It seems to me that when rightwingers complain about stuff written at liberal blogs, they have to delve deep into the comments left by readers to find exemplars, while at least some rightwing blogs -- proteinwisdom.com comes immediately to mind -- the moderators themselves are posting the most amazingly hateful stuff.

Do rightwingers not see the difference? Do they not care? It's really quite fascinating.

I must admit I find it shocking that a colonel in the United States Army, or anyone ostensibly involved in public relations, could write such snark to a member of the public.

My dad was a colonel in the Army, and he could indulge himself from time to time reminiscing about times he'd been "blunt" (his word) with a fellow officer.

Even so, I must admit I find it shocking that a colonel in the United States Army, or anyone ostensibly involved in public relations, could write such snark to a member of the public.

The Muslim smear is out there and is being repeated by those who would scare voters into thinking, "Oh he's just too different."

Is it fair that accusing someone of being Muslim should qualify as a smear? No. Is it fair that you pretty much have to be a mainstream Christian to run for President (and other public offices) in this country? No. Is it fair that a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth even has its pants on? No.

None of that is fair. But it's the reality, and if Obama is going to counter the "smear," he has to do it quickly. Otherwise he might as well go home.

So this non-believer has no problem with Obama's "Committed Christian" flyer.

Obama didn't seem angry to me. Might you be projecting what you imagine he must have been feeling? Compare his style to his Iowa victory speech, and it's much the same.

He did throw, I suppose, a few elbows -- such as his comment about a campaign in which you're not supposed to acknowledge a "Republican idea." But there's another explanation besides throwing an elbow, and that's that he had a national stage and took the opportunity to say to all who were listening that he did not praise or admire Reagan's ideas. He also provided all his supporters with a simple, to the point response to anyone who says, "Yeah, but he praised the GOP as the party of ideas!" And he did that all in -- what -- ten words?

Pretty smart campaigning if you ask me.

Quote: "It's only a matter of time before even the most seemingly well-intentioned black people get exposed as the white-hating extremists that they are."

This is it exactly. This is exactly why these conservatives find it perfectly acceptable to extrapolate from one African American or group of African Americans whose behavior they don't approve of, to all African Americans -- and why it's not acceptable to do that with whites.

Or actually, as I think about it, perhaps they do extrapolate for both blacks and whites, but it's about attitudes, not behavior. And that extrapolation goes something like this: All blacks are white-hating extremists (as noted in the above quote), and all whites are beset upon by minorities and resentful for "good reason." And any white who doesn't see that is a lib succumbing to white guilt.

What to do with people who think like that? Can they ever be part of a constructive discussion? Alternatively, can we regard Instapunk's rant as the death rattle of a "threatened tribe member" who is seeing the hieroglyphics on the cave wall?

I disagree that the country is more ready for black President than a woman President. You point to polls, but I think Pennsylvania is and has been a "living poll" that suggests the exact opposite.

But you raise an interesting point with the story of the woman who asked McCain: "How do we beat the b**tch?" And that's that there are far more women who are conflicted about equal rights for women and what that means than there are blacks who are conflicted about equal rights for blacks and what that means. Many, many women, unfortuntately, in their most intimate day-to-day lives collude with those who would propagate the theory that successful women are b**ches. The media -- and I'm looking at you, Chris Matthews -- are often purveyors of that story. But the media are also US in this respect. All of us.

So, in a lot of ways, I think the country is at least as ready for a woman President as for a black President -- and in some parts, perhaps even more ready. But, at the same time, it's clear that even if we elect a woman President, we're likely to go on being conflicted about equality for women for quite some time if only because our attitudes toward women hit us in our most intimate relationships in a way that attitudes toward other races, religions and ethnic groups often do not.

Yes, if the rules were different, Hillary would be winning. What else ya got?