One of my heroes, Joan Didion, has a piece up on Salon this a.m.: "Belief" in the surge translates to "success" in the surge; does Palin have a better life story than Biden; what was up with the "lipstick on a pig" bid-nez?

Time got wasted in the familiar ways. The presence of Barack Obama in the electoral process allowed us to talk as if "the race issue" had reached a happy ending. We did not need to talk about how the question of race has been and continues to be used to exacerbate the real issue in American life, which is class, or absence of equal opportunity. Instead we could talk about what Barack Obama meant by "lipstick on a pig," and whether it was appropriate for him to go off on vacation "to some sort of foreign, exotic place." The "foreign, exotic place" in question was of course Hawaii.

Anyone who complains that Barack gets to go to Hawaii regularly is just jealous. Trust me.