Not everyone here thinks you're a flaming racist for worrying that the first viable black candidate's campaign might get tanked because of some other guy who apparently craves the spotlight more than he values the reputation of one of his congregants or his own church.

Some of us get that you don't, in fact, hate Obama, and that your skepticism about him does not stem from some latent form of racism.

Frankly, I am disgusted by all the Salon readers who don't care enough to keep a cool head and a reasonable perspective but apparently do care enough to inform the editors and writers here of how unbearably racist and bigoted they are. Get a grip, Obama supporters: Your overreactions and finger-pointing are not going to help your candidate, or race relations in this country.

Your education pedigree seemed to be important to you when you were bragging about it an hour ago. Now that someone brings up your apparent inability to obtain a degree from two different law schools, you are getting defensive about it? Maybe you shouldn't have brought it up.

Seriously, though. With enemies like Thrasher, who needs friends? His self-parody is the most amusing thing I've found on the internet, next to perhaps Brightstar anyway.

I don't know anything about Dave Sugarman and I certainly wouldn't condone anyone calling someone else a Nazi, but you are one of the most racist posters I've ever seen at Salon. And no I am not his wife. Nor am I a woman for that matter, not that it's significant.

I remember you from back in your good old "Thrasher" days and frankly you have not improved. So pardon me if I take every opportunity to mock your stupidity, self-adulation and poor grammar. Dave Sugarman can take a flying leap if he wants... I just enjoy pointing out your inanities because, well, it's so damn easy.

I am not an Obama supporter, nor do I particularly like him. That said, I am not merely sucking up to my own candidate when I say that the whole lapel pin, patriotism-questioning crap that surrounds Obama in the media right now is absolutely, completely ridiculous, and if not racist, then it certainly reeks of a white-centered understanding of America. And a white-centered, imperialist, romanticized understanding of America is fine, as long as you acknowledge the fact that there are other understandings of American history as well, and that those understandings are just as valid.

Yeah, all those things about America that Noonan mentions are important parts of American history and identity, as long as you're white and milquetoast and middle class. Our fondness for those events, ideas, and people is inexplicable, given the fact that no one alive today was around to witness them or partake in them. The fact is, though, there is a large percent of the population that is more than a little dissatisfied with the fact that America, in reality, has never quite matched up to the America of principle. Our glorious country has been failing that mark since day 1. And I'm not just talking about blacks. Blacks who have a cultural history of being mistreated by this country are just one part of the demographic that refuses to romanticize America's sordid history.

For many of us, the question of patriotism is not "How much you love your country, the way it is." It's "How big do you dream for your country, the way it could be."

Good for Obama. This is exactly what he needed to do.

I still find it hard to believe that the guy he claims was his "spiritual mentor" for 20 years is really significantly more radical than Obama knew. But at least now we know that Obama disagrees with him, at least for this election's sake.

My name is on the top ten list.

Does that mean I'm suddenly more desirable?

People who are out of touch with reality may not understand this article. But its core message speaks to more than just the myspace/facebook generation. In our culture, branding is everything. People don't just wear J.Crew or Express because they like the clothes, but they want to come off a certain way. And those same people would not be caught dead in an Abercrombie or American Eagle outfit, even if the clothing was nearly identical. I have an Abercrombie jacket that I got second-hand and I am even sometimes embarrassed to wear it. The same goes for every different brand and product you can imagine. I see scores of hip people walking around with Starbucks coffee in their hands, who wouldn't be caught dead with a cup of $.89 gas station joe. People who use Macs don't hesitate to proclaim how cool and hip their computers are, which is then a reflection of them. All sorts of college kids my age who know all the lyrics to *NSync nnd Britney Spears and jam to the music when they happen to hear it nevertheless make sure that the only musicians you know they like are Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, and Alanis Morissette.

People laugh at me for owning the ABBA: Gold CD. I have to defend myself when people see The Alien Chronicles trilogy on my book shelf... heaven forfend that a cheesy-looking sci-fi book might actually be good despite its unimaginative title.

And my facebook profile proudly proclaims my interests, which range from early English literature to Dostoevsky to Mahler symphonies the theology of neoorthodoxy, but omits my love of the Star Wars wiki, online role-playing games, running around in the mountains and pretending to be a Viking, and other things that I enjoy immensely but wouldn't reflect well on me and the hip intellectual image I feel compelled to project.

So as of tonight, I have deleted all that from my facebook and replaced it with the simple sentence: "If you want to get to know me, please ask. A facebook profile does not a human being contain."