Things to ponder or wonder about:

n President Barack Obama is the best campaign person ever. I’ll bet he could get a dog elected as dog catcher or Paris Hilton as spokeswoman for abstinence.

n The more The News Virginian columnist Nelson Graves yells he’s not a racist, the more his own words scream that he is.

To paraphrase a great writer, methinks you doth protest too much (“Hear this: I am no racist,” July 16). Your feeble attempt at defending your racist attitude is at best laughable. You mention Thomas Jefferson’s racist tendencies. If we are to believe the writer of the historical novel “Roots,” then we – and you – should accept the very real possibility that slavery was given birth through the selling of Africans by Africans.

Having read Nelson Graves’ racially slanted rants in past issues, I am not surprised by his ranking Michael Jackson above the historically recognized masters of composition (“Michael: Better than greats,” July 2).

This letter is in regard to Nelson Graves’ column (“Three cheers for government,” June 18).

Mr. Graves seems to think that with a Democrat leading the government the ever-falling Social Security fund doesn’t still owe $2 trillion to our trust fund in worthless IOU’s out in Parkersburg, W.Va., all because our government hasn’t taken the annual surplus of billions of dollars each year to put in the general fund. It has happened through many decades with both parties at fault.

This is an open letter to Nelson Graves. I have read many of your columns and the last one (“Here’s what change means,” April 9) really got me thinking. What I think is that you, Mr. Graves,  are a true, dyed-in-the-wool racist. No question about it.

Recent statements made by an Augusta County high school principal and a county resident have a number of us scratching our heads.

At first I blamed the tall weeds and grass along Virginia’s highways and roads on the continuous rain and cool temperatures this spring.