What the hell is "white culture?" I've been white all my life (amazingly) and I can't decide whether its a trailer court with pictures of Jesus next to a meth lab or country club with yellow polyester slacks and Ponzi schemes being developed.

When I hear dimwits like Beck blathering about it, I can't help but think of the old SNL skit where Willie Nelson brought us another "Great Moment in the History of White Trash."

I was noting, in comments to this and other blogs, for many months that Obama is neither a classic liberal or ideology-driven. What best describes Obama is a pragmatic incrementalist with liberal sensibilities, at least judging from his record in the Illinois and U.S. Senate. The policies he advocates are usually progressive in nature, but not huge leaps in that direction.

Frankly, although I am a committed liberal, I find it refreshing to return to centrist government. After suffering through the hard-line conservative Reagan and even more radical Bush Administrations, the first step for a return to political sanity is toward the middle. Should Obama prove successful is moving the country in that direction, it will pave the way for a more conventional liberal approach in the future.

I quit listening to Alex Bennett and Lynn Samuels on Sirius America Left due in part to the foul language, although admittedly have no use for either of them -- Bennett is too cynical and Samuels rambles pointlessly and apparently doesn't bother with show prep, since she can never seem to find material she plans on referencing.

Those two took decidedly anti-Obama positions after the primaries. Bennett relented slightly, but Samuels was calling Obama a "phony," "fascist" and "Nazi" as late as mid-October. It's her right, of course, but I sure don't tune in progressive radio to hear the same tripe I can get from Limbaugh, Hannity and the right wingnuts every day without paying for it.

I don't know why people feel the need to inject filthy language into conversations in which they are wholly inappropriate, such as political discourse. It's not the words that bother me -- as my collection of Pryor and Carlin CDs attests -- but the context. I think in Scarborough's case, as with others of the chickenhawk tribe Glenn discusses thoroughly in "Great American Hypocrites," sprinkling conversation with some "cuss words" apparently makes them feel "manly" without ever having to behave like men.

"All hat, no cattle," as Texans say.

Obama is a pragmatist with liberal-sensibilities, not a liberal ideologue. The last thing America needs is a liberal version of the Bush Administration: rigid and impervious to suggestion.

I've been a liberal Democrat much longer than you, Mr. Sirota, but I'm also a realist who understands that while America may support liberal policies in some areas, like health care and green technology, it seeks a steadier centrist course in economic and foreign policy. Voters wanted a change in direction, but that doesn't mean the pendulum has to swing 180 degrees across the board.

Once again, the real-time CNN tracker of independent Ohio voters was interesting. As with the two previous debates, it showed almost universally more favorable reactions to Obama's statements than McCain's -- which mostly rose when he spoke about his positions and proposals, then dropped sharply whenever he went on the attack against Obama. While this reaction graph is hardly scientific, it has fairly accurate reflected the poll numbers which followed in the days after the debates.

McCain's campaign is flailing largely due to 1.) support for policies which are presently unpopular with middle class voters and 2.) any coherent theme to his campaign, which careens from high-minded (even if wrong-headed) policy proposals to harsh, usually inaccurate attacks on Obama -- the latter falling completely flat.

It's hard for McCain to square the image of honorable servant of the American people with the crass political discourse in which he has engaged and encouraged.

If Barack Obama can win the White House by a 10-percentage point margin, he will have done something neither Clinton or Bush did for their first terms -- come into office with a working majority of electoral support. If the Democratic majority in Congress is essentially spineless, then it's largely a product of conditioning. However, if Obama's coattails prove long enough to widen the Democratic majority in Congress, it would be hard-pressed to reject his agenda. If doing things merely because they're the right things to do isn't impressive to lawmakers, then a meal ticket at the top of the ticket has to be respected. Even the stupidest career politician, be it Democrat or Republican, can count the votes.

There are parallels to the Keating Scandal and today's current economic mess, at least loosely on the enormous risks of deregulation without oversight. McCain was tied directly into that on behalf of the Big Wig, Charles Keating, and Obama should make note that this is who John McCain has always been -- the guy who sided with corporate interests instead of America First.

It's not a distraction issue, it's a core link between the economic issue and McCain's record.