Would it have been any different if this was a pancake breakfast, and Obama and McCain had to pander for votes from corn-fed yokels?

It doesn't matter for either candidate. The answers derived from these forums are purely cud for the press to endlessly chew on. In truth they could have been tap dancing to Bach on ice at this thing.

Obama went there because [GASP] he probably wants votes. It doesn't require several days of deep analysis to see how absurd the process gets year after year. He may have also realized that the press, Salon included, would have analyzed for weeks about whether we could have a president unwilling to even meet with evangelical Christians.

It doesn't matter. It never has. Just like the cost of a candidate’s haircut, or the color of his wardrobe, or whether you could have a beer with them. Or, dare I say, whether a ridiculous 3am doomsday phone call scenario is worth a moment of honest contemplation.

Every 4 years we are told by progressive publications to get ready for that big October surprise! Without exception the only real surprise is the Democratic candidate loses the election because he's become so hamstrung by needless doubt and worry generated by the very media pundits who are supposedly sympathetic to the candidate.

Here is the printed retraction from New York Magazine, the original source of this October surprise...

Correction: In "The Color-Coded Campaign," John Heilemann wrote, "In October, [Barack] Obama's former pastor, [Reverend Jeremiah] Wright, will publish a new book and hit the road to promote it ...". This assertion was based on Wright's public assertion in April that he had a book in the works that would appear before the end of the year, and on statements by a number of Democrats, including some on Obama's staff, that they were bracing for an October publication. But Heilemann's assertion was too definitive; what he should have written was, "In October, Obama's former pastor, Wright, is expected to publish a new book ...". According Wright's daughter, Jeri, no such book published by her father will be published in that time frame. We sincerely regret the error.

And other media outlets simply ran with this, a story that could have been verified by a simple phone call, because it feels like something to worry about! Eeek!!!

This should not be too difficult a job. "X" reports a story that, if true, would potentially impact "Y"...if it were true. Do you run the story as is, passing it off as fact by adding a simple question mark to the headline, "Is candidate X engaged in scandal?" Spend countless stories’ examining the possible fallout; interview lots of other pundits, calling them 'expert analysis'.

Or do you pick up a phone and verify the easiest of facts?

Editors and writers owe their readers facts first. Once they’re verified to even a reasonable degree of certainty, THEN you can analyze the crap out of it until November. Otherwise, this sort of news is no different than those in the news who 'analyzed' the possibility that Big Foot had actually been found and how would impact the science world....until it defrosted and it was just a gorilla costume all along.

There is a place for affordable and reliable electric cars, but I don't understand this belief that it's relatively easy to change over from combustion engines to electric, or that the impact would be small and the benefits huge. Forgive me for oversimplifying, but this is one big freaking country with some very diverse climates, topographies, cities, towns, commerce and industries.

-Some have raised a valuable point about cities with large numbers of apartments, or condos. You just can't add miles and miles of electric lines and outlets all over a city, can you? Who pays for that work and material?

-Since it seems that battery life and overall efficiency is key to the success of a rechargeable car, would we have cars driven in relatively flat states lasting longer than ones with mountains? How does that impact the cost of a car from state to state in sales and repairs?

-How much more can our current electrical grid handle with the addition of potentially millions of cars plugged into it? More power plants would be needed, and so would more power lines; so who would be willing to give up their land to the US government so that these lines could be run?

-In recent years we've had huge portions of our power grid go down because of mechanical and human failure, but even in a relatively localized outage caused by a downed line what impact would that have?

It has nothing to do with whether the electric car is a better alternative to the combustion engine. That is not a realistic choice for most of the country to make while our roads crumble, our utilities become more overburdened, and our population expands.