The haters were the outriders on a wave of media-driven, media-generated and media-responsive audience participation.  The silence you hear is (a) the sound the voices of the crowd (among them the haters) being still while waiting to be told the next chant to chant and (b) the media trying to figure out what the next chant will be.

It's like at a ballgame, where every now and again a silent moment will open up.  The alert (loudmouthed and inclined-to-rabblerousing) fan can seize that moment with a quick one-liner and change the whole tenor of the crowd's reaction to the game, at least for an inning or two.

So, this silence is the opportunity to set in motion the narrative against McCain.

Or Obama.

I'm glad to see that the comments that rant about Obama are being deleted now too.

I would like to think that this part of his piece was pure snark, but I'm not so sure:

As for me, I too have been critical of Clinton. My columns, of course, were a model of rational thought and cool analysis, and were based entirely on the issues, such as they were. For a number of reasons, I did not think she should be the Democratic nominee, but I often had more problems with her critics than I did with her. Some of them, clearly, needed to be medicated.

First, they should acknowledge that many members of the media attacked her with mockery and gender stereotypes that are cruel, nasty, and shameful.

Popular Vote Count

Delegate Count (No Supers)

Super Delegate Count

Also am I correct to say that the Super sand not the regular delegates ended up choosing the Dem nominee?

There hasn't been much to crow about when you look at Obama's actions and statements over these last few years.

So, I guess we'll just have to go after McCain.

The mainstream media won't chime in though.
They're as much stuck on McCain as they have been on Obama.

It doesn't look as if ending the war in Iraq is of much concern to anybody.

As a fellow commentor remarked the potential SCOTUS vacancies are far more important and too crucial to have a republican get into office.

I don't think I'll ever look at it again.

I liken this to what we call in the south "home training".  The posters who post comments that are vitriolic don't have any "home training" because they don't know any better.  They think that what is acceptable in their trailer park is acceptable at the mall.

It occurs to me, though, that the blogosphere is a very special place in many ways and that the Law of Unintended Consequence is an "Iron Law."

What I mean by that is that the 'net is dominated, in terms of numbers, by males and often younger males, and that the vast majority of them, even the ones who are politically active, use the 'net for porn sometimes or often.

Most of those guys see dipping their feet into the porn outlets as basically harmless.  

To me, however, it seems likely that there's a carryover from the objectification of women on the porn sites and the misogyny we all saw in the campaign.

I'm busy practicing law in Oklahoma, but I'd sure like to be able to test that theory.  Anybody got grant money?

It's over, ladies and gentlemen. Hillary Clinton lost. And so did you.

And let me add my thanks for all of the hard work by the staff, in what must have been a trying couple of months.

I've been reading for a while and but only recently joined to be able to comment.  

I greatly appreciate the pool of relative sanity you have created as places that I used to like but became unbearable collapsed under the wait of such hate.

The kernel of every attack on Clinton is an attack on her character.  She is untrustworthy and must not ever be president.

The kernel of every attack on obama is that he is not ready.  With more experience he could be president one day.

There have been sub themes that deviate slightly but those are the basics.

It's not about "supporting a person".  And I think when you talk that way about people who don't support your candidate, then you are, yourself, trolling.

Are you saying a person is a GOP troll if they happen to support the green party candidate?

Some of us are no longer members of the Democratic Party.  

Because this is about upholding democratic principles within the Democratic Party. It's not about my bwuised widdle feelings.

"Healing," for me, starts with Barack Obama going back to the U.S. Senate and learning to do his job.

There was definitely "Hillary hatred" evident in the media and on the blogs. Some of the blogs encouraged or fueled this hatred and others ignored it. The media definitely wasn't into Obama hatred during the primary but there were some blogs that encouraged or fueled Obama hatred and others ignored it.

TL allowed disagreement on the issues as long as it remained in bounds and deleted comments by everyone that legimately went over the top.