•About two weeks ago, the yard signs advertising different political candidates began to outnumber yard signs put their by the various roofing companies, tree services, etc. who were cleaning up after the last hurricane. Conclusion: folks are moving on with their lives, and it's time for me to do something about the back yard. My neighborhood, which is unusually integrated, will divide 50-50 or so between the two presidential tickets, to everyone's surprise. (The recent influx of black families, mostly renters, hasn't registered on people, who still think of Broadmoor as a staunchly white, Republican monoculture. The influx of African-Americans, liberals, and gays--yes, gays!--is making us into one of the more interesting parts of Baton Rouge.)

•Last night at the LSU-Tulane game in Tige Stadium, there were hundreds of fans sporting purple and gold Tigers for McCain-Palin stickers. I was the only one wearing Obama/Biden advertising I saw all night. Of course, of the 75,000-plus fans in the stadium, perhaps 90% were white. Conclusion: the white vote for McCain-Palin in Louisiana is solid--more solid than the LSU Tigers' domination of the field against their non-conference rival, Tulane. LSU will not do well against Alabama next week. 

•Twice now I have returned home from  making phone calls for Democratic Party candidates--Senator Mary Landrieu and the Obama/Biden ticket--and have received phone calls within hours from volunteers like me urging me, using the same script I just read 200 times, to get out and vote. Conclusion: Democrats are just as much as a well-oiled machine as when Will Rogers said, "I don't belong to an organized political party--I'm a Democrat."