John Edwards endorses Obama, probably to annoy the heck out of the 7 percent of West Virginia Democrats who voted for him yesterday. I can't help but suspect that Edwards won't be attorney general in the new administration, or at least chief judge at the war crimes tribunal.

Speaking of the election in West Virginia, the topic of race and the way these issues have been covered in the media, here's a great piece from Columbia Journalism Review on the what has become "para-racist" issues in the campaign:

The Washington Post article excerpts a letter to the editor by a local, Clinton-backing, Pennsylvania pol that pointed out Wright, Obama’s supposed failure to salute the flag, his time in Muslim Indonesia, before suggesting he’d shun the bible when taking the oath of office. And it mentions an incident that’s gotten little press attention: the vandalization of his Vincennes, Indiana campaign office. A window was broken, and Obama’s full initials (remember what the “H” stands for?) was spray painted along with mentions of Hamas and the Reverend Wright.

Again, none of that’s literally about Obama’s race. But tack enough of that together, and all the sudden there’s a language that allows people to talk about deep-seated hesitancies without using the taboo language of race. Call it para-racist language.