A peek at the life, times and thoughts of John during his two-year stint in Knoxville.

I am still concerned that there are many people who are planning to vote for Barack Obama merely because he is a charismatic orator who is blissfully vague. Apparently I'm not the only one who has noticed Obama's tendency to say a lot without saying *anything*; even this morning on NBC's Today show a Matt Lauer interview with Obama hit the precise topic of being more specific. Obama is, supposedly, doing a better job of applying some depth to his talk.

A few other things I found interesting:

1. When asked if he could handle the Republican machine, Obama replied (very accurately) that he's already been facing the Clinton Machine, which is no picnic. Folks, make no mistake about it: the Clintons are politicians. They can play the game and smear with the best of them. And how interesting is it that one of their tactics is to cry that *they* are getting attacked. It's sly, actually.

2. When asked about issues such as race, Obama said he does not expect it to be directly mentioned in the general election campaign and noted that he believed Republicans would be angry if it did. On this I agree with him, too. The GOP gets labeled as agents of hate so often that you'd think they're lining up waiting to launch the "I don't know if you realize this, but Obama's a black guy" water balloon. Let's not be blind to the reality that hate still exists among some people in the United States, that's true. But it's definitely not limited to any political ideology. Do some looking in any ideology and you can find some if you dig.

This post was not made in support of any particular candidate. Seriously.