I think a lot of people are misunderstanding, deliberately or not, the argument about sexism/racism being put forth here. From what I understand, and from what I believe personally, no one (Joan Walsh included) is saying that racism was not a factor. It is impossible not to see racism as the underlying cause of many radical right-wing tactics such as the underground "Obama is a Muslim/terrorist" meme that circulated so strongly on the internet. What we are arguing is not that racism did not exist, but that many of Obama's supporters were finding it, and indeed, inventing it, in all the wrong places. We are mostly referring to their overreactions such as when Hillary, in a speech, referenced that it took someone like LBJ to get the job done when it came to civil rights. Obama had spent the past weeks comparing himself to MLK and JFK... which is arrogant enough in itself, but what Hillary was saying is that neither of those two men were actually presidents who pushed civil rights through to law. Hillary was saying that the office of the president requires someone not just good at making speeches, but with brass balls, not afraid to stand up to his or her opponents and get necessary legislation passed.

But suddenly Hillary was decried as a racist, as detracting from MLK's legacy, as suggesting that only a white man can get things done. These are all blatantly false statements about a woman who has a stronger record for civil rights and black advocacy than Obama himself. This was just one of many instances when Obama supporters seemed to willingly ignore reality in order to try to paint both the Clintons as racists.

You are all trying to simplify our argument into "sexism exists, racism doesn't" when that's not what it was. What made us furious is when our candidate, who has advocated for black civil rights since the actual Civil Rights Era, was slurred as being a racist, instead of the real racists. You'll notice that Obama himself was never accused by Hillary supporters of sexism (or not to my knowledge anyway). When we saw sexism, we saw it from the MSM and from Republicans... you know, people actually known to be sexist. Some of Obama's supporters were clearly inventing racism where it simply did not exist, at the cost of ignoring much of the real racism purported by right-wingers and religious fundamentalists.

Thanks for being a reliably cool head and rational thinker through a maddening year of MSM stupidity and bloodthirsty politics. I share many of your opinions, particularly the exhaustion with the Obama hero-worship and race-baiting that seemed to dominate much of the primaries, so it was refreshing to have a voice like yours that was more reflective and hesitant to either worship or belittle any particular candidate. Your honesty and integrity, as well as your willingness to calmly analyze your own mistakes, are signs of a kind of character that is sorely lacking both in the blogosphere as well as the MSM.

And believe me when I say that most of us letter-writers, even when we disagree with you, are as disgusted as you are when your most ignorant detractors resort to vicious insults and slurs from the safety of internet anonymity. It is almost painful to wade through some of the meanspirited and irrational things people write in response to your own reasoned opinions.

So happy new year, Joan... I look forward to sharing in your insights and reflections, even if I disagree with them, in 2009.