the 24-hour news cycle will change politics to 'american idol' within 10 years at this rate

Senators McCain and Clinton have called Senator Obama an "elitist" because he dared to suggest that people who have been crapped on may become bitter. Furthermore, they may just yet harbor resentments that they misdirect towards the wrong people. Immigrants, for example. Or perhaps they might "cling" to those things they see as the only things that haven't yet been taken from them. Guns, for example. Possibly, these people who are going through hard times will do what anyone does. That is to say that it is within the realm of possibility to think that they might pray about it.

So once again, our political discourse is reduced to debating the meaning of a soundbyte rather than what the candidates in question would actually do if elected. There is no reason to still be talking about this, and yet people are still talking about this. Since people insist on still talking about this, why don't we go with the only rational thing that can be said about it and call it my official position on the whole thing?

It's ironic that one presidential candidate could hang that label on another, said Dr. Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and author of "The Political Brain."

"If you think you should be president, by definition you are an elitist, only because you believe that of the 300 million people in America, you are the best person to run it," he said. "There can't be a more elitist statement than that."

Can we please take the kind of analysis and time that Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and basically any other "news" outlet have put into this and direct it towards the candidates' health care plans now? Or does not giving a crap about a candidate sipping from a shot glass or bowling a 37 make me an elitist?