Evangelicals seem to be odd man out this political season. Their much-vaunted voting block isn't concrete-solid this time around. McCain courts them with little success, even after gratuitously changing his official religion from those darn liberal Episcopalians to the more palatable and conservative Baptists. Obama's working the liberal evangelicals with daily mentions of his faith and a new evangelical plank - faith-based initiatives.

La Bama isn't talking the moribund photo-op that God's Main ManTM kicked off to lefty howls and Congressional reticence. No, he'll give it a shiny new name - the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships - and elevate it to the moral center of his administration. I'm not clear where the moral center of his administration is and whether jamming "neighborhood" into the title makes it taste any better to the opposition. We'll see.

It was lead balloon time when Obama raised the flag. The liberal rank and file did not salute. Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State summed it up, "I am disappointed that any presidential candidate would want to continue a failed policy of the Bush administration. It ought to be shut down, not continued."

He's right about Bush policies being daft and there are legitimate concerns about the integrity of the firewall between church and state. However, Obama argues there's a great humanitarian need out there and the nation needs all the help it can get to fill it.

The US Constitution is a wonderfully malleable masterpiece. It's simultaneously steeped in tradition, yet remarkably fresh. That quality usually stands us in good stead, but requires lots of judicial interpretation - much of it extending "meanings" to cover issues the framers could never have imagined. Some call these decisions judicial activism. Others hail them as a forward-thinking, rational decisions. But with charges and counter-charges thick in the air, there's no reason to suspect the bickering over some amendments will end anytime soon.

The Second Amendment is one example of the Constitution getting it - if not wrong - at least too vague. There have been decades of debate about the definition of a militia. Lawmakers and the courts disagree on whether basic gun control laws are allowed. In fact, there's even controversy over what constitutes "arms" - pistols, high-powered automatic weapons, or bazookas. Even though the Second Amendment isn't a hot button issue for me, I find it interesting to hear the debate.

Barack Obama's recent decisions to chuck public campaign financing and support the FISA capitulation bill angered many. And, his missteps highlight a core problem of why government works - or more correctly - doesn't work.

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/25/t hrowing-the-candidate-out-with-the-bath- water/

Executive privilege is arguably a proper and useful way to protect sensitive government information. But, the Bushies consider everything from the WH cheese log budget to retired presidential toilet swabbers as sacrosanct.

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/23/w hen-does-executive-privilege-become-exec utive-abuse/

I'm an atheist, but I have no problem with believers who don't force their religion on me. But, I'm not OK with John Freshwater, a Mount Vernon, Ohio "science" teacher under fire for teaching creationism.

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/20/a -different-kind-of-cross-burning/

People used to wonder where the tipping point was for gasoline. Four bucks is the point at which people stop driving, airlines start charging extra to lose your luggage, and Hummers lumber uneconomically into that long oil-soaked night.

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/19/e nergy-policy-its-the-trust-stupid/

The notion of Iraq as a democracy is such a joke even this normally brazen administration can't make it look otherwise. Bush is thumbing his nose at both the US and Iraqi constitutions again.

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/18/a -helluva-way-to-run-a-democracy/

It seems negative campaigning isn't working as well as it once was. That's why Barack Obama's new Fight the Smears website is such an interesting phenomenon.
http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2008/06/17/t he-nabob-of-non-negativism/