Why do you think I am a Clinton supporter? I'm not. I back Edwards.

You're right that supporters often do project their fantasies and desires onto candidates, but you have to admit the intensity and high-school worshipfulness of some of the Obama fans here and on other sites is a little silly.

I'm not sure you're right that minds won't be changed at this point. There are a lot of undecideds on the Democratic side in state primary polls, and a lot of folks who say their support for a chosen candidate is soft and could change. If this hadn't been the case in New Hampshire, Obama probably would have won.

Here's my take: the deep, needy projectors have already picked their valiant champion and have invested all their emotional energy in him or her. However, many core Democratic voters are still uncertain, they don't trust Clinton and they don't know what to make of Obama. Which is why I think Edwards may still have a chance, especially after last night's debate, which he won handily.

Thanks for the lecture. Obama, I WUV YOU!

Go back and sun yourself in the rays streaming from Obama's hiney.

I've certainly gotten under YOUR skin. Wow, you even went back to your college psych textbooks to trot out a diagnosis of my sad and miserable life. You are pathetic if you think your superior tone proves anything more about you than that you are a vain, shrieking emptiness. How's that for pop analysis? Enjoy your last turd.

and it didn't take much, did it? I'm glad we got to see this now before John McCain shattered his glass jaw in September and October....

Only YOU can save us, our glorious Leader! Oh living God, we worship at your feet. And you're CUTE!

don't vote anyway. Because they are such priggish little purists--have to have a SAINT or won't pull the lever--they either sit at home or vote for some boutique fringe candidate. Probably most of them are very young and are clearly quite naive (or, as they would put it, "idealistic"). Obama is foolish to bank on these starry-eyed losers carrying him to the nomination or the White House--as his stunning, momentum-stopping loss in New Hampshire proves.

If he can't come up with bread-and-butter policies to appeal to core Democratic constituencies who *do* vote--women, older voters, blue-collar voters, Latinos--then he is doomed. He is losing those groups by double digits to Hillary. But he *can* do damage to the Dem nominee by suggesting, as his surrogates have apparently started to do, that race must be the only reason for his loss since such rumors likely *will* damp down African-American turn-out in the general election. He is obviously power-obsessed and egotistical enough not to care. I think that's the real story here: Obama is so fundamentally immature and self-absorbed that he'd gladly sabotage the Dem nominee with black voters if it can't be him. And then we get 4-to-8 more years of a Justice Department Civil Rights division that doesn't believe racial discrimination exists (unless it's directed at whites).

All these so-called Obama supporters on this site (and others) are probably just young white kids who won't vote anyway, never do. They can safely be ignored. The election won't hinge on their support. And I would guess half of them are Republican concern trolls anyway, especially the virulent Hillary-haters trying to warn us what a disaster it would be to nominate her. I shudder to think that they really *mean* this demented, robotic hero-worship they're spouting about Obama because, if so, it has cult-like dimensions.

They are not in possession of their senses.

Boy, that's a very generous reading of Obama's comments. I think clearly he was buttering up a conservative editorial board by making some vaguely nice-nice noises about Ronald Reagan. Isn't that obvious? That's all Joan is saying. This desperate need to protect Obama from criticism is disturbing. It's like dealing with Scientologists or Ayn Rand fans.

Licking Obama's bootie again, huh? Enjoy!

You said: "There has been a lot of depressing blather in the letters. A number have suggested that if the Democratic Party (owned by the same lot that owns the Republican Party, BTW) nominates HRC, we MUST vote for her or we deserve Republican rule. What nonsense. If the Dems won't give us a candidate that supports our interests, then the Democratic Party isn't supporting our interests and we need a new party. One that does, perhaps. Wouldn't that be novel?"

Yes, and if we could eat with our feet we wouldn't need hands. When will you be starting up your new party, hm? Blather (er, talk) is cheap.

I understand your perplexity, Mr. Conason. Sometimes the Obama fans can sound like the beginnings of a cult--how *dare* you criticize our leader (L. Ron Hubbard, Ayn Rand, etc.), they are flawless, the world's future is riding on their messianic triumph, their enemies are embodiments of evil, etc. I suspect most of these folks are very very young.

I'm an Iowan who was very impressed with the positive campaign Obama ran leading up to the caucus here. I've been growing increasingly disillusioned with him ever since--and I think you've put your finger on why. It isn't him as a person I've come to find irritating so much as the evolving tenor of his campaign, which seems at once cynical and immature, and the hysterical adulation of his supporters, which borders on insanity. I will try and block all that out--much as I've been trying to block out Bill's stumping for Hillary.

I do wish the Obama people would make him more available to voters in forums other than stump speeches and handshake lines. He's starting to *feel* like Ronald Reagan--vaguely pleasant and uplifting, but aloof and highly scripted. And it's the fault of his campaign basically.

OK, I give up on this blog forever. It has hit the bottom.