In response to the puzzle of why now Sen. Obama is looking for a new church is easily explained. He cannot take the scrutiny that is about to confront him so he took the easy way out and quit his old church. His old friends should take note of how he had to throw his white grandmother, Rev. Wright, and now the Trinity Church under the bus. What is next? Joan Walsh, you are right to ponder this question and you have always done a good job of exploring interesting topics and have been more than balanced.

There are two major reasons why there should be no surprise about the attacks to the Obamas. The first is that they have not been vetted like other politicians. And what little we really know about the Obamas circle around his association with the Trinity Church and the type of doctrine the Church follows. The second reason is that Michelle Obama seems like she has an angry attitude. For the first time in her life, she is really proud of her country. She comes across like a Mother Hen protecting her Pride and Joy little baby.

Sen. Obama clearly marketed himself as the candidate of change and he was going to do things differently in DC. Sen. Wright had it correct when he said that Sen. Obama is a politician. The type of change you can believe in from Sen Obama is change of his positions to pander for votes. His signed pledge to follow campaign finance reform, gun control, FISA, and soon his policy on Iraq will all change. And I do not think Sen. Obama deserves a pass on it just because he thinks he has to move to the middle for the GE. What a great disappointment. Sen. McCain had the reputation of being a maverick so I am not surprised about his change of positions as I expected it.

That is the wonderful thing about beautiful music, i.e. it is ageless, colored blind, has no sexual orientation, and is gender free. Maybe that is why I truly love music!

Sen. Biden is known as the Senator from MBNA because of his close relationship with the credit card companies in his state. The big difference between Bush, Biden, and Obama is that John McCain has a proven record of success in reaching across the aisle to pass landmark legislation. More recently, he worked with Sen. Feingold for the Campaign Finance Reform which Sen. Obama agreed and then refused to accept after a pledge to do so. And Sen. McCain has worked with Sen. Kennedy on Immigration Reform. Aside from all that, Sen. McCain has shown exceptional leadership skills by making an excellent speech after Russia invaded Georgia and the role of Putin. Biden did not say anything and Obama was on vacation. Eventually, Sen. Obama made a speech and had to revise it three times and that may be before or after he met with his 300 foreign advisers. Sen. McCain delayed the RNC Convention and had the delegates prepare care packages for the Gustav Hurricane victims instead of putting on a glizy show. And he had the vision to put a qualified woman on his ticket. America First.

It seems like Sen. Obama has his Revs. Wright and Pfegher and Gov. Palin has a pastor who clashed with her. Rev. Wright and the Trinity Church got thrown under the famous bus. And Gov. Palin's former minister's book did not get banned, but he may now go on and make a lot of money on it.

Sen. Obama is the most negative candidate for the highest office I have ever heard. He constantly warps at the GOP, attacked Hillary's experience (she only met 80 heads of state) and then threw her to the curb, with speeches of everything bad in this country. If Obama is elected, then we are going to hear how bad everything is for the next four years because he will blame GWB for his failures, just as GWB blamed Bill Clinton. The reason Sen. McCain and Sarah Palin are doing well is that they speak positively about this country (Country First) and really care about people. When the economic crisis hit this week, Team McCain/Palin had dinner in a diner in Ohio when Sen. Obama went to a $28,500 a person party in Hollywood. Whenever Sen. Obama can come up with some positive specific plans for the future of this country, he will not need to be an angry black and white man.

Did anyone hear Al Franken apologize for his satire on SNL regarding women?

Thank you to Thomas Schaller for sharing the excellent speech that Gov. Palin should have delivered because it was timely and so true.

If the politics of pile on was not so hard on Hillary, who is a very qualified candidate to run this country, then the criticism of Gov. Palin might have more merit. But Hillary got so dumped on including her own party, it was disgusting. Every word, her clothes, her hair, her first lady experience, her campaign and her accomplishments were put down all the time by so many. I think that Gov. Palin is a wonderful role model for younger girls that they have political futures and should rise above all the garbage everyone will use to try to discourage them from seeking higher office. You go girls! Work through all the mess put in your way. And may be the "change" we have been waiting for.

Had the opportunity to see the movie and it was a good one to let one's emotions all hang out. I had my adult nephew with me and he did not know that there was separate seating in Southern public places. Everyone should learn or relearn our history. Worth seeing this flick.