It's kind of hard to give someone a pass when they happened to be Bill Clintons former Press Secretary and they go along with that kind of insanity as George Stephanopolous chose to for the first 45 minutes of the debate.

It's quite simply, Steve, what you and everyone else are calling it: the worst debate ever. Period. In the history of American politics.

Now people can come on and call it fair, or just tough questioning, whatever. But there's a reason you're seeing this type of response from JOURNALISTS.

It was undeniably bad. To have to sit through almost 2 hours of that type of dribble is a disgrace. There's a reason the audience booed the moderators at the end. They were as embarassed by Gibson and Stephan's performance as the rest of us. Sad.

This is why so many on here have called him, aptly, the best remaining voice in American journalism today. Will definitely be buying this book.

I hesitate to even post here, because, as usual, you're dead on. Echo others, you're the best thing here and Salon's lucky to have you.

Be happy you missed the debate, part of the worst 2 hours of my life. The right wing and Sean Hannity are literally feeding ABC questions now. The entire night George S. just sat there with that crap-eating grin on his face, sucking up to the worst standards of tabloid journalism and the right wing attack machine. Uuughh.

Obama was right to stand there and take it. Had he walked away we would never have heard the end of it and the MSM would have killed him for having the nerve to upstage them. He did what he could, which is call them on their b.s.

The only one who's got a plan to "go after Bin Laden sanctuaries in Pakistan" is Barack Obama. It's called limited, targeted strikes in Pakistan. He advocated it, Bush and Co. made fun of it, the CIA did it, it worked.

But since he's under the magic age of 60, and daring to challenge the status quo in this country, his idea is not only roundly ignored but ridiculed by George W. Bush, John McCain and Hillary Clinton who are all, disturbingly, agreeing on increasingly more things every day.

Last night we saw what we've been trying to tell you from the start "the good ol' boys" rallying around Hillary Clinton to try and destroy her opponent merely for being younger and having the nerve to threaten the status quo (i.e. ABC and the Clinton machine).

See why the actual young men you decided to term "Obama Boys" might be in his corner now Rebecca? Geesh.

Well congratulations Vagina Monologues. Try to spend some money while you're there. There are over a million women with vaginas, men with penises, and children with either or who are out of their homes and living in trailers.

So if you get a chance maybe stop and help them when you take a break from your vagina. Ditto to the dudes and their penises. Brilliant.

And they're mad that they got caught and called on it by the public. They use this untrue notion that these are the issues "people really care about." But for once people have written in and told them no what we care about are the real issues: Iraq, the economy, health care, our country's standing in the world, younger generations being saddled with a debt.

I'm so sick of these people who keep trying to moderate this point. Glenn is right in his piece. There aren't two sides of this. There's only one.

The media's fighting so hard because they have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Don't let them do it. Don't let up. They're taking on the American people which is exactly what they're NOT supposed to be doing. They're supposed to be reporting the news.

Now this flap appeared on all 3 nightly news programs, including ABC. This is a BIG deal. Don't let them fool you. They're hoping it'll blow over, but it shouldn't. They should have to sit down, think about this and go back to really doing their mjob.

Is that what it is. Do we simply need to throw a man in here to show you we're not sexist. Fine, Bill Clinton and Dubya.

This is about the system. It's about special interests. It's about Saudi Arabia, oil, the insane refusal to have a real, alternative energy plan and the 2 families who have turned America into some sad excuse for a dynasty over the past 20 years.

We don't hate them. We simply hate what they've done to our country. And America is waking up. It's had enough of being ruled by Bushes and Clintons beholden to special interests and willing to screw the American voter out of life and limb, as well as home, job and money simply for the benefit of the greedy few. We're tired of a gutter level of politics that would embarass the worst of Communist/Facist/Imperial/insert your adjective for a bad system of government here style of politics we've been victim to since at least 1988 when the first of this two-headed, Bush/Clinton disaster took power.

We've had enough. So yes, she is as bad as we think as they all are. And she's a heck of a lot worse on top of that.

You Clinton supporters can't keep having it both ways. Either she wants credit for the first Clinton administration, good AND BAD, or she doesn't. She can't have it both ways or half and half.