I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single contribution to this article! What enthusiasm. Each of the candidates is, in my view, appropriately championed for her/his strengths, and Kate Pollitt has the sense to recognize her limitations. For months I've been saying to my friends, This is a great year to be a Democrat. We have a line up of great, strong candidates, none of whom alone seem perfect to me, but then, who wants perfection? In the end, the way things are going now, we'll have the best "team spirit" we've had in years/decades.

I didn't know him, but I appreciate him nonetheless as I've been turning to Salon for just about as long as he was working there. Thank you for honoring him and your readers by letting us know about his death and what he meant to you personally.

I still haven't made up my mind who I'll vote for, but tonight I'm cheering on Hillary. Go Girl. (I totally understood the tears, and I am tired of the deeply entrenched sexism in our culture...Rush Limbaugh be damned!)

I saw the headline for this article, and thought, Yes! Go Joe Conason! It's about time someone took on Salon's letter writers. There was a time when I thought liberals were by definition open-minded, but I find the bulk of the letters in just about every section of Salon amount to angry complaints that some Salon writer didn't write exactly what some reader wanted to hear. The thoughtful letters that take issue with the content without trashing the vehicle can be very rewarding, but they are so few and far between, I've stopped looking at the letters at all anymore. Please don't judge all your readers by your letter writers.

I hope Hillary and McCain both have the decency and common sense to publicly and loudly applaud Obama's speech on race today. What do they have to lose? Really. What?? And there is so much to gain from inviting this level of discourse about race into the political culture of this country--the main important cultural arena where dialogue about race is either non-existent or of 12 year old mentality.

As someone who grew up in the evangelical community, I am fuming at the pass the press has given to the pastors who are mentoring George Bush. Think of Billy Graham, whom Bush credits with his conversion experience. He was as intimate a pastor as any in so many presidents' terms. Billy Graham's religion on the surface is about love, but without much scratching at all you find all the hate: his God, after all, is the one who damns TO HELL anyone who doesn't see things pretty nearly exactly the way HE (never "she") sees them, which means pretty much most of the HOMOSEXUALS (certainly all who might actually be enjoying their sexuality) and ALL earnest Muslims, Mormans, MOST Catholics (etc.) will spend eternity separated in hell -- far far away from the precious elite club of evangelicals who make it to heaven. Is this not an incredibly obvious portrayal of hate??? Is it not as bad as glorifying someone who wants to bomb some part of the geographical entity we call America?? Who would embrace this hateful, narcisstic God?? Let's hear about how Bush deals with THESE influences in his politics.

I hope Hillary and McCain both have the decency and common sense to publicly and loudly applaud Obama's speech on race today. What do they have to lose? Really. What?? And there is so much to gain from inviting this level of discourse about race into the political culture of this country--the main important cultural arena where dialogue about race is either non-existent or of 12 year old mentality.

As someone who grew up in the evangelical community, I am fuming at the pass the press has given to the pastors who are mentoring George Bush. Think of Billy Graham, whom Bush credits with his conversion experience. He was as intimate a pastor as any in so many presidents' terms. Billy Graham's religion on the surface is about love, but without much scratching at all you find all the hate: his God, after all, is the one who damns TO HELL anyone who doesn't see things pretty nearly exactly the way HE (never "she") sees them, which means pretty much most of the HOMOSEXUALS (certainly all who might actually be enjoying their sexuality) and ALL earnest Muslims, Mormans, MOST Catholics (etc.) will spend eternity separated in hell -- far far away from the precious elite club of evangelicals who make it to heaven. Is this not an incredibly obvious portrayal of hate??? Is it not as bad as glorifying someone who wants to bomb some part of the geographical entity we call America?? Who would embrace this hateful, narcisst