Clearly Obama's references to Selma hinted at the historic nature of a black man winning Iowa to inch ever closer to the White House. But I didn't view his comment that "They said that this day would never come. They said that we had set our sights too high" as primarily racial.

To me this references that Obama was a young upstart, new to the national stage, counting on bringing record numbers of new, younger voters to the caucuses. This was Obama's "sights too high," not being black.

And if you couldn't tell the difference between Obama's and Huckabee's words, you weren't listening. Both talked about hope and change, but Obama's words sounded genuine and inclusive. Huckabee, though never mentioning Romney by name, referred to being "outspent at least 15 to 1" and that he was the sort of man with "deep convictions that we'll stand by and not waiver on." Ergo, suck it, Mitt Romney!

There was a clear undercurrent of divisiveness and mean-spiritedness to Huckabee's speech. And his words themselves were stumbled-over and it wasn't clear what he meant to convey when he said it wasn't about "those who are in front of us. It's loving those who are behind us." What? It sounded like he was saying, "only my supporters matter."

The text of Huckabee's intended speech read better than the words he actually delivered. Does anyone have a transcript of the actual speech? I'm positive I heard him say that he wanted to give a better future to those "not yet born," an obvious pro-life nod to his Evangelical supporters.

Huckabee pulled off a major upset in Iowa, but Obama made history.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/03/se.03.html

The line I was looking for from Huckabee: "Because I'm still one who believes that the greatest generation doesn't have to be the ones behind us. The greatest generation can be those who have yet to even be born."

When Donna Brazile was able to reply, she didn't reference Bill Bennett's comments:

I think this is a major victory for Obama. Let me just tell you, for African Americans voters who have been waiting for this period of time -- Bill said it, but look, I can tell you, this is huge, in terms of historically speaking as a Democrat. African Americans have always lifted up Democrats. Now Democrats have a chance to lift up African Americans.

Next comments are from Jack Cafferty, who says of Obama, "he's a nice guy. He's articulate. He's pleasant."

Then, back to Bill Bennett on what Obama adopted from Clinton strategy: "The other thing is, what was the [Bill] Clinton theme? What was the song? Wasn't it, don't stop thinking about tomorrow? Make hope your friend. Barack Obama has stolen that, lifted that -- I won't say stolen that or lifted that. He's taken that from the Clintons."

Says Whitey, "Barack Obama is no thieving, angry black man. He's well-behaved and talks so pretty."

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/03/se.02.html

Mike Huckabee supports government social welfare programs. Yay.

But he remains willfully ignorant and incurious about foreign affairs and has proto-fascist tendencies that would subjugate the nation to the ideology of a narrow, christianist viewpoint. Huckabee's Jesus would support you with one hand and knife you with the other.

Was that too much?

Sorry, but the mean-spiritedness under Huckabee's affable veneer scares the crap out of me.

Thank you for providing a reasoned counterpart to my "Huckabee's Jesus would support you with one hand and knife you with the other." And I just started reading Naomi Wolf's "The End of America," which I think also belongs on the must-read list.

Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate: she's got the incumbent name, the political machinery and the money. She rocked the debates and was considered the frontrunner.

And The Media fawned over her.

Because everybody loves a winner.

But then, after Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton had blood in the water. And The Media started chomping.

The Media loves Hillary Clinton when she's up and savages her when she's down. Not because The Media is liberal or conservative but because they are spineless, self-congratulatory toadies who just want to remain in the good graces of Washington Elite.

Comparisons between Obama and the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world don't work.

Obama is 46 years-old.

He's a post-civil rights kid. He grew up with a very different experience from Sharpton or Jackson. Because of the color of their skin, they had to sit at the back of the bus, use separate water fountains, attend separate schools and marry within their race. Sharpton and Jackson ran as "angry black men" because they had damn good reason to be angry.

Post civil rights, there isn't cause for that sort of anger. Although there is still enough institutional inequity and subtle racism to be ticked.

I like Bill the President. I like Bill the Clinton Global Initiative do-gooder.

But Bill the Husband really needs to shut the hell up.

I think few people would argue that the decision to have an abortion is a serious one, and that it carries the possibility of regret. There are plenty of instances when both women and men could benefit from therapy or counseling both before and after the abortion -- and it is definitely not a decision to be taken lightly.

You know what also carries with it the risk of grief and regret? Having a child.

Also: marriage, divorce, career choices and basically any life change.

Please stop framing abortion as a unique and prevalent trauma (the Right's new anti-abortion tactic: "We must protect adults from abortion!"). Don't buy into it. It is not supported by evidence.

Aside: I encourage anyone experiencing grief to seek counseling. That doesn't mean I think the decision-making process and decision-making responsibilities should change.