I thought the level of discourse aimed at by the moderators was perfect for Sen. Clinton; she gets to play a game she knows all the rules to.

Sen. Obama refused to play. He openly, repeatedly, eloquently (mostly) addressed all the gotcha questions directly, and briefly and then called the questioners on playing a tired game that doesn't serve the nation. He even went to bat for Hillary at one point!

Of course there were no fireworks. He defused every bomb thrown at him as he has for months. He'll have no problem with the wingnuts!

The concept itself doesn't surprise me as a modern art installation. This sort of voyeuristic, self-referential, body-fluid-heavy "art" has been around for some time.

What doesn't fly with me is the execution. As others have noted she claims she artificially inseminated herself several times? With multiple donors? Was this done via hand-job and manual application in her apartment, or did the guys freeze the samples themselves and deliver to her? Can a mini-fridge freezer even freeze the stuff properly to ensure its efficacy. And the prescription issue is the most unlikely!

Something doesn't smell right, and it's not just the installation!

Wow. You have created a remarkable text rendering of why we Obama supporters are so fed up with so many of you Clinton supporters.

Hit caps lock, my friend. Joe's great, no doubt, but you undermine your credibility by "screaming" at us all here in this forum.

Ms. Walsh, if you took what you referred to as Obama's "irritation" as something petty and immature, then--and I hate to say it--then you, Ms. Editor of Salon.com are as guilty of MSM tunnel-vision as the rest of them (see Greenwald's latest posts if you'd like more examples)!

As far as I can tell, from reading these threads as well as many others and in talking with my friends and colleagues, we're all pretty effing "irritated" with the state of modern campaigns; and we're especially irritated with what passes for journalism and public discourse! Obama is expressing something felt by, I would guess, a sizable majority of the American people.

When someone is behaving like a moron--in this case, behaving in a manner that doesn't serve one's position of authority, or doesn't fulfill one's public obligation--pretending that that individual is NOT a moron is called enabling. It leads to dysfunctional releationships. The grown-up thing to do is to call that person out in a responsible manner. Obama was not rude; he was not dismissive. He responded directly and clearly and then he expressed what all the rest of us were thinking (even the MSM was thinking this if you notice how they describe the FACTS of the debate!): Gibson, Stephanoplous, you're doing this country a monumental disservice.

How the hell could you not be irritated, Joan. I've been a big supporter of yours these past few years; I've loved that you've become a regular talking-head on cable. But, that studio chair is a cushy gig in your world. Perhaps you're not immune to the insider curse? Because your current post betrays a willingness to play the media-game with the narrow, broken framework that has been damaging this nation for decades. Your arguments against Obama and his campaign also betray this on a nearly daily basis.

It isn't that you shouldn't support Hillary, obviously that's your right. It's that the "issues" you continue to choose to focus on are the issues that are most insider, most wonkish, most horserace-y (?!), ultimately issues that won't decide diddly.

I'm a longtime political junkie, and this same old stuff has entertained me cycle after cycle. But that's all it is, Joan: entertainment. I get that this time around. Thank God!

Right now it's costing me about $10 a day for gas to get my kids where they need to go, get the things we need, do the work I need to do. That's about $200 a month more than it cost me a year ago. A year ago I didn't have an extra $200 a month lying around. You know what? I still don't.

I don't give a flying-rat's-ass that Obama appeared pissed off. I want to know why he WAS pissed off, and if he might be justified in feeling pissed off, and if his justification might be somewhat akin to the anger I feel when I look at my government and my message-bearers and the price of gas and the price of the other basic necessities. Does Obama's pissed off feel like my pissed off?

Guess what, Joan? It does. It feels one hell of a lot like the kind of anger I've been expressing to my friends and family and colleagues for many years now. It sounds exactly like it! And for once in my life a politician is not mincing words--not playing the game--and says exactly what's on the minds of the hundreds of millions of Americans who have absolutely no stake in the game the way it's being played.

I'm sorry, but I don't think Hillary is fed up with the rules. I think she's resigned to the rules. She's not going to change the rules; they serve her. I'm sorry to have to say that, but I can't believe it isn't true.

Of the three candidates, Obama is the only one who stands a snowball's chance of making any serious, rather than symbolic, changes in how our nation does business.