After the South Carolina primary, Jesse Jackson was interviewed by Essence, and has a much more reasonable take on the Clintons' comments at the time. He is the one who is abandoning the old politics of division. I wish Rep. Clyburn and the Obama campaign could do the same. While it is reasonable to highlight policy and qualifications differences, it is not necessary to slander one's opponent in order to express support for yours:

http://www.essence.com/essence/lifestyle/voices/0,16109,1706948,00.html

My father, a retired petroleum geologist who worked in international ventures is very alarmed about the energy situation. He believes we BOTH need to go full tilt developing alternatives and conserving, AND drill domestically. He does not expect new drilling to increase the use of oil worldwide, but rather to moderate the drop in our supply while we take the decades necessary to wean ourselves mostly or entirely off oil. He does not believe drilling would cause a price drop so much as make the difference between somewhat painful price increases, and out-of-control upwardly spiraling prices if we do not get our act together. He advocated a gradually rising tax years ago because he did not think natural market forces alone would get us to prepare for future supply problems in time. Now he says we have a real problem.

One of the discouraging aspects of our current political climate is finding out that progressive women are often no better than those they claim to be better than. I have been particularly appalled at the misogyny thrown around on such shows as The View toward strong women such as Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. I agree...why not simply disagree with ideas instead of insulting the bearer of those ideas, or worse, their daughters? If women cannot stand up for other women, why should we expect men to behave themselves? At least Sarah Palin is pretty good at standing up for herself and her family. I thought her response to Letterman was brilliant.