Excellent article. Interesting problem, and an important one as well. Also, some very good letters.

I am curious whether or not the bat plague is spreading in the Midwest? We've been anything but dry these last several years. I don't notice a lack of local bats.

The "Bat Bugs" letter piqued my interest. Sure, global warming (climate change) might not favor a cold-loving fungus, but what kind of assistance would it provide to blood-sucking bat parasites? Are the Bat Bugs usually killed in the winter by cold (or kept dormant so they don't disturb the hibernating bats? Does Bat Bug attacks explain the holes in the bats wings, and possibly the spread of fungus?

Keep running articles like these, and I'll renew my subscription...

There, fixed that headline for ya!

If supposedly progressive publications (Salon being a major perpetrator) didn't give a few fakers and bitter-enders so much free coverage, they would have been long gone by now.

Please, Go away.

Mary Beth makes far and away the most sense.

Put her in charge!

Thomas Schaller has the Joan Walsh disease even worse than his predecessor.

Why not a story about how, even with a daunting barrier of racism (similar to the daunting barrier of sexism Holy Hillary would be facing now), Obama is still holding a solid lead in the Popular Vote, and a landslide lead in the Electoral College?

Why not speculate on how impressive it is that a junior Senator has inspired his party and created a crack election team in such a short time? Why not compare Obama's success to the failure of Bill Clinton to achieve a Popular Vote plurality during the 1996 campaign, when Clinton had the advantage of incumbency, a strong economy, and Bob Dole as an opponent?

Oh, that wouldn't fit the Walsh narrative of everything bad about Obama all the time. Just like she never missed an opportunity to backstab Al Gore when he was running, then whined when people called her on it after the election.

C'mon Schaller, quit shilling for your Quisling boss and show a little Journalistic balance. You're only filling in for a few weeks, what do you have to lose?

Nobody can reasonably contest your credentials as a Clinton supporter (you've made me pig-biting mad in the past).

This is an eminently sensible and strategic article. I'm sure the Clintons are already way ahead of you and I.

But, thanks, anyway.

The current system is not working on contentious subjects, unfortunately.

The lunatics, and the astroturfing pros drown out any sensible comment in a sea of babble.

Either a moderating system like Slashdot's (which might require coding more impressive than Salon can afford) or the less perfect, but still very useful Twit filter employed by TableTalk.

Anything to cut down the noise. The trolls are covering everything with crap.

Obviously, the editor at Salon is incompetent to select good commentary on articles. Sorry Joan, but you are totally lame.

Let us select, and most especially, deselect who we interact with.

A whole host of losers and attention junkies use the LTTE feature to spew endless streams of boring crap.

We need a way to cut them off at the pass.

Give us a comments twit!

And the fact, that even though they make Hen's teeth look positively abundant, Joan Walsh keeps making Salon front stories about them.

I look forward to Joan's outrage after the election when she waxes wroth over readers referring to her hostility to President-Elect Obama.

Shades of her equally hypocritical post-election claims of support for Al Gore...

Oh, yeah.

"I thought she was great, that what she said was exactly what she needed to say, and that she delivered it extremely well. Some people would sound rehearsed giving a speech like this one, but Obama sounded authentic and utterly sincere."

Pretty good summary, if you ask me (and if I recall correctly, you were).

Except, Michelle didn't hit it out of the park--she hit it out of the Solar System.

Look out Voyager! Incoming!

Michelle Obama has showed us what we can look forward to in a First Spouse (better get used to that term--Hillary will come back with a vengeance in 2016).

Grace, intelligence, convictions and purpose, but also an understanding of the separation of roles required. It will Barack's task to lead us out of the morass of Bushism. Michelle (and Sasha and Malia) will be there to inspire us during the journey.

And inspire they did! It made me go over and give my own sweet daughter an extra hug before bedtime. The Obamas are the people most of us want to be; loving, accomplished, and committed to higher ideals.

They will be a magnificent First Couple.

And that news is plenty big to deserve front page treatment on Salon. Kudos to the editor who made the decision to kick this story to the lead!

The race is about Obama or McSame

Repugnican't or Democrat.

Real Change or the same Old Boy Kleptocracy.

Palin and her dysfunctional family are just a loud sideshow barker who distracts voters while the Repugnican'ts pick your electoral pocket.

Don't be stupid.

Jeebus, whut is yer problem? You say, stop talking about her, I go, Yeah, that's thuh ticket, and then....

You yabber on and on about the token as if she means anything!

Who cares about Caribou Barbie and her host of nasty nuances? She's a sideshow!

Grampy McSame sure doesn't take her seriously, so why should we? She's a freaking gimmick!

Sarah Palin is nothing but lipstick on the Grampy McSame pig. The same policies, the same stupidities and the same violent denial of reality that has brought us to the brink of disaster. She's lipstick.

Brightly colored, distracting, thinner than paint and wiped off with a tissue once her purpose is served.

Take your own advice. Talk about things that means something!