Goin' Back to Cali, Day 5 - Albuquerque, NM

(At a Texas gas station, Moby decided he wanted to drive - no, seriously - we didn't put him in that seat.)

Today, as we drove further across Oklahoma into and through Texas, something strange stood out (aside from what was, at least until very recently, the largest cross in the western hemisphere - an honor you really should just let a city have without going after it, no?). Gas prices were below $3/gallon for the first time I can remember seeing in...well, in a very long time. And as we passed sign after sign at stations displaying prices as low as $2.85, it hit me that this just isn't fair. It's not unfair because in California, we pay more than just about everyone else in the country for gas - no, I get that. It's unfair because Texas gave birth to the man who led us into this oil crisis in the first place, and yet in his home state, they pay less than the rest of us! Frankly (and my apologies to the Texas natives out there), I think Texans should have to pay $6/gallon until they properly apologize for the atrocity known as our president.

Meanwhile, what has happened to the 2008 presidential election - which, thanks partly to the aforementioned, has shaped up to be one of the most impactful in our nation's history? Specifically, what the hell is the McCain campaign doing? I don't even say that from a partisan point of view. Seriously, I'm going to take a step back and be as unbiased as I possibly am capable of, and say his entire campaign staff needs to be fired. From the folks "leaking" to the press that their new strategy is to turn the page on the economy and focus on Obama's character...to whomever is giving Sarah Palin a microphone at rallies; some heads need to roll.

First of all, someone needs to get Palin up to speed on the actual strategy of the campaign (which again, I realize, is pretty much impossible to identify at this point). Last Friday, she was talking the big talk about swooping down on Michigan for more campaigning when she was politely informed that the McCain campaign had decided to cease efforts there. That was just days after she agreed with Obama's sentiment about launching cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan - something McCain has mocked repeatedly. (In their father-daughter interview with Katie Couric, McCain did his best to clean up this most recent Palin gaffe.) Earlier this week, Palin suggested that she'd really like to revisit the Reverend Wright controversy, despite the fact that McCain himself has declared it "off-limits." At least she got the go-ahead to revive the months-old, laid-to-rest William Ayers connection.

Oh, for the love of God, someone get this woman a newspaper so that she can join the rest of us on today's date.

So while McCain and his cohorts are condoning (by not responding to) shouts from crowds at rallies that Obama is a "terrorist" and they should "kill him," McCain himself is simultaneously issuing statements that he doesn't support such "inappropriate rhetoric." But let's make something very clear - McCain doesn't support these statements simply by not making them himself - but he is happy to have others do the talking for him.

Look, I obviously am a huge Obama supporter. But I'm making simple and fair observations here. Little quips like, "That one!" are meaningless to me, hardly rooted in racism and simply indicative of McCain's grumpy old (losing) man nature. But it's vicious lies, and irresponsible and dangerous mischaracterizations that fuel negativity and hatred in this country, that make me shake my head at the botched McCain campaign. It doesn't even seem that McCain WANTS the campaign to go there, since he could easily have taken it down that road in last night's debate, and really didn't. So I just wish he'd show some of the backbone he is careful to remind the nation he has as a Vietnam Veteran and former POW, and substantively denounce the despicable actions of his camp.

Until the next debate...