The sadness of fifteen seconds of fame

I spent this morning - wasted would be a better word - reading some of the comments people have posted in response to various political articles on cnn.com.

The inescapable conclusion is one of these:

1. Only the very worst of America bothers to post its opinions, so desperate for its fifteen seconds of fame (it used to be fifteen minutes but times have changed) that it happily demonstrates its inability to spell or to think at every opportunity.

2. This country is in deep shit. 

I'm hoping...yes that hope word again...that it is the former. It is deeply worrying that in 2008 so many bigoted, naive, uneducated, narrow-minded, illogical opinions are still held so strongly by so many people. And it's sad that among these angry sentences the few sensible, balanced, rational opinions seem so bland. As Hollywood knows only too well, aggression is more compelling than calm correctness.

I guess the most fruitless exercise is to tell someone who's wrong that they're wrong. It simply cements the mindset of both parties (no pun intended).

Every time Obama rationally modifies his views on an issue he is derided as unreliable. When the truth is that being open minded is the absolute best quality we could ever ask for in a President.

Only an idiot keeps his view of the world fixed no matter how powerful the evidence that his view is wrong. We've had one idiot President. But many are already forgetting.