Thanks, lateagain. We just disagree. I don't believe I have a blind spot after staring at it pretty much every day for the last 20 years. But maybe that's the very definition of a blind spot. I have complicated, well-developed, long-thought-out and tried-out ideas on the politics of race, class and gender, and I sometimes made the mistake of thinking people would give me credit for that experience without knowing about it, during the high feelings and great social experiment of the last year. Even you, who've lived these questions more than most people, as I've gathered from your writing, haven't fully grappled with what I've written or thought, let alone lived. But I thank you for your insight and kindness and passion in this remarkable and historic time.

And Filthy Harry, gee willikers, my Mom was Mrs. Walsh, I don't go by that name, and you've given my thinking much less thought than either lateagain or I have, but thanks for your concern, anyway!

handlebar, that's a really interesting set of questions.

garcohsf, you could be right. I debated about putting that in the piece, since it's silly to try to prove something that didn't happen.

Carol Richards, you're only saying that because I said something nice about you! Kidding, really, you taught me a great deal. I probably would have gone off the deep end except for periodically, unwillingly, laughing at you laughing at me.

I'm still VERY worried about Obama.

XH, that's not at all up to your usual standards. But thanks for your contribution this year, and happy new year.

MaBelle, thank you. Happy new year!

frautuck, there is no acrimony. The other potential candidates, for better or worse, have all been subjected to a much, much higher standard: They've run for office, and won.

Carolyn Maloney, Andrew Cuomo, Kirsten Gillebrand, Tom Luozzi, Steve Israel, Louise Slaughter -- all the frequently named Democrats have either won either Congressional seats or statewide office, and all, in my opinion, have a leg up on Caroline Kennedy, until she gets out and proves otherwise in her statements to voters and the media. And she hasn't.

No acrimony, just good old fashioned curiosity.

wellmanswellman, thank you. One of my best friends feels the way you do, that I still haven't admitted/grappled with the low points of the Clinton campaign. So I'm still thinking about that one.

I appreciate your noting "lateagain" was not a he.

I find myself thinking the poster with two names you liked was Xrandadu Hutman, but maybe that's because I feel bad having just dissed him. Maybe Carol Richards?

If anyone's wondering why I'm replying so often, I have a terrible post-Christmas cold, I slept 16 hours yesterday, and I'm still semi-miserable -- but wired. Thanks for indulging me.

SashaFierce, what a great letter. I agree with pretty much everything in it. And since we both went into the voting booth for the primary the same way, on the same day (I think) and yet, did something different, it probably makes sense that we get different nuances.

I never heard a Hillary supporter say anything like "black men don't like women" (and, well, I don't know anybody who thinks that.) I did hear Obama supporters, including close friends, say the main reason people supported Hillary, ultimately, was racism. I was called a racist in our comments. I was called many other nasty things, all apart from reasonable commentary on the way I was making my political decisions (and we've seen a lot of great people weigh in disagreeing with me here tonight). I can't emphasize how brutal, and honestly kind of surprising, it was. But on a issue as passionate as this one, people tend to see what they want to see, and what their particular station in life lets them see. Me included. Thank you for your letter.

No XH, if I met you, I would smile and give you a hug. Not even my daughter parses my statements the way you do, so I have always known you care.

Feel better, it sounds like we have the same thing.

OK, to continue the lovefest, I should answer a question I've actually meant to answer before: Yes, XH, it was total coincidence that a) I was staying in Bill Clinton's Iowa hotel (it's the main Caucus hotel, and its owner caucused for Obama) and b) that I attended Clinton's June 3 non-concession speech. I was in NY for a wedding; no one expected her to wind up there, necessarily, on South Dakota and Montana primary day; I got off an airplane, heard what she was doing, and headed straight for the rally. Just lucky, I guess, that I was there, and could be yelled at by David Corn and Chris Matthews the very next day!

Thanks to everyone who noted my mistake about Obama's denomination; I do know the difference, don't know how I dropped the "United," but it's fixed now.

oblomova, I really don't know how I put Dick Durbin on that list. I'd plead illness, except I wrote my first draft before I got sick. Thanks for the correction, it's fixed in the story and we'll run a formal one shortly.

Thanks, Klytus, I'll make some now.

If I were rewriting this piece -- or writing a new piece: "What I got wrong in my piece about what I got wrong and right!" -- I would definitely leave out my AUMF theory, because that's all it is.

But in the same, semi-stupid vein: I find myself wondering what would have happened if Obama had voted against the FISA "compromise;" I can't imagine Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin doing much more with a complicated issue like that than they did with anything else: "He pals around with domestic terrorists, and he doesn't want us to be able to listen to their phone calls, either! You betcha!"

We'll never know.

Back to mint tea.