You may have the wrong idea about caucuses. So many people are showing up that there is really no way to conduct any types of discussion whatsoever. Our Kansas caucus wound up being a very ad hoc paper ballot. Obama won by a large margin in Kansas because of all the independents and former Republicans showing up, changing their party affiliation on the spot, and voting for him.

what a great letter - I had a similar experience and I am a

cynic - kind of reformed now!

It's a good sign that so many people from outside the traditional democratic party base were persuaded to vote in our primary instead of choosing between McCain, Huckabee and Paul on the right. The right-wing pundits have grossly underestimated dissatisfaction with the current president and his policies. However, I really don't think most of those voters would have ever proppelled themselves out of their homes to vote for HRC.

Hillary Clinton is the most divisive, polarizing, mean spirited, nasty politician our country has seen since Richard Nixon. If you want revenge against the Republicans and bitter partisanship in Congress, vote for her. Revenge and bitterness will take you only so far and will not solve any of the problems our nation faces. However, if you want a candidate who will reach across the aisle and get meaningful legislation passed to solve our nations problems with health care, the environment, the economy, immigration, and restore our nations values by improving our foreign policy and no longer making America a pariah in the world you have but one choice: Barack Obama. It's very simple: if you want divisiveness and polarization choose Hillary Clinton, if you prefer our leadership working together to solve our nations problems choose Barack Obama.

I am glad that mjkoch likes Obama, because I like Obama. But on a hunch, I decided to click to "read mjkoch's other letters."

Not pretty.

How about only real people contribute to the forums? Not paid shills? Okay?

The U.S. has been in the grip of delusional thinking for the last 7+ years, as exemplified by this comment:

"Hillary Clinton is the most divisive, polarizing, mean spirited, nasty politician our country has seen since Richard Nixon."

That anyone could say this after almost two full terms of Bush/Cheney and everything they have spawned shows the country has become unhinged. I don't respect Clinton any more, but comparing her to Nixon is bizarre in the extreme.

True, Hillary is getting a pounding. But to use a boxing phrase, she can simply employ a rope-a-dope. Yes, she may lost a few primaries now, but with Obama getting overconfident, it allows her to make a comeback later. (Much like her husband the "Comeback Kid" himself.) That being said, it still comes down to both candidates having too many flaws to take down McCain. If Hillary comes back, it'll be a TKO for McCain.

Three things jumped out at me in Mr. Shapiro's piece. First, HR Clinton...

"you will never have to worry that I will be knocked out of the ring because I do have the strength and experience to lead this country. I am ready to go toe-to-toe with Senator McCain whenever and wherever he desires."

I've seen the boxing metaphors appearing a lot lately in Clinton's rhetoric, and those of her handlers. Nice image, cue up "Eye of the Tiger" by the aptly-named Survivor -- but I think she's already on the ropes, her cutmen have worked on both of her eyes to deal with the swelling, and she's nearly punched out, legs buckling. She may yet manage a final-round haymaker, but we'll see.

"Can you imagine how far we have come for a J-J dinner to have two personages -- Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- and that one of them will be president of the United States?"

I had to laugh, reading NYT's Sunday paper this morning, seeing this great editorial cartoon by Pat Shiplett, showing Clinton, Obama, and McCain each in a panel, swearing their oaths: "A Woman, an African American, or a guy who won't torture people. Not bad." Brilliant cartoon, and really points to the rotten position of the GOP, that even their most electable (?) candidate is way, way outside of the mainstream in his policy, and alienated within his own party (their ideal, I presume, would be a guy who will torture people, or maybe move from Torture Lite to full-bodied Torture served in frosty tallboys.)

Obama said, "It's a choice between debating John McCain about who has the most experience in Washington, or debating him about who's most likely to change Washington. Because that's a debate we can win."

And finally, as ever, Obama's on target. He's right that McCain, bad as he is, wins in the ring against Clinton's flaccid debating points -- McCain's got a killer right cross that Clinton just can't match. She can't out right-wing McCain, no matter how hard she tries, just as McCain can't possibly argue that he's the candidate for change, given his 100 years in Iraq and make the Bush tax cuts permanent plan of action. Obama wins, and not by decision, either. Obama wins by a knockout.

please stop posting - you are doing a lot of damage to Obama!

Obama gets independent and former Republican support that Clinton can never get. It's why Obama is winning big in red states, and if he's the nominee, it really bodes well for the general election.

MJ Koch has to be a Republican pretending to be an Obama supporter. The sheer level of viciousness, hostility, and anger leveled against Hillary by some of these Obama supporters makes me very suspicious. As to the woman saying how great it was that Republicans and Independents were voting in a Democratic primary - you are incredibly niave.

Obama/Feinstein in 2008

"naive?" I think not. The fact is that people, lots of different kinds of people LIKE Obama. They like how he speaks, they like his background, they like his family...and yes, they really like his talk about bringing change to our bitterly divided and do-nothing political process.

I think you also deeply underestimate the people who gave Dubya a chance in 2000 and then let him slide in '04 due to 9/11. That old trick isn't playing anymore in case you didn't notice Rudy's plummet in the GOP race. However, they are not rallying to Hillary. Too many bad memories there.