Yes, a reading of "The Hunting of the President" is completely in order, especially by the Obama folks who thought the Clintons brought their troubles ENTIRELY on themselves. And there were a lot of them...

The logic problem that afflicts the right -- if you say racism has anything to do with opposition to Obama, you're saying it's ALL and ONLY racism, and that EVERYONE who opposes his policies is racist -- clearly afflicts some supporters of Obama. If you talk about Obamabots, that means EVERYONE who supported Obama was a mindless Obamabot.

And XH, I love you, but you are still acting like, yes, a bot when you perpetuate this same sort of faulty logic in the way you depict the primary battle: that feminist defenders of Clinton were saying ALL feminists HAD to support her -- they didn't -- or that anyone who didn't support her was a sexist -- they didn't say that either. Clinton faced a lot of sexism; that's a fact. I happen to be someone who was just as outraged by the nutcrackers and the "she sounds like everyone's first wife" cracks and the "she makes me want to close my legs" jokes and the Glenn Close references as I am to the references to the "lyin' African/African lion," Obama as witchdoctor, Obama and watermelons, and calls for a GOP Great White Hope.

However...behind the racism and the sexism against Obama and Clinton there is also a well-funded, well-oiled slime machine whose real goal is blocking any Democrat of any race or gender who tries to adjust the rules of the game to help the have-nots and take a little bit away from the have-a-lots. That's what's really going on, and racism and sexism are just handy means to that end.

Amity, great letter. I still totally disagree with you! I don't think Obama's remarks about "bitter" Pennsylvanians who cling to guns and religion meant he was an elitist snob, and I wrote that at the time. And I don't think Clinton's remarks about "hardworking Americans, white Americans" meant she was racist -- although I said they were a stupid thing to say at the time.

What if Hillary Clinton really believed that Obama couldn't get enough white votes to become president? Would that make her racist? Is it only racist if she says it? What if a black pol says it (and some did)?

The white-hot fury that greeted Clinton's remarks was inappropriate to the offense. If the Clintons are racists, we're really in trouble.

Readerreader, that's a cute little story. Harry Reid doesn't deserve much support from anyone who has integrity, but Sarah Palin deserves much less. She is far more likely to wind up as a rabid and terminally stupid Fox News pitbull like Glenn Beck than to ever hold U.S. office again. I'm sure you'll enjoy watching her on Fox, but please don't get your hopes up that she will ever win a majority of American votes for anything except maybe Dancing with the Stars. You're occasionally kind of interesting, except when you troll for Palin...That's when I think you're pretending to be a reasonable Republican, who is either a) paid by the DNC or b) pretending to be reasonable except...ouch, it burns, the urge to be completely unreasonable, and you just can't help it.

For Santos L. Helper and anyone else who seems to think I was dissing Obama here: I take the president at his word. He came out for the public option again today. I expect him to fight for it. That's why I voted for him. We'll see what he does.

But if he abandons that promise -- along with so many others he's left behind -- well, Santos L., we'll talk then.

I agree with you!

Yes to lateagain and others who see the streak of victimization and self-pity in his anti-press diatribe. I agree, and I really think it was his downfall (later in the book, apparently from reviews, he describes his Monica moment as a kind of "fuck it, they won't let me get anything done!") He's right, "they" suck, but...self-pity frequently got in the way of effectively fighting back. And he did, sadly, cave to Wall Street on many issues.

Also, Santos L. Helper, will definitely download that series. Thanks!

Ah, virt, thanks for dropping by and making another great contribution. How's your writing going?

Unbannable Bastard, you're very clever. We ban you, and then you find a new name. Whatever. I just want to state, for the record, that I find your juvenile insults, profanity and now, threats of violence really disgusting. You post on my blog, so I imagine you have some level of respect for me. And I've asked you to dial it back more than once. I just want to say that I consider it a personal insult for you to continue to treat people this way, in my comments thread, and I will work with our technology team to look for a way to ban you permanently. It really bothers me. Please stop.