For the most part, I missed the Sunday news shows last week. But this morning I saw Chris Matthews, over half of Meet of the Press, a good portion of the “roundtable” on the ABC Sunday Morning, and Face the Nation.

Chris Matthews had an interesting panel this morning. Gloria Borger, from CNN, was the most conservative. Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post, gave a nice counter opinion to Borger. They started off the panel talking about why, in the face of a pretty much picture perfect overseas trip by Obama, along with the unpopularity of the Bush administration, along with the economic problems facing most people in this country, Obama is only a few points ahead in the latest NBC poll? I think that is a very good question.

Eugene Robinson actually brought up, as he described it, the 800 pound gorilla in the room, the fact that Obama is black. And, the so called “Bradley Effect” came up in the discussion. I was glad to see this discussed. None of the other shows discussed it this morning, at least what I saw. The Bradley Effect is an expectation that a black politician will receive several percentage points less than what the latest polls show because there is a certain percent of the population that won’t admit that they won’t vote for a person because of race but when they get in the privacy of the voting booth, will in fact, let race guide their selection. This is a very sensitive issue, because not only does it demonstrate that fundamental racism is alive and well in the US, but also that there is dishonesty about it.

I actually believe it. I think racism, at least among a certain percent of the U.S. population, is alive and well. And I believe that this does account for the polls being somewhat close when conventional wisdom would tell us that it should be a blow out for the democrats. Since Matthew’s show did address it, and was the only one, I single it out for good journalism today.

The topic de jour of course was the debate over Iraq/Afghanistan. Obama says that we need to pull out troops from Iraq and send at least some of them to Afghanistan. McCain continues to try to get Obama to say that the surge actually worked, but hasn’t been successful yet in getting Obama to admit it outright. Obama says that the so called Sunni Awakening, which the media reports as Sunni leaders in Anbar province turning against Al Quaeda and joining with the US media, but which we, as recipients of media propoganda, have no idea what the real truth is, as occurring before the surge and, in combination with the Sadr militia on cease fire, had as much to do with the reduction in violence in Iraq than the “surge.”

Some of the media criticized Obama for not coming out and admitting that the surge was a “success.” Personally, I don’t blame him, cause it all depends how you define “success.” The U.S. lost 22 soldiers this last week in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don’t call that a “success.” And, a rational look at what has occurred leads me to believe that the hard core insurgents in Iraq all packed up and went to Afghanistan when we beefed up our troop numbers in Iraq. I think Obama is right not to be too quick to call the surge a success. Remember Bush and his “Mission Accomplished” disaster? The people of the middle east have been around as a culture for a lot longer than we have in the U.S. They have experience in expelling occupying forces. Whereas we tend to take snapshots and try to label them, you can’t always label a snapshot accurately if things are in movement when you snapped it. And that is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I think what has gotten McCain’s goat is that he has had to respond to Obama’s call for more troops in Afghanistan, even in the face of not being able to get Obama to admit that the surge was a success, by also calling for more troops in Afghanistan. Of course, the left wing of the Democratic party is not happy with Obama’s apparently war mongering in regard to Afghanistan and Iran. We shouldn’t be using the military unless there is some imminent threat to our national security. It’s hard to understand how a poor country like Afghanistan can be a threat to our national security. So one might wonder if Obama is catering to the more militaristic side of our populous. If that is the case, then it’s just politics as usual. However, if he knows things about a real threat being posed by our enemies in Afghanistan, he should make an attempt to convey that to the public. I’m a little worried that he is losing as many as he is gaining by his militant leaning visa vis Afghanistan.

Another issue that was discussed on several of the shows was the notion that Obama is an elitist, a chardonnay sipping, brie eating, ivy leaguer that is out of touch with the everyday U.S. working person. It’s a total distortion, but Obama needs to respond to it now, because, in conjunction with McCain’s vicious attact TV ads already running in various places, Obama could be successfully swiftboated. It’s amazing though, that the Republicans have the nerve to totally distort the facts and try to create a reality that is totally opposite of the truth. They did it with John Kerry in regard to his military service and his purple hearts. Now they are trying to do it with Obama’s low income upbringing. If either of the two candidates can relate to being poor and growing up with disadvantages, it has to be Obama. But the Republicans are trying to paint him as being an uppity arrogant ivy leaguer that wouldn’t understand at all. This campaign is meant to compliment the already partially successful whisper campaign that Obama is a muslim, was educated in muslim schools, won't salute the flag, etc etc. These are all attempts to paint Obama as something he isn't - it really is malicious and dirty, but it's what republicans do and do well.

All one has to do is look at the TV ads that McCain is running right now. They couldn't be any dirtier and slimier. McCain should be ashamed. But we all know how desperate the republicans are to keep hold of the executive branch. They'll do anything, including, probably, stealing the election. Afterall, didn't they do it before? So Obama better start responding and responding firmly and not wait. If he doesn't respond immediately, these notions start sinking in, and they take root. It won't take too many percent of the population to really start believing this sleazy smear campaign before Obama will lose the election.

On the VP front, I still think Obama will pick Sen. Clinton if she wants it. I'm out there on my own in this regard, but I'm sticking by my prediction.