You can't win on issues policies or going after obama. All your left with is radnom acquaintances. Sad and pathetic. Funny I don't see reporters following around pat robertson or hagee or any right wingers. only the black guy.

I guess the other politicans have enough issues amougnst themselves and acquaintances are of no consequence. That's for the white guys.

you show your fascsit propogandist face joan.

I hope the american people are smarter than you right-wing propoganidsts give them credit for. I sure hope the issues and feeding teh family take presidence over what some random acquaintance, of one canidate said or feels. You are opening up pandora's box gop. Get ready for the same standard you apply to barack to be applied to everyone. This is nto a one time take-down of barack. You can't release the devil, gop, then put him back in the box.

Your a joke gop. your gossip and heresay belongs in us weekly joan. If this is all you got, for months on end, you republcains are worse off than I thought. this is all you fascsits got? seriously? wow. for all your power all you fascsits got is what his pastor said? wow. we're on better ground than i thought. John mccain doesn't stand a chance against obama if this is all they got for months on end

Joan, that anyone would be 'profoundly disturbed' by the Moyers-Wright interview is unbelievable. Reverend Wright was extra-ordinary in his articulation of his role and why he is what he is. PLEASE DON'T TELL ME that if you suffered the daily angst of racism, which is prevalent wherever you go, you wouldn't share his (and other black's) anger and frustration with the 'white American' government. I agreed with almost everything he said. September 11th was 'America's chickens' coming home to rest. The 'white American' government did nuke millions of innocent Japanese civilians; it did enslave its Native American (Indian) population; it did support slavery for its African-American citizens; it did kill thousands of others in many other circumstances; almost always in the name of freedom. I have always enjoyed your commentary even though I sometimes disagreed. But.....this one leads me to believe that you are so hung up on sexism - real or imagined - that you can't see how pervasive racism is. And, it profoundly disturbs me!

I think there's only one real response to what we've been seeing in Salon lately.

I'm cancelling my subscription. How about you? Haven't they insulted your intelligence enough--not with their support of HRC, but with the fact that, like Fox News, they claim they're "fair and balanced?"

Cheers!

Here's the thing. I'm at a point right now where my liberalism is being seriously tested.

To me, liberalism is premised on the fact that common ground can always be found and that this can be done through the cultivation of empathy for the other.

So for instance, an extreme liberal view, responding to 911, would attempt to place him or herself in the position of the hijackers, imagine their culture, their world, their language, their religion, everything. In a word, their "nurture."

The next step would be to ask oneself what it would take to become one of those hijackers and to ask whether the difference between us and them is situational, ethical, or some combination of the two, and in what proportion.

A liberal does not forgo this imaginative exercise by resorting to facile superstition ("They hate our freedom!) and facile, often disproportionate indignation.

The keynote is empathy. In order for liberalism to work, that empathy has to be stretched to the breaking point and beyond, it has to be expansive. It cannot be selective, otherwise it doesn't work.

One reason for this is that liberalism is premised on the belief that, by controlling the conditions of life, one can control (to some degree) outbursts of violence, war, etc. This is why liberals are committed to justice: they believe that in a just world, people basically won't want to cut one another's throats.

Now, the reason I say my own liberalism is now challenged is because I feel like the critiques that have been leveled here are so clear (whether you agree with them or not) that to fail to see their merit is nothing but willful myopia.

So we're at an impasse. The impasse Obama talks about.

We can't even get "one of our own" to try to step outside of her box and expand her mind.

What's the next step, then? When persuasion fails, naked power.

This is what Clinton offers. I certainly see the appeal, but I can't, in good conscience, be taken in by it.

There must be a better way.

clinton already lost, joan. No amount o f"wondering about" obama's pastor is going to save yoru candidate.

She is done. Clinton already lost. You are sabotaging the democratic party now, joan and her cohorts, not obama or his supporters. Tell rush and hannity I said f-u, next time they are giving you propogandists nazi's your marching orders.

I'm out. this site is a waste of time. A joan and her republcain propogandists are never interested in change or facts. Jsut destruction. Jsut divide and conquer. I can't call you republcains?

Peace.

in the Obama legions...Reality is sometimes ugly...Obama would do well to accept the position of associate preacher at Trinity...Michelle can stay where she is...Fleecing poor mostly Black people at her "not for profit" hospital (That in the last 2 years will makhas made close to $150 million) while overcharging minorites without insurance...

Thank you! Nice job, your posts were eloquent and well thought-out. Indeed, it makes me wonder: what is America's problem, after all. This whole affair is ludicrous. White America discovers, once again, that black America is a tad angry. Horrors! Who would have thought--but how could they possibly--America the great--stop telling us about it!

You reminded me of Pat Robertson bitching about African-Americans' lack of gratitude... for food stamps.

I must agree with a previous poster: aside from Glenn Greenwald's blog (which I now have bookmarked) I am now spending less and less time on Salon. I used to come here because I could find news stories that took a different tack than the MSM. Because there was actual news, instead of empty talk. Because the writers were intelligent and really thought about their columns before committing words to print (or screen, whatever). These days? Not so much.