I could never make it through all 100+ pages of letters, but in the 25 or so I actually have read, I have seen a handful of Clinton supporters indicating their intention to stay home or vote for McCain, because Obama has the gall to act like a politician. I just wanted to send you a little message:

Please send me cookies when I am in Iran, please help my wife cope with the fact that her husband is on the other side of the world killing poor people against his will, and kindly give to the Red Cross and other aid groups supporting millions more dispossessed, brutalized, and exploited around the world as we continue to engage in permanent and useless war. And feel good about your principled choices.

I'm sorry your feelings are hurt, but there are really lives on the line here. Most of them aren't American lives, so I guess they don't matter that much, but make no mistake: Giving tyrants free reign will eventually prove as catastrophic for the US as it has already been for the rest of the world.

I am a little late to the table, but I feel compelled to point out that there is NO way the author of the National Review article linked by L.W.M. could possibly have been written in good faith. Justice Jackson wrote the concurring opinion, yes, but it has since been adopted as the paradigm for analyzing executive power by conservatives and liberals alike. Every student who has taken Constitutional law should know this, even if you took it at an undergrad level. The author of the article is either incredibly stupid or flat-out lying, and I would put money on the latter.

I remember in 2000, candidate Bush visited the small right-wing Baptist school where I was an undergrad. Despite being extremely ignorant, I sort of knew he wouldn't say anything worth listening to. If I could go back in time I would go, and bring tomatoes.

If there is anything the last 8 years should have taught the little countries on the US blacklist, it is that they should develop nuclear capabilities ASAP. They're much less likely to get invaded and much more likely to be negotiated with once they do. If I was running Iran and trying to keep the country from being invaded and decimated by the US, I would make a nuclear program my number one priority. I mean, its not like there is anything else you can do to stop us from invading once we've made up our minds...

There is a theological basis for dealing with trolls: It is found in Proverbs Chapter 26:4 and 5

"Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him; Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit."

The take-home message is: When you're dealing with fools, you're damned if you do, damed if you don't.

Inasmuch as trolls are mostly pathetic people who get no attention IRL, and only post on the internet to get a response, I try to avoid appeasing them. Pretend they don't exist.

We need to stop arguing now.

I was young, very young and ignorant when G.W. Bush was elected. Although I didn't take the time to vote, for some reason I was happy when it was finally revealed that he won. I grew up in a very conservative family, my father is a minister in Indiana. I have the utmost respect for my parents, and remain a conservative Christian. Even my parents are embarrased by Bush at this point. The current administration has succeeded in changing my mind about everything - in every case, where I formerly agreed with them, I now wholeheartedly disagree. They have acted for eight years without any basic decency or morality, and the whole world has suffered. John McCain, who I respected when I knew nothing about him, did nothing to stop the Bush administration, and is now parroting all of their destructive policies.

All of this could have been avoided but for some some principled Nader supporters in Florida, we now find out (leaving out the whole bit about Bush and the Supreme Court stealing the election). And yet, these supposed "Clinton supporters" threaten to repeat history, and not vote for Obama because he had the audacity to act like a politician. Isn't that a good thing? Do you think the Republician party is going to conduct an honorable campaign this year? Do you think some shrewd politics might help defeat them?

Of course not, because none of these people are actually Clinton supporters. If they were, they would support the candidate who will implement her policies. If they were, they would support the candidate that Clinton will herself support. In short, they would care about the country more than their own feelings, as I truly believe Clinton does. It is my opinion that most of the people fanning the flames on this site are plants, as numerous other writers have said. However, if any of these supposedly principled non-voters are not GOP plants, let me paraphrase for you the old, overused quote:

All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men and women to do nothing.