Why isn’t Senator Barack Obama way ahead of John McCain in the polls?  Why is this race so tight?  Bob Cesca has an idea:

Hmm. I can’t imagine why that is. It’s not like Senator Obama’s patriotism and character is being assassinated for three hours every morning on cable news — six hours if we include the spasmodic howler monkeys on FOX & Friends. I can’t imagine why the polls are so close when Joe Scarborough is helping his Republican allies to once again turn this critical national debate into another blind recitation of Lee Greenwood lyrics.

Why are the polls so close? Not only do around 25 percent of Americans watch FOX News Channel on a regular basis, but, from coast to coast, there are more than a thousand far-right talk radio stations occupied by shows that make Morning Joe sound like an Olbermann Special Comment. And 17 percent of Americans are glued to it at work and in their cars. Talkers like Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, John Gibson, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Bill Bennett and Glenn Beck broadcast on your public air around the clock. Non-stop. Unrelenting. Only interrupted by Accu-weather and traffic. Free to anyone with an AM radio.

I don’t know if you’ve dared to listen to far-right talk radio lately, but I can assure you that they’re not ignoring Senator Obama — or his family. Put it this way: if you only got your news and opinions from talk radio, you’d probably believe that Senator Obama is some kind of foreign-born baby-killing Manchurian Candidate terrorist — if not a sexist uppity black man who, if he loses in November, will incite race riots in every city.