Julia and Liz, do not allow yourselves to be manipulated by the Clintons. Fortunately, they did come off as team players tonight, but I think it was probably because they were given a stern warning by the powers that be: their legacy lies in the balance if they completely hijack the convention. And, how many of the 18 million were members of Rush Limbaugh’s army in states that allow voters to cross party lines?

Those who call themselves Roman Catholics, but take on a postion that is contrary to the teachings of the church, be it the use of birth control or being pro-choice, never fail to astound me. If Nancy Pelosi is pro-choice, it is probably time for her to affiliate herself with another church. The RC church has always taught that abortion is sinful, no matter when it takes place. And, when it comes to St. Augustine, his position was that the fetus becomes a living being when it is ensouled … i.e. the soul enters the the embryo or fetus. While it appears that St. Augustine believed that this occurs well after conception, it, nevertheless, has always been up for debate when exactly that moment is. For the record, I am not a Roman Catholic.

Those who call themselves Roman Catholics, but take on a postion that is contrary to the teachings of the church, be it the use of birth control or being pro-choice, never fail to astound me. If Nancy Pelosi is pro-choice, it is probably time for her to affiliate herself with another church. The RC church has always taught that abortion is sinful, no matter when it takes place. And, when it comes to St. Augustine, his position was that the fetus becomes a living being when it is ensouled … i.e. the soul enters the the embryo or fetus. While it appears that St. Augustine believed that this occurs well after conception, it, nevertheless, has always been up for debate when exactly that moment is. For the record, I am not a Roman Catholic.

Oh, Julia! You may never get to interview Katie Holmes after that comment; her husband carries grudges! I know you must be worried about what that might do to your career. :-)

I feel enormous empathy for these poor young people who are brainwashed and coerced into carrying out these missions.They should extradite her quickly because she’ll surely be extinguished if she’s released in Iraq.

Hillary’s supporters need to accept that it’s over and move on. I have tired of the 18 million votes as well. We know that in many of the states where one could cross party lines, there were legions of Rush Limbaugh’s followers who voted in droves for Hillary, believing that it would be far easier to defeat her in the general election.

Liza, Cindy McCain has a Masters in Special Education

I disagree with you My Alias. Did you read David Brooks’ column? Biden offers Obama what he lacks … including Pennsylvania. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/opinion/22brooks.html?em

Cher has dinner with Paul Begala and former President Bill Clinton in Vegas, and then she puts in a call to you???? Liz, with no disrespect to you, but come on????!!!!??? So this is the Clintons latest effort to sway the public???? What is this country coming to??? Hillary and Bill would be nothing but a burden to Obama and his cabinet. They have already hijacked the convention! And, for them to think that women vote for women simply because they are women demonstrates how out of touch they are with most women in this country. Hillary lost because of Hillary … and Bill. I recommend that Cher go back to entertaining and perhaps give Paul Begala a job as a dancer or back-up singer because his political instincts have beome obsolete.

“After long negotiations” … please! http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/clintons-name-will-be-put-… if she were truly the team player, Hillary simply would have asked her constituency to back the Democratic nominee … enough said … and enough of all this grandstanding. This is no longer the Democratic Convention, it will become the Clinton show.

I completely agree with Maureen Dowd: Hillary is “A woman who wildly mismanages and bankrupts a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar campaign operation, and then blames sexism in society, will dampen the dreams of our daughters.”

Oh, my goodness. I am so disappointed in Katie Couric. I quite enjoyed her on Today. But as in Hillary’s case, this is not a question of being a woman, it’s a question of not being the right person for the job. Why she is not able to acknowledge this is beyond me. There is little that is worse than an individual who whines. She’s being paid the big bucks and she needs to perform accordingly. There are many women journalists out there who are doing quite well. Take a look at CNN … its numbers haven’t plummeted and it seems to have quite a few women working over there in the anchor’s chair. And, then for her to whine on the road is enough for me to turn her right off … even when she appears on 60 minutes. It’s the Peter Principle … her initial success went to her head and now it’s “They don’t love me anymore” For goodness sake, grow up!

Maizie, I agree with your reply on so many levels except in the case of Latin. I would rather see my children learn a living language that will allow them to travel, converse, read, and conduct business. They have found that there is no correlation between higher SAT scores and studying Latin (an argument some parents make for requiring their children to study Latin). Of course, if an individual is interested in studying Latin, I would not stand in his/her way … any type of intellectual curiosity is to be encouraged, I simply feel that given the choice, I’d prefer a language that will enhance your life.

Because I had the benefit of having a father, who was a U.S. diplomat and later an international business executive, I and my siblings are comfortable in several languages. Along the way, we made many foreign friends who all are conversant in english, in addition to several other languages. I have always considered it to be a great shame that most Americans do not speak at least one other language well (including my own children whom I have made every effort to expose to the world). I believe that every educated American should be comfortable in at least Spanish, and that will only come if they begin to learn it as very young children. Once they have a facility for Spanish, every other Romance language will come more easily, and they’ll less intimidated by languages like Arabic, Chinese, and Russian. Being comfortable in other languages will not only enhance their personal experiences, it will markedly contribute to their personal successes.

Michelle isn’t running, her husband is. There is nothing more exhausting than a spouse who steals the limelight. This is not sexist, remember … Bill. He should have remained in the background … as Obama remarked, he didn’t know whom he was running against. Let the candidate be the candidate.