If you want your candidate's Dem opponents to support your candidate in the GE, watch your insults

[still_one]

[havocmom]

1. A-men!

[still_one]

2. We need each other if we are going to win in the general election /nt

[dmallind]

3. Never understood this

Either supporting or oposing a candidate because of the behavior of an infinitesimal fraction of their supporters on one web site makes no logical sense. There is absolutely nothing Obama or Clinton can do about their respective assholes, and a politician who attracted no assholes whatsoever would have no chance of winning and would therefore be irrelevant.

I'll make my mind up on what Obama and Clinton say and do, and not one iota of that decision will be swayed by any DU fanboy attack no matter how egregious.

The point has some merit when applied to candidates themselves and very top level, official campaign staff (which no does not include McClurkin et al.) but I fail to see why it matters about a fraction of their purported supporters on a partisan discussion site.

[still_one]

6. Logically and intellectually you are correct, emotionally, that is not how peope are /nt

[dmallind]

12. Well I don't speak for "people"

but I don't think I'm alone or even close to it in adopting a much more realistic approach. I mean honestly can anyone explain why the behavior of some supporters SHOULD reflect on any given candidate?

[still_one]

15. I hope your assessment is right /nt

[LiberalFighter]

4. Yesterday I tried steering posters in that direction

I had a thread for each of top 3 candidates for others to post positives about them. Not a whole lot of response. Some were not observing the request. There were a few good responses though.

[still_one]

7. I know DU is its own world, but I do think it reflects sentiments by Democrats

and progressives, and as you also have observed it gets quite caustic here that I think could turn self-destructive for us

[MethuenProgressive]

5. No insults typed by any "supporter" on DU will effect my opinion of Obama or Clinton.

I suspect the most obnoxious "supporters" are not who/what they seem.

[still_one]

8. Sometimes it seems like the most obnoxious "supporters" have taken over

Of course I am not referring to legitimate debating of the issues among our candidates, but the personal attacks

[backscatter712]

9. The astroturfers will see that ain't gonna happen.

Try not to pay too much attention to them. They want things to be negative. They want to drag it in the mud.

It's something I learned in '06 from the Musgrave vs. Paccione campaign in CO-4. Musgrave went negative - she's Republican. Paccione tried to keep things civil. But something happened. After all the ads on TV, the impression was made on the voters that both candidates went in the mud, and Paccione got totally slimed with the mudslinger image, even though she tried to keep things positive. In the end, Musgrave won by a hair. :(

That's what they want - to give you the impression that both Clinton and Obama are going for the mud.

[still_one]

16. Interesting perspective, however your example doesn't necessarily paint an upbeat assessment

[backscatter712]

19. I know, I'm a cynical bastard.

But I guess what I'm trying to say is that we need to find ways to keep our campaigns and candidates out of the mud.

[still_one]

21. LOL, I guess the last 8 years have made all of us somewhat cynical /nt

[yardwork]

10. I've been posting this over and over again.

I've concluded that some of the rude posters here aren't planning to vote for Obama or Clinton in the general election. They're just causing trouble to sow dissension among Democrats.

[still_one]

17. Well maybe your posts will open some eyes, I hope so /nt

[The Magistrate]

11. Hear Hear, Sir!

The best course remains to say what is best about your own choice, and leave others to infer from that what might be wrong with the others in silence....

"Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn."

[cosmik debris]

13. "Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn."

I'll remember that when I get to the polling place.

[still_one]

18. Actually, that is not a bad idea, don't engage in the mud /nt

[Phillycat]

14. No one on DU could give me a lower opinion of those 2 than I already have.

[still_one]

20. OK, but in the end that WILL be the choice for the Democrats

You can either sit it out, find a third party alternative, or take a pragmatic approach, and try to determine which choice represents your best, and that might include eliminating what you consider the worst, which of course in the general election, I perceive it to be the republican candidate being the worst possibility

[GoldieAZ49]

22. Support of a candidate should be base on the candidate not a msg board

or of anonymous posters for or against any candidate

Good Grief that is the problem uninformed voters that make decisions based on unimportant trivial BS