What exactly does "61 points" mean? What is the scale? Is it 61 points out of 100? 1000? 10000? That number could mean a lot, or it could mean nothing, just like all of the other numbers.

didn't they rename the "Busch series" a year or two ago? It's the Nationwide Series now. Gotta get those sinful businesses out of the titles. Just like Winston Cup became Sprint Cup.

say what you will about Soros, but he has apparently been smart enough to get as much of his money as possible out of dollars and into foreign currency.

I am interested to hear what comes out of this hearing too. I suppose there are enough rich people out there with enough cash that's looking for a home that all of the commodities speculation was inevitable. How do you stop it? Are we doomed to just keep seeing one bubble after another?

why would Bush even bother congratulating Obama? Is this customary? to congratulate the person who the other party chooses as its nominee?

we know there are going to be debates. I think a lot of people are already sick of the never-ending campaign though. Having 10 of these events would dilute the impact of each one and by the 10th one no one would be watching anymore.

but I do like the idea of the two of them debating on a single topic without "moderators" asking a bunch of stupid, nonsense questions.

if they could actually pull of the "civility" thing that might be good. But what would be better is Obama getting under McCain's skin and watching him melt-down.

Obama will definitely need to polish up his debate skills though. He didn't really come across all that well in many of the Dem debates.

I'm sure Obama is smart enough to know he has to reach out to her supporters. But I also think that they need to open their minds and meet him halfway or nearly halfway. Her supporters were just as dismissive of him as his were of her. Both sides have said things that weren't nice. And both sides need to show their adult sides rather than pouting like children or gloating like children.

My personal feeling is that a lot of the calls for her to quit and the reason why some members of the press and blogosphere were so hard on her was not because she is a woman. They were because she is Hillary Clinton. For whatever reason she has always rubbed some people the wrong way. That goes all the way back to her time in the Whitehouse. If it were any other woman I think it would have been a different story. Also, because she did build her "inevitability" for so long certainly members of the media wanted to bring her down and tell the story of her fall. It's the oldest story in American media. In my view she wasn't so much a victim of sexism as she was of anti-Hillary-ism. And many of the things she and her campaign said and did just fed into the image people had of her of being a relentless "say anything" exaggerator. If she had been a man doing the same thing she would have gotten just as much negative commentary. It's convenient for her to blame sexism rather than her own blunders.

no, I don't think it's ok to be sexist. But what I am saying is that her problem is that she is Hillary Clinton, not that she is a woman. She just bugs people. If she were a man she would still bug people.

you think we had hyperinflation, gas lines, high unemployment under Carter...just wait until we see how far we sink along those lines now thanks to Bush's policies. Unfortunately he may not get the scorn he deserves and it's likely that his successor will get saddled with these huge problems. Inflation is already going up all over the world. Unemployment is on the rise. Home values declining. The value of the dollar declining. Gas and oil prices rising with no end in sight. Our national debt in the 10s of trillions of dollars. Huge deficits. It just goes on and on.

this still doesn't really answer the "why?" part. Are the telecomms sending Steny bags full of $$$? The Dems got more praise when they showed some spine a few months ago. I think people really want to believe that SOMEONE is paying attention to the Constitution and not just looking to enrich themselves.

while the percentages may be small, in a close election it doesn't take much to move the electoral votes one way or the other. So, higher than usual youth vote for Obama will certainly help. As will an energized African American voting bloc.

maybe I am an old fogey, but I tried to watch "Hannah Takes the Stairs" at the Maryland Film Festival a couple of years ago. We had to leave after about 30 or so minutes. It was just so mind-numbingly BORING. And the improv acting was horrible. I hope they have improved some since then.

how do they KNOW how many miles are driven? I assume it is some sort of estimate but what is it based on? If it's based on the amount of gas sold then the numbers of people buying more fuel efficient cars would skew the results. Could the fewer miles be based on weather or some other factor?

I'm not sure I understand what we are being asked to donate money for. Is there anyone even running against Steny Hoyer? I would imagine that the primaries are long over and that he ran un-opposed in that process. And since that district pretty solidly in the D column I wonder if the GOP is even putting out token opposition. So, we can put an ad on every page of the Washington Post between now and election day it's not going to amount to anything other than paying Fred Hiatt's salary.