I don't see an option for what I'm voting for above because it's really more the political ideology than it is the candidate, I'm increasingly finding. I'll vote for Obama, and I'm somewhat excited about that but mostly because it's an opportunity to stand for that ideology. Call it socialist if you want. It's really conscientiousness and kindness to those less fortunate than it is socialism. At least for me that's what it's about. Real socialist doctrine is something far past American Democratic progressive politics.

I like Obama pretty well. I believe he's intelligent but he's also young and untried, especially on foreign policy. We've had good presidents come out of young and untried ones and bad ones, too, like Mr. Bush the Younger. Obama can inspire crowds with stand-up speeches but he didn't do as well in this personal forum format, I thought. He seemed to stumble and hesitate more and seemed, well, distant. I heard George Will say a few weeks back that he's called "elitist" by folks who are threatened by Ivy League education. "Distance" is a better word for what I saw last night. He didn't let folks see into his heart like McCain did. He didn't tell stories or charm the viewers and audience or engage on an emotional level like he needed to.

McCain did great. He said in his book that he normally keeps the POW stuff fairly private out of respect for his fellow prisoners and the ones who suffered much worse fates or even fatalities, but he milked it for all it was worth last night. If I were going for votes I'd have done the same thing. It worked to pull me in and make me sit up and listen to him.

I wasn't pleased with Obama's "faith forum" performance last night but I still believe in the ideology he represents, and so I'll support that and hope his performance will get better as he does more forums/debates. Even if it doesn't, I'll still be voting for that ideology. Can't do otherwise. I've been too lucky myself not to and seen too many others who haven't.

I thought Rick Warren did a good job of that forum. He asked good questions--questions that people would want to know the answers to--and then seemed to really listen to the answers. I'm in the process of altering my original opinion of him, too, just like I had to lower my expectations of my party's candidate last night. Only in Warren's case, I hold him in higher esteem than I did before. I didn't hold him in low esteem before--just thought he was sort of a media-preacher celebrity instead of a minister of any type of enlightenment.