Reply #1: They are irrelevent.

[Scott Lee]

I think it was Will Pitt who admonished DU participants awhile ago not to mistake DU for the rest of the country. How right he was.

Howard Dean takes 90% of the negativity on DU, yet he is the frontrunner.

I have yet to see a single DUer swayed from one campaign to another based on negative threads against their original preference.

John Kerry has a diligent, numerous group on DU defending him, yet he can't seem to get into the double digits in almost any poll conducted as to his popularity.

In a nutshell, what you see on DU is reality for DU. I acknowledge that this place can be thought of a as a think-tank of sorts, but it's true impact on American politics is so limited as to be regarded as inconsequential.