We knew that. We still know he is the best candidate.

Hillary was poised to face just as much if not more from the right wing. It doesn't matter how battle hardened she is, it matters if she was going to win. I think that was highly in doubt, and how many people wanted to spend this election season second guessing Bill Clinton's Presidency?

Edwards? We dodged a bullit.

Kerry was a war hero. Look what they did....

Folks, we have the very best candidate. He is articulate, intelligent and has his heart in the right place. He is also political (a necessity) and we can trust him. He is not perfect and his biggest drawback is ... he is black.

Unfortunately yep yep, that is a problem in this country. But not insurmountable. He is in a dead heat with McCain, and is winning in electoral votes.

Certainly we hoped to get the South and Rural America. Well, it won't happen as we hoped. But where it counts, it will.

"You are what is wrong with America today. I grew up with a set values that we do not pass judgement on people we do not know, and do not talk behind people's backs when we think they are not listening."

And that's why, when I was a bartender in a small town in Ohio, it was always so odd when the good old boys at the bar would make nice with the black guy who owns his own concrete company- then when he leaves outright called him a n***** to each other. You small town people are grown real good- right? Some are, some are not. Just like in a city or anywhere else for that matter. Just stop pretending that those of us who were raised in a city don't have a good set of values that we adhere to. That's just as fucked up as assuming that everyone in a small town is a racist.

AKA Smith and gala 111 are living proof. Just put a patch on my eye and call me the connoisseur of intelligence, The Tarryton Man of this here saloon website.

You 2 do not qualify for our very hopeful MARX ON MARS Programme.

You see I have this theory that Socializm never has and never will work on this planet, but The Red Planet Mars is a whole new and different kettle of fish as they say.

This could make everybody very happy if you Marx inspired intellectuals get your own planet because by now even you must realize that it has not been working out down here. People just tend to be too self centered down here on Planet Earth. But, in a completely different environment, with totally different vibes, such as nearby Mars, (The RED Planer) people just might naturally get together and love one another almost right now with a little planning. My daughter keeps telling me there's no atmosphere up there. But with a crash program funded by our tax dollars, that should be easily rectified in a few short years.

So rather than this endless kvetching about our unenlightened electorate, I think you'd be a lot less fretful if you stopped looking back and started moving forward - if you started recruiting volunteers for this great new adventure in human evolution through planetary change. Drudge says that BHO is the choice of so many Intellectual Earthniks from Africa to China to France, this could be the new vision thing for the United Nations. Think how many temporary Moon Pods could be erected with just the current annual UN budget right now.

I know it's by now standard procedure to report on a campaign by going out and asking "voter-on-the-street (or in this case, country-lane)" questions about who a particular demographic supports and why.

But wouldn't journalists, including Salon, do the country a bigger favor if you told us where the candidates stood on issues important to those voters-on-the-street?

Ask the voters what's important to them, then tell us what policies and opinions each candidate has expressed that would address their concerns. You could do that by demographic niche, if you're stuck on that "getting out to the people" approach.

My point is, the only poll that matters is on Nov. 4. News organizations like polls and voter surveys, because they like to be ahead of the news; they'd like to be able to report it before it happens. A little of that would be fine, but do we really need all the stories about what this person in rural America thinks and what that person in the stands of a PeeWee football game feels, and on and on?

Polling this year has been particularly unreliable because there are so many new voters. (How about a voter-on-the-street survey of folks who register to vote as a result of one of these rallies or street canvasses? I'd be interested to know why those eligible to vote and didn't in earlier elections would register this year.)

Lets get back to the issues. Just list each side's votes/records/statements on issues. You could package it according to what you have found is important to interesting niches, like veterans or union members or voters under 21 or new parents or the World War II generation (the few left). Then let all us niche voters surprise you in the big poll in November.

If every news organization did something like that, or at least shifted focus just a tad, we might have the best informed electorate within memory (except, maybe, for the WWII vets, who might remember an electorate that read newspapers, back when newspapers reported as much news as they did sports box scores.)

"whether America is ready to elect a black man for president remains a vexing question for his supporters"

Senator Obama is not qualified and does not have the experience to be President, but you keep trying to make it about race. You keep also neglecting that the man is half white. The facts are Hillary or other Dem. candidates should have gotten the nomination but did not, which shows that American were willing to vote for Obama simply because they wanted a black man for President.

It's also unfair and misleading to think the republicans and independents who tend to be much more conservative or moderate would just change their views to vote for Senator Obama.

Stop using the RACE CARD!!! It is actually hurting Sen. Obama's chances!!!