He re-articulates the point that the McCain campaign is not interested in running on the issues, know that would be a losing fight. Instead they’ll focus like they always have on Obama’s character and slander it left and right, no matter how odious.

So, presumably Republicans get to have their cake and eat it too? In the case of Governor Palin and her choice to have her child with Down Syndrome, it represents a shared value among the Right. That shared value adds to her aura of ‘authenticity’ but, certainly doesn’t define it.

For better or worse (worse, says I), there are many, many voters in this country for whom that is more important than the EFCA. And in order for those voters to reach a point where a labor issue trumps an abortion issue, the state of labor would have to be much worse than it is today. Like, pre-New Deal bad.

So, I’m not clear that I accept this notion of ‘…fall[ing] for this – again…’ While I believe that the ‘What’s the Matter with Kansas’ argument has pretty well been demonstrated as incomplete, it’s premise that certain people will vote values over economic self-interest, is fundamentally sound. And their numbers are legion.

I still believe that we are fundamentally a politically conservative country. I don’t believe that people are just uninformed – I believe that most people genuinely care more about abortion than esoteric labor legislation. And they will continue to care more about abortion until labor relations regress to a point like we had somewhere just before the New Deal.

Is it hipocritical of them to cry foul when the very features they’re claiming virtuous (e.g. not aborting a Down Syndrome baby) are called into accompt? Absolutely. Do I find their values alien and bizarre? Indeed, I do.

Nevertheless, here we are. But then, who knows? Maybe it’s just good ol’ fashion racism against the Black candidate?