than Voldemort and many other Republicans. But I'm depressed and disgusted by turns at how dynastic presidential politics have become.

In fact, the context Marshall provides on the Adams father-son presidencies (24 years apart, effectively in different parties) makes the current situation even worse than I knew. But let's give the Bushes and the Clintons the benefit of the doubt. Assume that all political families are equal. Assume even that the Roosevelt fifth cousins are as bad as the father-son teams we've seen and the husband-wife team we hope for and/or fear. Even then, we had two pairs of presidents related to each other in the first 200 years of the country. If by some unlikely circumstance Hillary Clinton runs for president and wins, we will have had two in 20 years. This is not trending in the direction of more democratic.