I'm still thinking, but:

For the sake of discussion let's say that you are spot on, that there are more awful obama supporters than Hillary ones. Let's even just take it for granted that that the awful Obama supporters are awful in the way you describe; they are smug, elitist and really look down on anybody who doesn't agree with them. Taking that, for now, as a proven fact:

Even if Obama has a higher percentage of awful supporters than the average presidential candidate, how much does that inform us about the nature of the man (in this case) himself? And how much does that inform us about the effect his policies will have on the health care system, on foreign policy, on new economic steps, on education, on race, sex and other issues? If we assume that Obama has 8% more awful supporters than most presidential candidates, based on that, how much do we know about the reasons we should or should not vote for him?

I've guessed before that you focus on this fact because you are concerned solely with strategy, that you simply are trying to figure out how perception will affect the democratic nominee. This is partly why I think if Hillary was in the lead you would be seriously concerned with how she is perceived. It would help me so much if I knew that you really were coming form this basic strategic question because then I would not get agitated by why I perceive as an odd over-focus on how Obama can be percieved negatively.

But I also have to give you credit: there is no way that you are only thinking strategically. Your concern about the higher percentage of awful Obama supporters (let's say 9% higher) must also be connected with ideas you have about what this actually means about his potential presidency. I really want to know your thoughts about this. I also want to know your strategy thoughts, but that leads to questions about Hillary's downside as well and I'm not all that interested in spending much more time talking about negative Hillary perception. I think there is a useful conversation to be had about what the higher percentage of negative Obama supporters says about the affects he will have on our country if he is the person walking off of Air Force One.

Even though it very well might not be possible for Joan to pick back up the specific conversation she started here with me (my asking her if there is evidence that Barack's awful supporters are more in number or demonstrate a significantly different type of awfulness),

I'm hoping that we see her disire to "think about it" reflected in her future comments. I don't need her to agree with me. I guess I asked Joan for what I needed: reasons based on evidence. I'm not stupid, I do understand that in cultural/political discourse we can't have the type of evidence we get in chemstry. But, BUT because Joan is obviously spending time and ideas on the significance of her assumption that awful Hillary supporters are somehow less significant in this race, I think we need some type of evidence that Joan, at least, considers significant.

My last set of questions to Joan (which I hope she can find)were asking her to take for grantedthat Obama has a higher percentage of awful sopporters and then tell us what that means about his presidency and how we know it is a reasonable link. I'm not as interested in talking about how negative associations play out strategically because then we also need to dig up all the negative perceptions of Hillary; unlike many people here, I happen to believe that Joan is pefectly aware of how negatively Hillary can be viewed and I don't think Joan chalks it all up to sexism. That is why I am most interested in Joan's ideas about the possible link between Obama's worst supporters and the way he would govern. It's obviously selfish, but that is the kind of conversation that I think Joan's latest blogs beg.

At this point I'm refusing to accept that Joan is just reacting to all the bile she gets here in the comments. A cursoy glance at other blogs and websites quickly reveals what happens if you tell large groups of Hillary supporters (on the internet)that you have serious doubts about her abilities or character. Personally, I don't think even the worst Hillary supporters shed light on how she would function as president.