Cross posted from TPM Cafe:
What’s the Matter with Kansas may have been an impossible book to read, but its central point is unassailable: In a country filled with the profoundly stupid, emails spreading lies and commercials arguing ridiculous things, instead of debating our future on this planet, can have a huge effect on who wins elections.  Were this a competitive election (which it is not, solely because of George W. Bush, the savior of the Democratic Party), this would have been the week that Senator Obama’s campaign started to unravel, not based on reason, but on inanity.

What follows is not meant for the "fans" on this web site: meaning those who have chosen a candidate and follow his or her campaign the way I do the Red Sox.  That is how I approach baseball, rooting for the team I first latched onto when I was six years old, growing up in Massachusetts.  It is not how I follow presidential elections, especially this one.

I am certain that the rules do not permit me to repeat anything posted here before, but in view of this ridiculous cable tv tempest over comments Senator Obama would be better off not having made, but see Bob Herbert today, and the truly obnoxious way in which Senator Clinton has tried to hurt Sen Obama by a phony unctuousness, that rule needs to be broken to again raise a fundamental question.