As always Michael Scherer delivers the goods. He distilled things concisely while exposing these guys for what they are and that made me laugh (I also cried at the thought of any of them as POTUS). It's this kind of funny spot on analysis that makes this kind of baloney tolerable. More please.

And somehow I think the situation with the Obamas are a rare exception to a complex issue. Debra Dickerson raises good points about feminism, marriage and race yet somehow I have the feeling, given her past columns, she's going after the sensational hot button topics more then anything else. I suppose that's her job as a columnist yet continual obsession with Barack Obama makes one wonder about her agenda or if she's simply working through her own issues here.

I'm not a card carrying member of the Barack Obama fan club (yet) but then I don't think he is either. I'd like to see him get some more years in the Senate to build up some legislative cred and yet the more I hear, specific this report, the more I like.

Besides Obama showing thought and reasoning in positions, it appears he's not using the crutch of charisma (which he has) but rather talking to people as adults and I think that's what people are responding to - being real.

After nearly seven years of cowboy politics, a blatantly anti-intellectual president, war crimes and half-retarded thinking, Barack Obama is a revelation. Maybe it's finally time for cooler heads to prevail. God knows could use it.

...and yet if Adam and Eve were to show up today, they'd be scorned and deported by the likes of the Answers in Genesis folks...or called terrorists. My question thus is if Adam and Eve were brown, aren't the AIG followers brown too?

Add in the contradictions and the fact he really looks like Fred Mertz and it won't happen.

Buffie isn't fat. Ironically by making Buffie the example of the obese, Debra Dickerson is subversively supporting the "mainstream" idea of body size/type and beauty. Also, mixing the sensational topics of big booties, race and obesity into a 1000 word article just doesn't make for much of anything except maybe bad navel gazing.

Okay maybe David Chase plays Shakespeare and kills off TS (with a few wild plot twists) in the expected and "natural" tragic ending.

Frankly however my guess is Tony Soprano lives (although hugely damaged and probably his wife and/or kids dead) so a feature film can be spawned.

Ironically this choice is fitting for a post-modern gangster character. Not a fun answer but you know the producers have thought about it.

It'll be fun to see if it ends up being about art or money.

...with Paris Hilton being the featured exhibitionist and the media playing the role of the odd little guy in the s/m gear.

Okay, maybe it's a plain old freak show and no one can look away.

HH however does write a very nice article that tries to underneath the shallowness of the "victim" (us and her) and make sense of a post-post-modern world of weird celeb BS.

My theory however is she's a plant by the Bush admin to divert eyes from the real world mess of Iraq, GOP corruption and health care. Functionally that's what Ms. Hilton is doing...and we're biting, hook, line and sinker.

Nicely done....a practical joke, "art" or both. Props to Chase for not giving in and going with a morality play or cathartic revenge ending (base emotions). It's the gray areas where real life happens (not that The Sopranos were real) so it's nice to see ambiguity tossed into mass popular culture.

Also props to HBO for allowing for creative freedom and not something else (audience or exec driven). Nice to see some creative cajones in popular culture once in a while...although one could argue there was a little fence sitting in the ending but hey that's life.

BTW, I knew TS wouldn't die because there's a feature film still to be made. Ending the series is one thing...killing off the option of more was never going to happen.

Even the shows title is a double entendre so the content just naturally follows. Perhaps MSNBC should be more forthright and call it "Circle Jerk Pundits". If they're going to sell sexy political man smell they might as well sell it all and not be ashamed.

That pretty much sums up why Nixon was reviled and disliked so greatly. Watergate just gave the reason to bring him down. Add in his demeanor, foot-in-mouth speech and looks and you have a villain made for the '70s.

JFK looked like prince charming next to RMN and McGovern looked like the easy-going, reasonable uncle next to Nixon's sweaty, molester uncle persona.

And yet the article is right. Nixon did a lot. Relations to China and Title 9 have give any other president a decent legacy alone. Of course RMN was his own worse enemy with a sociopathic streak but he was also a victim of the times, his appearance and manners. A tragic figure but in context of today's admin -- my god he was a liberal.

I listened to Vin Scully broadcast Dodger games as a kid for I don't know how many summers. He was always smooth as silk, modest as burlap and always knew the whole game and that particular game. He was so good I thought Dick Enberg was terrible...and then I moved away for college, listened to other radio broadcasters and finally realized how lucky I was as a kid.

The current crop of baseball broadcasters are so average or bad I just don't listen or watch any longer. Joe Buck and McCraver should be shot or their mouths taped shut. Ironically, Joe Buck is the son of Jack Buck (the only true peer Scully ever had) and I think that speaks volumes of about the current state of baseball, not worth listening to.