Ronald Reagan not only slashed programs for the poor, he violated international law to provide military and financial support for a string of death squads and military juntas in Central America that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. The fact that he swathed himself in the false cheer of a used car salesman doesn't counteract the fact that he was a heartless terrorist.

In California we have two very different and extremely popular female senators, neither of whom evoke the sort of sexist hostility Hillary does. Nobody begrudges Diane Feinstein her matronly authoritarianism, nor do people dislike Barbara Boxer's feisty femininity. Sure, chief executives occupy a different symbolic space than legislators, but it's inconceivable that either of these strong, talented women would be hated like Hillary if they ran for the Oval office. The simple fact is that men respect them because they don't play the victim card, don't lie about their experience, and didn't ride into office on their husband's coat tails.

Hearing about Senator Clinton's past is so sad. Clearly she once had a conscience. So how did she get herself to vote for the Iraq war? Nobody can tell me a bright, possibly brilliant, woman like Hillary was stupid enough to buy the Bush administration's lies, which means she voted for war knowing it was unnecessary and likely to be a catastrophe. What happened to that conscience she had back in '68?

The stalemate may be a product of the media's lazy insistence that there's no policy differences between the candidates. The reality:

Clinton pro Bush's Iraq War, Obama con.

Using cluster bombs in civilian areas (estimated to have killed or wounded upwards of a thousand civilians in Iraq), Clinton pro, Obama con.

Torture, Obama con, Clinton claims to be opposed, but it was her husband who started the Extraordinary Rendition program that shipped terror suspects to Egypt for "enhanced interrogation."

Corporations writting the rules that govern their regulation? in 2001 Clinton voted for a bankruptcy bill largely written by the credit card companies.

Foreign policy, Obama proposes dialogue with Iran, Clinton gleefully fantasizes about "obliterating" them.

If the press spent more time telling the public what Hillary was all about instead of treating the election like a horse race, Democrats would be horrified and stop supporting her.

Every time the Clinton campaign demands an apology for the sort of rough-and-tumble language that is (sadly and to all our detriment) the norm in the political arena, they reinforce the stereotype of Woman as Delicate Flower. People say unforgivable, violent things about male politicians as well (and if you doubt it, google "red faced finger wagging troll" and see who comes up). Is there perhaps some way to promote civil discourse without making it all about gender?

Joan, I wish you were right about vitriolic anti-American leftism, as exemplified by Rev. Wright, being somehow linked to the 60's generation. Alas, right after 9/11, the young, trendy San Francisco neighborhood I live in was awash with people burning with rage, not at Al Queda, nor religious fanaticism, nor even the American government, but America itself. I heard nothing for the next several years but that the attacks on the WTC were either justified or as-nothing compared to America's transgressions. Anyone (like me) who felt a limited military response (as well as non-military response) was prudent got called ignorant, racist, warmongering, fascist, stupid, and/or brainwashed. People would speak slowly as if talking to a mentally deficient child, "Maybe you should try turning off Fox news and reading some Noam Chomsky." When I protested that I was a socialist who regularly perused The Nation, Mother Jones, and had read Mr. Chomsky, but happened to disagree with a small portion of his philosophy, they just piled on more condescending disdain. Twenty somethings started walking around with books and DVDs about the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. By 2002 I'd lost a few friends and stopped calling myself a leftist. The left was reducing the world to the same simplistic good guys vs. bad guys dynamic as the Jihadis with the black and white hats reversed. Things calmed down enough by 2004 that most leftists held their noses and voted for Kerry. By 2006, they were slightly pleased by the Democrats recapturing congress. But not until Obama came on the scene did the armchair revolutionaries really put their radical chic fantasies behind them. His charisma completely eclipsed the narcissistic allure of America hating (an stance that makes the hater think he or she looks objective, moralistic, and brave). Reverend Wright and his ilk ARE a problem, Obama is the answer.

Even worse are the books with drawings of martini glasses, high heels, and other vaguely sex-in-the-cityish stuff. Publishers who commission such awful covers should be punished by being forced to look at them.

That was a sneeze. This whole tempest in a teapot is only under public scrutiny because the Clinton campaign is so overflowing with toxicity (Clinton campaign: Obama's a turban-wearing Muslim, no... a Reagan-loving Republican, no... a '60s radical by association, no... a loser!) that people of conscience all across the political spectrum are now quite simply allergic to it.

Joan, why no mention of Clinton's laughing when she was told she was so tough she made Rocky Balboa look like a "pansy"? Isn't that sort of casual homophobia comment-worthy? And what about when Clinton let go with her "Rich people, God bless us!" remarks. Didn't that make you cringe just a little bit?