The first sentence of the second paragraph was supposed to start "Actually, girls called one another out too..."

I grew up in the 1960s/70s in a pretty much all white neighborhood and when one kid wanted to fight another, he'd "call him out." And the expression probably does go back to dueling days.

Actually, girls another out too, and a lot of us less pugilistically inclined lived in terror of one of the tough girls calling us out. When Obama used that expression, I didn't think of Snoop Dogg -- I thought of a nasty white-trash girl I went to grammar school with.

Dowd's lifting of an entire paragraph from Josh Marshall isn't really that surprising. I can't be the only one who noticed that a few days after Jeff Greenwald ran a column in Salon about President Obama as Mr. Spock (http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2009/05/07/obama_spock/index.html), including a photoshopped picture of the President as a Vulcan, Dowd ran a column about President Obama as Mr. Spock (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/opinion/10dowd.html), including a photoshopped picture of the President as a Vulcan.

It's a small jump from stealing ideas to stealing text.

A few years ago, Richard Widmark appeared at a retrospective of his films in New York, where he talked about this scene. This was his first movie--and the wheelchair scene was the first one they shot. He laughed and said something like, "I mean, Good God, my first scene in movies and I'm pushing an old lady down the stairs in a wheelchair!! I thought, 'I should just get out of here...'"

Sidney Poitier has talked about how Widmark used to apologize to him between takes after scenes where he had to play a vicious racist in another film. Others have recalled how kind and generous he was to all his co-stars, especially those just starting out. Widmark also gave generously to liberal causes.

At the retrospective, I waited for the crowd to part and then nervously said hello and gave him a fan letter I'd written for him, and he took my by the shoulders and said, "Thank you! That's wonderful!" As if, after the amazing career he had, he could still be thrilled to be getting a fan letter. I left the theater on a cloud. And less than a week later, he responded with a lovely thank-you letter.

He was a wonderful actor and a wonderful human being. And I'll bet he'd be ecstatic that Republicans were being compared to the vicious screen icon he created back in his first role in 1947.

The ban on handhelds while driving is NEVER enforced. We can always tell when someone in front of us is on the phone, as s/he is usually stop-starting, lurching, or weaving in and out of the lane. This morning on the way to the subway I was almost run over by a bimbo who blew through a red light while yakking. (Please, God, don't let Bob Novak get a carphone...)

And the minute my train got to the bridge, half the people in the car whipped out their phones, to have such compelling conversations as "I'm on the bridge now..."

People who walk around yakking on their phones have exactly the same defects as drivers -- and I don't mean the personality defects, like obliviousness, self-importance, etc. I mean things like weaving, stopping suddenly, etc. I realize we can't ticket them, but one can dream...

How about a MADD-like anti-cellphone group: Stupid Talker On Phone You Are Knowingly Killing and Injuring Neighboring Groups

aka STOP YAKKING

...I meant since AFTER 1988 -- the infamous Year of Dukakis. Who was a bastion of accomplishment, however, compared with Obama.

...and every single Democratic Presidential candidate has carried the state since 1988.

Get your facts straight before you start confidently predicting that all these people would defect to McCain if Hillary were the nominee. As yesterday's results prove, these voters are much fonder of her than they are of Obama, so he would have a much tougher time holding onto them.

He spent a record amount of money in Pennsylvania -- $40 million, more than people have spent during the length of a gubernatorial or Senate campaign. He's been the frontrunner for months. He was about as "unknown" in Pennsylvania as Bethlehem Steel.

And the goalposts are pretty much the same: Win some primaries -- real primaries, not kaffeeklatsches -- that will MATTER to Democrats in the fall, other than your home state. Hint: These do not include Mississippi, Wyoming, and Idaho. They DO include California, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Oh, and Florida, but Obama doesn't want to count Florida. Where have we heard that one before?

...are largely the reason younger white women have so many opportunities these days, and I, for one, am grateful. They are also one of the largest Democratic voting blocs, and any intelligent candidate (or a supporter of a candidate) alienates them at his or her peril.

If not for "old white women," we'd have had a string of Republican presidents and Republicans controlling both Houses of Congress for as far back as the eye can see. If you liked Clinton better than Bush, you have "old white women," in no small part, to thank for his elections. This bloc also votes in EVERY election -- not just when someone comes along who "inspires" them with good speeches (but not much else).

Hey, dmag: Substitute "young black people" for "old white women" and your post would be a good old-fashioned, hood-wearing racist diatribe. But since it's "only" virulently and hatefully sexist, I guess that's okay with a lot of people... especially Obama supporters.

And why is it okay for 90%-plus black voters to back Obama, with no fear of being called racist, but when fewer than 60% of women back Hillary, they're gender-obsessed?