It's true that Clinton contradicted herself. Politicians do that sort of thing, especially when they're campaigning. We can add this to our personal scales when weighing who to vote for.

That said, I agree with the others here: let's drop it. Clinton and Obama have made their peace. Russert pursued it anyway, rather than pursuing matters of true importance. Time to move on.

EDWARDS 2008!

It's true that Clinton contradicted herself. Politicians do that sort of thing, especially when they're campaigning. We can add this to our personal scales when weighing who to vote for.

That said, I agree with the others here: let's drop it. Clinton and Obama have made their peace. Russert pursued it anyway, rather than pursuing matters of true importance. Time to move on.

EDWARDS 2008!

What's nice about all this is that 9ui11iani doesn't have a prayer of getting the Repug's nomination, and the Pod can slip back into the wingut abyss from where he and the other damned souls can gibber and vent forth occasional bursts of sulphuric drivel.

Or, he can become 9ui11iani's Hollywood agent and get him that title role in the remake of Nosferatu ("Rudy, you were born for this role!").

After Land of the Dead, I can't bear to see Mr. Romero put out a bad zombie movie. Here's to hoping that Diary lives up to its early hype and Romero's own enthusiasm about it.

Otherwise, it, he, and his fans may just have to follow that sage advice: shoot it in the head.

Thrasher is the resident bigot on this board. His favorite targets are whites and Jews, but he's slurred latinos and women, too. He insists on getting the last word in because that's just the way he is.

Plenty of Americans reject the hatred espoused by Thrasher, as well as the militarism and arrogance perpetuated by Bush and his cronies. I don't know about Canada, but we here in the USA have a criminal class aristocracy that is firmly in power. Still, we try nonetheless to give them their comeuppance.

EDWARDS 2008!

Hillary Clinton is seeking the votes of women in her historic quest to become the first female President. Barack Obama is seeking the votes of blacks in his historic quest to become the first black President. Both of these very intelligent and good politicians are aware of that, and so of course they are seeking the votes of the other's basic constituencies.

There's nothing wrong with any of that. If I was a woman or black, I'd be for Clinton and Obama, respectively, since both -- being good and capable Democrats -- are qualified to be President.

The ordinary course in the USA is for people to vote their bigotry: whites against blacks, Christians against Jews, etc. It's heartening to see minorities, or at least the oppressed, voting for one of their own. I support that, and if it weren't for the fact that Edwards is one million times more passionate about social justice, I'd be hard pressed to choose between Clinton & Obama, because this country desperately needs both a woman and a black President.

The last thing this country needs is another goddamn white conservative male as President. Those guys have done nothing to help anyone but the wealthy and neanderthal. The...hell...with...them.

Why shame on me? That's just silly. There's no shame in women voting for women because of gender, or blacks voting for blacks because of skin color -- not in the USA, when both groups have been historically oppressed. Sure, if the candidate is terrible then that transcends identity politics -- e.g., though I'm Jewish, I'd never vote for someone like Lieberman for President -- but in this case, you have two very good candidates (Clinton & Obama), so why not vote for your gender or race?

As for the resident bigot/nutjob Thrasher: remember, if you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

You wrote: "Black voters unlike any other group will vote for candidates that are not black. Again this is not the case with white, hispanic, jewish, asian, gay voters..."

The very first Presidential candidate I voted for was Jesse Jackson, and I was damned happy to do so.

You are a racist, and a liar.

It's not bad for a start, but let Matthews show by continued words and deed that he's not just another sexist conservative ignoramus.

If he slips back into the Tweety character we all know and loathe, he'll have shown that concern for his job, and not women and the oppressed, is what moved him to utter his apology.

I don't really disagree with you. My point is that, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with women voting for Clinton because of gender solidarity, or blacks voting for Obama because of racial solidarity, or even members of "outside" groups voting for Clinton or Obama simply to put a woman or black in the Oval Office. As I said, both Clinton and Obama are well qualified for the office, and voting for them on the basis of putting in the first woman or black President is, I feel, a perfectly legitimate basis upon which to cast a vote.

Do you disagree?

Get some help.