nannance, Klytus is always willing to accept an invitation to the dance, but Klytus does not spend idle hours deeply involved in bloody nonsense.

If you can capably bring a reasoned and enlightened argument to the fore, I will begin to take you seriously as something other than a teduious and tritely opinioned bore.

For I am under no illusion at all in a land of pretend, that some sort of perrential silly season has abruptly come to an end.

Oh how I wish all this could go away. Maybe I am dreaming. Maybe we should have learned and rejected the fact that race is a card to be payed. When we realize that race is not a card or gambling means, then we will not be confused as to who played it first.

We all acknowledge the fact that we do not like pre-emptive strike doctrine and so we rise up against the Iraq war and denounce it in absolute terms. Perhaps regardless of the humoric way told, Obama should not have said what he said in June as a pre-emptive strike to prepare his supporters against the possibility of the Republican machine using his black race against him. As it is, it has given the toothless McCain campaign enough adhesive material to put the false tooth back.

Obama campaign, unlike Kerry's has enough there to strike back hard at specific spot when attacked. It is when Obama's campaign resorts to this pre-emptive generalities meant to prepare supporters against possible future attack especially with a dose of race sprinkled over it does it make the opponent gain credibility among those weasles who call themselves independents. The fact of the matter is highlighting race as an explanation for all negative causal effect on your campaign gives ammunition to not only your opponent but the lazy corporate media who flocks to it the way moth flocks to light. The unintended consequence is uggliness.

Klytus, when I said that I hoped to find people who enjoy debating issues civilly, I wasn't thinking of somebody who would respond by calling me "a teduious and tritely opinioned bore."

I have had discussions on Salon with people who disagree with me on virtually every topic but who are extremely well-informed and who, on more than one occasion, have made me rethink my position.

In addition, while they may not concur with my comments, they are able to tell me why they believe I'm wrong without finding it necessary to insult me in the process.

Obviously you are not one of these people so lets not waste each other's time anymore.

The whole "racism" issue would be just politics if we didn't have serious issues about race to deal with. While Obama supporter's are worrying about comparisons to Jesse Jackson and people using the term "shuck and jive" and whether showing Obama in a commercial with Britney Spears is race-baiting, the judge in the Jena 5 case was just replaced because he had shown bias against the defendents, innocent men (many of whom are black) are rotting in prison because prosecutors won't let them have access to DNA that might clear them, sentencing guidelines that are biased against blacks have lead to astonishingly high prison rates, unemployment among blacks is terrible, black men have to be afraid of being pulled over (and sometimes beaten) for "driving while black", mostly black inner city schools are underfunded and black youth are less able to succeed in college because of it, black women get less medical care, and thus die younger and have more premature babies which leads to a higher infant mortality rate ... and there is more.

From the perspective of a white person, I think that "racism" is one of the most serious character flaws a person can have. I won't associate with people who show such tendencies, and I certainly wouldn't vote for one. I try very hard to root out any such tendencies in myself, although I believe that bias is inherent in the human nature and recognize that I am not immune from human failings. In many circles, a tendency to overtly racist comments or actions can cost a person not only social status but career promotion, since management is afraid of the fallout due to race-related problems. As such a serious charge, it should be used carefully and sparingly. But it has been thrown around in this race with abandon.

A black President would be a nice symbol of equality, but symbolism alone will not solve the many problems we need to address in order to achieve true racial equality in this nation. Obama does not have a strong history of addressing these issues. He has tended to stay with more generic issues related to families and the poor in order to avoid being labeled a "black politician" and to maximize his appeal to whites. Ironically, the Clinton's had no such liability, so they have been able to reach out more to the black community, but they were tarred as racists to enable Obama to win the primary. It remains to be seen if Obama will be willing to fight for causes that are beneficial to minorities in particular. Republicans in recent years don't have a bad history in terms of black race based issues. That may change now that Obama has pretty much sewn up the black vote for the Dems for the time being (Republicans were hoping to make inroads among religious black groups). Time will tell, but one thing I am certain of is that race and charges of race-baiting have been overused in this election, and it has divided our nation, and Obama has not stood up to it, and has even encouraged it on occasion. That is the primary reason why I'm refusing to vote for him. I wouldn't vote for a white politician who tolerated this - it would be racist if I accepted it in a black politician.

Having a "card to play" implies some advantage to playing that card. Bringing "race" into the campaign is not helpful to Obama, it only helps McCain. Only McCain can play the race card. However, the McCain people are very careful about avoiding race while still trying to scare people about Obama. That's why for now they are going with "Obama's a lightweight celebrity like Britney and Paris", and "Obama's too popular in Germany", and "Obama has a lightweight resume", etc. I expect the McCain people will leave the "race card" up to the 527s so McCain can get the benefit of using race in the campaign, but maintain deniability, "Oh, we didn't say that!".

Using fear in the campaign to change the subject is the worst kind of propaganda - it not only diminishes Obama, it diminishes McCain and the American Political process as well.

But McCain's only hope is to get Obama in the gutter with him.

McCain's like an old, deaf dog who's sweet most of the time, but easily becomes disoriented and angry. We don't want to get rid of the old dog, but we can't have him biting the kids either. Oh, geez, I seem to have lapsed into a little propaganda myself. . .