Who knew Keith Olbermann had so many fans? Here's a sampling from today's inbox:

Mr. Bevan,

Spare us. The "millions" who took Kerry's comment at face value and were subsequently offended by it, are almost certainly comprised mostly of the 30% who think things are going well in Iraq. That doesn't make the morons or idiots, but it does make them completely unwilling to face reality, which is hardly much better. If the greatest offense you can muster is at Olbermann for calling out the President for having the gall to demand that Kerry apologize for his non-insult while he himself-the man who ordered the invasion of Iraq-does no more than admit that "mistakes were made", then you should seriously consider re-aligning your priorities with, say, reality.

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Mr. Tom Bevan,

Thanks for your published observation. I was "surfing" and momentarily stopped on MSNBC as Olbermann began his rant. Normally I would have quickly passed but was struck by the arrogance and vitrol in his remarks. I listened to the whole diatribe. Then, I wrote MSNBC expressing my view that such animus in a commentator precluded any possibility that he might be objective. To date, no reply. Again, thank you for pointing out what passes for informed reporting and commentary among the media.

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Are you saying that only former sport broadcasters and politicians from Beacon Hill are arrogant? If Bush and his entire staff are not arrogant, then who is? You sound more than a little arrogant to me.

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When you mentioned Keith Olberman's previous incarnation at ESPN, I recalled a line I heard years ago that rings truer than ever about him: "Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym. And those who can't teach gym become sportswriters." Since Olberman is now one step down on the evolutionary scale from sportswriter, I will leave it to others not stuck in Iraq to figure out where that leaves him.

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Keith Olberman's message was one of the best and clearest messages of this campaign season. John Kerry's attempted joke was clearly aimed at President Bush and his administrations' failure in almost every area of his responibility. The administration created the reason for starting this unnecessary war, which 2/3 of the people in the United States now fully understand, and now, as the election approaches they are trying to create diversions to attempt to take people's minds off the real issues.

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Olbermann has shown that he has more than an anger management problem, rather he truly borders on being mentally ill. The number of his non-sensical statements are too many to repeat. What it basically boils down to according to the almighty Olbermann is that Bush, Laura, McCain, our military, those Democrats that called for Kerry to apologize, and the many others who refuse to accept an after-the-fact fabrication about a botched joke, are stupid and dishonest.

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Dear Tom,

You are blinded by your own ideology. Keith Olbermann is a little bombastic and grandiose in featuring himself as the reincarnation of Murrow. So what? Do you ever watch the histrionics of Mr. O'Reilly and Glenn Beck.

Cable news commentators run the gamut from centrist-to-right figures like Matthews, Blitzer et al to the hard right that dominate. With one exception there is not one single progressive voice 24/7 on CNN or MSNBC. FOX of course is a joke. They pretend to be balanced with faux Democrats like Colmes and Kirsten Powers. Kirsten Powers for goodness sake. She and Michelle are actually good pals.

There are millions and millions of people like me that strongly believe that we have a deeply criminal Administration sinking the country. We have no voice whatsoever in the MSM and our views are scarcely mentioned. And you can't stand it that there is one single man speaking out for our silenced constituency? Give me a break.

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Thank you for pointing out Keith Olbermann's arrogance! I could not listen to the entire ten minutes...

I have to wonder... does Mr. Olbermann realize that he sounds like an arrogant buffoon? Like Kerry, he feels his opinion so superior, he must speak... He cares little who he insults.

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Olbermann may be a bit over the top. But, he basically got it right. He's a great antidote to Rush Limbaugh and the rest of those wingnuts...

Finally, from a reader who tried to sit through the whole ten minutes:

I lasted 3:34 (which seemed like 33:40) and for the last 60 seconds or so I was watching the clock painfully trudge by thinking how? how did someone give this bozo a microphone to talk into? You should have an award for the person who lasts the longest watching this clip. I suspect I'm the leader in the clubhouse.