candidate, a dictator-in-the-making named Deutscher.

Later he learns that everything -- even everyday language -- is different and uglier.

When Bradbury wrote the story he was an outspoken political voice himself. As a young, widely popular science-fiction writer in the 1950s (he appeared on Time magazine's cover as "the Poet of the Pulps"), he was the voice of that decade's focus on the future. After Eisenhower defeated Stevenson, Bradbury took out a full-page ad in one of the Hollywood trade papers in 1952 attacking McCarthyism. He declared himself a Democrat, defended the right of dissent, and said he would not hide his beliefs in the aftermath of the election -- no matter now much Red-baiting he faced.

Pretty brave of him, but we'd expect no less from the guy who wrotehas been straight out of a science-fiction movie: An election decided by a politicized Supreme Court and not the voters. A once-independent set of newspapers and broadcasters turned into a nearly-unified, government-manipulated cartel. Lies transmitted at the speed of light over a variety of old and new technologies. The apocalyptic devastation of 9/11 in the heart of New York City. Elections stolen through computerized fraud. Runaway wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping.

And now? The robotic Romney, with his perfect hair and an elevator inside the house for his cars. A Democratic Party whose leaders won't speak the truth and run from their own party's signature achievements.

Bradbury himself became somewhat less of a progressive firebrand in later years. Emotionally, he was a 'conservative' who never lost his nostalgia for the small-town