There ARE plenty of enlightened Catholics in America, many of us believe in free speech and open discourse. The President should be welcomed on any campus. The yahoos from the Cardinal Neumann Society do not speak for the majority of Catholics, and they serve a hard right wing agenda. They would make no such protest for a politicial that supports the death penalty or 'preemptive war.'

ND should stand tall for openness on college campuses, and just bear the brunt of these attacks. I've experienced it myself. In fact, I just got a piece of hate mail today.

Kudos on the development of Open Salon! I think it will blossom during the convention with some interesting coverage. I hope to be a part of it.

Joan,

I couldn't agree with you more! As someone who was a Hillary supporter, I am trying hard to maintain my enthusiasm for the ticket. There is no question that I will support Obama throughout the campaign. In fact, I have already made several contributions, slapped a sticker on my car, and will be a volunteer. BUT, I want the VP pick to generate excitement and enthusiasm, and these two just don't cut it. Uninspired. Do I want Hillary on the ticket, sure. Can Obama choose someone else and generate excitement, of course. We don't just need excitement for the race, but for the years of governing.

The dismissive tone in the MSM about Hillary being too much of an insider and therefore not a real choice for Obama is just plain crap. These other guys are insiders too, they just happen to have the Y chromosome and come from so-called swing states.

Seriously Walter, was this gratuitous mention necessary?:

"took the stage to declare in a run-on sentence." No one who was watching last night noticed it was a run-on sentence. No one notices when Obama delivers an inspiring run-on sentence either. Public Speaking is a different animal, you know that. Please see past the pettiness, unless your hoping to be Andrea Michell's BFF.

As I was deciding which candidate would get my support in the Democratic primaries, I heard folks make this argument against Hillary Clinton:

She is divisive. People hate her. If we nominate her, the right wing will be foaming at the mouth and use the dirty tricks of the 90's, so she should not get the nomination.

More recently, I have heard Obama's supporters make similar claims. i.e. Hillary can't bring the country together because so many conservatives hate her. Barack can bring the country together. In fact, this idea of "unity under Obama" seems to be one of the most powerful arguments in his favor, after his inspirational oratory.

I think in the last few days we are seeing what the right wing is going to be doing to candidate Barack Obama. Radio personality Bill Cunningham attacked Obama as a 'Chicago Hack' and repeatedly used his middle name. Afterwards he disingenuously claimed that he meant nothing by it. Hogwash. Of course Cunningham and the others who are doing this intend to inflame racism and suspicion of Muslims, and imply that by virtue of his name, Senator Obama has some connection to "our enemies in the Islamic world." A Republican member of Congress appeared on MSNBC earlier this week, and attacked Obama's patriotism because Obama does not wear an American flag lapel pin. Host Dan Abrams immediately pointed out his hypocrisy given that the congressman himself was not wearing one. Now, McCain distanced himself from Cunningham (but, so far not from Rep. Jack Kingston), but this is not going to stop the 'haters' like Cuningham, like Rush Limbaugh from proceeding to cast these aspersions on Obama.

So, I ask you, can Obama be the messenger of Hope and bringer of unity, if these hateful right wingers are going to impugn his patriotism at every turn? They will point to the misinterpreted 'no-hand-over-his-heart' photo, gleefully display the picture of Obama wearing the garb of his father's homeland, crow about the flag lapel pin, and on and on. Even if McCain distances himself from this at every turn, it will not matter. The public will be barraged with these hateful messages and lies. How, then, can we Democrats get our positive message out and win the election? For all those who are excited about Senator Obama's message of Hope and Unity, please be prepared to have to fight a very different battle: a battle over lapel pins and patriotism. I've already found myself telling people that Obama is not a muslim (in response to the infamous email going around) and then doing my best Seinfeld "not that there's anything wrong with that."

We Democrats may want to wage a campaign about Hope and Unity, but I fear "the right wing freakshow" has a very different battle in mind.

I do not present this as a reason why we should not nominate Obama. I rejected this argument when I heard its corollary against my first choice candidate, Senator Clinton, and I reject it now. I do want my friends who do support Obama to be ready for the kind of campaign we are going to have. Those who chose Obama because they wanted to avoid a 'dirty' or divisive campaign need to know the politics of America in a post-Bush/Cheney world won't allow it. Prepare for battle.