As far as data indicating that the numbers of people who won't vote for Barack Obama aren't shrinking, just look at the polls. 29% of the country disapproves of George Bush. If there was ever an election where the opposing party should win in a cakewalk, it's this one. But Obama is barely a few points ahead of McCain, when he should be killing him. And all the polls I've seen indicate that even that lead is shrinking.

Don't shoot the messenger, people. This is a problem we have to solve, and getting mad at Joan for pointing it out won't help.

I am confused; let me ask you; what is it that you and the others think that Pres. Clinton has done, to make him such a pariah, not only among the opposition, but within the DNC as well? He was and is a man, whose wife was running for office, and came darn close to winning it all. Whether it is because of years of accumulated guilt due to his incessant infidelity, or because he genuinely loves the woman, he fiercely supported Sen. Clinton. Why is that wrong? Mayor Brown from California, very decently and logically, defended the President by saying "Black folk understand a cat who sticks up for his old lady"; isn't that what Pres. Clinton was doing? I keep hearing people say that Pres. Clinton brings back memories of the Lewinsky scandal etc. How very provençal! Shouldn't what we do in our bedrooms be private? How did it negatively affect the President's work performance? Wouldn't you much rather have President Clinton's virility to castigate (usually tongue in cheek), than experience the sinking feeling we all get, the moment Pres. Bush opens his mouth? What good does his faithfulness to Laura Bush, a perfectly wonderful woman, achieve? Besides, every time I hear the word “impeachment” in connection with the Clintons, I am reminded of the whole parade of hypocrites with far more to hide that Pres. Clinton, such as Henry Hyde (God rest his soul), Newt Gingrich, Bob Barr, Sen. Vitter, Larry Craig, need I say more?

As registered Democrats, can we at least accept the bitter reality - in order to be Republicans, women have to be completely vapid and devoid of brains, because, I don't know a single Republican to whom, reading isn't extraordinary and excruciating punishment, and that includes the redoubtable Ms. Ann Coulter too! Consider that Elizabeth woman on the View - she is perfectly amiable and completely daft. How about Limbaugh, Hannity or O'Reilly, gasbags all, without one scintilla of intelligence, and no pretense that they actually possess it either. When you are a Republican, you closely resemble sheep, led but unable to lead. Democrats on the other hand, refuse to bow before truisms, each one of us leads; causing chaos perhaps, but there are no followers among us - that's why we are so delightfully asymmetrical, rarely organized and palpably amusing, when compared to our Republican counterparts!. Pres. and Sen. Clinton epitomize every Democratic and intellectual ideal - let's not add our voices to the ridiculous Republican rants, and sow dissension among ourselves, or else we will lose an election which God intended for us to win.

I think it's kind of difficult to go back into time and unring the bell, so to speak, but you have to remember that race wasn't an issue then, at all. So there was no acknowledged "built-in advantage" for Obama just because many blacks live in SC. At that point, in fact, just before the primary there, half the AA population favored Hillary. So your assumption that he had a built-in advantage is itself sort of racist, and by that I mean, based exclusively on race.

The fact that Bill mentioned Jesse Jackson, instead of a more recent winner whose stats would have been relevant (I too forget some of these details!) sort of reminded people--not just in SC but nationally--that Obama is black. He was just another candidate--the young, hopeful, great speaker (much like Bill Clinton in '92). I know that sounds weird now, but again, remember this was before we had hashed out his blackness all over the place. Bypassing a more logical comparison and instead comparing BO to JJ, he was sort of telling everybody that BO is *like* JJ. And while many liberals like JJ, it's obvious that most of America did not. Most of America saw JJ as a man whose interests lay exclusively with "black issues." It's apparently a fact that the more whites think a candidate is supported by blacks, the less those whites are to support him themselves. Once BO became the "black candidate" like JJ, the "Bill Clinton is racist" narrative goes, the more the (racist or uneducated) whites would come over for Hillary. Lo and behold, that's what happened.

That the outcome verifies the "black candidate" identification doesn't, of course, mean that Bill Clinton said anything to intentionally cause it. Whether intentionally or not, his series of comments, mostly b/c they were so overplayed suggestively in the press, started the slow identification of BO as, first and foremost, black. What followed was the Rev. Wright stuff, the Geraldine Ferraro stuff, and so on. It was all black all the time.

It is counterproductive to rehash the racial mess for the millionth time. There are three months to go and Obama is not looking that great. The shiny newness has worn off, and we appear to be left with Barack "Bipartisan" Obama, who apparently will compromise on just about anything. Great. We got a Congress full of Dems like that already. (Oh right, he's one of them.)

Where is the fire in the belly? Where is anyone in the Obama campaign calling McCain and Rove on all their crap? Where is the Obama who refused to be told to "wait his turn," who is obviously a savvy and very driven guy, or he wouldn't be where he is?

It's not past politics holding Obama back. It's the Dem presidential campaign disease. While the Republicans are throwing all the slime they can muster, the Dems are doing the usual: wrapping up the candidate so tight that no one ever sees a flash of the real person. They send a piece of cardboard out there and are shocked when the Republican "you can't relate to him" strategy works.

Who wants to elect (or relate to) a boring milquetoast? I'm flashing back to Kerry and Gore big time, and it is making me sick. The last Dem to win the office? Bill Clinton, who got elected flaws and all. It goes without saying that all efforts to control him fail regularly. If Bill and Hillary can go out and play hardball on Obama's behalf, it could be exactly what he needs.

I am hoping the convention is a turning point away from the stupidity of the primary. I want to see Obama bring it, and take on the Republicans and their petty and demeaning campaign in a big way. It is said that Hillary was convinced Obama could not win. Right now he is in serious danger of proving her right.