It looks like I really got on your nerves there, Gloria. Thanks for that public display of the poison puss that eats you from within.

I just need to rebut one of your lies though. There are many more people who write letters telling me they like my posts, than those who write to complain. And those who do write to complain are usually doing so because the truth hurts them. The day that JW and the other editors at Salon tell me to scale back, or quit, I'm gone. I have more support among them than you'll ever know.

Too bad for you.

Yeah, now here are the REAL women who epitomize the very essence of choices and freedom that Oprah must've been talking about! One is stupid enough to marry a Republican, the very sexist Arnold, and the others stay, or stayed, with philandering husbands because they can't defy another guy: The Pope. Whoa! Except for Caroline. And hey, she all but admitted that at the age of 50 she should "finally do something." Oh, okay. And I shaved my legs for THIS?

New Obama is Old Obama.

Say what?

Now, why would the woman who has made a gazzillion dollars off of women act so damn shocked and angry when women express their disappointment in her choice for President of the United States. After all, we can always back a man for President of the United States, can't we? Oh, hell, yes we can. And if Oprah has her way, that's exactly what our choice will be this November: Two guys. Let me get this straight: Oprah says it's okay for women to be free to vote for a man -just like her?

Well, hey, Girlfriend, get over yourself. Don't start preaching to the rest of us that we are free to make to make our own choices and then blast those who are choosing a woman over yet another guy. And we all know that little piece of crap came straight from the Obama strategy playbook too.

Wow! The Obama campaign gets real ugly real fast when things don't go their way. Hmmm.

[I appreciate 'domini's' letter, above my above letter; it echoes my own experience.]

I am writing these after Super Tuesday is over, so they both reflect my impressions of the rally in light of the poor Obama votes in California.

Some notes on Maria Shriver's showing up at the Obama rally:

I felt moved, at first; this was brave of her in face of her husband's backing of McCain -- very brave. It was even an excellent model of 'first lady'. Would that Laura Bush, or Hillary, had been brave enough to speak out against some of their husbands' wrong decisions. What if Hillary had spoken against Bill's leaving out child care for single parents' being kicked off welfare and being made to work two or three ill-paying jobs, leaving their children with poor care-givers, or worse? (Is this 'experience', this total lack of public critiquing bad decisions, what Hillary means when she includes it in her 35 years of experience? Her friend, Marian Wright Edelman's husband, who worked in the Clinton administration, quit his job over this. Some people have principles. And I won't even go into: What if Laura had threatened to leave George if he made war on Iraq as she did over his drinking. So Maria Shriver's showing up was courageous and welcome.

But as she talked she gave an impression of privilege and class, announcing that she made her decision to come at her daughter's riding event; in fact, that she was wearing her 'riding event clothes'. She went on to patronize rather than to join the audience, leading them all in 'moments of your life -- close your eyes' -- 'this is such a moment'. This could be effective if it weren't presumptuous: How is she a leader? Who thinks she is? The lack of Latina women at the rally (to speak of or to be seen), as well as the lack of Latino men, juxtaposed with the white woman, Shriver, condescending to come down to talk down to people was not just the right note -- what had been an inspiring experience became, for me, a bad taste in my mouth, and left me irritable.

She alluded to being scared to be there speaking out, and I believe her; but it didn't quite balance out her too-long talk, evoking her class, presuming to 'teach' people she didn't really know and who didn't know her. An endorsement would have been powerful, and enough.

This is an accurate description of the Rally. I watched it on C-Span, after beginning it on CNN. I missed the Latina women completely. So I had the impression that no Latinas were present and thought that was a major lack. The organizers would have done well to name the Latinas during the others' speeches, put them up front where we -- and Latinos/as in the tv audience -- could see them, and mentioned the women's names a couple more times. They only mentioned 'Maria' once or twice in the hour I watched. This may be one reason Obama lost with Latinos/as.

Further, people like Delores Huerta, a hero in fact, went around last week for Clinton and said, a number of times in one interview (KPCC) that Hillary is 'a family woman, part of a family' and that Latinas appreciate that. This seems to be a certain embellishment of the truth; she said it at least three times and made sure people heard it.

It is just one more incident of how people 'vote against their best interests' when Latinos/Latinas vote for Clinton. She said recently that she doesn't believe undocumented people should have driver's licenses; Obama does believe they should. He said, 'there is even the reason that it is dangerous not to have everyone who drives having a license; we don't want people to hit and run because they are afraid to be arrested, or deported.' In fact, one basic reason no one uses to back up undocumenteds having licenses is that 'the reason for a driver's license, the only reason, is that drivers have to learn the rules of driving and be tested on the road to see if they can drive a car safely.' Any other reason, such as using a driver's license as identification is incidental. It is certainly not 'a privilege', as Clinton said last week in the debate. It is a responsibility. Everyone who drives needs to get a license in order that other people can feel safe enough to know that other drivers have been tested as to rules and driving ability.