I have been spending a little time in the John Edwards campaign chat room, nothing serious just keeping it open every now and then. The discussions are good and bad at times but what is interesting are the stand out characters.
- The “republican” troll - From what I can tell he is in there exclusively to be disruptive and a pain in the ass. All the standard troll behavior including scrolling and logging back in pretending his “room mate hacked my account, that wasn’t me!”. Pathetic.
- The BDS kid - a somewhat person who seems to represent the sort of left leaning fringe element that suffers from what many known as “Bush Derangement Syndrome“. His refers to President Bush as “raisin brain” while making frequent allusion to conspiracy theories and “stolen” elections. When you add in his declaration that anyone who supports Bush or the war is literally “insane” you can get a feeling for how off kilter he is.
To my mind the BDS kid is exactly the type of person the Edwards campaign actively sought out when they employed Amanda Marcotte. Thinking the passion of the crazies could be harnessed. However they will find as many Democrats in the past have that those people while passionate are simply crazy and the rank and file American simply won’t support them or anyone who champions them.
In between the crazy right and the deranged left we find the common Edwards supporter. They aren’t bad people and seem genuinely concerned with making a good choice though I currently serious disagree with many of their goals and judgments. The thing is that discourse among the reasonable is critical.
Its interesting 
Hmmm should I be offended? Im not…since I was not apart of the fighting your speaking of…
But for those considering stopping in, it really is a good place, there has been a recent increase in traffic of odd characters. On both sides of the isle.
Edwards is alittle more left this time around, but I think on the core issues he is right where he was 5 years ago when he started out on this crazy notion to be president. He is a good man and seems to attract alot of good people – a few nut jobs – but alot of good dems, repub, and ind’s – only party I havent seen is Libertarian and seriously who needs them…. JOKING!
I am glad your not insulted. I certainly tried to express that most of the people there were not like those two.
Generally I agree that Edwards has not changed in most matters. That is a problem for me. I simply disagree with him on many policy issues.
So far the chat has been interesting and (mostly) polite!