Why isn't Obama leaving McCain't in the dust?

Even with Barack's post-primary centrist shift, and McCain's listless, doddering campaign, it is astounding to me that the Presidential contest remains a statistical tie, with less than 100 days remaining.

Is it racism? That is certainly the most facile answer, but, frankly, I don't buy it. Is the media lying? Always a possibility, but at least some of the polls appear to be independent (for what's its worth).

Even if we concede that there is Obama fatigue among the electorate, how on earth could any half-thinking person believe that John McCain represents anything more than a continuation of the war-mongering (and profiteering) corporatist "let-them-eat-cheese whiz" sensibilities of the Bush-Cheney crowd. McCain has made it clear that he has thrown his lot in with the neoconservative jerks who have bancrupted the nation, turned us into a world-wide pariah, terminated much of the good that government can do while shoveling as much cash into the maws of Exxon-Mobil and their ilk as possible.

Flying to Europe a few weeks ago, I overhead some 40-something guy behind me talking to his next-seat neighbor. "I wish I could vote Democratic. But Obama - I just don't know what he stands for. And he really is a Muslim, you know. Now, McCain, get him off script (he stinks with a script) and he's a standup guy, a regular patriotic American." My God, I could've upchucked in this guy's lap. You see, people are willing to foolishly separate the mythological man that John McCain purports to be from the party that has coronated him. And his party doesn't suffer "mavericks" very gracefully. And it certainly doesn't give them the nomination.

That is how far up their asses so many Americans' heads are these days.