Funny Salon-Obama story in the New York Times today: Apparently, we helped get "Dreams From My Father" back in print:

Then in March 2004, Mr. Obama’s political and literary fortunes abruptly shifted. His victory in a tightly contested United States Senate primary in Illinois made him an overnight Democratic Party sensation. In New York City, Rachel Klayman, an editor at Crown Books, read a Salon.com article on Mr. Obama by the author Scott Turow, an Obama friend, titled “The New Face of the Democratic Party — and America.”

Historical footnote: The Turow piece was commissioned by Sidney Blumenthal, to his credit.

Carol, I will give some thought to what I am projecting on the obnoxious Obama supporters who drive me crazy. I have suggested some ideas in other letters threads, but basically, I think it's because they are at once me, and not me. I have lived in Madison, Harold Washington's Chicago, Oakland and San Francisco. I am the editor of this Web site. I am probably part of Obama's "liberal cultural base," in Tom Davis's formulation. But I'm also a working class Irish Catholic from Long Island, whose extended family of cops and firefighters and steamfitters are the proverbial "Reagan Democrats." I believe that two factors have been key in preventing the establishment of a European-style social democracy/social support system in this country. No. 1 is race, and racism (as well as ethnic divisions that divided the working class apart from race). No. 2 (for me) is the tendency of many on the left to prefer ideological purity to building big-tent coalitions; to boast about their intellectual, moral and political superiority rather than make common cause with the poor slobs who disagree with them or in this case are more likely to support Clinton. I see far too much evidence of No. 2 in the statements and attitudes of Obama supporters here and elsewhere. I think some racist Clinton supporters have certainly limited her reach, and in the unlikely event she is the nominee, she will have to work hard to heal the rifts caused by some of her campaign statements and tactics. But on balance, I think I worry most about obnoxious Obama supporters limiting his reach because, as you've noted before, he's the front-runner and it looks like he's going to be the one charged with pulling together a national electoral coalition to beat John McCain.

I trimmed the letter I just posted to keep it under 1000 words, but I didn't change the headline! Sorry.