Although Obama is certainly well known at this point, the fact is that due to this long primary he has not yet presented himself to those who don't vote in the primary and has not presented his case against John McCain. Hillary is a known commodity and in the unlikely case that she was nominated, there is little she can do to change voters' perception of her. So, the point is, she will not be able to win over voters between now and November. Obama, on the other hand, could change some minds, even of conservatives, if he presents himself right.

Imagine if Huckabee announces a third party candidacy for President. He would get a lot of donations right off.... from Democrats.

You're big fans of Suvivor but you don't know there is no Dan on this season? The person who found the fake idol was Jason. And what Richard Hatch's victory on Survivor I has to do with Lord of the Flies, I don't understand. Perhaps if he showed Piggy's glasses to the IRS he might be a free man today???

I find that women are more reluctant to share their opinions publicly, particularly on such provocative questions like "Is Hillary Clinton a monster?" Women in general are more likely to tell someone what they want to hear than give a brutally honest answer. This could be called politeness or it could be called duplicity. The two overlap. I'm a man, but I too am reluctant to share such opinions publicly, so what does that make me?

I'm a strong Obama supporter, but I do want to point out that maybe the reason Obama is getting more attention on the Web is becuase Hillary has been in the public eye for a few decades and there isn't anything new people are going to learn about her. We don't know all the details about Obama and I, like others, do a lot of looking on the Internet to learn his positions and his personal history. I for one, expect some time to be diappointed, but he has only impressed me positively so far.

Get over it, porn is to get your rocks off and people are turned on by all sorts of things they would be horrified of in real life. It's fantasy, and if you start deconstructing fantasy all you have is some political-academic analysis that is cold and logical and will make you never feel horny again.

I keep saying I'm not reading any more articles on the primary in Salon until its over. This broken record of "everyone against Hillary is a sexist" along with the implication that being Black is actually an advantage is getting very tiring. I just don't see electing a woman to the office her husband previously held is any great statement of sexual equality. Hillary is running on Bill's record, and many of us don't want more triangulation and pandering to large corporations, not to mention blind ambition.

Even though in a practical sense I agree with Pinker's statement that liberal democracy informed by science is the way to go, it just doesn't feel right saying our way is better than the rest of the world. When the rest of the world starts pointing out all the flaws in Western society, it becomes hard to defend our way of life. In fact sometimes it looks like what makes our way of life better is that we have more wealth and control more of the world's resources. That is not a result of a particularly enlightened world view. But like I said, I lead my life believing our way is better.

Kristol is totally off the mark here, but strangely enough Obama did echo a Marxist idea, one which I agree with. That is, the source of most social coflict is economic. People who have food on the table and enough money in their pockets to live comfortably can learn to get along with others. The anti-Obama statement Joan Walsh made that the black upper class has more in common with the white upper class then poor blacks only proves the point. Unfortuantely the working class in this country has suffered for the last 40 years under presidents that favored corporate wealth over individual needs, and Carter and Clinton are certainly part of that. As Obama stated, this makes them more tenecious and afraid of changes that would make our society more inclusive.

Honestly, I don't think it would be good for this country to send Bush, Chaney and Rumsefeld to jail. A pardon would be acceptable, but unlike Ford's pardon of Nixon, there needs to be a trial and conviction before any pardon is issued.

Every president in recent memory has created a persona as a "regular guy" rural or working class. Some were born into wealth with an impressive pedigree (the Bushes) and some were born into the middle class, but achieved wealth, fame and advanced education (Reagan, Clinton, Carter). None of these were regular working class guys. Yet we have Carter, the peanut farmer, Reagan riding on a horse, Bush Sr, the Texan, Clinton the small-town Bubba and Bush Jr. clearning brush from his ranch. The question is how can a black man portray a working class image without looking scary? We've come far enough that people would welcome a Dr. Cliff Huxtable in their homes, but not a Fred Sanford.

Joe, you and your cohort Joan Walsh just won't give up worshipping Hillary Clinton, and if you have to constantly knock Obama, who will the the nominee, so what? Under the guise of toughening him up to face the Republicans the Hillaryites have not let up. And so what if he loses in November? She'll be back to challenge McCain in 2012.