James, you might want to run another post on your blog on this topic. The Times today ran a correction to Brooks' column, noting that, contrary to what Brooks says, and contrary to what you quoted above, Obama did not vote for the farm bill.

I've added the correction. But Obama just didn't bother to show up to vote: He'd voiced his support for the bill.

But this year's Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that is the contest John McCain won. The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans that once bothered Senator McCain's conscience are now his only economic policy. The Bush health care plan that only helps those who are already healthy and wealthy is now John McCain's answer to the 47 million Americans without insurance and the millions more who can't pay their medical bills. The Bush Iraq policy that asks everything of our troops and nothing of Iraqi politicians is John McCain's policy too, and so is the fear of tough and aggressive diplomacy that has left this country more isolated and less secure than at any time in recent history. The lobbyists who ruled George Bush's Washington are now running John McCain's campaign, and they actually had the nerve to say that the American people won't care about this. Talk about out of touch!

I will leave it up to Senator McCain to explain to the American people whether his policies and positions represent long-held convictions or Washington calculations, but the one thing they don't represent is change.

I can't wait to see what the "Straight Talk Express" has in response to that...

Carter surely had his faults as a leader, but one has to wonder how he would have fared if he had inherited a stronger hand and not the one left by 8 years of poor leadership that preceded him.

I expect John McCain, if elected, to sign every farm bill that comes along, without so much as a peep of protest.

Out of the way folks, the Lobbyist Express is coming through!