... is because the Clintons assumed Bill could just appoint Hillary to a job in the white house (health care reform) and she could just do it. And that everyone would think she's wonderful just because he did.

Whether or not she was capable and competent, it smacks of nepotism. As we all know, the move stunk. Not because Hillary was a woman, but because she wasn't an elected official, and because it sure didn't look like she got what she got from her own merits. She got that mess of health care reform because she was Bill's wife. Bad move.

Mrs. Obama shows a whole lot more sense and savvy than Bill and Hillary did. She is not an elected official, and has never held a position in government. She does have an important job to do, making sure her kids settle in well to their new life in the national fishbowl. That's huge, and can affect their lives for a good long time. I think Michelle will do an admirable job.

After the kids settle, who knows? The world is her oyster. There are hospitals in DC. She could work in one of them. She could start a foundation. She's made noises about helping working women and families. I fully expect that she will do something other than attend official functions on Barack's arm.

She is absolutely right to take the focus off herself for now, and she's done it perfectly. We didn't elect Michelle. She suspended her career to help her husband's campaign. She's moving her kids across country. This is not news. I fully expect that she will do something with her time. But she won't make the mistake of taking a quasi-appointed/invented position in her husband's administration like Hillary did.

"Focus on the Family is on the wrong side of history."

Excellent. Couldn't agree more. In another few years, being against gay marriage is going to seem as antiquated and wrongheaded as being against inter-racial marriage. It will be a non-issue, ardently supported by a few backward-looking grandparents here and there.

Where in hell are all these unemployed people going to go? What are they going to do with themselves? We like to sit around and say "retraining" but no one wants to fund it.

Rather than having all those unemployed people going into cardiac arrest worried about paying the rent and eating, what about some serious funding for financial aid, student loans, and community college staff/infrastructure? Community college is one of the best deals around, if you can get in.

In my city, not only is community college nursing school incredibly competitive to get into (due to lack of space, labs, faculty, etc.), the competition to get into the pre-nursing classes is tremendous. Anatomy and Physiology is a three-term series required for admission to nursing school. It's absolute hell just to get in, with wait lists in the hundreds. It's the same with other skilled trades (welding, electrician, IT technician, etc). The wait lists are long and getting longer.

So since we're talking economy, bailouts, and unemployment, let's talk retraining. How are all these laid-off people going to do a midlife career switch into anything else? They'll use the cheapest and most underfunded option: community college. The trouble is, everyone else will be too.

Can't do that, because US bankruptcy laws specifically don't allow re-negotiating home mortgage terms.

... is a crock.

Look around your average fundie church, of any stripe. No matter how loudly they may preach about IUDs and the pill being "abortifacants" or whatever the word is... how many of those families sitting in the pews have two or three children (and NOT nine or ten)?

How many women and men in conservative churches across the country use birth control, have had vasectomies or tubals, and are in control of their own fertility? Yet they still preach the old tripe about "Every sperm is sacred" straight out of Monty Python.

I grew up as a Catholic. I can think of two or three enormous, 10-child families. All the rest were like mine, with two or three kids. And those 10-child families? Almost all from my recollection were doctor's families who could afford to have that many kids.

The pro-reality folks need to look no further than the families in their own congregation to see examples of responsible procreation. Then make sure those options are open to everyone. Those two-child families didn't happen by accident. And they probably didn't happen by abstinence either.

What I'd like to see the Obama administration do is fully fund public health offices in all counties, cities, and states, so everyone, everywhere, has cheap, easy, private, and safe access to birth control.