Forget the "just a matter of time" Obama endorsements from liberal mainstays the New York Times and the Washington Post. Those rags were in the tank since '04. For a real barometer for America's political attitudes, check out the Bryan-College Station Eagle's endorsement of the Democratic ticket. Things are finally so bad that even Texas hate communities that usually loathe any African American who can't score a touchdown are betting on black!

Put this on your fourth cheeseburger, Limbaugh.

In the past 50 years, The Eagle has never recommended a Democrat for president.
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This year is different, in large part because of the very difficult challenges facing this nation after eight years of a failed Bush administration. We are faced with a choice between Sen. John McCain, who claims to be an agent of change but promotes the policies of the past, and Sen. Barack Obama, who also wears the change mantle, but offers a vision for the future, even if he has yet to fully explain how he would carry out that vision if elected president in little more than two weeks.

Every 20 or 30 years or so, a leader comes along who understands that change is necessary if the country is to survive and thrive. Teddy Roosevelt at the turn of the 20th century and his cousin Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan — these leaders have inspired us to rise to our better nature, to reach out to be the country we can be and, more important, must be.

Barack Obama is such a leader. He doesn't have all the answers, to be sure, but at least he is asking the right questions. While we would like more specificity on his plans as president, we are confident that he can lead us ever forward, casting aside the doubts and fears of recent years.

Atlantic SUPERblogger Andrew Sullivan reported on the unprecedented support of the Eagle yesterday, at which point readers with roots in Texas wrote in to underscore his amazement. Said one:

Its student body population is 95 percent white and more than that conservative. We in the rest of Texas refer to College Station as "Berlin on the Brazos." A&M is still home of the corps of cadets, an ROTC program on steroids that still sends young men and women into the active armed services with commissions.

On top of all of that, A&M's student body is among the most racist groups I have ever encountered. University of Houston athletes are still called Cougroes and Cougar High because UH was the first major school in the south to integrate.

For the Eagle to endorse Obama is just shocking, far more so than the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News (if they do) or Chicago Tribune. This is Palin's country here.