mredge, thanks for your letter. It confirms my feeling that it would be great to have a reporter look at this story. Certainly I wasn't suggesting people shouldn't campaign in Mississippi. And even 27 years ago I can imagine there were good people in Neshoba County who were happy to see Ronald Reagan.

But given that he chose to use the term "states rights" while there that day, my gut tells me Krugman and Herbert are right about his unfortunate campaign strategy. But now that the Times has run at least six op-eds on this issue (Bob Herbert actually mentioned it in an early piece) it would be great to see a talented reporter take on this story, and talk to all sorts of people, including folks like you who were actually there (no, Lou Cannon isn't the only trustworthy source). It wasn't that long ago, I remember 1980 quite well.

To Anonymous, just below: I think Obama did say that, but I don't think he was saying that was his primary foreign-policy qualification to be president. Walter Shapiro has a great interview with him that just went up here a little while ago; read it and tell me what you think.

Thanks to everyone for their patience with our scheduled maintenance, which kept the letters threads closed for a few hours. Everything looks fine now. Please let us know what you think! It was a very eerie quiet -- Salon just didn't feel like Salon without readers' voices.

Actually, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We moved to suburban Milwaukee when I was 13, where everybody made fun of my LongGuyland accent. I moved to Santa Barbara to take a job at the Santa Barbara News and Review after college...and who is this that knows about the mysterious and unlikely Santa Barbara years?

Ralph, I never made it to high school on Long Island -- I left St. Anthony's in Oceanside in 8th grade. Half my cousins went to Maria Regina, the other half to Oceanside High. No idea which my parents would have chosen, though I did go to public school (Shorewood High) in Wisconsin.

And one thing I meant to praise about the Newsweek piece: It told me several things I didn't know, including the fact that Dorismond, who Giuliani derided as "no altar boy" was a) a former altar boy and b) a graduate of Bishop Laughlin, like Giuliani.

Every culture has its sociopaths, including Irish and Italian Catholics, but Giuliani's ethics aren't about ethnic Catholicism, they're all about what's right for Rudy.

I think I'm reading these letters threads more closely because it was so quiet without them!

Hi Anonymous, that's a really good point. I think. Except, as I said, I didn't go there. Honestly, from what I remember, 30-plus years ago, it wasn't a plutocrat school at all, but a working-middle class Catholic high school in the middle of Long Island. But, as I say, I didn't go there, so maybe someone who did will write in and enlighten us. But meanwhile, thanks for writing! No one's ever linked me to the Carlyle Group before, so that's kinda fun.

I couldn't go to bed until I came clean. My actual high school, Shorewood High in Shorewood, Wisconsin, puts me in better company than Maria Regina, I believe: (In)famous alums include former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, "Airplane" brothers Jerry and David Zucker and former Defense Secretary Les Aspin. Also listed in Wikipedia is my old friend, tennis star Leif Shiras, which irks me a little, because I promised him all the notes I wrote on his binder in Latin class would some day be worth a lot because I would be the famous one. But I guess that means his notes on my Latin binder (oh yeah, I kept it) might be worth something, just in time to pay for my daughter's college tuition. Thanks, Leif, and thanks Wikipedia!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shorewood_High_School_%28Wisconsin%29

However: A fabulous Shorewood alum who didn't make Wikipedia (along with me) is Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads. Let's hope the good citizens of Wikipedia update their notable Shorewood grads soon. And don't get me started on Madison, or Daily Cardinal alums...

Terry Filgate, I'm not backtracking on my criticism of Clinton's jab at Obama. I'm saying that my friends might have been right about its purpose and impact. I still think it was wrong and made her sound small, degrading the experiences of the 10 year old Obama.

People can blame me for my "slugfest" approach to these issues, but this is how it's playing out there. And no one will ever convince me it was a smart political move for Obama to draw out Madeleine Albright, and give her a platform to talk about Hillary's foreign-policy experience that every media outlet in the country is going to print verbatim.