Hello, this is John Kerry. And I'm running for president.

At that point, my wife handed me the phone. "It's for you. It's John Kerry," she said.

I had my hopes up for a second that it really was Kerry, as I have a few things I'd like to ask him. But it turns out it was a robocall. That made me re-adjust the order of questions I planned to ask--number one suddenly became "Why are you robocalling, when the Dean campaign has, you know, live humans calling for, you know, conversations with swing voters?" That and why he was interrupting my "7th Heaven."

(I'm still working on my write-up of Dean's visit to Milwaukee Thursday where he sat not ten feet away from me in the call center making live calls of his own.)

Anyway, I listened to his pre-recorded spiel. He was almost selling it. I think he believed it maybe 80%. I know Dean's stump by heart, and all of Dean's big applause lines, after doing this for a year. So I kind of kept score: I counted at least three Dean lines in Kerry's pre-recorded drivel, including the invocation of Truman's promise to provide health care to all Americans. (For the record, I listened to Kerry's stump eight months ago, wherein he never mentioned Truman or emphasized health care. Damned flippity-flopper.)

The funniest part, though, was the way he kept asking me to press 1 if I were a supporter. When I refused, he just kept going on with his sell. And repeating Dean talking points.

Finally, he got to the point where he told me I could press 2 if I were not a supporter. And then he told me I could press 1 if I were a supporter. And then 2. And then 1. And then please I should press a button. It was sad, really, that the man who could potentially be the leader of the free world and have his finger on the trigger of a nuclear arsenal of outsized proportions was begging me to press a button.

Finally, I pressed 1, partly to throw off his internals and partly out of the hope I could talk to a live body. But then, confirming my single biggest fear about John Kerry in this primary season, as soon as I pressed a button: dial tone.