Now on Imus.com (by Julie Kanfer):

Craig Crawford stopped by for a rare in-studio appearance to hand deliver to Imus the very first copy of his and Helen Thomas's forthcoming book, "Listen Up, Mr. President," which comes out the first week of October.

To welcome Crawford, Imus spent a few minutes speaking extemporaneously about his prostate cancer, explaining that much of the treatment for prostate cancer is fear-based. Luckily, Imus has no cancer in his blood or in his lymph nodes, and he is willing to deal with having the cancer inside of him, something many people are unwilling to do.

"But enough about me," he said to Crawford. "How do you think I look?"

But Imus's tale was relatable for his guest, whose friend's brain cancer diagnosis has forced him to put things in perspective. "He keeps a blog," Crawford said about his pal, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Have Brain Cancer Instead."

Imus asked his second southern-born guest of the day why President Obama's election to office has fanned the flames not only of racism in this country, but of accusations of racism directed at almost anybody who dares criticize Obama.

"I grieve for racism," said Crawford. "But I also grieve for this pattern of turning every criticism, legitimate or otherwise, of Obama into calling that racist. I think that dilutes what is real racism."

Crawford, however, has picked up on a tendency of Obama's to be careful when commenting on the actions of white people, like the police officer in Cambridge who arrested Henry Louis Gates. The President initially said the officer acted "stupidly," and quickly backed away from that characterization.

On the other hand, Crawford continued, "He's very quick to call Kanye West a jackass, he's very quick to go before a black audience and give tough talk. I think black leaders are beginning to think, what have we gained here? Is our first black president turning red?"

That observation led Crawford to wonder how Obama would have reacted now to the I-Man's "great unpleasantness" from a few years back, when he called for Imus's firing.

In Obama's defense, Imus said the President was goaded into saying that by "that Howdy Doody-looking, gutless, sniveling, wretched, pigeon gut-sucking coward" David Gregory.

Imus shared with Crawford that Bernard and Charles were exercised by the Massachusetts legislature's intention to overturn a 2004 law banning the Governor from filling a vacant Senate seat by appointment, which at the time suited their fancy because the Governor was a Republican. Now that Democrat Deval Patrick is in office and Sen. Kennedy has recently passed, it's a different story, one that Bernard and Charles find totally hypocritical.

Said Crawford, "If hypocrisy was a virus in politics, they'd all be dead."