If Obama's a whore. What is MaCain? What's left on the sheets? Dog shit on the bottom of a shoe? I'd love to know.

McCain's a whore too - and a worse one. So what? Does that make Obama's lies and multiple betrayals of his oath to uphold the Constitution somehow more acceptable?

At what point is a vote for the lesser of two evils evil in itself? Just how bad does a candidate have to be before you decide that you simply can't stomach a vote for him or her? Where do you draw the line?

I could have taken all sorts of crap from (and for) Obama. I was willing to close my eyes to a lot of things. But his acquiescence to the rape of the Constitution is not one of those things. Nor is his willingness to give in on MY right to privacy, on equal justice for the wealthy...and frankly, I just couldn't swallow the lie.

Particularly because it was so totally unnecessary. He didn't have to do this. By giving in to the Republicans, by covering up for Bush and the telecoms, he empowered them - and it can only be because he WANTED to.

He's one of them.

Obama supporters will doubtless cry that poor Obama was forced into all his capitulations out of a spirit of compromise. And I'm unreasonable to insist that he be pure and true to my crazy, whacked-out far-left ideas. To which I can only reply that if the right to privacy and equal justice are crazy and whacked-out, then one of us is in the wrong party.

I'm afraid it's me. Cue the howls and sneers that I'm throwing my vote away, if you like. But someone once said that the only vote that's wasted is one you don't believe in...and I don't believe in Obama any more. I'll find someone to vote for that I can be proud of.

Then, when Obama and the Democrats give Bush and his thugs a complete pass on their crimes, and compromise away every amendment in the Bill of Rights except the 2nd, I will at least be able to look at the ruin of what was once a great democracy and whisper to my son "It's not my fault. I didn't vote for this!".

This nation truly deserves its fate.

More and more, it seems to me that America only learns by pain. We've made a fetish out of stupidity and anti-intellectualism. We ignore the facts of the world as if sticking our heads in the sand will somehow make unpleasant reality go away. People knew decades ago that we were headed for an oil crisis - hell, I myself wrote a paper about it in college, based on reports available in the library.

But we just keep shoveling those tax breaks to the oil companies. What the hell is wrong with us?

The Depression taught people something. For one thing, it taught America the value of government regulation of the financial industry. Then we forgot that lesson in the 1980s, and now it's biting us in the throat.

Vietnam taught us the folly of getting into a foreign war without a goal or an exit plan. We forgot that lesson sometime in the 90s, I guess, and now our soldiers are shedding blood to pay for it.

Government spying run amok, corruption, torture...what form will our new lessons take? How high a price will we all have to pay to learn, once again (for how long?) that our rights are precious, and that our place in the universe is NOT assured?

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." - Thomas Jefferson

It's getting a lot harder to take your commentary seriously, Joan.

Fortunately I'm out of it; I opposed Hillary from the beginning, and Obama lost my vote with his FISA/amnesty flip-flop. Obama, Hillary, and Bill are all cut from the same cloth as far as I'm concerned.

None of them will provide the honest, resolute leadership that this country desperately needs. And so America continues its slide into the abyss.

Joan, you need to get over this Hillary thing. Inventing strawmen doesn't exactly enhance your credibility ("menopausal cranky freaks"? Do you really expect anyone to believe that sort of talk represents anything but the most marginal fringe element, if it wasn’t actually a deliberate plant by some dead-ender Hillary supporter trying justify that cynical sexism claim?). Arch references to the "N" word are simply precious, and I don't mean that in a good way. And deliberately missing the point - like it or not, the Clintons did use some covert racial language, even though they're not racists themselves and nobody said they were – well, that just makes you seem willfully obtuse.

If anyone really cares whether or not Bill Clinton gets to speak at the Democratic convention, they seriously need to get a life. Bill's a big boy. He gets millions from big corporations and his ultra-rich buddies to speak at functions every year, while we in the middle and lower classes are getting more desperate every year. Bill’s feelings are hurt, yes; but Joan, he's not your son or your father. You don't need to protect him. You’re a pundit, not Bill Clinton’s nanny.

It's really long past time for America - including the American media, and that means you, Joan! - to drop these phony "issues" and start addressing issues that matter. Issues such as catastrophic climate change, the conversion of the American economy and transportation network to a post-oil world, and how we're going to deal with the increasingly nationalistic and dangerous Chinese government in the coming century.

Come on, Joan. Cut the crap.