My mom called and woke me up at 9:15 a.m. (hey, it's early if you don't have to be at work until noon, okay?) to tell me that Jim Jeffords has restored her faith in humanity. She's worked in public schools for her whole life -- and she isn't overly wild about W. -- so I think statements like "He gave us a promise to get us new direction in education. But new direction without funding is really no useful direction at all" resonate with her in particular. I just went and read the text of his speech and it is pretty persuasive indeed.