Noam - have you ever read one of the more rabid political blogs? You sound like a repentant jaywalker surrounded by violent pedophiles.

Seriously, why the self-criticism? You investigated, she checked out, you wrote an interesting and very informative post. Where's the a*****ery here? I'm confused.

Noam, I'm with teplukhin on this one.  Say five Hail Hillarys, go forth, and sin no more.

I am not quite sure I buy it that Hillary herself sent the letter, far more likely one of the many White House staffers read it, was touched by it, made a few calls, and responded. Don't get me wrong, I think it says something that they surrounded themselves with professional enough people to have done that. I think if that letter had been sent to the Bush white house there would have been nothing more than a form letter thanking them for their support.

I also don't get how this makes you a state of the art asshole, a state of the art asshole feels no regret, more like a run of the mill cynic.

Yeah, Noam, it is part of the job- you almost had to check it out.  A lot of things that go with covering the race is boring and hideous and you have to do things you might not like- kind oflike in any job.  But your job is important and you do a good job at it.   And you didn't have to reveal that, so bonus points.  Chin up, laddy.    It was a good post.

I bet on some wing-nut sites they are now trying to dismiss this girl as not being really autistic.  Those are the savage assholes, not you.  

as to a time when self-loathing might be appropriate, but considering the source highly unlikely is when Bush jokingly berated that blind reporter for wearing sunglasses at a press conference. I would have been mortified if I made that mistake, unintentional though it might have been.

I have to disagree with the above comments.  You're a total asshole.  Not for this.  For other stuff.  Like when you cut me off in traffic the other day.  Yeah, I know your car.  It's called a turn signal Noam.

Seriously, though, nothing to be ashamed of.  "'Forests our like our lungs... our breathing mechanism.' Which is to say, it made me wonder if we had another plant on our hands."  No doubt.  Or at least whether we had a plant in our chests.

noam sayin', bro?

Noam -

Go over to the Save The Tiger Fund and give some money. You'll feel way better.

secure.webcreate.com/.../ContributionForm.cfm

In case anyone cares (doubt it), I calm all of my "Am I too mean to Hillary because she's a woman?" guilt by sending part of my paycheck every month to Emily's List....for real, it helps.

I'm with tep on this one too Noam.  Part of the reason we like TNR is because they, in earnest, do their best to check these things out.

Hillary brought this [type of skepticism] on herself.  Why should you take the blame?

Really, VC?   I think you are making yourself too guilty over nothing.  You don't hate Hill because she's a woman.    But I hear you- I send a portion of my paycheck to Cyborg Research every month, to get over hating Mitt.

I'd like to point out that your hunch was based on the tone of the question, and the tone apparently had another explanation than "plant", but not one you could have really anticipated.

So:  if any other questioners have such a tone in the future, you don't have to assume they're plants OR autistic, just do what you did and investigate. Assumptions are ok as long as you investigate.

boneill -

Yeah, you're probably right.

All others:

OPRAH IS COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

blogs.suntimes.com/.../sweet_scoop_oprah_to_stump_for.html

...but what's the turning radius on a Bengal tiger?

(go to it trollz)

Good post Noam

Happens to the best of us, Noam. You asked this girl a perfectly legitimate question, even if your intent was not "pure."

When I saw the title of this posting, I thought it was going to be a really cool evisceration of Rudy Giuliani.  I am so disappointed.  

Puzzling headline.  Following up does not make you an a-hole, it makes you a journalist.  Some might say they are the same thing but don't believe it.

And while we're piling on the anti-kicking yourself crusade Noam, if not you, didn't fellow journalists complain that this was the type of skepticism lacking either or both the first Bush campaign and first term?

In fact, you could make the argument that it's this exact kind of skepticism that's been missing from these campaigns and has allowed the Clinton's and Bush Jr. to manage the media so well.

If you think about it, the Clinton campaign (any campaign for that matter) could actually benefit from this type of scrutiny in the sense that voters would know she's been challenged; Additionally, turning this kind of scrutiny on supporters may force the campaigns to loosen up a bit .

And maybe those supporters that have, say gone along with some of the chicanery, will let the campaigns know that they don't really like being part of the circus.

The best part of this story is that all the twits who insist HRC deserves extra punishment in the media because she's such a "soulless" and "grasping" and "entitled" politician are forced to deal with unambiguous evidence that she really does care about people, even people from whom she stands to gain absolutely nothing.

So I agree with those who say Noam has nothing to be ashamed of.  He may have been trying to reinforce a tired and unfair media narrative, but he wound up undercutting it instead.  Looks like HRC really <i>does</i> have supporters, not just dupes and shills who haven't yet been introduced to the wonder that is Saint Barack or Saint John.  And maybe the anti-HRC crowd are a lot more superficial than they pretend to be.