Good afternoon.

Not everybody who has grievances is a troll.  Those of us who are pleased with who won our nomination have been a bit trigger happy with the terms "troll" and "concern troll" and so forth.  We have to be able to accept honest dissent and some of that honest dissent will come from people with whom we strongly disagreed during the primary season.  Some of those people still have the same concerns as they had before, but are either on board with us, or are working their way towards it.  Every time one of them writes something critical of our nominee they get pounded.

Stop that!

On the other hand, if those of you who previously supported Senator Clinton wish to be taken seriously in your complaints, I would urge you to stop replaying the primary season.  It's over.  It's done.  Your candidate lost, and no amount of sniping will change that.  

And yes, we have real trolls too.  So how do we achieve civility hereabouts?  Why not read on...?

I'm going to pony up and make another donation to the Obama campaign this evening.  It will be small (I'm not exactly awash in cash), but it will matter.  I am going to chip in again because I want a small slice of ownership in our future.  Senator Obama opted out of the public finance system because he had faith in us.  Well, I still have faith in him.

And in all of us.  Please read on...

Well, I seem to have found a nice niche here saying things that few want to hear, and I find I rather like it.  Nobody sane would question my status as a Democrat, but given the fact that we've been a bit monolithic of late, I'll stir the pot a bit more.

We need the Blue Dogs!  Or, well, at least some Blue Dogs.  Frankly, the netroots has behaved like a pack of children, most of the time anyway, on this issue.

Feeling mashochistic?

I think that these quiet murmurs about the possibility that Senator Obama may "flip" on Iraq are correct.

You guys are gonna go absolutely ballistic when that happens, so I want to share my thoughts on this one, because it won't mean what a lot of you will probably think it means.  I'm not saying you're children (far from it) but your passion will mean that you miss a very obvious signal, and you won't read the details of what's suggested.

And that's a terrible mistake...

Darragh Murphy founded or co-founded PUMA.  She never donated to the Clinton campaign.  She did donate to the McCain campaign in 2000.  The PUMA PAC was founded four days before Senator Clinton dropped out.  I have a hard time believing, as the author of this article does, that a PAC founded four days prior to her dropping out, when it was obvious as hell she wasn't going to win, was really meant to help Senator Clinton.

To those PUMA's who really did support Senator Clinton, I'm sorry but you're being played.  The Republicans are using you.

Please read the article.

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comme nts/pumas_are_swiftboats_darragh_murphy/

I'll make this brief.

Apparently a lot of you don't get Barack Obama.  I saw this problem coming a mile off, especially during that brief window where Kos didn't care for Obama and preferred Edwards.  The problem is very simple, and the way it's played out is pretty funny to me.

Barack Obama isn't a knife-fighter.  He doesn't slash, he doesn't go for the face.  Barack Obama finesses his opponents.  He outthinks them.  He seldom lands a blow because he seldom needs to.  He's great on the counterpunch, but his heart really isn't into bloodletting.

The netroots wants someone to make the Republicans pay for what they've done.  The netroots wants someone to kick their asses, if not kick in their teeth.  Well guys, if that's what you want, you don't know Barack Obama.

And I do...

Mr. Vice President, this is America calling.  We're kind of screwed.  We should have listened to you awhile back.  Boy, that's already cost us, and it's likely to cripple us.

Mr. Vice President, this is America begging.  Set aside your jet-set lifestyle.  Set aside your pride.  Set aside the weirdness of running for a job you already had and by all accounts didn't much enjoy.

Mr. Vice President, this isn't even about the Democratic Party anymore.  This is America calling.  There's a fierce urgency of now.  We've got to find a way to solve our energy crisis and the looming change in our climate.  

Mr. Vice President, there's no one else who can immediately and totally dominate this conversation.  You'd have to tweak your message slightly, so as to emphasize our energy needs beyond the attached climate change issues.  You might have to pivot to nuclear power.  However you do it, Mr. Vice President, you're the man for the job.

Howdy gang.  I think I've found a theme here at MyDD.com.  I've tried to be a voice for civility by default (though I have a sharp tongue when stupidity abounds).  I'd like to continue in that vein.

Primary messages often morph into something else once the general election begins.  The territory a primary candidate stakes is often selected because it's the only possible approach against other Democrats.  That narrative doesn't usually survive unscathed in the general election.

One aspect of Barack Obama's message needs to prosper.  We, his supporters, need to dial it back a notch in how we speak and write about John McCain.  I do not mean we should hold our fire in criticizing the man.  I will be doing it, I can assure you.  However, for a variety of reasons I will lay out below the fold, we should moderate how we do it.

Read on...