I am not going to hand you a participation trophy for how accepting you are of your bigoted family and friends. That’s your world you live in. But don’t expect pats-on-the-back for making safe spaces for backwardness. Your conflict avoidance is precious.

Lol, I’m not telling the Obamas whom they can be friends with.

The good thing about you being the arbiter of everyone else’s behavior is that you obviously don’t love or spend time with any relative or friend who has any bigoted opinions, nor any relatives who have friends who have any bigoted opinions. And if you had any relatives who were imperfect, or who had friends who were…

For some people, odious racism is odious racism, regardless of the target. And candidates are responsible for the way their staff run their campaigns. The buck stops with the candidate. The racist actions of Karl Rove sit squarely in George W. Bush’s lap.

One thing that I will forever give to his credit was his repeated statements that only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of Muslims are terrorists. He went to a Mosque immediately after 9/11. The dude deserves mad respect for that.

Lester Holt sent both campaigns the outlines of his questions like 2 weeks ago. Of course she had prepared answers, Don should have too.

The thing is, Trump used this “method” (for lack of a better term) to win the Republican primary. One-line zingers. Ad hominem attacks. Blatant lying. Being the loudest guy on the stage. Appeals to fear, vulgarity, and prejudice.

There was no doubt Clinton would come prepared. It’s like she’s running for one of the most important positions in the nation if not the world as President of the United States. You’d have to be a completely inexcusable moron with tiny hands to do bad in these debates.

I loooooooove the suggestion that one guy makes about Lester Holt sending Hillary the questions. She was so prepared that she had to have been given them, right? No way she could actually be that studious, that polished, that prepared.

Maybe, although I suspect that ignores the appointments he made and the policies he did pursue -- privatizing Social Security and recommending putting everyone’s Soc Sec $ into the stock market right before it collapsed. He was the victim of terrible advisers, that’s true. But he had no spine for the first six years…

I was never a Bush fan, and I never will be, but this was a damned good speech.

I honestly thing Bush was a decent, well meaning person, but was completely unqualified to be President. He surrounded himself with people that wanted to further their own agendas and ended up paying for it.

You get the feeling every staff meeting ended with George saying “Well...if you think that’s what’s best...”

Well, don’t forget, he was a bad President. He wanted to nominate Harriett Miers to the SCOTUS. But most of his errors were in his choice of advisers and proxies. I would never vote for him. He would always be a classic Republican. Don’t let him off the hook, but you’re right that he wanted to do some good things.…

Bush also advocated immigration reform. He didn’t want to deport 13 million people. We should remember that Congress was and is, arguably, a much bigger problem than the president.

As I recall, that African Aids money was tied to the idea that those funds could not be used on buying or promoting condom use, because Jesus. Which kinds of begs the question, “What the fuck are you doing with that money?”

This is easy to say until you’re standing in front of Henry Kissinger and fully expected to hug him.

Or maybe, they are realists who understand that refusing to interact with or have any ounce of respect for their political opponents is not how meaningful change can happen in the world. It’s not how issues are solved. Maybe they understand that having an intense hatred of anyone who disagrees with you is ultimately…

I get you, and I hardly think people—especially people who have state functions in addition to political ones—should go around spitting on people they disagree with. On the other hand, I don’t know that I’d hug Henry Kissinger no matter what my job was. I think that’s what’s compelling about the image and why people…

I find it more telling in the sense that while a lot of normal people think the Obamas are like them, they’re actually members of a powerful elite that treats political differences that affect the lives of billions of people as essentially a kayfabe thing.