Now Michelle Obama, a successful, outspoken, intelligent woman, is going to get the same sexist treatment that Hillary got when she was still a threat to the presidential candidacy.

To me this has nothing to do with race and everything to do with sexism. Perhaps race is a small part of this, but not completely. You realize, of course, that Michelle is simply the new Hillary... all the charges being leveled at her are the same sort that were used against Clinton not a month ago. She is emasculating, she is too vocal, she is too divisive. Hillary was a whore for being with Bill and selling out to the right-wing... now Michelle is going to be portrayed as a whore for being with a black man and selling out to the left-wing.

None of it makes sense but that's the treatment it seems women in politics are faced with. The vitriol against Michelle may be in part racially charged, but it's certainly no more hateful and mean-spirited than what any other powerful, successful woman in her place has had to go through.

Was this supposed to be amusing, insightful, even offensive? It was none of the above. Yawn.

If your marriage is so fragile and precarious that the state referring to you on some document that no one will ever see as a "female applicant" instead of a "bride" will ruin things for you, then I think you need to develop something commonly referred to in the real world as a "spine."

If your marital bliss is so dependent on the official state usage of antiquated, exclusive jargon, then I think you might need to see a shrink.

Before the primary ended, all the Obama maniacs could talk about was how different Obama and Clinton are, how wrong Clinton's policies are, etc. Now that it's over they keep screaming at us that Obama and Clinton have near identical politics, it should be easy for us to vote for Obama if we liked Clinton. What a funny old world.

Overzealous Obama supporters made a big deal about how Clinton was causing a split in the party, about Obama being a uniter and not a divider. They even went so far as to suggest that they don't need us - us being Clinton supporters - or at least that's what it looked like, since they went so far out of their way to make sure we knew they thought of us as Republicans, hope-killers, racists, whatever else.

Now when we express our disillusion with Obama and the Democratic party in such terms that we will choose not to vote this November, we are treated like traitors... as if we owe Obama anything. Why do I owe him my vote? He stole the nomination from my candidate, using underhanded tactics, and painting her as a racist, pretending not to notice all the misogynist attacks against her. Now he has shown his true colors by supporting FISA, which he claimed he would not. Obama is a disappointing politician like all the other disappointing politicians out there. I don't owe him, or his supporters, a damned thing.

Obama supporters spent the past months convincing themselves they don't need Clinton supporters to win. They made that clear by their treatment of us. So if they think they can elect their man without the millions of people who picked Hillary over the guy who was supposed to "unite" the party and bring "hope" to the political process, more power to them. I'd like to see them try.

There are men holding out support from Obama. Or to put it more accurately, I would have gladly voted for Hillary but I don't feel terribly obligated to vote for Obama.

No, I'm not a Republican. I have not voted for, or even liked, a Republican in my entire life. As a socialist I am probably a good deal more liberal than most Obama supporters. So don't bark up that tree unless you want me to roll my eyes in annoyance.

I am a college-aged liberal male and Obama's not getting my vote. He hasn't proved to me that he deserves it. I would have given it to Hillary... I did, in the primaries. But Obama is nothing special as far as I'm concerned. Especially now with the whole FISA thing.

So, Joan, you are right that there are people who would have voted for Hillary in the general who are not eager to vote for Obama, but you're wrong to assume that they are necessarily all women.

That's why there are so many guys who secretly wish they were Matt Damon in the Bourne movies... because, you know, men never have to deal with that whole me/not me thing.

Gerard Butler is my personal "man crush." Though maybe not the bad singing voice. But, you know, there are worse things than being a tall Scottish ruffian with a Spartan physique and a shitty rock tenor.

It is more than just symbolic. Private individuals were donating to campaigns... the Obamas' money did not go to the Clintons but to the Clinton campaign, which will help to pay off the campaign's debts, and the Clintons' money did not go to the Obama family but to the Obama campaign, to be used to get him elected and not to buy them groceries. So really it may have seemed like nothing was happening but this money will actually be used in both cases.

I don't know if you're a die-hard Obama supporters or not but if you are, you've offered the only sympathetic and convincing argument to vote for Obama that I've seen (same is true if you aren't but it seems like a bigger deal if you are).

Still, I am going to have to think long and hard about whether or not I will vote at all this November. It's all so depressing.