In Today's pages: the culture war, Nobel Prize and the Jellyfish, Oliver Stone's "W" Movie

Columnists tilt Obama-ward on today's Op-Ed page. Timothy Garton Ash suggests a Barack Obama victory next month could tone down the corrosive culture wars, and in her column Rosa Brooks counts John McCain out of the race: he doesn't know it, she says, but "he's a dead man walking." That means President Obama will be the one who has to fix the economy, Brooks writes as she turns her attention to his inadequacies. The problem? Obama clearly has no idea what to do. She cuts him some slack, though:

Don't blame him for not yet knowing how to do that, though. Right now, no one really knows how to do that. Not Obama, not McCain, not Ben Bernanke or Paul Krugman or Larry Summers or Hank Paulson. No one. We're all out of our depth.

Also on the opinion page, Marc Zimmer explains how the light of the Jellyfish has "revolutionized" stem cell research, cloning, organ transplants and earned scientist Osamu Shimomura, who examined how the proteins that made them glow, the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Meanwhile, Columnist Patt Morrison, who recently saw Oliver Stone's movie "W," writes that while watching it, she felt a little sorry for the beleaguered president -- but much sorrier for everyone else who lived through the real life drama of his time in the White House.

For its part, the Times editorial board is in approval mode and devotes the stack to endorsements. It urges voters to support Measure R, which would fund many transportation projects -- including an extension of the subway toward the Westside, light-rail through the San Gabriel Valley and some highway improvements. Also earning support from the board is Measure U, which would renew a utilities tax that helps pay for child welfare, libraries, public works and other services in unincorporated area. If it passes, voters who now pay 5% tax will pay 4.5%, but the tax will apply to "new" communications technologies such as cellphones. Lastly, the board reminds voters of its choices in the Superior Court judicial races and the second supervisorial district in L.A. County.

Cartoon: Matt Davies, The Journal News