I don’t know what it is about Barack Obama, but he attracts supporters whose motives one almost immediately suspects. We here at Pensito went through the whole machinations thing here a couple months ago (you know: “They’re trying to get people to vote for Obama so he’ll beat Clinton because he can’t beat McCain.”), and it gets more convoluted than Rush Limbaugh’s moral compass.

But we have been trained to think this way by a government that spies on us and lies to us: “Should I believe what I’m told or the opposite? But maybe they are lying to me to get me to think the opposite, which is what they really want me to think. Maybe.”

I dunno, it’s twisted days, my friends. Anyway, when he stopped by the Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital Conference for a bull session, Rupert Murdoch (who owns the WSJ) was in rare form. He had some good things to say about Obama, but put in the context of his other utterances, for instance on U.S. energy policy — ”We didn’t buy Alaska to save a couple of elk” — one is left to wonder:

The biggest news may have been the News Corp. chairman’s hints that he sees Sen. Obama as having a good chance of winning the November election. Noting that respect for politicians and Washington DC is at an “all time low,” Murdoch described Obama as a “rock star” and “fantastic,” saying his Republican opponent John McCain is “unpredictable” and “doesn’t know much about the economy.” While he is a “patriot” and a “decent guy … he doesn’t know much about organizing a campaign it would seem.”

Murdoch added that he wasn’t backing anyone, saying he wants to know more about Obama’s plans and the people around him. But he said he was involved in the New York Post’s decision to endorse Obama in New York’s Democratic primarily earlier this year.

A major issue in the election will be the economy. The “average American today is really hurting financially and that bodes well for” Obama, he said.

Crazy or canny, you make the call.