But when men unacquainted with other modes of life than their own meet with the record of such actions, unless they are restrained by authority, they look upon them as sins, and do not consider that their own customs either in regard to marriage, or feasts, or dress, or the other necessities and adornments of human life, appear sinful to the people of other nations and other times.  And, distracted by this endless variety of customs, some who were half asleep (as I may say)—that is, who were neither sunk in the deep sleep of folly, nor were able to awake into the light of wisdom—have thought that there was no such thing as absolute right, but that every nation took its own custom for right; and that, since every nation has a different custom, and right must remain unchangeable, it becomes manifest that there is no such thing as right at all.

-St. Augustine, City of God

From the AP:

Democrat Barack Obama, the first black candidate with a shot at winning the White House, says John McCain and his Republican allies will try to scare them by saying Obama “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Obama didn’t make clear what distinctions McCain was likely to raise regarding the presidents on U.S. currency, men who are white and, for the most part, much older than Obama when they were elected. McCain has not raised Obama’s race as an issue in the campaign, though he has said that Obama lacks experience.

(Instapundit notes the plural “bills.” Dean’s World wonders what happened to the postracial candidate.)

When you’re crawling through the underbrush in your pith helmet and wafflestompers, guidebook in hand, trying to identify the genus and species of the creature noisily crashing through the flora ahead of you, one telltale sign that you’re on the trail of the liberal is if they equate policy differences with a deficiency of morality.

For years, rather than Bush was mistaken, but Baghdad was taken, it’s been Bush lied and kids died. Never mind that “lied” would mean Bush knew one thing to be true (or false in the case of WMDs) but said another. Or, recall Howie Dean’s rant that Republicans are evil and corrupt. And we could go on and on.

The left is dominated by the secular, and for the secular, morality is whatever you want to do. Since politics is the crafting of policy, and policy is whatever I want to do, you can see how the left easily confuses the two.

Obama can’t win on the experience issue, (and he sure won’t win over Maggies’ Farm) but if he, along with the swooning media members swaying behind him in the choir, can define any criticism of himself as venal and morally repugnant, Obama’s minions can continue to hammer together the scaffolding just under the surface of the water, so he can walk out on it with confidence.

Andrew Ferguson has a great article in the current Weekly Standard about Obama’s speech in Germany, and he writes:

And what will Obama have us do to avoid those nonmetaphorical dangers? He declined to get specific, aside from urging us to “answer the call.” Floating along on a cloud of metaphor and generality allows Obama to do what he wants to do, in the Berlin speech and elsewhere. As a public figure he means to rise above any hint of conflict, and to suggest that problems and dangers dissolve when we “come together.” And coming together, “standing as one,” is simply the logical outcome of every participant’s correctly understanding his best interest. What could be more reasonable?

It doesn’t matter that human affairs never work out this way, no more in domestic politics than in foreign policy. The assumption that they do is what lends so many of Obama’s utterances their greeting-card simplicity and appeal.

Precisely. I do not want Obama and the Democratic Party making policy for this country. I have a differing opinion about what is best. If that makes me evil, well, then I guess I’ll just lace up my jackboots, leap to my feet and shout Republican talking points with fanatical fervor.