Omigod. An inexperienced president and a vp who has never been elected for anything. Ha. I agree Karl Rove may have dreamed this up.

There was a problem with the Clinton campaign in that Hillary was favourite to win for so long. I understand that Patti had rented campaign headquarters at enormous expense ($100,000 a month or something) but only until April 2008 - as if the campaign would be finished by then. This is one example of Patti’s wastage. Hubris (including Patti’s) helped Barack.

I guess Barack is very grateful to Patty if she did help to screw Hillary’s campaign….

If this is the beginning of a public life, then she has already made a big mistake - supporting Obama who can make good speeches in the preaching-style, but cannot debate and cannot answer off-the-cuff (as Liz Smith has already pointed out). Poor judgement of Caroline to support such a flim flam. Otherwise good luck to her though.

I agree. Hillary should not give up. Would people be asking that question if she were a male candidate? Joan Ganz Cooney: if you are fed up with this campaign, then maybe stop watching the news???

I’m a Democrat - specifically a Hillary supporter - but I have been really impressed with Mitt Romney’s genius with money and budgets. And it’s the economy which is one of the big problems likely get more problematic come November. One thing against supporting Mitt is that he’s in favor of keeping Guantanamo open. Other than his fiscal genius, I am not sure about his other policies. It’s unlikely that Hillary will be the next President (sigh) - all due to that ghastly Democratic Party election process which has by accident favored Barack who won’t even consider a re-run of Michigan and Florida because they would be Hillary states. So much for Change and Hope - instead we get non-democracy Barack style. Whoever is the next President I hope will get some sound fiscal advice from Mitt Romney, and will have developed some sound budget proposals of his (or her) own by Presidential election time.

I’m a bit lowbrow - I like fantasy and sci-fi books. Just finished reading part 2 of Kate Elliott’s Crossroads trilogy and really hope she will have part 3 finished soon. Another book I really liked was “The Discovery of France” by Graham Robb who cycled 14,000 miles around France and spent several years researching in libraries to write a very readable account of how modern France evolved from several very distinct cultures - and very recently too. You may like to know that frog-legs-eating started in Paris. I read anything except westerns and romance and have just donated 100s of books to charity because I have run out of room in my apartment.

The reason why this campaign has been going on so long is the Democratic Party’s election rules which, if they were more democratic, would have already selected Hillary. This matter has been bothering me for some time and I mentioned it in my first post to wowOwow in the post about Geraldine Ferraro - which, in retrospect, was not the right place to post my opinion. http://www.wowowow.com/post/why-does-geraldine-ferraro-keep-hammering-aw… (my post is around halfway down the page). I cannot believe that a party would eliminate two large states’ electorates simply on the basis that they held their primaries too early. The reason is, frankly, petty - and quite undemocratic. The caucus system is also undemocratic. The candidate selection should be the same method as that for electing the president, that is by voting. Obama has won nearly all of the caucus votes, except Nevada - even there he got more delegates than Hillary! (ditto in Texas) Far fewer people attend caucuses because it is so time-consuming, and they are difficult to organise. Caucuses should be eliminated from selection primaries. Surely a party should limit its candidate selection process to its own party members, otherwise the result can be really skewed by allowing non-party members to vote??? Republicans and Independents may well be voting for another candidate come November, and may have selected a Democrat candidate so as to maximise another party’s candidate success. As well, the the Democrat Party’s voting methods vary from state to state. Some have caucuses, some have closed primaries, some have open primaries, and some have both caucus and primaries. (As an aside: if the voting systems can vary from state to state, why can’t each state select the date of its primary?) The Democrat party really needs to get its house in order so that next time it is a truly democratic party. If the Party had been so in this election then Hillary would have had no need to have gone “negative”, though I have heard much worse than what she has said in other presidential and primary campaigns. A lot of the media coverage has stressed the negativities because it makes sales, and people take notice. And the media is selective in what it reports. I think it was Peggy Noonan in the Wall St Journal who mentioned that Hillary gave the best speech of her campaign last week (before the Pennsylvania primary) but no one reported it because Hillary had been dismissed as a negative loser. So don’t let your instincts be swayed by the media. Trust your instincts and go for what you believe in. And, if you can, insist that the Democrat Party sort itself out.

If Hillary were a male candidate would the good people of the press (and those of the other candidate’s supporters) be clamouring that s/he stand down at this point?

On the subject of electability, this article from the London Times may be of interest: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/anatole_kaletsky/art…

Well, if you are going on about the looks of the candidates, I don’t understand people who say Barack is cute. His face is too long, and so is his teeth. And he’s too skinny. JFK was better looking but his eyes were a bit too small.

Marched against the Vietnam War. Still have the photo taken by the local newspaper. Marched against the Tianman Square massacre. The Chinese Embassy has my signature, name and address on the protest petition (haven’t tried for a visa since then) More recently, as part of the cycling contingent, joined the protest against global warming. I think there were a couple of other marches/protests, but I cannot remember them right now.

I am glad Hillary has won and I hope she will be the next President. Obama is a good speaker - I have listened to several of his speeches - but he has not won me over. I think he is a little impatient to stand for President this time. He should have waited till he had more experience. The voters may overall think differently from me.

I am saddened by the responses to my comment about the dangers of marijuana. A recent case is that of the American student in Italy and her Italian boyfriend who spent all day smoking marijuana (not taking alcohol) and who were involved in the murder of the student’s roommate Meredith Kercher. The two were apparently gentle, not aggressive people. Marijuana can make people become literally “out of their minds”

I have noticed recently reports of people who have committed horrific murders and other crimes have also been persistent cannabis smokers. Has anyone seen any research done on this? It seems to me that marijuana is not a harmless drug.