You nailed it - but omitted New Orleans from your list of urban corruption all-stars. Having spent 30 years in the Big Sleazy and having voted for many black candidates along the way, I, too, almost immediately recognized Obama for what he is - and isn't. What Obama is, is out for himself. What Obama isn't, is a champion of the downtrodden - black, white, brown, or purple. Instead, he's a user. Just like Dollar Bill Jefferson and his clan. Just like Ray Nagin. Just like any number of power hungry, unscrupulous black pols who viewed the expanding New Orleans ghettos as nothing more than a cash cow capable of delivering an endless stream of votes and consequent opportunities for self aggrandizement.

Thanks to a long list of these shameless users, more than two decades ago New Orleans entered a death spiral from which it was never to recover. Katrina was simply the final blow to a drastically weakened, race riven city, overflowing with crime, poverty, illiteracy and corruption. The formula was simple: divide (by race) and conquer. And oh, did it work. Over and over and over. The clincher was that whites of good will but unhappy predicament were effectively silenced, as speaking out meant being branded with the scarlet "R" and shunned. And so one of this country's most historic, culturally blessed cities spiraled ever downward into ruin.

The syndrome has taken an interesting twist with the advent of Obama. It would seem that his loudest, most accusatory (and nastiest) defenders are those whose experience of black Americans is likely limited to watching "Roots" and tipping the washroom attendant. They're the ones who hand out the scarlet "R's" with abandon. And they are every bit as unhealthy, dangerous, and maddening as the unscrupulous politicians of New Orleans.

So, what should Obama do? Fact is, he should never, ever have subjected an entire country to this deeply divisive, baseless quest for glory. He's simply the wrong candidate at the wrong time. For many of us, not voting for him is the only right thing we can do.

Let's see, Obama wants to prove he can compete for evangelicals. But he has absolutely no interest in competing for much of the traditional Democratic base (half of which is happily coexisting here under the bus). Interesting. To say the least.

Smears are never attractive, but it's hard to work up much sympathy for the Obamas, given their recent thorough trashing of the Clintons accomplished through innuendo, memo, falsehood, omission, and sneer. As they say - what goes around, comes around. Guess it's Mr. & Mrs. O's turn now, huh?

So now McCain is the one Who Will Say/Do Anything To Win?

Remind you of another candidate? You know, the one now being held out as the only one who can save the butt of the candidate who spent months sliming her, not to mention her husband - a former president and a Democratic to boot?

Life can indeed be a comedy to those who think.

But the racial aspects of this tragedy are indirect. The tragedy was a result of incompetent and uncaring government officials, not racism.

You are absolutely correct. You'd never know this from media reports (xeroxes of xeroxes, in the main), but half of all New Orleanians who died directly as a result of Katrina were white. Nearly everyone my husband and I knew in New Orleans, regardless of race, experienced some combination of loss of home/livelihood/life, or both (we lost two-thirds of our income and had to move away, my 80-something mother-in-law lost her house and everything in it - the list is endless).

I'd love to see Kim Roberts's video footage and hear her story. I'm sure I'd recognize her, as New Orleans abounded with the Kim Robertses of this world. But there's no way on earth this would serve as an occasion for white guilt. City government failed all New Orleanians just as badly as did state and local agencies and officials and elected representatives. And New Orleans city government has been overwhelmingly black for many years.

Hello, Rezko.

Just sayin'.

Brilliant move, simply brilliant (cough).

Why waste time on vetting VP candidates, when Obama himself (okay, Himself) has never been vetted? Isn't this sort of like requiring rigorous certification of the nurse, while not bothering to ascertain whether the doctor graduated from a diploma mill?

Therefore I am...a PUMA.

So shoot me.

Because Hillary should clearly be the nominee. The Democratic nomination has been stolen from her in the cruelest, most vile ways imaginable. There is no way on earth that Barack Obama comes anywhere close to this woman in terms of presidential qualities. No. Way. On. Earth. What a heartbreaker. What a damned, lowdown shame. And what a terrible loss for this troubled country.

Sorry, but Hillary didn't blow it. The woman who showed up tonight is the very same woman 18 million of us voted for, while her own party - including its presumptive nominee - was busy cutting her off at the knees, flinging vile accusations at her. And this is one voter who won't forget that come November. Can't. Just not possible. Not ever.