After the excitement that was yesterday's cavalcade of awesome events, today was somewhat less spectacular. That's not to say it was bad by any means, but there was nothing approaching the Fred Thompson level of awesomeness. Over the course of the day, I alternated between standard blog-watch activity and research for some of our blast e-mails. I also spent a good portion of the day trying not to fall to sleep at my desk - despite all the coffee I poured into myself this morning, the week has officially caught up to me, and I don't foresee this being a very late night. I'm dead tired and have some work I have to do tomorrow, so the most exciting event in my immediate future is sleep, and plenty of it.

Per usual, I'd like to hit a couple of points about Senator Obama. First and foremost, there have been completely unsubstantiated rumors swirling for several months that Barack Obama is a "secret Muslim", whatever that means. This is a meme that just won't die for some reason, but it's got the Obama campaign on edge. In fact, they're so scared of him being painted as a Muslim that they barred two Muslim women from having their picture taken with the Senator. While I certainly don't agree with the rumor-mongering that has put Obama in this spot to begin with - in fact, I don't believe it has any place in a civilized campaign - I find the expulsion of these women from a photo op a little extreme, especially when Obama is building himself as the post-racial candidate.

But I would like to stress that you don't hear Mike Duncan condemning Obama's fake Muslim heritage. Unfortunately, high-ranking Democratic officials aren't being so kind to our nominee. Howard Dean has on more than one occasion implied that John McCain is too old to be President. (Witness the snark present in this article, wherein he and other DNC members talk about how classy they're going to be by not pointing out how old McCain is.) And today, Barack Obama himself officially brought race into the general election, telling reporters that Republicans are "going to try to make you afraid of me. He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?"

At no point in time has the Republican Party or the McCain campaign EVER made Senator Obama's race an issue, because once again, there is no place for that ridiculousness in a civilized campaign. In fact, John McCain has gone out of his way to condemn individuals who brought up race, including requesting the pulling of ads run by non-RNC groups featuring Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright that implied Obama's belief in an anti-white form of Christianity. It is deceptive, classless, and plainly insulting for Barack Obama to accuse Republicans of deploying racism as a weapon against him in this election.

The second point I want to hit is that Obama's decision to abandon public funding for private funding in the general election has not been well-received, even by some Democrats. Senator Russ Feingold - no friend of conservatives anywhere - commented, ""This is not a good decision. [...] While the current public financing system for the presidential primaries is broken, the system for the general election is not. The entire system must be updated." Not exactly a ringing endorsement from one of America's most liberal Senators.

And the meaty center of today's Obama arrogance sandwich is the debut of the "Obama Seal", his own version of the Presidential Seal, which he is using to present an official appearance at his present speaking engagements. In addition to being generally arrogant and somewhat classless, it might also be illegal. And while the Senator's certainly not going to do any jail time over it, he should have known better. But hey, what are research and judgment when you've got hope and change on your side?

All right, that's enough Obama-bashing for the day. Before I sign off, I want to mention John McCain's town hall event in Minnesota last night. Generally speaking, it was an improvement on the previous town hall, and McCain really showed how comfortable he is in the venue. Of equal importance, however, was the presence of Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who made a favorable impression. Pawlenty is considered by many the favorite to win the VP slot on the ticket this fall, and honestly we could do much worse than him. He's a relatively young two-term governor with blue-collar appeal, a solid record, and no glaring scandals haunting him. And his presence could go a long way in helping McCain consolidate support among Midwestern voters (insofar as any Vice Presidential candidate can have an effect on any constituency). I'm not sure if Pawlenty is my personal top pick - I still like both Romney and Palin - but I'd be happy to wear a pin with his name on it.

All right, that was some ramblin'. I'm going to sign off. Long day tomorrow. Adios.