Letters to the Editor
Published Letters: 92 Editor's Choice: 3
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Obama in Hartford
[Read the article: The race for California]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was at the Obama Hartford rally last night at the Civic Center and even though I was an Obama supporter before the rally, I feel even more strongly about him now: He's inspirational and I'm excited by his candidacy.
I marched on Washington with MLK, got arrested protesting the Vietnam war, and have been involved in politics all my life but I've not seen anything like this before, Obama not only has the right ideas (for me) but he's inspirational.
There were huge numbers of young people in the crowd last night, many voting for the first time today. He pulled them out like no one else could.
My 92 year old mother, who lives in Los Angeles and has been an avid Bill and Hillary Clinton supporter for years was pro Obama before I was. She'll hit you with her cane if you get in her face about Obama.
No matter what happens today or in the next months, Obama has pulled more people into the process than have ever been in it before. His candidacy is historic and makes me very proud.
Don't you think that both Bill and Hillary Clinton would be solidly behind Obama if Hillary weren't running? It sure looks like that to me.
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@ thingswesaid
[Read the article: A new face for American diplomacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Timothy McVeigh was a Christian. Does he represent all Christians?
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Right on Gary
[Read the article: It's OK to vote for Obama because he's black]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I immediately identified with the premiss of your beautifully written piece and as I read more, I felt like you were on to something that no one's taken on yet to my knowledge. Thanks for writing it Gary, it took guts and I'm glad you did it.
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This is a start...
[Read the article: Anonymous no more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Joan, it's great that you are attempting to clean up this feature of Salon but I'm not sure that even web-based social engineering can change the fact that online, people do very different things than they'd do in a discussion in your living room. Real names, fake names, anonymous, on the web, nobody knows you're a dog.
Rating letters or letter writers can be gamed, just like amazon reviews and flickr explore. I wouldn't trust that feature at all given the kinds of things going on in these threads.
I would suggest active moderation: Not just you moderating your own comment threads but folks you pick out of the pack and enlist to help you keep the right tone here. Call them moderators or whatever, they're needed. Maybe they exist already and I don't know it and if they do, fire them or pick new ones, they're not doing their jobs. Give them a free Premium account and some Salon swag.
Many people in these threads are using them as their own, personal blogs. I get sick of this stuff and I also get sick of people talking to one another, ignoring the article they're commenting on, back and forth, back and forth.
How about limiting the number of comments a user at a particular IP address can post per piece. That would slow things down and maybe force people to think before they hit "publish."
Or, why not ask people to actually subscribe to Salon if they want to use the comment threads for personal blogging. It's a pretty cheap way to have one's own blog.
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Fantastic
[Read the article: Obama should be proud to be named Hussein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Juan: I always enjoy your commentary on The NewsHour and reading this piece was more of the same (great). This piece should be blogged like mad to get it out into the world to offset the attacks under way and the ones that will no doubt be mounted in the future.
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life in 6 words
[Read the article: Memoir in six words]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My wife:
knit, read, school, yoga, family... repeat.
Me:
do, do, do, do, do, think.
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No
[Read the article: Should Florida and Michigan vote again? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Harold Ickes was on the DNC committee that made these rules and all campaigns agreed to them, including the Clinton campaign which he was and is running.
It's simply not fair to change the rules after the game is in progress. If the Clinton folks thought it would be a problem for Hillary they would certainly not be fighting for this. I hope Obama doesn't cave on this one, it's the principle, not just that it might not hurt him.
Michigan and Florida blew it this year, or, the DNC blew it this year, or, they all blew it this year. But, to attempt to fix it on the fly is a serious mistake and will drive a lot of us out of the party.
If it's close and Hillary gets the nomination by forcing the DNC to seat these state delegates I'm done with this party forever and there are a lot of people who feel the same way.
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@ AKA Smith, proof
[Read the article: Should Florida and Michigan vote again? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The rules aren't a Clinton conspiracy but Ickes helped make them when he was on the DNC. You want proof, here's proof:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_M._Ickes
"As a member of the DNC's Rules committee he was a proponent of adding other states besides Iowa and New Hampshire early on in the Presidential nominating calendar."
All campaigns including the Clinton campaign signed off on these rules, changing them now isn't right. I'm quite sure that if Clinton's team thought Florida or Michigan would go for Obama they would not be asking to have those delegates seated. Do you think that Mr. Smith?
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Fantastic Speech
[Read the article: Obama's speech on race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The cynical part of me agrees with squalorholla: America does not deserve this man. His intelligent and nuanced views on things aren't easily digested by a society that wants things in high contrast, highly polarized "black and white."
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Thank you Glenn
[Read the article: Obama's faith in the reasoning abilities of the American public]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've just been over on planet Walsh where there is no oxygen. Thank god planet Greenwald is habitable for thinking people.