Maybe because your essay put the power of suggestion in my mind that I should be looking for something negative, so when the video started with the chant "Obama...Obama...Obama..." I could not help but think of the "Two Minutes of Hate" citizens of Oceania chanted in "1984" to work themselves into a frenzy against Emmanuel Goldstein, the arch enemy of Big Brother. I'm certain this was not the intent of the video and as the film progressed that image dissipated from my mind.

I'm not sure that's what Lowry had in his mind, but the opening of the video did have an eerie cultish feeling about it. All emotion. No reason. And that is something to be concerned about with any leader, as you wisely point out regarding the right's slavish adulation of our current president.

Let me repeat: brilliant.

To amplify on one of Glenn's points: the fact that MSNBC is undermining its own top show indicates that those running the business are not the free-market capitalists they claim to be. Rather, they exhibit the hallmarks of corporate statists, or believers in corporate state socialism. These people prefer governments like those run by Pinochet, Stroessner, and their ilk.

If this utterly stupid business move doesn't bother free-market thinkers, who may hate Olbermann et. al., then they will deserve the fate they get when their precious markets come under the thumb of pure corporate statism in the all-too near future.

...support for Democrats from me.

This year I volunteered for Jeff Merkley in Oregon, calling strangers on the phone and telling them how electing him would make a difference in Washington. And I donated money to the Obama campaign. Both won. Not just because of me, but because of millions like me who believed in Change.

I am registered as an independent, but, foolishly, I believed that Change would happen.

I may vote for a Democrat from time to time. But if I ever give my time and money to a candidate it will be for one who represents a party of true change. Not sure if there is one in this benighted country, but I know for certain it is NOT the Democratic Party.