One of the downsides to writing a column for the Sun-Times is all the nutballs who write me e-mails. Here’s one I received after my latest column appeared about Obama.

You must really be simple. Borat hasn’t done a thing since hes been in office, nothing! When the senate is in cession he only appears three times a week. What’s that all about? And look at all the black trouble makers that would surround him plus he’d be the commander in chief, very scarry thought.

Obama, himself, had some thoughts on this matter.

Race, said Obama, whose father was black and mother white, “is still a factor.” Minority candidates have “a higher threshold in establishing themselves with voters.”

Meanwhile, Hal in comments last week had a pretty good argument about the “experience” issue for Obama.

I’m not that concerned about experience. I favor term limits for national politicians anyhow, so experience isn’t a big deal.

Andrew Greeley on experience:

Honor, intelligence, integrity and self-deprecating humor are superior to “experience” any time.

But what about integrity? Greg Hinz’s column has some new revelations.

Barack Obama made national headlines last month when he loudly enlisted in the campaign to get Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to treat its workers better.

The Chicagoan who would be president — maybe — told members of a union-backed coalition that they have “a moral responsibility to stand up and fight” the big retailer. “The battle to engage Wal-Mart and force them to examine their own corporate values and what their policies and approaches are to their workers . . . is absolutely vital,” the Associated Press quoted the U.S. senator as saying. […]

Which raises a question — not about corporate values but about Mr. Obama’s values. Specifically, while Mr. Obama bashes Wal-Mart, why does his wife, Michelle, make $45,000 a year serving on the board of a Chicago-area company that pays its executives a very hefty amount of money while laying off mostly minority workers in an economically deprived area, a company whose No. 1 customer is — you guessed it — Wal-Mart? […]

Ms. Obama, vice-president for external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, says she was asked to join the board — five months after her husband took office — after putting out feelers indicating she’d like to get some corporate management experience. She says Mr. Reed’s compensation is benchmarked to that of other food firms and that the firm hopes to expand and hire more workers, many minorities, once it boosts its efficiency.

The person behind some of these negative Obama stories is Joe Novak, a longtime political operator (Vrdolyak, Poshard, etc.) who works for an outfit that is trying to strip not-for-profit hospitals of their tax exempt status because they don’t offer enough charity care. Mrs. Obama is an executive at University of Chicago Hospitals. Novak also has a blog, which is chock full of references to Michelle Obama, and a website called ObamaTruth.org.

Here’s a recent post entitled “How to get to a U.S. Senator.”

Regular readers will know that I have reported that Senator Obama once appeared on the website of the Service Employees Union with a quote saying “hospitals terrorize the uninsured”.

I also have reported that that quote was removed about the time that his wife Michelle received approximately a $200,000 a year increase in her compensation from The University of Chicago Hospitals.

Another indication that the hospitals had got to him was his refusal to co-sponsor legislation introduced by then Assistant Minority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Il) that would make hospital disclose some of their prices.

His staff saying, “the Senator has some concerns on how this would impact hospitals”.

*** UPDATE *** Is “experience” even a valid argument when it’s judged by years of service or committee rank? The incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who presumably has lots of DC “experience,” doesn’t even know whether Al Qaeda is Shia or Sunni. Unreal.