With all the buzz surrounding Spitzer and Ferraro this week, as well as the (somehow) ongoing Democratic primary discussion, our little salon here has been bursting at the seams with commentary of all kinds.

Here is a selection of some of the outstanding reader blog posts from the past few days:

Despite the fair amount of coverage that's been given to Barack Obama's relationship to his pastor, Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., I hadn't, until today, seen a report as thoughtful, thorough, and critical as this piece from reader FlyOnTheWall.

Reader Matthew K. Johnson makes a plea for a renewed American internationalism, and argues that the perception of America abroad is far more than a "bourgeois" issue, "that only people who have all their other problems solved can afford to worry about."

More after the jump. . .

Obviously, the word "experience" has been bandied about quite a pit this primary season. Reader Ann H thinks that the question of maturity, and not experience, will provide the make-or-break test of character for the Democratic candidates.

Speaking of maturity, former TPM intern Ned Resnikoff reports on the latest shenanigans of the NYU College Republicans (who are known for pushing the envelope with their pranks).

In A Pleasant Post in Which I Betray My Nation, reader Mark Lazen provides the rare combination of entertainment and analysis of the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping program.

Reader Lynn Dee sees David Mamet's much-discussed Village Voice piece on why he is no longer a "Brain-Dead Liberal" as symptomatic of a broad tendency in America to not think too hard about. . . anything. (A similar, and famous, critique of thought in America has of course been available since 1840.)

In a post from yesterday, articleman rails against that new breed of voter, the Angry White Democrat. (In related commentary, Larry Greater throws to Obama the much sought-after "Tattooed White Trash" endorsement.)

Pennsylvania voter LBS writes that Geraldine Ferraro's recent comments were deliberately aimed at PA's working class white voters, and she thinks they might do the trick.

Stuart Vyse argues that America's economic trials and tribulations call for more than short-term surface level tinkering, specifically, he says, we need to move "away from the highly leveraged consumer-driven economy of the recent past. . ."

Finally, in news about news, reader Weston M. Cain finds fault with Tim Russert's reference to the media as the "referee" of the primary campaign.