It's refreshing to see all the letters instantly calling this "issue" out for what it is: just another ultimately pointless hamstringing attempt to drag Barack down. How cynical can Hillary be, trying to paint Obama as "elitist," claiming to be the true friend of the working people even as her campaign strategist and her husband are raking in big bucks lobbying and promoting yet another free trade deal. Now THAT, my friends, is the height of elitism, seems to me. It's practically dripping with scorn and contempt for the working class, (which by now should rightfully be called the "would desperately LIKE to be working class, oh, except somebody about a decade ago — ironically dressed in liberal clothing — used their undeniable charisma to push through a bill that would make it a whole lot easier to ship jobs out of the country."

But my concern here is with Salon, which seems in article after article to be joining Hillary's campaign in its scorched earth policy. When Barack gets the nomination, how will you come back from this? How will you honestly be able to go on to say we should all unite around his candidacy? As you are going now, It seems to me that the only intellectually honest course for you is to endorse McCain.

I'm not asking for a bunch of countervailing Obama worship articles. I'd be just as happy if you ran even one article calling Hillary out on some of her bullshit, too: her elevation of McCain over Obama, for example. That, for me, was her Jump the Shark moment. McCain simply is not, nor ever will be, a better choice than Barack. It's bullshit. When she says something like that, call her out on it! Let's help to keep the campaign honest and on track. Instead we get articles like "If the process made sense, Hillary would be Winning" or trivia pieces like this one "Obama is elitist and out of touch." (Ironically, as evidenced by his stating exactly what is on the minds of many Americans, myself included.) Can we please stop reinforcing the idiotic media sound bite portrayals of the candidates? You're angry because you think that the media portrays Hillary as cold and unlikable, but have no hesitation helping pin the equally unfair elitist label on Obama. Salon! Here's your opportunity! Please take the lead in helping to elevate the dialogue!

As his Presidency winds down, George Bush continues to take a daily shit on the constitution and wipe his ass with the American flag. (Hey, did you hear the news? America is a country that tortures people in the name of democracy and all that is right and good, wheee!) McCain has dusted off Bush's campaign speeches from 2004, which except for the parts about Iraq, were largely rehashed from Bush's 2000 campaign, and he promises to deliver more of the same right wing wonderfulness that has worked so well these past 7 years. Yet day after day on Salon, here comes another article trying to push the idea that a vote for Obama would be the worst thing ever.

Seriously, I'm asking in all sincerity, when (okay, to be fair, if) Obama gets the nomination what's your exit strategy?

When Katrina victims were still piled up in the Astrodome, and the total incompetence of the Bush administration couldn't be more obvious and that the depth of the mess revealed a ground-up rottenness in their approach to, basically, everything, the major response by the right wing sound machine was to sneeringly start talking about how everyone was more interested in playing the "Blame Game" than getting down to work to solve the problems facing us... just so long as those solutions didn't involve dealing with the underlying rot. The policies are correct, the fact that they keep resulting in total disaster can only be attributed to forces that are mysterious and almost unknowable to the minds of men.

So it is with McCain. His "academic argument" is just a variation of the "blame game." He claims he is just dealing with the problem as it is, but in his view, accepting the correctness of the original policy is sacred and untouchable; the blunder came in implementation, not in adopting a policy that was ALWAYS doomed to fail. This is why he will continue to blunder us in even deeper. He thinks it's all about the implementation.

In advancing this argument, he is attempting to sound pragmatic, but it is a phony pragmatism. At this point, any candidate elected will have no choice but to deal with the situation as it stands. But McCain's inability to find value in looking at how we got here, now, when the lessons are so fresh and easy to learn, is anything but pragmatic. It's just a guarantee for more blundering, blindly, always sure that the next military adventure will be the one that finally does the trick.