Listening carefully to his special comment last night, I think Keith Olbermann emphasized death too much. I understand his logic and his rationale for that emphasis, but I think he missed the opportunity to highlight the fact that good health care for all can also reduce pain and suffering--regardless whether the patient dies or recovers.

Americans need to speak out even more directly against Bill O'Reilly and counter his polemics. It needs to be understood that he and others like him are poisoning the well of American politics. If that continues and intensifies, the country will implode. Most of all, we need rational policy debates, not rants.

With the possible exception of John Harwood and, maybe, Steve Liesman, what is particularly galling about all the anchors is their disdain for the very concept of government. They hate it. CNBC should be reminded at every opportunity that is was the PRIVATE SECTOR, not government, that got the world into this unparalleled mess. It was the greed, the illegality, the total lack of business ethics, the tax shirkers, the unrestrained corporations, who caused our present misery. Lest they forget.

While there is merit to assigning dollar values and other cold statistics to the national ruin brought on by the Bush administration, they do not tell the essential story. The authors mention the Constitution once in their account of the devastation, but I believe it is to that document that irreparable damage has been done. One might argue that we may eventually recover from some of the terrible losses and deficits detailed in the article, but whether we can ever recover the rule of law and other founding principles is, in my view, doubtful. It is important to remember that much of the damage done by Cheney and Bush is still secret and remains to be exposed.

Convincing as Greenwald's commentary about weak congressional leadership is, we should also remember that much of the damage done by the Cheney/Bush administration is still secret, and probably far more damaging than we know. Is the USG still functioning under "state of emergency" powers? In the event of another internal attack on the US, would new continuity of government policies come into force that would supplant the Constitution? Promising as a new Obama administration is, will the full range of abuses by the current administration ever be revealed?

I remember an article Walter Shapiro wrote for "Salon" four years ago which predicted a sure win for John Kerry. Perhaps the author's latest contribution is his way of compensating for that error. All we can do is work hard and smart for the next three weeks for an Obama victory. I cannot imagine a McCain-Palin presidency.

Strange as it may seem, the Baker-Hamilton report may have the temporary effect of minimizing the larger tragedy: Bush and the neocons' decision to invade Iraq in 2003. We must never forget or forgive that terrible, ignorant decision because it has changed America for the worse forever.