white suburban women with hammer toes, Albanian gas station attendants and Rosicrucians!

Polling released 20 minutes ago suggests that questions regarding the Senator's relationship with his long time dentist, an outspoken advocate of Relaxation Sedation, have cost the candidate valuable votes in Indiana and, notably, Guam.

What follows is intended to be a palate cleansing, lightweight mental exercise which may help with a political hangover. Personally, I am intellectually and emotionally exhausted via the last year of political hope, despair and bullshit. If every Presidential election becomes a 2 year monkey show, we are in big trouble.
That said, allow me to lay out a thought experiment which may divert and relax the mind of the political junky.

In roughly 38 hours the political jello will begin to set. Real numbers will begin rolling in from Iowa and we will have some clue as to who will be in the ring come November.
For several weeks I have been trying to distill from available info(polls, media bloviation, informal conversation with strangers and friends in airports, the topography of the litter in our cat's box, etc), and I have come up with the following:

Obama/Webb vs. Romney/Lott

According to a new WSJ poll(god help us), approximately 70% of Americans have no idea re Barack Obama's religious background. Approximately 8% believe he is a Muslim.
Oy. Where is the aspirin? As a recovering Catholic, I am heartened by the apparent disinterest and/or apathy of the public regarding religious baggage. And baggage it is, in my estimation. How many of us have chosen a religion after study and reflection, and how many have simply succumbed to the inertia of family/social pressure?

You're a stranger in town. You need a beer. You walk into a bar and realize you're the only guy in there with all his teeth and no tattoos. But you do need that beer and you remember that the unexamined life is barely worth living. You decide to linger and you order a Smithwick's. This seems to offend every parolee at the bar...Steppenwolf begins pounding from the jukebox...

If you are a male, you may have experienced the intense embarrassment/guilt/shame that can come from reading about a particularly obscene rape. You had no part in the crime, but still, you feel ashamed for your gender. Lately, I have experienced an increasing and acute sense of shame and regret as a "civilzed" human as I witness the creeping obsesssion with and/or acceptance of torture.