you probably thought my post was about you

It's a free country. We all must strive to be balanced and truthful. You ask questions about Obama's background but what questions are you asking about McCain's?

-Yes, both were born in the USA. Hawaii was a state when Obama was born...check out the birth certificate and newspaper achives. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone...US territory.

-Hmmmm??? Near the top of the class at Harvard Law or near the bottom of the class at Anapolis? What's that telling me? Who's daddy was pulling strings?

-Where are all of McCain's POW buddies? Where are the naval guys to tell us what a fabulous leader he was? Just how many planes did he crash?

-McCain cheated on his wife after she was injuried. He was running around with Cindy before he was even divorced. What does that tell you about the man? What does that tell you about his morals? I'm betting Carol McCain gets a big cash settlement sometime in December for keeping her mouth shut.

-If the press digs deep enough, they can find something on anybody. Every politico has been to a party that someone "suspect" has also attended. Geezze.

-Can you say Keating 5?

Let's be done with Rovian fear politics. Analyse and think.

Because something is happening

But you do know what it is

Don’t you, Ms. Traister ?

Why is that if you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist? Never mind that he hasn't produced a birth certificate, dismisses any checks into his associations as "distractions," doesn't want to take care of his aunt in public housing but wants taxpayers to, calls wanting to control one's own money "selfish" and only started to give to charity when he began his run for president, bans access by media who haven't endorsed him or ask him or his VP tough questions, etc. Maybe, just maybe, Specter was referring to those who have found that they're ridiculed if they're not voting for Obama and so tell pollsters one thing but would vote another. (People in my neighborhood have had their McCain lawn signs stolen so it wouldn't look there was any support or momentum going his way.) Or maybe he thought the pollsters aren't sampling accurately. I can't vouch for the intent of his comment, but to assume racism is irresponsible and incendiary.

There is no outrage when people are voting for Obama purely because of race. Howard Stern's experiment in Harlem proved that.

Problem is, the only outrage should be that with all this time that's passed, there are many people who will be casting their vote without knowing the issues or the candidates' records. Unfortunately, so many articles and news shows are focused on the latest verbal zinger or on polls, and not delving into issues like education and foreign policy. This election is incredibly divisive, and I hope that whoever wins, we can all support the winner and present a united front to the world.

A noted black author several months ago gave deep insight into the phenomenon of Obamania. Shelby Steele bottom-lined his recent book and his attending talk by stating that this election was all about race - but not in the sense that Rebecca seems to understand in her snide remark about Specter. Shelby makes it clear that Obama has ingratiated himself (as a black obliger and not a challenger such as Sharpton/Jackson) to a white America by being an icon for them to transcend the guilt of past racism. Steele makes it clear that Obama has evidenced little substance, but he has entranced the multitude of whites by playing the race card of ingratiation that removes their guilt. The hostility of these entranced towards others not so entranced is a phenomenon - a flip side of this guilt elimination so yearned after by his followers. In short these children of Hamelin are hostile for being found out as self-centered, self-guilt eliminators in their trance-like espousal of Obama as a transcending icon. Shelby makes it clear that this phenomenon in a replay of the Oprah phenomenon - who plays a similar ingratiating role and offers whites a gift of guiltlessness by accepting her.

Ms. Traister in her article is playig this same reactionary role - she is entranced and Specter therefore irritates her for pointing out that many of the quasi-entranced will wake up in the voting booth. Let's hope for our Country that this is true.

Shelby points out perspicaciously that in Obama's autobiography he admits a defining moment as an obliger or ingratiator where he writes: "I learned at a very young age that as a black, white people liked me if I was not angry." Shelby explains that Obama learned how to ingratiate himself as an icon for whites to rid them of their self-guilt over race. He has gone on to entrance the multitude with this power of manipulative ingratiation without at the same time evidencing any clear substance.Shelby says that if he did reveal his inner self - who he really is - he would lose his iconic entrancing powers and simply be an individual who could be judged.

We don't know who he really is, what are his real principles. But there is evidence enough to fear from his own words of "spreading the wealth" rooted in his early relationships with Marxists and even a committed Communist by the name of Frank in Hawaii (ready his autobiography). People who wake us in the voting booth are those who realize that there are great unknowns about Obama - and a number of frightening hints of what he will do with power once he has it - reinforced by extreme left-wing majorities in Congress. Obama is the pied piper whose music has entranced a multitude in Hamelin including hordes of the young aspiring to some magic land of guiltlessness that doesn't exist. Let's hope the mountain doesn't swallow up this wonderful land that so many have died for. How many more of the millions of unborn brothers and sisters have to pay for this trancelike immolation?

Sat verbum sapiens sapienti.