No one elected her....

And yet, there is an unwritten rule that First Ladies cannot hold outside employment, there is a tradition spanning centuries that First Ladies act as informal policy advisers to their husbands, the First Lady must undertake the duty of acting as hostess of the White House, which given the kind of guests come through there, is practically a job in itself.

The First Lady may not have been elected, but she is still, in all ways that count, an official of the White House and therefore the government of the United States.

Did you get this offended when Laura Bush took child literary up as her pet issue? For non-elected officials, First Ladies sure take on a lot of responsibility. They are more intimately involved in state and government affairs than virtually anyone else. I don't see why they should be expected to hold back their opinion when they have it. Especially regarding an issue that is as important and vital to mothers and families, the demographic that the First Lady ostensibly symbolically represents, as healthcare and insurance reform.

I don't deny that Limbaugh and co. are probably flaming racists. But anyone who thinks he and his cohorts wouldn't be doling out this kind of slime (albeit perhaps in a different flavor) to any Democratic president is fooling themselves. We should know by now that race is not the primary motivating factor when it comes to Limbaugh and Beck's hatred, and the hatred of their audience. They have expressed such hatred towards white liberals before.

The only thing that has changed is how they are going about attacking. Their attacks against Obama are clearly designed to paint him as a dangerous thug with his socialist hands at America's lily-white throat - and they are all the more despicable because they are taking advantage of many white people's barely-suppressed contempt for other races.

But whether or not they are racially tinged, the majority of the vitriol against Obama is certainly not racially motivated. Right-wingers will always find a reason to hate their opponents, especially when they are popular, attractive, and articulate.

You are demanding that she support him unconditionally. So when does she get to enjoy his unconditional support?

I don't understand your perspective at all. LW's life, and presumably that of his wife, has been tangled up in his alcoholism for the past 18 years, so now you think it's only fair that LW's wife's life ought to be tangled up in his attempt at sobriety now? What about her life? Like Cary said, it's time for LW to learn that not everything is about him. His wife deserves to have some fun. It is simply absurd to believe that their family life should revolve utterly around him, not only when he is drunk, but also when he is trying to become sober. That's not what a married partnership is about.

You go girl (guy?)!

I'm sort of lazy, so the extent of my Susan G. Komen contribution remains my intermittent consumption of pink-capped yogurt. But my excuse is that I am already a full-time stipend volunteer with two other volunteering gigs on the side. (LGBT advocacy, animal shelter, and homeless shelter, respectively.)

So, yogurt it is.

the world's biggest case of denial and self-hatred if he thinks all the vitriol coming at Obama from the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity is not racially tinged.

There is no such thing as a Glock 45.

There are Glock 21, 30, and 36 models in .45 auto caliber. There are even Glock 37, 38, and 39 models in the stubbier .45 GAP caliber.

But anyone who talks about a "Glock 45" is an idiot. There is no such gun.

Maybe they should do a little more research before they decide to name themselves after this phantom firearm.

Maybe you should get a clue who you're talking to before you open your mouth. Look through my letters and if you find one referring to Beck or Limbaugh, it will be with nothing but contempt. I am not "backpedaling" for anything or anyone. I know that Beck, Limbaugh, and the majority of their listeners (including some people very close to me) are shameless racists and as close to heartless and evil as I've ever known.

As I've said before, and I'll say again, I do not object to calling these individuals and groups out for what they are, which is despicable and bigoted. What I object to is the assumption that all the support being lost for Obama by whites is among this class of people, when all the evidence shows that his support among whites is primarily drying up among all the progressives he has disappointed with his centrism.

Those of us - or at least myself - who were claiming that Obama's recent drop in white support is not necessarily racially related never made the claim that race is not an issue regarding white people and Obama.

But the people who are quick to make bizarre and unfounded connections between high school fighting, weird antics at an awards show, and the president of the United States who just so happens to be black, are not the sort of people who would have given Obama a high approval rating in the first place.

Obviously racism is creating a lot of ugly conflicts at this moment in American history, and that ugliness is being fueled by voices like Rush Limbaugh and eaten up by lots of closeted racists.

The problem I have is the assumption that the whites who no longer approve of the president's job are these same right-wingers who are so easily susceptible to paranoid rantings from Beck and Limbaugh. I don't think the evidence bears this out at all.

I believe the author meant to write "socks and sandals."

Because shorts and sandals go together like peanut butter and jelly, unless you think it's more acceptable to wear shorts with patent leather oxfords or something.