What bothers me so much about articles like this is the premise that Hillary Clinton has to come out and land a killing blow to Obama and all Obama has to do is tread water, make not waves and don't look so condescending while he does it. Hillary Clinton has won every one, every single debate, and that is one of the many reasons half of the democratic party is passionate about her bid for the presidency. If Obama is viewed as winning simply because he didn't commit political hari kari, there is something seriously off kilter about your perspective. His inability to field tough questions is why the commentators always ask Hillary first. They instinctively know she will know the answer, leaving Obama with a period of time to formulate his answer, based on research compiled from Senator Clinton's response. How many times did he simply say, in essense, "Yeah, what she said." He looked slow, casual, and ill equipped last night. The title of your piece uses football as an analogy. I do notice it also insinuates that Clinton was the quarter back. So even you know Obama's performance last night was lacking leadership overtones.

Thank you Walter Shapiro. Your article grabs the tone of Hillary Clinton's supporters. We're punch drunk with all the biased media and the Obama campaign's theme of, We don't want experience, we want Obama. This is just another case of an underqualifed middle aged man trying to force a woman, who is greatly qualified for the job, to step aside. Every woman in the workforce has been there. We're the one's giving our grocery money to the Hillary Clinton website. And Clinton isn't giving up, because she knows what quitting gets you. Nothing.

If Hillary Clinton was being accused of this, it would be 24 hours a day of discussion about this issue. But Teflon man gets a "well, they really did it, but it's not a big deal." Nice.

I will vote for the best choice in November. I have never in my 42 years ever voted other than democratic party ticket. Never. This year, if Hillary Clinton isn't the democratic nominee, I'm voting for McCain. A freshman senator who spent the last 6 years campaigning for one position after another? Too busy campaigning to do his job? This is our country, folks. Not class president. I have too much to lose to risk my family's welfare to a smooth talking man who admitted in 2006, on camera, that he wasn't qualified to be president. On camera! Give him the VP position and eight years to grow up and actually DO something. Then I'll vote for him. That's 16 years of democratic leadership. Not the four we'd get when he totally fumbled the job.

Is it possible that the real issue is Rev. Wright said horrible things about our country and for twenty years Obama sat through them and decided to raise his kids in that church? Is it possible that the issue doesn't require a context that pulls out a myriad of other people saying unrelated things that just so happen to support your thesis?

The tone of your essay is premised on patriotism is bad, anti-american rhetoric is heroic. I don't buy that. No one, but maybe a fringe of americans, believe our country is perfect. No one can ignore the horrible things the US have done. When humans are involved, bad things happen. Why your argument falls flat is your inability, or decision, to distinguish between the government and its people.

I have always thought going into Iraq was a horrible idea. My husband and I were horrified when Bush declared war. Yet, I am proudly patriotic. I love my country. Because it is made up of wonderful people of all stripes and opinions, but we have made a decision to be one, as a country, to watch each others back when threatened by other countries or ideologies. We are an immigrant country, so generational guilt trips don't work here. As a second generation Irish-American, I feel no responsibility for slavery. In the 1700-1800s while slavery was in the US my ancestors were being systematically oppressed, then starved out of Ireland. The US took a huge amount of us in and there is a gratitude that allows many immigrants to accept the US, warts and all.

This country is much like a family. If the family can't love itself, who will? That's why we're patriotic despite all the bad news. And patriotism isn't the cause of the US's bad policy. It is our voting record and the resultant administrations.

I believe there are too many news reports and eyewitness accounts supporting Senator Clinton's remembrance of the Bosnia trip to discount. The cable news shows and Obama supporting journalists have found a way to do just that. This is thier own version of the superdelegate fight. If they tell the American people something long enough, they feel they can sway the election. And the poll numbers support this supposition. There are long lists of Obama's outright lying about being involved with legislation (his own surrogate, Chris Dodd, outed him on one of his lies), and yet the media just lets that information fade away. The real victim here is the American people. Obama can't win conservative white vote. He's too liberal and has the taint of being anti-american. If he is nominated, McCain will win. And the media will bear most of the responsibility for that.

I'm not sure if the writer is aware, or not, but Hillary Clinton was using the Rocky storyline as an analogy of her indominable spirit. She didn't actually believe she was Rocky. You had me until the last paragraph.