I thought Michelle's outfit looked like something out of the original Star Trek series, and that's cool. I didn't dig the green gloves tho.

Now Jill Biden looked like she was ready to go riding between the red jacket and the black boots (I know they were heels, but still the fox hunt-stringofpoloponies imagery was stark).

Barak looked smooth and polished with the maroon scarf and tie against the black coat. Then I noticed a secret service agent with the same colors and I kind of wondered if they coordinated with the President on purpose. Seems possible - like they were back up singers or something harhar

I can't even remember what Joe was wearing. Gotta work on that, Joe.

What my family found most interesting was Obama sort of forcing the GOP to agree with him over and over again - they had to applaud for the troops and responsibility and the CEO who shared his largess instead of keeping it all for his piggy self like all those Republicans would do. It was like the sales technique of getting your prospect agreeing with you and saying yes so that they will say yes when it comes time to close.

While some of us out here in the peanut gallery want him to just shut the 'Pukes out for the next 8 years, Obama is smarter than us. He is working on them long term, just as a salesman might a prospect, and he believes he is going to get them to buy in eventually.

I have always considered myself a liberal but when I read the letters section of Salon articles, I wonder what I am associating myself with. I saw nothing, nothing that made me think the author is a social climber, a gold digger, or greedy. Her family was crammed into a too small apartment. It was the boom when the lenders were handing out money like gumballs. She fell in with hundreds of thousands of others who also figured this was the way to have the things she wanted for herself and her family. Is it a crime to want things now - to want to improve your life?

I detect that a lot of the venom has to do with the fact that she's a New Yorker. I can tell a lot of letter writers aren't from the NY metro area because anyone here knows that Brooklyn IS considered a step down from Manhattan. It's not like she felt like she HAD to stay in some Upper East Side mega-condo. She's also talking about Carroll Gardens - a step down from the "finer" areas of Brooklyn like Park Slope. So all who are complaining about her living large - she was living pretty average.

Why don't we live in Georgia or Iowa or other places another writer termed as "flyover country"? Cause we'd be in the same predicament there. Yeah, a house may go for a song in the burbs of Des Moines, but you need a local job that pays enough to pay for that house, and jobs there are fewer and further between. And if you lose a good job in a place like that, you're screwed. In NY there are lots of opportunities. Ah, but this couple FREELANCES, you spit out as you froth at the mouth with ridiculous, misplaced rage. Yeah, but the editors she works with are HERE - and even freelancers meet with the client sometimes. They are much less likely to hire a lesser known writer in Des Moines than they are one in Brooklyn. That's just the way people are. And she likes it here - millions live here for a reason. Doesn't that count for something or is she supposed to live in Belarus simply cause you can get a house for $50 there?

I have been surprised several times in my life at what people outside NY think of us, and what they think we think of them. Maybe there are some prejudices going on with yourselves. Oh, and the one guy Crumb who keeps writing nasty missives in this section - I can tell you think you got screwed in a divorce and now you hate all women who dare to be divorced. You will be a much happier person if you let it go, I swear.

"Not only shouldn't you have a house I'm pretty sure you shouldn't have children."

Wow. A bit below the belt there fella. You should be ashamed.

I was a runaway teen. It wasn't about my mother - it was about me. Being gone meant I was under my own control. I didn't have to go to school where everyone spent every minute trying to make me conform. There were no chores, no orders, no arbitrary rules, just me and peace.

My mother tried the expensive therapists. They were such manipulable tools - all of them. They simply helped me manipulate her. She tried working with school officials. They were useless. I was going in the only direction I could go in. I was not built for their rules.

When I eventually got to college I was actually an "A" student much to everyone's surprise. That's because I was free - I wasn't anyone's zombie slave like I felt they wanted me to be in high school.

I work an office job now and I conform as I must to earn a living. I was not able to do that back then. I just wasn't. No one could have stopped me short of jail and I wasn't doing anything truly jail-worthy. I just couldn't follow the system. It was impossible for me.

Some people are just born independent.

Where you live ODing on heroin is a felony? Sounds like a sick way to kill junkies since they are likely to avoid treatment. I'm not sure I believe you.