I will never understand the point of the so-called PUMAs who continue to rant like petulant children then wonder why their arses aren't kissed enough for trying to sandbag the election.

Republicans must love these useful idiots who would cut off their nose to spite their face.

I will never understand the point of the so-called PUMAs

All you have to do is listen to one of the vast majority of Barack Dukakis voters who vow they won't support Hillary Clinton after he loses the election.

We're just doing it first. The difference is the numbers showed our candidate could win.

Hence my comparison to petulant children whining because their favorite didn't make team captain. Hillary Clinton lost and her supporters aren't going to accomplish anything by stamping their tiny feet and throwing tantrums.

me-ouch.

I don't think Hillary only brings postives. I think she and Biden are about even as to their actual burdens. Hillary brings Bill and Biden brings his mouth.

Sure there are more things to consider than whether or not a veep boosts a candidates electability. If Obama is smart, he should be considering someone who complements him a bit and who could actually be president should the worst happen.

Well, we shall see by the time he is in Illinois tomorrow. I am not going to stay up all night waiting for some text message.

Let us all hope for the sake our nation that he chooses wisely. I think winning is wise.

Yes, I knew that sexism would be waiting to twist Michelle's image. Part of the problem is the "First Lady" job.

It sucks. Or at least much of it does. It is impossible to take the role and not be overshadowed by one's husband, have one's schedule almost utterly controlled, be entombed in the expectations of the role -- which require one act like some old-fashioned lady of good works while never being assertive enough to draw fire.

Now, any woman who has ever been a prominent club woman would tell us that being wimpy has nothing to do with getting things done. The first lady role is rather "Southern." Be sweet, well-groomed at all times, smile appropriately, act the hostess, display femininity and, when it can't be seen, rap knuckles mightily.

Hillary, feminist, was ill-suited to the role. She stands up pretty well to her powerful husband, doesn't she? Despite Bill's pecadillos, few people see their relationship as unequal -- and that is threatening to many people.

Yes, I think Michelle has been "hushed" a bit. As a black man, Obama bears even more risk if he appears "whipped."

Isn't it sad that our cultural expectations make our politicians twist themselves into such pretzels to fit the "Pleasantville" 1950s family dream?

Go back and watch that movie "Pleasantville." It makes some powerful statments about the power of sex and the rigidity of gender roles, but there are no black people that I recall in Pleasantville.

That's what the Obamas are up against.

Yes, I agree. But it's a team effort. We seem to be getting sucked into a little too much personality and not enough policy and party. That's usually how the dems lose.

I will put up with whatever the choice is (though Biden was my first choice, a long time ago last year in a galaxy far, far away).

McCain in office seems like an increasingly bad thing to let happen. Sorry all you 'McCain is not so bad and McCain will be weak types' out there.

I see whay you're saying, but this is a political convention, which is mostly like Mardi gras.

Do they need our votes? What happened to the vaunted independents? The Republicans are holding steady for McCain, and still these Obama devotees trash us. Do I hear women appointees to half the power positions, more research on women's health issues, day care? Clinton as vice president would be nice with some deference to her experience, brains, and integrity. Four women associates on the Supreme Court would be pleasant, many more appointed to the lower benches. Women can play hardball with the best of them.We learned it back in the sixties. Thanks for reminding us to get in the game.

I don't need it...I'm not running.

The idea here is to vote for the candidate who better represents your interests. PUMA is anathema to this.

Obama, that is

What happened to the independents? Right here. You're looking at one.

The reason that Obama supporters keep trashing Clinton supporters in nasty, infantilizing, or stereotypical terms is that so many of them like their sexism better than they like their candidate. They clutch that sexism to their chests because it makes the world comprehensible to them. Many of them want to take us back to a time when women had no political clout or shrank from using it. Clinton candidacy and the sexist way that she was treated changed all that.

I know some people voted for Obama in part because he is black and because they saw the historical importance of breaking that barrier. I don't blame them for that. Yet many Obama supporters have refused to see that the desire to have a woman in the presidency is every bit as legitimate, because they see the goals and the dreams and the future of women as less legitimate.

Discuss sexism and you are dismissed. Discuss racism and liberals at least will at least give your viewpoint a listen.

I didn't actually vote for Clinton because she was a woman. Instead, I was avid for that health care plan. However, over the course of the election, the sexism of some so-called liberal Obama supporters changed my view of the liberal/progressive paradigm. If there is no room for feminism as an important progressive value in the Democatic Party, I am willing to take my support elsewhere.

Obama supporters would like to know what they can do to win over Clinton supporters who are not in Obama's column. The answer is actually simpler than they might like to hear: Acknowledge the sexism. Most of them won't do that. They cling to their sexism the way those "hillbillies" cling to religion and guns.