The chocolate ration has been increased. Winston Smith knows the chocolate ration has been reduced, but he knows the penalty for dissent. The state says it is increased, so everyone celebrates. The State is always right.

Today in America the System can't fail. If it should falter, the banks, Wall Street, we will bail them out and move on. The burden of risk is borne by the individual. If we step out of line and join a union, we are fired. If we get sick and miss work, we are fired. If we are unlucky, we are fired. And when fired, kiss the health insurance goodbye, and then it's one short step to losing the house. But everything is fine! The politicians on Teevee say so. Just look at productivity and profits. Exxon made a googol dollars last quarter, going for two googols this quarter. Everyone should celebrate! The System is always right.

How much more or less humane is the Corporation than Big Brother? In which society, "DixieAmerica" or Oceania, is the individual more mobile, or valued more? Jesse Helms and the Southern Way - right up through Dubya - set out to destroy that villain FDR and his "Freedom from Fear" and "Freedom from Want" and have succeeded pretty well.

It's not that policies are not important, nor is it unwise to maintain a measure of personal distance from the subject one is covering. But, a presidential candidate is special, because in our system as it has come to evolve to today, the President is damn special. If a Senator or Congressperson is corrupt or an adulterer or what have you, their removal from office is straightforward (though as we know, not necessarily quick or automatic), but in the interim the country doesn't freeze up. (Hell, most people can't name their Congressperson.) Not true though for a President.

I think back to the Michael Douglas line from "The American President" which goes something like, "...in my job, character is everything..."

Imagine if reporters who knew George W. Bush in 2000 actually decided to write what they knew: "This man is incurious, cocksure of his own infallibility, prone to snap judgments that once made are never reconsidered, vengeful, adolescent in his demeanor, rigid in ideology, and quite uncaring about the human condition outside his class." I can not believe that nobody knew those facts about his character eight years ago.

Mr. Shapiro, your error, as you admit to your credit here, is that you got too close to Senator Edwards and your better reporter's judgment ("How could anyone be this perfect? Something isn't right!") was clouded. Right now, I see terrible lapses by a whole crew of reporters, largely unquestioning the behaviors of both Senators Obama and McCain, but overwhelmingly going easy on McCain. His worldview seems to revolve around war. He sees threats everywhere! Why? What is it, his family, both father and grandfather being Admirals? Can he state a foreign policy that contains nuance? Changing gears, what is his philosophical view toward the poor? Has he ever known anyone he cared about in poverty? Does he care?

Surely there are reporters who have covered McCain for over eight years now that must have some insights. I know the reaction, of course: anyone who probes that deep in a critical way will lose access. Ok, so if they did, what does that say about McCain's character, and about his demeanor while exercising power? Isn't that a window that voters need?

Obama's campaign team seems to believe that, at least in this election cycle, voters will allow the rational side of their brain to overrule the instinctive urge to associate with and support those who appear to be of one's own "tribe". McCain's team is betting that, just like in elections going pretty far back (arguably all the way to the beginning of the TV era), the majority will use emotional association to choose.

How many episodes of The West Wing have the Obama folks been watching? In that imaginary universe, arguments are important and sincere and determinative. To which I say "Hollywood make-believe".

Have no doubts, if Obama does win, all the forces of the modern-day Right will be immediately at work to undermine him. Their working philosophy is battle, their every action will speak "This man is not my President!" Because any Democrat, Carter, Clinton, or Obama, is of the Other Tribe.

It is not enigmatic, this behavior. For two hundred thousand human generations, we learned that the most dangerous animal in the forest was not a lion or bear, but Homo Sapiens of a different group. This thing we call democracy, in practice here in America, E Pluribus Unum, is only eleven generations old. How can rationality possibly prevail?

I'd be pretty nervous, plus I'd be writing my $2300 check to Obama, plus be on the phone to all my colleagues. And also maybe making back-up plans to re-incorporate in India and shuttering the US operations.

I've been telling my friends from overseas that Americans are a pragmatic people above all else; we respect people who can make things work. I told them we'd eventually see through Bush when his administration failed to perform, and then along came Katrina (a year too late for 2004) and Bush's support sunk to the high 20's.

But somehow it seems the stigma of Bush is stuck to Bush. Folks are not seeing the connection to McCain-Palin of the failed philosophy and divisive tactics they want to continue, if not amplify.

Or maybe they've provided the rationalization people were seeking to avoid voting for a black guy.