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Mr. Fish illustrated the unnatural combination of politics and religion perfectly in this week’s comic featuring a caricature of Barack Obama.  Go read it now and then come back here.

Mr. Fish could make the same point with any of the candidates running for president.  All he’d have to do is replace Obama with McCain and add statements made by James Agee, or replace him with Clinton and mention her former pastor who was recently convicted of molesting a seven-year-old girl or her membership in The Fellowship.

All the candidates would be well advised to lay off each others’ ties to religious figures and religious organizations.  Counter attacks are too easy and, no matter how much the media chooses to focus on it, religion isn’t supposed to have anything to do with who we choose to be our president.  What’s supposed to matter is what the candidates themselves say and do.

The real story isn’t that these candidates are Christians and attend churches.  The real story is about how the media’s coverage is driven by race.

Read E. J. Dionne, Jr. today.

I just completed the 2008 Race to Robie Creek, the Northwest’s Toughest Half Marathon. My time was 02:03:32. Not bad, 613th out of 2,431 and 114th out of 230 in my age group. You can view my photos on MySpace in my Race to Robie Creek Album.

There are several things which make this race difficult. The course is a 13.1 mile half marathon which gains more than 2,000 feet in elevation to Aldape Summit in 8.4 miles. From there the course plummets more than 1,700 feet in the final 4.7 miles.

Mile 8 was perhaps the most brutal. An incredibly steep climb to the summit, punctuated by a rowdy group of fans/detractors offering, among other things, cupcakes, donuts, jell-o shots, beer, champagne, Crown Royal, and cigars. A sucker for temptation, I gave into the first 4, all without stopping. The donut was the hardest to get down, it dried up my mouth even more than it already was.

After 8.4 miles up, it is time to go down the backside… My fastest mile was the first down the backside, estimated at about 5 minutes, mostly because I could not slow down. Miles 11 – 13.1 were particularly brutal, mainly because they started to level out and my legs started screaming at me.

But by the time I made it to the finish, it was all worth while. A picnic area on Robie Creek filled with fellow runners, live music, beer, shepherd’s pie, baked potatoes, cookies, brownies, and more beer.

I am already planning on 2009. Next year I will be sub 2 hours!

Additional coverage over at the Idaho Statesman, including a Robie Creek photo gallery.