Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop election pundit shop.

Eugene Robinson explains what Barack Obama's candidacy means to him as an African American.

Richard Cohen says that Barack Obama is not a transformational figure, but a confirmational result of progress since LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

Just as John F. Kennedy was only incidentally a Catholic, so is Obama only incidentally a black man. It is not just that he is post-racial; so is the nation he is generationally primed to lead. This, of course, was the dream of the man who is buried on his beloved ranch -- the unheralded winner of this election. As he would put it: My fellow Americans, we have overcome.

Bob Herbert tells what today's vote means, but says that it is only the first step:

Americans have to decide if they want a country that tolerates this kind of debased, backward behavior. Or if they want a country that aspires to true greatness — a country that stands for more than the mere rhetoric of equality, freedom, opportunity and justice.

That decision will require more than casting a vote in one presidential election. It will require a great deal of reflective thought and hard work by a committed citizenry. The great promise of America hinges on a government that works, openly and honestly, for the broad interests of the American people, as opposed to the narrow benefit of the favored, wealthy few.

By all means, vote today. But that is just the first step toward meaningful change.

Bret Stephens tosses his last piece of garbage for campaign 08, complete with a photo of the WTC, one tower in flames and the other about to be struck by the second plane. 'Nuff said.

Fred Barnes warns that America is facing a "sharp lurch to the left," with an Obama presidency. And the media sucks. And Nancy Pelosi isn't to be trusted.

Bill O'Reilly says that fear is on John McCain's side. Joe the plumber proved that. Bill O'Reilly is an idiot. Bill O'Reilly proves that every single day.

Bruce Fein hates everyone, except, I'm guessing, Bruce Fein.

Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins shriek that a President Obama would seize billions and turn America into a socialist state...forevah!

Walt Whitman said, in 1884:

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:

This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day...