First, hourly wage growth has slowed for the 80 percent of US workers who aren't managers. Second, inflation is picking up, driven largely by higher prices for gas and heating. And third, employers are cutting back on hours.

The upshot is that--unlike last year, when real wages actually grew by about 2 percent--workers are losing ground, to the tune of about 1.4 percent in weekly pay last month. With a softening economy and rising unemployment, there's no reason to think the shrinking paycheck trend won't continue. Wage growth is likely to be slow or nonexistent for the rest of this year as competition for jobs stiffens.

We are unlikely to grow into the "post-racial" modifier some of us so crave. That's because the idea of "post-raciality" is a total fallacy. Should Obama become president, he will not suddenly cease to be black, nor will white Americans be any less white. However, Obama's continual presence in our newspapers, on television and in our national consciousness would force us to reconsider just what these colors mean. A President Obama (or any other black president) would bring us face to face with the threatening idea that colorblindness and equality are not the same, and that real progress on racial issues means respect for, and not avoidance of, difference.

Our racial past and future is something that we Americans must address. Thanks to Obama, there is no better time than now.

The media touts McCain's stance on climate as evidence of his straight-talkin' maverickosity. Conservative stalwarts assail McCain for his heresy (Romney attacked McCain's climate bill in Michigan and Florida). The public hails him for reaching across the aisle. Even Democrats and greens seem inclined to give him a grade of Good Enough on climate.

This is a classic case of what our president calls the soft bigotry of low expectations. Judged against his fellow Republicans, McCain is a paragon of atmospheric wisdom. Judged against the climate and energy legislation afoot in Congress, he falls short. Judged against the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, he is a pale shadow. Judged against the imperatives of climate science -- that is to say, judged against brute physical reality -- he isn't even in the ballpark.
It's time to stop grading McCain on a curve.