In fact that example was also posted by neoprufrok, and I didn't realize it. His name shows up as "Rich" on postings for some reason, and "neoprufrok" in comments.

I will concede she failed to stand up to a badgering interviewer on a bogus line of questioning.

I will concede that she did not take a firm stand on that bogus line of questioning in order to "look good" for the interview.

If our leaders cannot tell an interviewer that they are full of shit or that their questions are offensive, how does that bode for the future of their interactions with people who hold real power?

Its a bargaining point. Have you ever traveled to a country where every price on every object is negotiable? With in the DNC rules a request to seat the delegates is allowed. She knows it will never pass in the case of MI. When obama removed his name it was obvious. Very clever political move. Taking this position draws attention to the issue and forces negotiation.

The DNC never thought it would come to this. After someone won they would have agreed to seat the delegates. But no one won. Now it becomes both a political and moral issue. Politically disenfranchising 2 of the larger states is sure to piss off a significant minority of voters who had nothing to do with any of the games played and that could cost the nominee the state in the GE. Also politically Hillary needs those votes to have a chance to win. Morally, imo, it is wrong to disenfranchise voters for the game playing of party leaders and state governments.

Hillary needs to take a hard line position to force negotiation to get a revote. That's my take on it.

"for the first time in my adult life, I'm proud of my country"

One day four years ago I was in my kitchen listening to NPR when a story I'd been following came on: the MA Supreme Court's consideration of the constitutionality of banning gay marriage. I'm straight, but I'm biracial, and when my parents got married their marriage was still illegal in some states. Those "anti-miscegenation" laws had been passed using a lot of the same language about "what nature intended" and "protecting the family" that gay marriage opponents use today, so I felt pretty close to it, and strongly about it, as a civil rights issue. And when the newsreader said that the Supreme Court had ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny gay couples that right, unexpectedly, I just lost it. I mean weeping, laughing, punching the air. And the words that went through my mind were: "Oh my God, THIS is what patriotism feels like!"

I have a deep love for my country and its ideals, and especially for its Constitution, which I just think is a masterpiece of comprehensive simplicity. But I remember being sent out of my second grade classroom into the hallway with the only Jehovah's Witness kid in my class because my public school had decided to institute a morning prayer (I was too young to really get the details...insurgents on the school board?). I was confused when the prayer thing started, so I went to my parents, and they sat me down and explained to me the separation of church and state, and the history of legislation and jurisprudence about school prayer (I'm sure they simplified it a lot), and they said I was free to choose whether to stay in the classroom and pray, or pretend to pray, or to excuse myself. And I decided to excuse myself not because I was unwilling to pray--I did it in other contexts--but because I felt that it was important to do what, in my mind, was in keeping with the Bill of Rights.

And ever since then, I've always been conscious of loving my country for its as-yet-unrealized potential to fulfill its own ideals. I've felt proud to skip a day of high school to march on Washington for abortion rights, to rally against the Iraq war in Central Park. I have always assumed that those I marched and rallied with felt, as I did, a faith in our country that allowed us to believe that our dissent mattered. But that sense of pride in that kitchen on that day in 2004--that was the first time I had felt conscious of my country (OK, my state, but whatever) taking a bold step in the direction of what was Right, forging a new and uncharted path in the confidence that our values would guide our steps on that path.

So, yeah, I think I know what Michelle Obama meant, and I've felt some of that pride again myself this primary season. And, you know, I consider myself a much better patriot than anyone who thinks their duty is to accept things as they are rather than believing that this country can lead the way in making things better for those to whom the full benefits of its freedoms have not yet been granted.

I sure hope it doesn't turn out that Obama was actually born in Jakarta.

I'm with you on that one. I also hope it doesn't turn out that Hillary was actually born in Tibet. I mean, that'd be really confusing, wouldn't it?

As a cultist, I have to say, this is the first time in my life where I can say I am starting to feel pride in my country. I don't hate it, but I have never felt like we are crawling out of the darkness into the light. It is the sense of finally approaching the light that gives me hope. It gives me hope that I might feel pride in my country for once.

I do not disparage or diminish the good things this country and the people in it have done, but I have hope that we might actually make it a mission to do good things as our modus operandus. Until recently, I only perceive selfish motives (not a blanket statement, but focused on the actions of the government), and that instills no pride. My family can give me pride, my Army Unit gave me pride (although I had doubts about a few of the soldiers), but that never translates automatically to the country as a whole.

The irony of all this pride talk, is that pride is one of the top "christian sins".

No one said she was being "picked on". Listen to the intonation and you cannot deny that she was being badgered and her response was something that anyone would say as in "enough already!"

Kudos to the Obama supporters who have called it straight on this.