...abandoning the liberals and progressives here is a mistake you make at your own peril....

Foolish arrogance is all the rage now in "progressive" circles, don'tcha know. I wasn't born in Texas, I didn't get here "as soon as I could", but it's home now and oddly enough, I find it offers the same chapters of the human comedy found in the rest of the country. The print is maybe just a bit larger.

Please cite one instance, any instance at all, in which Obama has shown himself actively sympathetic to single payer. We're looking for more than just words here. Nevertheless, operators are standing by.

Please consider doing an intervention with Paul Krugman on this and other economic/social issues. Ever since his off the record dinner at the White House, the good professor has been making uncharacteristic noises which sound an awful lot like "Don't make the perfect the enemy of the better". Some of just can't withstand another iota of disillusionment at the moment.

There is a certain commenter, a camp follower of yours, who routinely posts rather vile, slanderous, insulting "poetry" which you seem to find amusing. I've been a target of his for over a year now and you've done nothing to rein him in. What do you plan to do about commenters like him? Anything? Something tells me that if I flag his posts, absolutely nothing will happen. Also, during the primaries and the general election, Salon seemed completely uninterested in removing comments which amounted to hate speech directed at other commenters. What brought about this apparent change in policy, and who is going to be responsible for removing clearly abusive comments?

Also, during the primaries and the general election, Salon seemed completely uninterested in removing comments which amounted to hate speech directed at other commenters.

Um, Kate? Hate to break this to you, but that was you.

Feel free to dig through my comments and find one which contains anything like hate speech toward another commenter. I was repeatedly attacked, along with others - especially female commenters - because I was vehemently opposed to Obama for the very reasons which many of his former supporters are now taking objection to him. For this, I was called a racist on this site over and over - something which the rather toxic omar still insists on doing. For this, I was referred to as KoTex by your friend omar and another commenter, along with being a bloody old hag. For this, I was also called a c*unt and a bitch, among other descriptors. I never once addressed another commenter in this vein. Feel free to address your three-year as you wish. Do not feel free to address me in a condescending manner or falsely describe my history on this site.

@KateTex

Your comment could have easily been written by AKA Smith or jebldmm. Each of you, during the election, played the role of the victimized female everytime one of us confronted you in the same manner you addressed us.

This is completely false. We were repeatedly the targets of horribly sexist, hateful comments on Salon not only because we were highly critical of Obama, but because we stood up for Hillary Clinton, a woman who was villified, even hated, beyond all reason not only by male commenters on this site, but also by far too many female commenters. You were not confronting us in the same manner we "addressed you." We were routinely sliced and diced without having addressed anyone at all. The attacks on us were gratis - and many.

I stayed away from this site for a long time because of the startling nastiness of too many of the commenters, because of the blatant sexism and misogyny. It was a mistake to think that, because deep doubts about Obama have begun to emerge openly on the Internet, it might be safe to venture back. I was wrong. The nastiness is still here. Perhaps admitting one was wrong about Obama doesn't extend to admitting to oneself that one was a trifle rotten toward commenters who once fought for Hillary Clinton and against Obama. It's deeply saddening to know that there are so many "progressives" out there who have serious gender-based problems. The saddest thing of all is to realize how many women there are who will not stand up for other women. Heaven help the latter when they need someone to stand up for them.

However, I wouldn't wish Kennedy's backstabbing ways on anyone, either. His trashing of Hillary Clinton last year was not exactly a shining moment in Democratic history.

...these clowns are having all kinds of hell trying to cope with an honest playing field.

Where is this "honest playing field" you speak of? The only playing field some of us see these days is tilted so far in favor of Obama, the game pieces are in danger of sliding off the planet. These are the same game pieces which were extant when Bush was the favored son. They've simply been shifted to the opposing team's turf.

Also, in re to the damaging disclosure of Bush's past you claim would have been aired by an up and running blogosphere - and picked up by the MSM, both turned an almost completely blind eye to the negatives (and there were and are many) of Obama's demonstrable background and history. The information was out there alright, but the blogosphere - and the MSM - were content to further enrich both Obama and amazondotcom by letting Obama continue to define himself through two, unexamined "autobiographical" works, meanwhile once again impoverishing voters. To this day, there is still nothing being written that I know of which puts Obama's "unexpected" turn to the right in context.

In terms of desire and capacity to sell out, the blogosphere is turning out to almost as craven as the MSM. This is an improvement?