I don't see any particular reason to believe that the Clinton campaign circulated the e-mail, but I do think it's curious that they didn't deny having circulated it, and instead asked why Obama thought it was such a big deal. The question reminded me of people who say, "Why do you care if the NSA listens to your conversations if you're not doing anything wrong? If you're worried, you must be a terrorist!"

Yeah. Right.

Anyway, I don't think the photo is at all damning, AND I'm willing to give the Clinton campaign the benefit of the doubt regarding whether they circulated it. But I do think it would be a good idea for them to come right out with the truth, one way or the other - and if some rogue staffer was responsible for it, do a little explaining about it. Don't you?

Meanwhile, how you come to believe that Obama is running a dirty campaign is anyone's guess. I have been critical of some of Clinton's little digs, but even those were hardly dirty, compared with the vast right-wing conspiracy faced by the Clintons, and, to a lesser extent, Gore and Kerry. What do you think Obama has done that is worse - or even comparable?

there is nothing wrong with the photo. And I am becoming less convinced by the minute that the Clinton camp circulated it, and even less convinced by the second that it matters in the least.

The problem with the photo is not the photo but the intent behind circulating it, which would surely have been explained in the alleged e-mail, of which we still haven't seen the text, subject line or Sender address. So ... since the photo itself is a non-issue and the sender is probably a non-issue, I think we should just wait for the next War Room, post, hopefully containing some actual news, and let this die the quiet death of all campaign silliness.

is simply one of the hundreds of voter-disenfranchising effects of our ridiculous primary "system."

is that everyone has to get them in order for them to keep working. People's basic misunderstanding of this - that vaccines are a PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE, not a ME ME ME issue - go right to the heart of what is wrong with this country. Now, you might have issues with specific vaccines - I know I do, and have refused chicken pox vaccine for my own children, because its efficacy and long-term effects are unknown and the vaccine was developed as a convenience vaccine - and this could be one of them, for reasons other posters have laid out. But the problem with this vaccine should not be "I have to get a shot so other people won't get a disease." That is what every vaccine has always been about.

from another Ohio expat, from another toilet capital of the state (Mansfield). The jobs went south when I was a kid, and now they are much, much farther away, in places workers can't move to except through the career that has replaced manufacturing in Ohio: the military. Now all those people are forced to work at places like Wal-Mart, and/or buy the shoddy, disposable, dollar-store products made by the people who took their jobs. I spent my childhood listening to my hanging-on-by-their-fingernails parents tell me how Nixon was no worse than any other politician, how wonderful Reagan was, how lazy black people were (except for the few who were actually, you know, our FRIENDS), and, my very favorite, the converse of trickle-down economics: what a bad idea it was to raise the minimum wage, because it just meant higher prices for everyone! My mother spent years voting against the abortion bugaboo, while my father has a hard-core libertarian streak and trusted the Republicans to be actual conservatives. I think the Republicans have finally worn out their welcome with my native family and almost everyone like them.

I am surprised that in all the debate commentary I have not seen people mention Obama's answer on public financing, which was almost as bad as the Farrakhan answer. While he spoke with more confidence and less anger on that issue, it was still a sidestep, and he let Russert get away with the "Gotcha! You won't keep your promise, then!" line. Of course, no Democrat wants him promising to have a publicly financed election if McCain is going to not promise it and/or promise it but cheat, so I don't really have a problem with the substance of the answer, but I think he needs to polish it. With the Farrakhan answer, he let his anger about being asked cloud his response, and he is going to have to work on that too, because this issue is not going anywhere. He is going to be accused of being racist, which obviously pisses him off, but he shouldn't let that show. I was uncomfortable watching him squirm when being asked to, basically, choose between blacks and Jews. And Clinton, by looking magnanimous for a minute and then instead trying to use her lever to point out that he botched the response, actually failed to let it fall flat, and the uncomfortable attention returned to her. That was a tactical error. She should have let the image of him squirming stay in everyone's mind a little longer - even though her point was accurate. He didn't reject the Nation of Islam and all of its works. He denounced anti-Semitic statements, which is different. But I could already figure that out for myself.

I thought Pluto was gone, and now it's back, and they've added a NEW one! I'm so confused.

BTW, the better taxonomy mnemonic is Kings Play Chess On Fine-Grained Sand.