In 2000 we face a presidential election between two men, Albert Gore, Jr., and George W. Bush, who are both sons of major politicians, who share their fathers' names, who have witnessed their fathers' political successes and bitter defeats, and who have striven to replicate--surpass? avenge?--their fathers' careers. That is to say, we have two candidates competing for the world's most difficult job while laboring under the cruel burden of a lifetime of parental expectation. A father who names his son after himself is instructing him from birth, "Be me."