What BTD said

why they get no respect. Maybe it's mainly because they don't deserve any.

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Around these parts we call cucumber slices circle bites

I suspect that the attacks on Palin is part of the reason that New Jersey is now moving into swing territory. Palin could be the typical suburban soccer mom. I see an over abundance of them everyday in their stupid mini-vans and SUVs that I can't see around. And many of them are religious, steady church goers.
Everytime the big boyz hit on Palin it's like a hit on a NJ soccer mom and she goes red. And lest we forget, those soccer moms voted heavily for Clinton and saw every one of their votes get handed over to Obama at the convention. We had a "Loser Takes All" delegation. Lovely. Soccer moms have long memories. They can carry a grudge and ostracize until you wander the suburban wasteland without a friend in the world. You wouldn't want to meet one on a dark playground with a tube of lipstick.
Scary.
Come together at The Confluence

...that I think a Rovian ratf%^&ing operation is behind a lot of it. I think there has been a systemized infiltration n many of the big blogs. In fact, I think I know a Obama troll from a Republican troll by now.
Obama trolls have a very condescending attitude. They really believe that all Clintonistas are dumb as a box of rocks. They can't help themselves. They're so smug and proud of themselves. Very much in the "I have the TRUTH and you people are too dumb to see it" vein. It reminds me of my mother's crazy religious fads.
Republican trolls are just aggressive. They don't care about intelligence. They are more in the predator mode. Sort of like sharks.
So, I suspect that if a commenter is going off on Palin's religion and dinosaurs and stuff like that, he/she is an Obama troll. If the commenter is making crude remarks about her looks and sexuality and nasty conspiracy theories about progeny, he is a Republican operative. The sad thing is that Obamaphiles are so far gone they end up buying it.
Come together at The Confluence

It's not just that they don't fight for issues, they also no longer fight with the truth. From today's Daily Howler:

WE’RE ALL SEAN HANNITY NOW: Josh Marshall’s descent into Hannity Land has been a dizzying ride. But even by Josh’s declining standards, this gruesome post by Kate Klonick represents a new low in rube-running. (David Kurtz linked to the piece, on page one.) Do you enjoy being treated like fools? If so, you’ll love Klonick’s opening:

KLONICK (9/15/08): On the campaign trail, Sarah Palin likes to brag about how she put the Alaska state jet on eBay and fired the governor's personal chef. One item that doesn't appear in her stump speech, however, is the personal tanning bed Palin had installed in the governor's mansion.

Since Palin bought this item herself (see paragraph 2), it’s hard to see how it relates to the paring of those state assets. But then, our dwindling intelligence gets insulted again as Klonick ends her groaner:

KLONICK: The news of Palin's luxurious purchase—beds can cost as much as $35,000—presents a sharp contrast to the blue-collar persona she projects on the campaign trail.

Readers, journalists can be paid as much as $10 million. Why does Marshall pay Kate Klonick such a ridiculous salary?

Truly, we’re all Sean Hannity now. Sorry, no—we’re Hannity’s viewers. Do you like it when your leaders treat you like the world’s biggest rubes? By the way: As a matter of simple politics, it’s amazingly stupid to write this about Palin even as you attack Palin’s misstatements.

I believe that part of why we have had 30 years of conservatives is crap like this. Without truth, people are left with bullshit and when people make political decisions on bullshit, they are often bad ones. It's eroding our political discourse and that's horrible for liberals. Maybe it's a good business model for Josh, but it's not good for our politics. Reality has a liberal bias. I prefer to live in reality and that my fellow Americans live there, too.

And guess what, even smart people like Josh Marshall can be led astray by truthiness. In fact, he has admitted that he was:

MARSHALL (9/2/08): A lot of Washington reporters have spent a decade loving John McCain. Just a few days ago a friend of mine who was once among the courted explained to me just how different and successful McCain was in the courtship. Off the cuff, frank, entirely accessible. Because of all that, a lot of these people got heavily invested in the maverick and straight-talker image. I'll be honest: back in 2000 and probably until 2002 I was pretty invested in it. Why a lot of people have held on through the last half dozen years of contrary evidence is another question. But the Palin pick is that paradigm-breaking piece of evidence that takes you from 'maverick' to 'reckless' or worse. And claiming that Palin has 'military command' experience as head of the Alaska National Guard gets you from "straight talker' to 'bullshit artist'.

We’re not sure what to make of that statement, but we thought it did deserve capture this week. A bit of background:

In 1999 and 2000, Josh was a straight liberal journalist—a very smart and detailed journalist, as we have previously noted. But as Washington editor of The American Prospect, he largely missed the key story of Campaign 2000—the mainstream press corps’ relentless, two-year War against Candidate Gore. (Gore was a big liar, just like Bill Clinton.) Of course, even as the corps made a demon of Gore, they made a sun-god out of McCain. Their work was routinely clownish; to sustain this nonsense, they had to ignore all sorts of conduct by McCain, including the lies he routinely told about Gore. Now, Josh says he was “heavily invested” in the imagery, and remained that way until 2002.

Please note: We’re not saying that McCain was an evil person during Campaign 2000. (In Josh’s new argot, a “bullsh*t artist.”) We’re saying that the sun-god portrait was utterly foolish—as was the portrait of vile demon Gore. Of course, while the portrait of McCain was only clownish, the portrait of Gore was deeply evil; it led to evil results in the world, evil results which are still unfolding. If Josh couldn’t see how absurd the one portrait was, it’s really no great wonder that he failed to see the absurdity and evil lodged in the other. Indeed: As late as the summer of 2002, Josh was still pretending, in Slate and Salon, that Gore had every advantage during Campaign 2000. Since it’s fairly clear that Josh knew better, that conduct was a bit evil-ish too. After all: Because voters were never told what happened to Gore, it was easier to demonize Kerry, the utterly feckless flip-flopper.

Josh Marshall is very smart—or used to be, before he decided to become a bit hackish. If even he purchased the Saint McCain scripts, then don’t worry: Many, many other scribes will sustain this great tale through this fall.

Is the country better off for it? Now that the truthiness is hurting a candidate he likes, it's bad. But not so bad he won't employ the same standards to promote his candidate.

Truthiness rots everything and there's no guarantee your version of truthiness will win. And even if it does, what have you won? You're king of a culture built on bullshit. Congratulations.