There may be a media bias against Clinton-- though I'm hard put to remember a candidate who lost double-digit primaries in a row and was still considered a viable contender. There has certainly been sexism and I think a certain amount of classism in the media coverage (I think some people never have and never will forgive Bill Clinton for being, in their opinion, 'poor white trash made good.')

The fact remains that Hillary Clinton has not been able to overcome that. She has lost twelve primary contests in a row. She is not putting her message across well and her campaign seems horribly disorganized.

How would she overcome these obstacles in a general election campaign?

Can you understand how frustrating it is to favor Clinton but believe she absolutely can't get a fair hearing, simply because she is a Clinton (well, by marriage)?

I was a Dean supporter in '04. I feel your pain. But by the same token, Hillary would probably be a political footnote at best if she wasn't a Clinton by marriage. Her challenge was to capitalize on the good feelings from the Clinton administration and her own strengths, while sidestepping the pitfalls of sexism and Clinton hate. I don't think she's risen to that challenge.

To re-phrase my question- what are some effective ways for bloggers (and others) to swat rather than give voice to irrelevant slurs? Or is it necessary to use the offensive material itself in order to get people’s attention?

I think for the blogosphere it is necessary to use the offensive words-- online you can get into the details, cite sources, and really tear apart those smears. In conversation, I think it's different. With a friend, you can say, "So do you wear an American flag lapel pin? Do you think if you did it would make you more American?"

I still have yet to figure out what to do with my aunt's crazy email forwards. Anyone got any suggestions?

Oh, and congratulations PlainWords, on your 'first' Salon letter to the editor.

Everyone here who is so upset because I do not trust Obama to lead our country out of Iraq...are your children there?

No. And I don't want her there when she turns 18, which is why I will never, never vote for John McCain. I do have a good friend who has served there with the Air Force.

@Svensker, I might try that. Worst comes to worse it'll just drive her nuts, and I can live with that. Thanks to all the others who sympathized-- and I read that Onion article too, and laughed like crazy.

I'd rather vote for a crazy old POW (and I've voted Dem since 1972) than a lying manipulative weasal like Colin Powell, er Barak Obama.

None at all.

Melthough summed it up perfectly. I'd love a progressive woman president, or hell, a progressive male president. Obama is more progressive on some of the issues that matter most to me, but I'm not kidding myself that either Democratic candidate is particularly "progressive."

S.CON.RES.27 : A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of "National Purple Heart Recognition Day".

Dude, I am in awe.

About Obama needing to reach out to white women.

This is nobrainer no matter who you support. Florida and Michigan have gotten their 'punishment'-- their early votes will be deemed meaningless, and were generally treated as such by the media. Michigan in particular was robbed of the chance to choose the nominee-- a victory over 'uncommitted' is no victory at all.

Maybe the national Democratic party could offer to fund a caucus and the states could bring in the extra money to bring it to a primary if the party leadership chooses?

Microfinance is not supposed to create dot-com millionaires. It's not even supposed to create people who are middle-class by American standards. It's supposed to pull people from poverty into the beginnings of a middle class in these countries. The income earned from these businesses will make the difference for these women in terms of whether their daughters get a primary education, secondary education or any education at all!

Nicely put. Most of the male Kiva businesses aren't particularly 'innovative' either.

Kevin got tossed over Christian because he didn't finish his dress. There may have been other factors but not finishing your garment over and over has always been a great way to get tossed off Runway.

I think they picked Rami over Chris because they wanted more of a contrast in the final designs-- I suspect the producers always wanted a Jillian vs. Christian final show and didn't think either Chris or Rami would make it to final consideration.

Rami's weaving was beautiful but I thought his models looked terrible in their clothes-- for all he talked about the natural beauty of women, his models (who were just as skinny as Jillian and Christian's) looked pretty bulky and unpleasant in many of those outfits.

And am I the only one who thought Christian's 'don't eat' was more a joke about the fit of the clothes than some crazy encouragement of anorexia?

Christian wanted the models to make his clothes look good.

Rami and Jillian wanted their clothes to make the models look good.

Guess what? Models are hired to make clothes look good. That's their job. Do you think scriptwriters write to make actors sound good? If they do, they're doing it wrong. Models model clothing. That's what they do, and I hope most of them get a good deal of satisfaction out of it.

Just chiming in to agree that an only child is not always an unhappy or lonely one. It was always just me, Mom and Dad, and the cat for a while, and I always preferred it that way.

And do consider adoption. People do indeed love an adopted child as much as any biological kid.