After reading the article, I was feeling really down, as a white, middle-class Obama supporter. Then I read some of the letters here and I had a revelation! All of us, especially the candidate himself have to stop sweating the lies, distortions and racism (yes, it's there.) The poster who wrote about Harold Ford was absolutely dead on. Obama goes to these small towns, looks the hardest bit redneck in town and asks for his vote! Don't write off ANY vote - despite being "called" whatever. Some people honestly don't know that it's hurtful, their world image is so small. Don't write them off! It's hard for us to imagine, but my mother in law, who wouldn't hurt a flea or wish harm on ANY man, still calls black people "coloreds". Don't just stick to the black middle class or us latte-and-arugula white folks. Get in there, Barak and get dirty. Take off the white shirt/black pants, buy yourself some Levis and take it TO them. They don't know that they want you, but many of them do. Quality people are in every price range and locality, no matter how unlikely. Iowaweegens (Nebraska-talk) proved it to you, Barak! Head into the industrial and rural wilderness and you will be free!

The characteristically angry, "Hate America", Michelle Obama experienced a Hollywood makeover for her DNC convention speech that will beguile the "willing dupes" in the electorate. You could almost see her gag when she had to recite Obama's handler's line about "loving her country." But, her previous well-publicized radical associations; and, her multiple attempts to trash our Nation, will betray her scripted persona. It was a foregone conclusion that the Obama handlers would have Michelle with a smile-cast to cover-up her normally angry countenance, and chain-locked to the teleprompter with their carefully scripted commentary so as to obscure the prospective 1st lady's deeply angry disposition towards America. What a tragic example for our children; what a disastrous blow to societal cohesion at home; what a disconcerting message to our friends and allies; and, what a comforting message to our fanatical opponents abroad; to see a woman who has expressed her beliefs that: "our souls are broken in this nation"; "blacks must join in solidarity to combat a white oppressor"; "we're a country that is just downright mean."; "We're a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents."; "America is guided by fear, and getting worse all the time."; and, laments that she will face, "further integration and/or assimilation into a white culture and social structure"; to have a potential opportunity to secure the White House itself as the platform for her hate-filled dictum. And, of note to practicing Christians in our society, is Michelle's pledge that: "Barack will be tireless in keeping legal the practice of partial birth abortions". All of this from a woman who has benefited enormously from affirmative actions which she conveniently neglected to mention in the convention speech! Along with her husband's long-term subversive associations, his immersion in seditious anti-American diatribe; and, his recent proclamation: "I don't want that (referring to America in its current form) for my little girls.", has indeed revealed the Obamas as the real-life Manchurian Couple; and, certainly explains Obama's proclamation: "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as the military." The program that Obama has referred to is "Public Allies", which consists of government-funded reeducation camps where Amercan youth are brainwashed into thinking "America is a racist, oppressive place in need of social change." Greg Neubeck

The real experience societies have had with collectivism and redistribution over the past 100 years hasn't just been disappointing. How many tens of millions of real human beings have been mowed down, starved, enslaved in the name of the collective good?

This dreamed up rubbish hasn't worked - NOT because there were not enough people who had enough hope. It hasn't worked and has caused so much devastation because the demands of collectivism are out of whack with human nature. Barrack's ideas won't work if enough of us have enough hope. That is wishful thinking. Hoping is not a realistic foundation for any society, especially when any normal, smart human being could just take a look at the anger and hatred right here on this site, and see that the kind of society Obama wants to organize would require brute force.

LBJ's War on Poverty and his Great Society did not work. Jimmah Cahtah's magnificant plans did not work. Actually, the real consequences of their failed policies made things far worse. We continued to have legions of illiterates dropping out of high schools by the tens of thousands each year.

And, inspite of all that failure, and inspite of all that corruption (most glaringly in Cook County, Illinois where Barrack has his roots), now you somehow believe that this time it will work. What makes you believe or even HOPE that, this time, all of this discredited by real experience rubbish would work? Is Obama so mesmerizing a leader that he would hypmotize the population into suddenly acting like good little cogs in his dreamed up big machine?

That's why I mentioned Moscow. That's why in a moment of candor, Mao acknowledged the final authority which comes from a gun barrel. Only brute force can make people obey. Barrack's pals, Dohrn and Ayers undestand this perfectly, and so would he if he came to feel that his wonderful ends would let us say justify some temporary suspension of traditional process.

When you talk about the great unwashed who do not understand how Barrack O is really looking out for their interests, you are terribly mistaken. Inspite of your degrees, they understand our best interests far better than you.

The red-blue split is largely explained by geography - not culture. Might it be that Obama's urban liberal platform doesn't take into account rural folks' different political preferences when it comes to taxes, national defense, and social policy?

The real problem for Obama and the Democrats is articulated in this article from London's Financial Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f1984d88-7cd5-11dd-8d59-000077b07658.html