I assume that, like me, they wouldn't do it if they didn't actually believe in what they were pushing.

I realize it sounds like I'm being paid. I'm not. I was referring to my dismissing out of hand consideration for a job that would have me peddling conservative ideology. I guess I meant, "like me, they wouldn't even consider doing it..."

Or are we still stuck in the rut of a wretchedly fruitless row?

I fear a decline in the quality of my posts over the past few days lateagain because I've been restless, distressed for personal reasons, and turning to the internet for distraction from life.

I was not insulted by maureen's suggestion that I was getting paid, because for some reason mareen seems like an aunt of mine who enjoyed a few salty remarks back and forth (although with Maureen her salt is narrative and historical innuendo...which I often find entertaining despite, according to the same maureen, my obsidian boringness.)

Still, last night I couldn't sleep and I was accused of being an astroturfer by AKA Smith who also gave no answer when I asked if she thought I was evil for still supporting Obama. I was not insulted, maybe strangely, but I was tired, depressed and sad that this is the impasse. Smith also used "sweet" as a description of my attempt to play the violins for "let's all get along" song, so I suddenly know the feeling of not being able to make good to a woman who feels that her candidate was scorned. And my candidate is nothing but a cad if that.

Should I be upset lateagain? I really would like a paycheck for my "mewling" but the only one I've seen offering is mccain. I suspect that my problem with Smith was my own fault for staying up far too late at night--which I tend to do when my nerves are frayed--and for that terrible feeling that I get sometimes that I can somehow persuade someone to think differently about something that they are very passionate about. (And honestly I didn't want to listen very hard either to some of the attacks on a candidate who I still think is a decent one..so that probably didn't help). Just now, I thought Maureen might have been commenting on that (she absorbs information very quickly she says) so I didn't feel the sting of the insult very hard. Rachel Smaechel is what I say (after a This American Life radio program about a london blogger who is falsely accused of being invented by British Intelligence Agencies after she witnesses a terrorist bombing on a train and tries to write about her experiences in a group that includes 9-11 conspiracy theorists).

But thank-you lateagain for commenting & not believing the demmed rumors to be true.

Pardon my curious interruption, but what is astroturf other than an artificial carpeting for a sports field? I mean, what does it mean in the modern slang sense, because I've never heard that one before?

Wow, you use a lot of bold sentences and sentences in both bold and italics. That must mean what you have to say is very important. Have you tried all-caps? That would really make your imporatnt accusations stand out!

But I agree with you that Obama will be much worse than Bush. In fact, I think he will be on the scale of Evil somewhere between Vlad the Impaler and the Cloverfield Monster.

Joan, I think your feelings on this subject reflect the views of the majority of Democrats. I'm only sorry that you felt the need to feed the bloggers with the continual sterotype of Hillary supporters. Could you let me know what PUMA stands for?

Democrats need to see their most popular figures at the convention. Obama fans seem to want to pretend that the Clintons never existed. Why? Hillary's popularity extended to nearly half the Democrats who voted in the primaries. Bill Clinton has always been popular with we ordinary, run of the mill people. Edwards will probably be a no-show with his present personal problems, and Gore represents our last losing candidate.

To me and other strong Democrats I know, it has appeared that Obama is acting quite self-important. Especially when he took the mantle of Democratic candidate, leaving convention delegates wondering why they even should bother showing up. And when he attempted to meet and greet leaders of the world as if he believed himself to be the President-Elect. He didn't bother to show up at important votes before the Senate, he has changed his opinion on a number of subjects that he (think FISA)represented himself as being passionate about during the primaries, and now he and his family are off to Hawaii for a vacation. We Dems want to win this election, but I'm worried how Obama in Hawaii looks to Americans during this staggering economic time. Too many democrats are worrying about keeping their homes, keeping their jobs, finding health insurance, etc. to think kindly at a candidate who can afford to vacation at a place where most will never be able to even dream about seeing. He needed to go vacation somewhere much less showy than Hawaii.

Lateagain,

You asked if we were all in on the maureenodonnell joke and forgot to tell you. I realized today (I should've realized this before) that most of her posts, while erudite and full of great quotes and pithy phrases, dont make much sense, and only tangentially address the actual topic. I think some posters are spoiling for a fight, and I think that this description is apt in the case of Ms. O' Donnell. If Hillary had won the nomination, she'd be decrying America for not seeing the fresh promise of Obama. At first, I was getting annoyed, because she was determined to pick fights based on any flimsy premise, even resorting to making sh*t up: to wit, insinuating that I thought all Irish people were Catholics because of a comment I made about growing up with a best friend who was of Irish-Catholic descent. I realized that I was getting nowhere by getting upset, and decided to just enjoy myself.

I did make an attempt to joke around with her, hoping that she might come to see the absurdity of taking a persistently antagonistic attitude. This, as you read, got me nowhere. I kept reading her responses to me and to others, and was, like, "whoa". Again, I suspect she's one of those people who revels in online fights. It's social. Demented and sad, but social :).

I wish that there were more notes like Democrat58's. She and I disagree on our candidate of choice, but her affection and respect for the Clintons is heartfelt, and she's not out to make a fool of anyone who disagrees with her. I think those of us on both sides of this protracted Clinton Supporter-Obama Supporter divide can learn from that.