I am sure it is merely a coincidence that four pro-Edwards articles have sprung up, as unbidden as blooming flowers after a spring rain, on the Recommended List after pinche tejano's diary that was critical of Edwards became recommended last night.
<more after the flip>
I'll be honest with you: it bugs me that four pro-Edwards diaries popped up onto the Recommended List within hours after pt's diary. It bugs me that pt received seven and counting TRs for his diary, which -- although I disagreed with a lot of it -- I would NEVER call a troll diary. To the extent that people would refer to it that way, I can only question their judgment to the extent that I must wonder whether they should even have TR capability.
As someone who was a passionate and active Clarkie back in 2004, I have some familiarity with the candidate wars. How everything relating to my candidate was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER at that particular moment in time, to the extent that it really reminded (and still reminds) me of high school, in a way.
That said, now that I'm a bit more removed from the process this time around, I think I can relate to what a lot of people were telling ME back in the run-up to 2004. "Chill out." "You Clarkies are so obnoxious!" "I like the candidate, but hate his supporters."
You're free to dismiss everything I say, of course, and slam me for painting with too wide a brush, or whatever you like. Certainly I did my fair share of slamming back in the day, when I was a Clarkie.
None of those dismissals, however, will change the fact that the behavior of some of the more extreme candidate supporters -- whether that candidate is Obama, Edwards, Kucinich, or whoever -- is a major turn-off to a lot of the rest of us. Here's a rule of thumb: if this diary, or pt's, or anything even remotely critical of your candidate automatically causes you to break out the blowtorch, you're probably one of those more extreme supporters.
Passion is great in a candidate. I'm not so convinced, however, that it's always such a major plus in a candidate's supporters, especially in Internet fora like these, where the general anonymity of response even further encourages extremes of hyperbole.
Full disclaimer: I'm not supporting any particular candidate, I'm actually not really feeling energized by anyone right now, but I like Edwards, I like Obama, I'm starting to REALLY like Dodd, and I would certainly vote for ANY of our current Democrats -- even Hillary -- in the general election.
Full disclaimer number two: Obviously, I am not referring to all candidate supporters. I'm not even referring solely to Edwards supporters, even though that is the current candidate du jour, apparently. I'm just callin' it like I see it. Feel free to ignore and dismiss.
DTH