I agree, Joan, he isn't a racist. He is a politician who couldn't resist dissing the man running against his wife, a dis that involved race. There's a difference, but in the real world, as well as in the conscience of an upright man, so what?

I've spent the last eight years wishing, every time the incumbent president opened his mouth, we had Bill back. He's maybe the smartest president of the post-FDR era, when in power he was certainly affable and photogenic, but, alas, he is not entirely an upright man. His overweening ego gets in the way often, on many fronts.

And from Obama's point of view, I would see a man I don't want as an enemy. I'm not sure I'd want him as a friend, but I definitely wouldn't want him as an enemy.

I'm not so sure that the Democratic Party can really come together after this primary season. Charging the Clinton's with race-baiting was the ugliest dirty trick of the campaign.

After Rep. Jim Clyburn injected his poison into the primaries there was no going back.

Too many black people willingly embraced the poison so they could claim they had a reason to desert old friends and allies.

I don't know how Bill Clinton can stay in Harlem, knowing that so many of his neighbors now despise him.

That element of the campaign is the one I can't forget or forgive. Maybe Bill and Hillary Clinton can, but I can't.

Too many top Democrats played that card, Kennedy, Leahy, Donna Brazile, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Bill Richardson, etc.

I left the Democratic Party in July, and I don't regret it.

The party has disgraced itself as spineless, brainless, and now as ruthless toward its own.

Of course, as usual, I expect you will take a lot of heat for this article from the usual lunatic fringe of Obama suppoters.

It's getting a lot harder to take your commentary seriously, Joan.

Fortunately I'm out of it; I opposed Hillary from the beginning, and Obama lost my vote with his FISA/amnesty flip-flop. Obama, Hillary, and Bill are all cut from the same cloth as far as I'm concerned.

None of them will provide the honest, resolute leadership that this country desperately needs. And so America continues its slide into the abyss.

Joan, you need to get over this Hillary thing. Inventing strawmen doesn't exactly enhance your credibility ("menopausal cranky freaks"? Do you really expect anyone to believe that sort of talk represents anything but the most marginal fringe element, if it wasn’t actually a deliberate plant by some dead-ender Hillary supporter trying justify that cynical sexism claim?). Arch references to the "N" word are simply precious, and I don't mean that in a good way. And deliberately missing the point - like it or not, the Clintons did use some covert racial language, even though they're not racists themselves and nobody said they were – well, that just makes you seem willfully obtuse.

If anyone really cares whether or not Bill Clinton gets to speak at the Democratic convention, they seriously need to get a life. Bill's a big boy. He gets millions from big corporations and his ultra-rich buddies to speak at functions every year, while we in the middle and lower classes are getting more desperate every year. Bill’s feelings are hurt, yes; but Joan, he's not your son or your father. You don't need to protect him. You’re a pundit, not Bill Clinton’s nanny.

It's really long past time for America - including the American media, and that means you, Joan! - to drop these phony "issues" and start addressing issues that matter. Issues such as catastrophic climate change, the conversion of the American economy and transportation network to a post-oil world, and how we're going to deal with the increasingly nationalistic and dangerous Chinese government in the coming century.

Come on, Joan. Cut the crap.

I knew you were being coy! Plus Hillary came in second. Your anger had nothing to do with her role at the convention. She'd have had it even if she hadn't run in the first place.

Salon's editor doubles as a gossip columnist.

Save that of my immediate family and friends

Who are all various human beings of color

I think if you engaged with them in a chat over politics

And current affairs

And the central topic came 'round to Bill Clinton

Not one disparaging would would they with malice utter.

The primary was neck and neck, in case you didn't notice. Obama only got ahead by about 100 pledged delegates because of caucuses which are NOT democratic. Neither candidate had enough pledged delegates to win.

So let's stick to facts, Tangy, @ Thursday, August 7, 2008 09:18 PM.

Ah Dalivus, the old AKA coy ploy.

Yes, I know it well.

So remind me again just how much the Clintons have actually accomplished for black people—be specific. Not counting feel–good speeches or visits to conventions. And for native Americans, again not counting visits. Actually accomplishments. Ground rule: just allowing the Civil Rights Act to work as designed doesn't count, though it feels like it should when one looks at the present administration, which actively throws up blocks whenever and wherever they can. What did the Clintons actualize that was new?

this was truly a depressive letter and i feel very much with you - but even if the 'political picture' looks so grimm - please don't take Salon that serious - Try to use it, like the most

of these writers here as some kind of fruitcaketherapy - watch a lot of Jon Stewart and then come back and you will find out it is actually funny absurd and totally hillarious!

I'm supporting Tina Turner to be Obama's VP.

Joan, I always enjoy your articles. As an African American woman and a Hillary supporter, I too wish the Obama camp hadn't brought race into the campaign. I think his surrogates felt they needed to do it to get the assumed large black votes away from Hillary. If I thought the Clintons were racists, I obviously as a African American would not have supported Hillary. Bill and Hillary have a long history of championing the causes of civil rights. To unfairly label them racist is despicable. I'm glad that Bill Clinton will get to speak at the Convention. Hopefully, this is another step toward healing the primary wounds and putting these racist allegations of Bill Clinton behind us.