Since you say you are a woman and a feminist, I find it even more difficult to understand how you could make a comment about how the actions of a few women could make all women look bad.

As far as your phoning in to Pennsylvania being sufficient to convince you that those who live in the state are rednecks and racists, I don't know how many calls you made or how many of those you called made what you consider racist statements.

But using that sampling to generalize about millions of people is insulting to many commonwealth residents who are educated and open-minded despite not living in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

There are a number of posters on Salon who make extremely negative comments about people of other races and religions but that doesn't make it valid to say that the majority of people on Salon are bigots.

Bernbart, your referring to rural Pennsylvanians as "rednecks" and "lifelong racists" falls into the same category as your previous comment, "If these women perform in any way like the women at the DNC rules committee meeting, they will make all women look bad."

Stereotyping people because you disagree with them is in the case of the Pa. comment, racist on your part, and in the second case, blatantly sexist.

Before dismissing HRC supporters as postmenopausal PUMAs, Obama supporters really should think about what they want most, to settle grudges left over from the primary or to win the White House.

Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama in Pennsylvania by 10 points. According to one account, about a third of her Pa. voters have not yet committed to Obama, and they are not all old white women or Republicans in disguise, contrary to comments sometimes made here.

While Gov. Ed Rendell is very popular and Democrats hold a 1,067,625 advantage in Pennsylvania, the enthusiasm for Obama is not increasing according to both anecdotal evidence and in-state polling.

Many of these undecided voters say they are still unsure of where Obama stands on issues that are important to them.

If the time between the primaries and the convention had been used to reach out to Clinton and her supporters and heal the wounds rather than to twist the knife by treating her and them as irrelevant, perhaps those who favored her wouldn't think it is necessary to hold a parade in her honor. Nor would Sen. Obama find it necessary to accept the nomination in a football stadium to cover the fact that nearly half of those on the convention floor are Clinton backers.

People say that if Sen. Clinton had become the Democratic nominee, she would have been the target of the vast GOP attack machine.

It appears that by not getting the nomination, she has become the prime whipping girl for many Obama supporters who don't know how to win graciously and who refuse to believe her when she says she will support their candidate.

I don't quite understood the new math but from reading comments on Salon, it appears that some Obama supporters believe that they can write off those among her 18 million voters and everyone else who has questions about Obama and win by some mysterious equation known only to them.

Jebldmm, your thoughtful comments sum up so articulately the big problem with the racism charges being hurled back and forth between the Obama and McCain campaigns.

The debate does nothing to address the real issues of racism, issues that aren't getting much exposure because it's more fun to discuss the use of Paris Hilton in an ad about celebrity.

You mention so many topics that deserve attention. There's the Jena 6 and other instances of the unfairness of the legal system such as the absurd impact of the War on Drugs and the fear of police brutality. There's the failure of many urban school systems, the housing crisis, the loss of jobs, unaffordable health care and lack of focus on many medical conditions, including those that affect a disproportianate number of African-Americans.

There were such high hopes for an enlightened debate this time around with the Democrats choosing either the first African-American or first woman who could become president and the Republicans selecting someone who was known as a maverick who would take unpopular stands against policies of his own party.

Instead, it's as though we've opened a Pandora's box. What has spilled out is every variation of prejudice, from whites about blacks, blacks about whites, from men about women, women about men, the young about the old, the old about the young, from Christians about Jews and Muslims and vice versa.

It's been said that Sen. Obama's nomination is a hallmark toward achieving the goals of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. But the ugliness of the arguments between some who support Sen. Obama and others who do not could better be described as a nightmare. I'd like to wake up from it and see that we've all found a way to discuss what's best for our country without resorting to hate speech.

Klytus, when I said that I hoped to find people who enjoy debating issues civilly, I wasn't thinking of somebody who would respond by calling me "a teduious and tritely opinioned bore."

I have had discussions on Salon with people who disagree with me on virtually every topic but who are extremely well-informed and who, on more than one occasion, have made me rethink my position.

In addition, while they may not concur with my comments, they are able to tell me why they believe I'm wrong without finding it necessary to insult me in the process.

Obviously you are not one of these people so lets not waste each other's time anymore.