A few items today.

1. Personal Responsibility. When will we see more people take it? There is plenty of culpability to go around in connection with the financial crisis, but how often do you hear anyone say that they simply messed up; they took on too much debt and they couldn't pay. Instead, it's almost always someone else's fault. No borrower--from the giant banks of Wall Street to the homebuyer who was making $40K and bought a $650K house--was forced to do so at the point of a gun. Sure there were predatory lenders--and they should be punished--but an enormous percentage of homebuyers didn't read or willfully chose not to scrutinize the documents they were signing, for the single biggest purchase of their life.

This extends to Wall Street as well. I have heard Dick Fuld, the CEO of Lehman, expressing astonishment that the government didn't bail out Lehman. Well Dick, maybe the government was inconsistent on who it bailed out, but NO ONE FORCED Lehman to lever their assets 30 to 1.

Similarly, I have heard people whine about the rating agencies who assigned AAA's to shady debt securities. Well, those rating agencies did a horrible job and anyone who fully trusts them ought to have their head examined. But sophisticated money managers blaming the rating agencies for everything? Please. If you are a money manager and bought a giant stack of dodgy paper *only* or *primarily* because Moody's slapped an AAA on it, and you called that "diligence," then you deserve to be fired. If you simply relied on Moody's or S&P to do your work for you, then perhaps you should replaced by a computer, instead of making $5 million per year.

2. Race. When I used to race competitively in high school, I was involved in many close matches--mostly the mile, but also the two-mile and the 880. Many times I was passed or I passed someone in the last 50 yards (or sometimes ten yards). Fortunately, I did more passing than getting passed, but lessons can be learned from both. You get passed when you think you are about to win, and you don't finish strong.

Obama knows this and he is trying to relentlessly push through the finish line. McCain is an epic come-from-behind guy, and Obama knows it. Obama keeps telling his supporters: "Two words: New Hampshire." (Meaning he was ahead in all of the polls but lost to Hillary.)

Yesterday I got another package from the McCain campaign. It had a real FedEx envelope in it, addressed to the campaign HQ. They were asking for an "emergency donation" to "stop the democrats from a full takeover of the federal government."

If I had to bet now, of course I would put my money on Obama. But beware overconfidence.

3. Conversions? As many of you know, I have several friends who are republicans...no, they are not my "token" republican friends; they are friends who happen to be republicans...and I too have voted for republicans before, but just not recently. If you know CA geography, you know that Manhattan Beach is not too far from the "Orange Curtain" -- the Orange County line, behind which lies probably the biggest concentration of republicans in California.

These friends typically are thoughtful and philosophical republicans who you can have good debates with. They are not the "we'll put a boot in your ass" types who are still 100% certain that Saddam was behind Sept 11 and believe that Obama is a radical Muslim. I don't consider myself a democrat or a republican, but discussing politics is
obviously one of my favorite pastimes. With that too-long backdrop, one of my republican pals ("Mr. X") said a few weeks ago that if Colin Powell endorsed Obama, then he would vote for Obama.

I was shocked; Mr. X has been a long-time McCain fan, and shares my skepticism about many parts of Obama's tax plans. But I think he had become disillusioned with several of McCain's recent moves, including his deeply cynical pick of Sarah Palin.

I think Mr. X had been wavering on McCain for some time, and apparently the Powell endorsement pushed him over the edge. This is not to say that Mr. X will be an enthusiastic Obama supporter; I don't see an Obama
sign coming to the front of his house.

Nixon's words on Walter Cronkite (paraphrased by me) are apt here: "Once you have lost Powell (and once you have lost Mr. X, who will now vote for Obama), you have probably lost America."

4. I am sickened by the comments from Palin and other McCain supporters about the "pro-American parts of the country." This kind of talk is divisive in the extreme. Almost all of us are pro-America; there is not an anti-American state or part of a state. What will it take for certain people to realize that almost everyone in this country wants it to succeed? There may be some that complain more loudly than others about its flaws, but if someone *truly* hates America and what it stands for, they are more likely to leave than to stay and try to make it better.