The back-and-forth, quoting out of context, and general cattiness of politics gets pretty tiresome, especially during an election season. For the most part it’s better to ignore it. Sometimes, though, a candidate says something too ridiculous to let slide:

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. …

“And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not,” he said.

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” he also said.

If you read the CNN story that I’m quoting here, it’s pretty clear that Obama’s response is more of the now-standard Barackish dissembling. Instead of simply apologizing for being careless, Obama has to blame the listener - “Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that,” - and complain about how his opponents nit-pick his every word.

Well, Barack, maybe you should stop saying idiotic things. If it’s not elitist to say, effectively, that small town Midwesterners are unemployed racist yokels waiting for the federal government to repair their crappy communities, I don’t know what would be. The question is not whether people like me are turned off by what the personality candidate says and the extremist name-your-far-left-hero types he hangs out with. But what about some of the moderates who might have been convinced that Obama was, in fact, a leader as great as his speeches?

Just a quick note, mostly because I wanted to write a post from my new Blackberry.

It is days like today that I love what I do for a living. Great weather and plenty of interaction with great people. I can’t think of anything that would make the weather today any more perfect…70 and sunny, with a slight breeze.

No real news today that I can think of.  I watched the movie “American Gangster” last night and really enjoyed it.  I suggest watching it at some point, it is well worth at least a rental.

I like my car. I drive a Mazdaspeed6, which I got a great deal on because I found a 2006 model still on the lot in November of 2006. This is what my car would look like if you were, say, a squirrel with a fancy camera and a quick shutter… paw:

I’ve never liked silver cars that much. Mind you, depending on the light “Liquid Platinum Metallic” looks noticeably darker than plain old silver… but shiny gray is still not that exciting. Mazda only ever made the Speed6 in a few colors - basically, greyscale working its way up to black, and the obligatory red. And some plum color. My favorite was always:

I could count on both hands the number of times I’ve seen a Mazdaspeed6 that wasn’t my own (which I guess is why Mazda quit making ‘em), but occasionally I’ll see some dude around campus in the Speed6 I wish mine was. Sunroof and everything - which wasn’t even standard on the GT model. When I do - as, if that weren’t obvious, I did this afternoon - I am briefly filled with ridiculous jealousy. Curse you, Dark Mica Speed6 owner!!