You know who gets a lot of hugs from Republicans nowadays? Freakin Michael Moore that's who!

"If you were to hang out with me here it won't be five or 10 minutes before you see a Republican hug me. That is almost as entertaining as some of the films," Moore said in an interview.

Moore has not budged from the central claim of his 2004 documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- that the Bush administration misled the American public about the reasons for war in Iraq -- but he says that more people have come around to his view.

"That's the shift that I'm seeing in the past year or so in the country, and as it relates to me," he said.

Some in solidly Republican northern Michigan and elsewhere now believe that they made a "colossal mistake" in initially supporting the war in Iraq, Moore said, and they have let him know it in chance encounters on the streets of Traverse City, a resort town where he has relocated from New York.

Used to traveling with security and encountering a barrage of hostility, Moore said he finds people now more accepting, even to the point Republicans are spontaneously hugging him.

I am not sure I actually buy this or not. I mean I have a lot of respect for Michael Moore, and he does seem cuddly, but I am not sure even I would want to hug him. He just always looks like he is in between showers, if you know what I mean.

I do believe, however, that there are a lot of Republicans who are second guessing their initial anger at Moore's film "Farenheit 911". There must be tons of people who have decided to re-watch that film recently and realized how prophetic Michael was on almost every point he made in the film.

He is like an overweight Nostradamus or something!