I certainly applaud you Suzanne for your wise analysis - I’m 77 today, had a wonderful 25-year career at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and am a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who after reading both of his books and listening carefully to his ideas and positions on all the issues feel that this man is truly gifted and we would be so fortunate to have him as our next president. He is not only remarkably intelligent but extremely caring and the depth of his insights literally blow me away! I’m excited to be taking part in the political process for the first time in years.

I agree with much of what you say, and I would like to comment on the issue of service. I am a 58 year old, fat, white woman. Trust me, people like me are invisible when it comes to service! My attractive 30 year old daughter and I were shopping in an upscale department store in Atlanta recently. At every counter we approached, sales people always engaged her first and, in every instance, in a friendlier manner. My conclusion is that if we want good service, we must demand it.

Obama is a democrat. The reason why most people find it difficult to pinpoint his positions other than his stance on the war is because they are not outstandingly different from the official democratic party line. That’s not a negative because he is outstanding in other ways, several of which will have been oulined by another poster further down the line. To say he is a beneficiary of affirmative action in term of Ferraro’s declaration is to ignore that he was, yes, affirmed, by his peers, fellow students, who voted him president of the Harvard Law Review, as the standout amongst similarly highly gifted individuals, “Primus inter Pares,” (first among equals). That is the mark of a leader who has earned his place, and the secret of his charisma. Yes, ‘the times make the man’ because some people uniquely embody and espouse the qualities people long for in their leaders … and rarely find. Where such a man exists, and seems interested in the position, regarless of his other deficits and even lack of experience, they raise him up and demand that he perform in their interests. It happened to Churchill, Kennedy, Lincoln, and a host of other historical figures world wide, including Martin Luther King and Gandhi. The original Martin Luther who started the Protestant movement was a single humble monk with little else known of him except that he seemed to embody and espouse a position that people had longed to see represented for a long long time. I guess what I am saying is that Obama is not just a man, he is the embodiment of a nations “dream.” As I wrote elsewhere, “a bright young (white) woman from Kansas may literally have deliberately succeeded in becoming the embodiment of Martin’s dream, which was the dream of the times.” It has happened before in history, but they crucified him! I also said that MLK’s ascendancy SAVED America and by extension the world from the debilitation of internecine strife, which allowed Capitalism to triumph over the threat of Communism. There are few economists and financiers who are not aware that America presently faces a similar threat right now in this decade of being overwhelmed by external forces, no less economic than military. Obama may speak in broader terms than Hillary, but that sometimes bespeaks a broader grasp of broader isssues and forces that shape our lives. We need that in a leader too, sometimes more so. Yes the devil is in the detail, but first … he has to get elected.

It is really frightening that a supposed medical doctor can equate something so inhumane, costly, and destructive as war to something as superficial as unhappy presidential marriages. I would think that someone who has taken an oath to protect human life would approach the fact that the 20th century was the bloodiest in history, and the last 7 years a living hell, with some informed thought and gravitas. The reason for our addiction to war has been spelled out by two high profile Republicans. President Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation warned about the creation of the very military-industrial complex that exists now and has been institutionalized under GWB; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY The Carlyle Group is nearly next door to the WH. There are more Blackhawk mercenaries in Iraq, and an immense cost to US taxpayer, than there are US troops that return to cut benefits. And during the Depression one of the most decorated men in US History, former U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, wrote “War is a Racket.” Here is what he said in a 1933 speech, “War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. I wouldn’t go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket. There isn’t a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its “finger men” to point out enemies, its “muscle men” to destroy enemies, its “brain men” to plan war preparations, and a “Big Boss” Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism. It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested. During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” Here’s Butler’s small wise book in total. http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html I know the mass organized murder of tens of millions of people: 40 million with 21 million wounded in WWI, 62 million in WWII, Over 1M total dead so far in Iraq-with that country in ruin, and our economy and world reputation needlessly destroyed…none of that rises to the titilation factor of war as a result of sham presidential marriages and mistresses…but FACTS will just have to do.

Go away, Mark, this is not your place.