Ladies and Gentlemen, direct from the Algonquin Round Table, please welcome, Salon poster, Carol Richards! Once again our Carol has used her wit and delicate biting satire to make her points about Joan Walsh. Carol doesn't insult our intelligence by saying things overtly and direclty (that's no fun, anyway). C.R. will draw you in and if you get the joke, you know what I mean. If you take the bait and are exposed as a partisan hater, we'll, we just can't explain it to you. You probably wouldn't undertsand anyway.

And Carol's not just candy for the smarter-than-thou Obama crowd, she's a legitimate genius. She teaches us why we can't vote for Clinton and she unmasks all the weak failed pretensions of nuetrality of Salon's Clinton-backing columnists. Sure some well-meaning people are made foolish and stupid along the way, but that's not as important as holding up a mirror up to those misguided blunt-edged pseudo-Republicans. Carol's not saying that the Clintonistas are dumber (the beauty of it is is that she's not saying anything, capeche?), it's just that we Obama supporters are a bit more perceptive and have the ability to understand nuance, that's all.

Joan, you might have the political impact of the Jeremiah Wright uproar more or less correct, but you just don't get the fundamental reality that, as Wright said, "I am a pastor." Wright was preaching at a worship service at a large black church in the mainstream Congregational (now the United Church of Christ) tradition of justice and the judgment of God upon injustice. These sermons have only now become "political". You make no mention of the part of the interview in which Moyers asked about where was the "hope". Wright pointed out that there is and must always be hope that injustice can be overcome, that hatred can be cast out by love. This is the gospel that Wright preaches. Let's not forget that Barack's book title and theme, "the audacity of hope" was inspired by a Wright sermon on that very theme. You also missed the very biblical source of Wright's preaching after 9/11 from Psalm 137. He is warning the congregation against the kind of rage and revenge that the psalmist expresses against the Babylonian captivity in which he says: "Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock." "Don't go there," preached Wright, "don't go there." We did go there, sadly.

I write as a long time lefty Democrat, a very senior citizen, an Obama supporter, and a long time member of a UCC church, Wright's and Obama's denomination. We are a predominantly white congregation so our white pastor doesn't preach as much about the things that God damns, which must resonate much more deeply in those whose forebears were enslaved, but we are a denomination committed to oppose injustice and exclusion from the gifts of God.

Wright's preaching is in the same prophetic mode as Dr. King. Wright pointed out how much King was vilified when he took on the Vietnam War as an American sin. It is well nigh impossible for politicians running for office to speak unadulterated truth to power, especially the kind of truth that questions American exceptionality. But that is a pastor's job to remind us that we worship God, not the nation, and that we will be judged by God. In our faith community this notion bears no relationship to Pastor Hagee's theology (a McCain endorsee) in which he claims that God sent Hurricane Katrina in retribution for a gay pride march.

We are being judged now as a nation for invading Iraq and "dashing the little ones against the rock", literally and figuratively. The judgment of God is simply the sinful mess we are in and out of which we hope to find our way with a new and different government. Wright's theology suggests that no leader will be purely good and righteous, nor avoid possibly grave mistakes, but at least Obama embodies a degree of hopefulness for genuine change in the direction of a more just and wise government than any other candidate. Moreover, I have to believe that Obama's faith has been nurtured by Wright and Trinity Church in a way that reflects positively on the politician he has become.

Wright is only a political liability because Americans don't like to be told hard truths about their own complicity in national sins. Forget the native Americans and slavery for a moment. Just think about what we have done to Iraq and that we have elected a government that sanctions torture on behalf of our personal security. That's the sort of thing Wright rails against when he preaches to his black congregation. Get over it!!

Re Michelle - I guess you didn't read about Michelle's Princeton roommate from the South whose Mother marched over to a school official and demanded a new -- white -- roommate for her "flower of the South -- as soon the the Mom found out about Michelle's race.

And I guess you never have never dealt with the kind of "backhanded, quiet" racism that is rampant -- even in "liberal" institutions and settings?

Can you even begin to guess what it must have been like for 18 year old scholarship/loan student Michelle to arrive at a nearly all-white bastion of privilege like Princeton -- one of 6 children of a working class family from the South Side of Chicago?

Perhaps young Michelle wasn't discerning enough to be able to see that race AND class contributed to her discomfort but I hardly think you could blame her thinking it was more about her race! As an Hispanic who looks "white," I was constantly told I couldn't be "Mexican-American" but I sure as heck knew the rich kids saw me as lower-class at the Public Ivy I attended -- especially after they found out I went to Community College and transferred in. Gasp! And these were rich kids who hadn't even gotten in to Princeton.

The affinity between those who have been treated badly because of race and class is something Obama recognizes and something he plans to work on in office. THIS should be an issue working class voters care about; not some stupid argument about whether Obama is "patriotic enough," or whether his wife is too elitist and snobby.

I am SICK to death of people who make judgments about "what other people have been through." Read Michelle's paper and learn what she went through, dimwit! It might be tinged with some of the angst and melodrama of youth but it is what she felt at the time. Maybe you will learn something instead of just looking for ideas that echo the few ideas you already have in floating around in your brain.

PS: to give Michelle's roommate credit, she stayed and although they were good friends, things seemed to go OK.