This is such a huge non-issue being passed around by Obama supporters who will take any slight against His Hopeness as a sign of racism. You know what? Do you have any idea how many images of Hillary are circulating that intentionally make her seem older, scarier, more witch-like? Do a google image search of Hillary sometime. Nearly half the images you'll find are altered, photoshopped, or caricatured. No one is accusing the people who circulate those images of sexism or ageism. No one is saying that our tolerance of such images circulating is evidence of our sexism as a society.

But the Clinton campaign runs an ad in which all of the images are somewhat dark, making Obama appear (GASP) black (because no one knew that before), and Obama supporters use it as irrefutable "proof" of Clinton's racism and dirty tactics.

I am simply disgusted at Obama's supporters. Their candidate may or may not be about hope and playing fair and changing the game, but they've proven that they are nothing more than zealots and hacks.

The American voter: "OMG U MEAN OBAMA IS BLACK?! WTF?!"

The fact of the matter is that the majority of Obama supporters studiously avoid making charges of racism because it so easily can backfire. I have seen very few charges of racism on Salon, except in rare cases where it was absolutely called for (such as against some dweeb who was claiming today that Obama was ashamed of his lineage). Otherwise, among Salon commenters at least, charges of racism are fairly rare and restrained.

Maybe we have been reading different letters. Ever since this primary started, I have been reading nothing but negative attacks on Hillary. She is not painted racist so often as she is painted as a powermongerer who will do anything to get her presidency. In this case, the suggestion by most Obama supporters is that she is intentionally and maliciously preying on race tensions to get votes, which is obvious false from the evidence.

You know what? Those images are promoted by the right-wing nuts, not Obama supporters. So what's your point?

They are. And I don't hear too many Obama supporters standing up and saying that those images and the people who enjoy creating them and circulating them are full of crap and sexist.

WHAT? Are you kidding? People accuse others of sexism toward Hillary all the time, right here on Salon's message boards? Go read half the Broadsheet posts pertaining to Hillary.

Unfortunately charges of sexism never actually make headlines. I don't recall Daily Kos making a big deal about the Hillary "nutcracker" doll. It simply seems obvious to me that there is a double standard, where it is ok to say mean things about Hillary, to mock her, imply she is a lesbian, claim that she will castrate men literally and fiuratively, etc, which are all gender-charged insults that have nothing to do with Hillary as a person. And yet now, when there is a remote possibility that the Hillary campaign may have changed the shade of a TV ad to make everything in it appear darker, we are supposed to be morally outraged at how depraved and nasty Hillary is. The double standard is what pisses me off. It's ok to portray a successful woman as a "nutcracker" and a "C.U.N.T." but showing a video of Obama that makes his skin seem slightly darker than normal is obviously a case of preying on racism?

What you're referring to as "the Obama supporters" is a FEW supporters who are on Daily Kos. Even if the darkening turns out to be true, I hardly see it as a winning issue for Obama's side. The real winning issue for Obama's side is, and always has been, the strength of his candidacy. If there are mean-spirited attacks on him, or attacks meant to tap into people's racism, then I would like to know about it, and I would prefer that the evidence be impeccable (like if an editor came out and stated publically that he was specifically asked to darken Obama's face -- now that would be evidence).

Maybe they are a minority, but from what I can tell they are the most vocal minority. You don't hear too many Obama supporters rolling their eyes at this or simply standing up and stating the obvious, that this is clearly a ploy by a handful of idiots who think Clinton is the Antichrist. I know there are moderate Obama supporters, but even the moderate ones spare no expense at jumping on the Obama bandwagon whenever something apparently negative about Clinton comes up, even when it is fabricated as in this case.

You seem to be judging Obama supporters by just a handful of the more negative ones, then. Are you blind to the Clinton supporters who are hateful and nasty?

I haven't seen anything as hateful or nasty from Clinton supporters as I have from Obama supporters, at least not here at Salon. (I'm sure they exist somewhere but nowhere that I have seen them.)

Brightstar is regularly full of crap and can be counted on to turn any situation against feminists and women in general.

To Brightstar, everything is always a woman's fault, because obviously women hold all the power in the world and deserve to be punished for witholding sex from the men who so righteously deserve it.

Just in case you weren't already aware. Don't take this guy seriously if you value your sense of decency.