If you believe that Presidential character determines performance in office, as some political scientists do, it's easy to understand why President Obama has attempted to forge consensus on health care reform. As a person who straddles two worlds, white and black — as a community organizer (his first job out of college) — as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, etc. — he's had to forge consensus all his life. None of this should be startling to those of us who have read "Dreams From My Father."

On the other hand, from time to time I've sensed a deliciously diabolical side to him, which I chalk up to his fierce and disciplined intelligence. He gives his opponents just so much rope, and they hang themselves. I don't know whether this was an intentional strategy on health care or not, but the Republicans and their crazy base have behaved so nuttily this summer that they've marginalized themselves with everybody. I don't know a single soccer mom who likes the idea of people shouting down women in wheelchairs and bringing guns to town halls.

In short, Obama is both a consensus builder and a fighter. Am I surprised? Not really.

And not just because of his amazing post-Presidency and his Nobel Peace Prize, although God knows those would be enough. Jimmy Carter told the American people, "I will never lie to you." And he never did. He spoke the truth when he was President, and he's speaking the truth now. The nation should listen.

There's absolutely nothing on this video that justifies your raising this question, let alone devote a whole post to it.

Joan, forgive me if this has already been brought up, but how did you feel when Joe Biden choked up during his VP debate with what's-her-name last year? Did you post about THAT being inappropriate? I don't recall that you did. But his emotion then, and Speaker Pelosi's emotion now, are, I think, quite comparable. And equally moving. So please, let's quit focusing on gender and listen to what these people are actually saying. It's important.

Perhaps I should have referenced my original comment on Joan's post, way back about 250 comments ago... that I'm amazed this Pelosi non-story is even a topic of conversation in the first place. So maybe I should stop commenting on it myself, ha ha!

How many people of color were in Congressman Blunt's audience today? While we're at it, how many minorities serve as Republicans in Congress?

Answers: There are no black Republicans in either the House or Senate. There is one Jewish Republican in the House, and maybe three or four Hispanics. And can you look at the GOP conventions going back to at least 1980 and not realize what an exclusive club the Republican Party is?

The Democrats, with much pain over the last 60 years (think Hubert Humphrey at the 1948 convention), have largely been part of the emerging post-racial America. The Republicans, with their "values voters" nutbag base, and officially hunkered down in their lily-white enclaves in South Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, etc., refuse to acknowledge that America is no longer a "whites only" drinking fountain.

It's not only what Blunt said, it's who he said it to.

Dear No Soup, If you're in a restaurant or bar or other place of business that has a TV tuned to Fox "news," simply ask for someone in charge and politely request that they CHANGE THE CHANNEL. Oh, and you also could mention that you don't patronize establishments that show Fox. My friends and I do this all the time, and we have yet to run into a restaurant manager who's refused. Many, in fact, pay little attention to what they have on the TV and don't realize how toxic Fox is. They readily grant our request with little fanfare.

As for Beck, while I recoil at the thought of a three-parter devoted to this worm, I'd rather Salon shine a light on him so we can see him for what he is.

That we don't know enough about it. Give us the same details you gave us on Roman Polanski, and we'll be outraged. Meanwhile, the jury's out on this one.

The Kenyan birth certificate, death panels, healthcare reform covering abortions and illegal immigrants, FEMA concentration camps, big teabagger attendance on 9/12, Sonia Sotomayor is a racist, Obama is a racist, Obama is a Muslim, there are socialist/Communist/whatever messages embedded in Rockefeller Center, and on and on and ON it goes. Not to mention whatever crazy crap the nutcases come up with between now and New Year's Eve. I can't possibly pick.

But the good news is, it doesn't matter. Because President Obama will just keep doing the great work he's doing while clowns like you continue to underestimate him, every time.

I suppose you would prefer to go back to the days of Bush-Cheney? Why do you insist on sacrificing the good on the altar of the perfect?

And by the way, I'm a liberal, too. But unlike you, I'm not a loser. So I'm popping the champagne — and you can go get a life.

The DNC was absolutely right to fire back at the Republicans' outrageous behavior. All Americans should be proud that our President was honored with this award.

As for you, don't you get tired of being angry all the time?

Darling, I think you meant Oslo, not Stockholm.

@independentminded:

Because the right-wing crazies and erstwhile professional patriots ARE siding with the terrorists (check out what Hamas, that lovely group that the Bushies allowed to come to power in the Gaza Strip, had to say about the Nobel this morning). And Glenn is too damn boringly angry all the time to see how delicious the irony is. Can't we all just have a little fun with this?

@CarolofCarol:

No, not a yoga teacher — just someone who thinks liberals who insist Obama should be perfect are ridiculous. How soon they forget how terrible things were under Bush. I, for one, never will! Hugs.