So, now we see what this presidential campaign is really about: It's a vote between the Christian God and all the other Gods. Don't get me wrong, I'm being cynical here.
(Source: RealClearPolitics.com)

October 12, 2008
McCain Rebukes Religious Speaker's Invocation
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At a McCain rally in Davenport, IA, yesterday, while delivering the invocation, Arnold Conrad, a minister, said:

There are millions of people around this world praying to their god -- whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah -- that [Obama] wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and election day.

Which is the kind of thing that McCain, already trying to clamp down criticism of Obama at his rallies, doesn't need. The campaign released this statement, distancing itself from Conrad's comments:

While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama's judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief.

Here's a couple of quotes from the Politico.com site which shore up my own view of what the possibilities might be for an Obama administration and also what's wrong with the McCain campaign (written by the son of America's best known conservative).
Of course, anything said about an Obama win must also consider the battle between youth and racism that I wrote about previously.

— THE BIG IDEA — Miami Herald lead story, “Polls point to decisive D.C. shift,” By Steve Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers: “Democrats appear headed toward a decisive victory on Election Day that would give them broad power over the federal government. Polls, both nationally and in battleground states, increasingly point to a win that would send Barack Obama to the White House and give him larger Democratic majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate — and perhaps a filibuster-proof margin there. That could mark a historic realignment of the country's politics on a par with 1932 or 1980, when the out party was given power it held for a generation, and used it to transform government's role in American society.”

— BUZZ — “Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama,” by Christopher Buckley, son of William F., on The Daily Beast, Tina Brown’s new site: “Let me be the latest conservative/libertarian/whatever to leap onto the Barack Obama bandwagon. It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance. Or would they? … This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget ‘by the end of my first term.’ Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?”

The need for Change
The hidden racism vote still scares the bejeebers out of me. This relic of our primitive past has the power to keep he final vote tight on Nov. 4. Though Obama proved himself "presidential" in the first debate, there are people around us, mostly of the older generation, who will vote their set-in-concrete prejudices instead of what they see with their own eyes.
This is no time for youth to sit home and listen to music or talk to friends on their cells. They have to get out and vote. Don't register and not vote. This is an election that may well not come easy, be a cliff-hanger, in fact, with or without the economic crisis. The youth vote may very well be the deciding factor that puts Obama in the White House.
This crisis election presents the opportunity of a lifetime. It is the essence of the saying that crisis is both disaster and opportunity. Not since Roosevelt took over from Hoover and Lyndon Johnson became president when Kennedy was shot has there been such an opportunity to make audacious, good and fundamental changes in the American way of life. Especially if the Democrats also maintain a majority in both the House and the Senate.
Being optimistic that Obama will win the election, think about the possibilities in store for change now that the sleeping tiger of popular indignation has been aroused.
The audacity of new priorities and real change
What should be the priorities. Let me list some in order of need.
1. Universal Health Care
2. Universal Health Care
3. Universal Health Care
Have I made my point?
Don't people say, "you can face your problems as long as you have your health?"
Health is the foundation upon which all else is built.
And the priority within the Universal Health Care category is prevention.
It seems like half the country is concerned with nutrition and exercise while the other half is eating grease and getting fat. Grease and obesity have to go the way of tobacco.
Think of it like driver safety: states are passing laws that you can't drive and have a cell phone in your hand. We have put huge safety regulations on auto design. These are health initiatives.
Well, restaurants and food processors are like automobile manufacturers. They must be prevented from injuring the public health.
A long time ago humans invented government. The trick is to use it for our good.
After health there are other obvious priorities.
4. Energy is the second foundation of human life, after health.

But obviously, not all energy is created equal. Going green has become a fashion, but only after a huge struggle with people who denied the environmental crisis and the slackers are still with us. They give lip service to moving ahead with wind and solar power, etc., but drag their heels. An Obama administration needs to light a fire under those dragging heels. We need sticks and carrots to put energy change into high speed. And, as we have not been before, now America must be at the forefront of the necessary global attack on environmental degradation.
5. And, speaking of the forefront. It's obvious that America has to plow in to get the world right side up in this banking mess. It will happen sooner or later. Nothing has destroyed the fundamental skills of the world's work force and nothing has destroyed the fundamental existence of the worlds resources. What's there is still there. It's the connection between resources and management of those resources that has to be re-addressed. What happened is that energy was misdirected into the creation of spooky financing rather than real productivity. This is a danger of capitalism: paper can overwhelm reality. With the energy of a people aroused and energized leadership worldwide, we can put things to rights. The Obama administration needs to take a world-leadership role in shaking out the mistakes and setting up a global apparatus to prevent a repetition.
A once in a lifetime opportunity.

I won't go one with the list for an Obama agenda. Others will be doing that and most of us know what we need. The single point to remember is that the time for change is now. I won't say now or never, because never is a long time. But think of this: If we had been in the same crisis when Bill Clinton became president, we would probably all have guaranteed health care coverage despite the tsunami of health insurance propaganda that overwhelmed the Clinton's health initiative. So, in a way, its now or never in our lifetime.
I'm sure Obama has a small group of thinkers starting to peg out the initiatives and priorities of his administration. I hope he gets to preside over the changes.
And I want to end with a shout:
YOUTH GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

This just in supports my concerns about racism. But there are other concerns that worry p0llsters. Click here for the full story.

George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC News' Sunday morning show "This Week," summed up pollsters' concerns with a list of "three different undercounts" that he attributed to Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart. This year's polls, he said, "may be undercounting the number of young people who are going to vote," they "may be undercounting the African-American turnout" and they "may not be capturing those white voters who just won't vote for Barack Obama because he's black."