[Nyororin]

The topic of this thread is inherently controversial - I`m assuming it was made because of interest in the controversy around something so seemingly simple.
Offensive? It most certainly shouldn`t be, as it was asking a simple question and (as I see it) an attempt to understand why it is controversial to begin with.

It turned into a rather limited discussion as only a few people participated, but it was interesting to look at from outside the ring - so to speak. I certainly think I share MMM`s puzzlement as to why this was such a huge deal - and it`s not because I am an Obama supporter.

I do think the thread has sort of served it`s purpose now that the speech has been given. I`ve watched the whole thing, and there has been no flaming or insult tossing - no getting personal with arguments (although a certain participant certainly tried to find that in MMM`s posts...) so there was never any reason to close the thread.

Controversy isn`t necessarily something that needs to have someone step in and kill. You can have a good controversial discussion without taking things too far... Unfortunately things tend to go down the wrong path WAY too quickly when any controversial subject is involved.
Personally, I think this thread has been quite a success in that department.