Just under a year now, on Nov. 4, 2008, Americans will choose a new president. The election year is now just a calendar page away. As I write this column, several would-be Leaders of the Free World are interrupting diner denizens in Iowa, New Hampshire and other early-primary states in order to promote themselves. And as you peruse this month’s Textile Rental, caravans of prepresidential motorcades are careening through the back roads of these states like camelless caravans rolling past snowdrifts instead of sand dunes.
 
In less than a month, the official selection process for choosing the ...