The difference Obama - who has run the dirtiest campaign I've ever seen out of Democrat - and the Clintons, is that the Clintons didn't have anything like Rezko or like Wright in their background. And even though they were squeaky clean on stuff like that, the Republicans were able to use debunked rumors to fire up a massive investigation.

One of the big problems Obama has - and one which his supporters refuse to acknowledge - is that there must be minimum standards of decency for Democratic nominees. And Obama who gives his charitable dollars and regularly exposes his daughters (God help him) to the misogynist racist rantings of a lunatic and hits up mob affiliates for personal favors to the tune of $625k so that he can buy a house that he otherwise can't comfortably afford.

While I would never make that video, not voting for a candidate because he didn't have sufficient respect for the process or the opposition before he chose to run for the presidency is a completely legitimate thing to do. And Obama failed to that. He has handicapped his presidency from the get go. And by going to church with Wright, he has probably given the Republicans a winning issue in November should he be the nominee.

When you are running for president who you choose as your spirtual nominee is a huge and significant clue as to who you are and in Obama's case, what levels of discourse you're willing to lower yourself to. I'm a Democrat - I'm opposed to racism and misogyny. Obama clearly doesn't embrace those particular standards.

I dearly hope that Obama isn't the nominee, mostly because I see no real commitment to Democratic principles.  But also, with Obama's personal embrace of racism, he has legitimized the right running a racist campaign against him. They don't even have to be subtle. Wright's tirade, and Obama's embrace of Wright, gives them permission to be overt when they push buttons.

There is a huge difference between the fantastical accusations against the Clintons and the video of Wright engaging in a racist, misogynist tirade on Obama's behalf. That video tells us one helluva lot about what Obama is and it isn't attractive. The right had nothing like that on the Clinton's - save for Bill's philandering (and most Americans didn't consider that germane - after all Roosevelt and JFK both fooled around relentlessly). But we've never had a Democrat who chose to spend his time, and expose his children to overt racism against others. Obama can't stand for decent behavior because he doesn't reject indecent behavior.

So, get ready - Obama didn't have the level of common sense the Clintons did, and so he will face what they did and much more because of the personal associations he has chosen for himself. And nothing is more dangerous than underestimating the GOP - something the Clintons do not do.

There are ooodles of substantive reasons to vote against Obama.

1. he has no real experience for the job. While Obama was in the Illinois Senate, they met only 75 days (approximately) out of the year and only about 55 days of those were mandatory. He had approximately 1.5 years of full time legislative work when he joined the US Senate. He was in the US senate 2 years when he began running for the presidency, and hasn't gotten much done there. He does't have the experience or the ties necessary to get stuff done.

2. His healthcare plan isn't universal and will likely sabotage our chances for universal healthcare for a generation.

3. He's backing away from his commitment to pull a brigade or two a month out of Iraq.

4. He doesn't have a solid pro-choice voting record, and he lied about his reasons for voting present in Illinois.

5. His response to the sub-prime crisis has been insubstantial and belated.

6. While his votes on union issues have been solid by and large, he has not, as a US senator, provided the kind of support for unions that senators are in the position to provide.

7. Rezko - he allowed a known mob affiliate under federal investigation for bribing state officials to do him a personal favor to the tune of $625k. Rezko is now on trial and has the potential to destroy either his campaign or his presidency. Obama valued that house more than his ability to run a campaign unfettered by substantive allegations of possible corruption.

8. Reverend Wright - Obama has embraced a pastor who engaged in a racist and misogynist tirade publicly on behalf of his campaign and did not publicly distance himself until the tirade became public. With that action, Obama has legitimized the right running an overtly racist campaign against him, because he tolerated racist misogynist rhetoric on his own behalf.

9. He didn't hold any meetings of the one sub-committee he chairs to prove that he has real foreign policy gravitas.

10. His foreign policy address at the Foreign Affairs Council where he threatened to bomb Pakistan as part of his campaign rhetoric resulted in riots and Obama being burned in effigy alongside Tom Tancredo. He clearly has no real ear for foreign policy. Pimping out your bad ass self just because you made a blunder in a televised debate a few weeks before is not an acceptable standard for a campaign to embrace.

11. His misogynist rhetoric against Clinton - reducing her considerable foreign policy experience (visually demonstrated, ironically, by the video being distributed about her landing in the Balkans) to "tea with ambassadors" is the equivalent of the Republicans reducing his experience in the Illinois senate as "shoe-shining" - it was as morally deplorable as it gets. His "period" comment, alone, should condemn to losing the nomination - it's that beyond the pale.

12. His campaign's public threats to elected officials that if they don't support Obama, they'll be facing primary challenges. Thuggery - pure and simple. You don't hear the Clinton officials, nor tales of the Clinton officials threatening elected officials.

13. His campaign's lack of effort on behalf of a revote in Michigan and Florida and his opposition to the votes being counted. His willingness to lose two states for the Democratic party for a generation is deplorable. Democrats count the votes.

That's just off the top of my head.

What is that saying about people who live in glass houses?

Knock what down.  If people are going to be influence by a disgusting video juxtaposing the planes flying into the world trade center with Wright and Michelle Obama speaking, those votes were not ours to have anyway.

Should we find every crazy Clinton video and post them so we can debunk them now?  Is that what you propose?

That kind of stuff needs to be aggressively countered, no matter who it attacks. Just a simple fact-checking is a good place to start, for example.

But that wasn't the intention of the diarist. He enjoyed that video, was happy it was out there. I'm not happy about the Clinton Chronicles, for example. Nor am I happy that some people still think Bill and Hillary murdered hundreds of people. I just don't think that the fact that these people are out there is not a reason to vote for her.

that my case is premised on the existence of these rightwing smears. Difference is, I describe them as such.