I have just posted a fairly long reply to a Hillary supporter I generally respect. This person wondered why there was so much nastiness posted about Hillary and her supporters here. Well I just started typing and this came all came out. I think that with a little modification it deserves a wider audience.

Well, you asked for it why is there so much posted that attacks Hillary? Why are her supporters looked on with so much mistrust and ridicule? If you look at the list below perhaps you may garner a glimmer of the reasons, the biggest of which seems to be duplicity.

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She did bring up the racial issue. Even if you go along with the contention that the Obama campaign mentioned it first then there was still no reason for first Bill, then Geraldine Ferraro then Hillary herself to actually commit and compound the offense.

Her Campaign has cried "sexism" over every minor idiosyncrasy of the English Language - "Periodically" and "Claws" for example -then committed actual acts of sexism in respect of men and women who do not support her.

She did sign the agreement over Florida and Michigan, she also went further and stated outright that she did not believe the votes in Michigan would count at the convention.

Her campaign has vetoed solutions agreed by the DNC with FL and MI.

She did mention that Pledged delegates do not have to stay with their pledge; although, ironically, the only pledged delegate to follow that advice at present has been a Clinton delegate.

She has squandered a massive lead in fund raising and her campaign is hugely in debt.

She has been abysmal in selecting her senior staff - Patti Solis Doyle and Mark Penn specifically.

She did lie, and lie repeatedly, about Bosnia.

She has never apologized for her IWR vote; John Edwards did, Hillary Clinton has not.

She did favourably compare McCain to Obama.

She does do conference calls with the Blogosphere to coordinate attacks on "Obama friendly" sites

She has just reminded every goofball and nutcase that candidates have been assassinated prior to the convention before.

She has raised this ridiculous "popular vote" idea and then manipulated the numbers until (in her mind) she is ahead.

and last, but by no means least ...

There are the nauseous Hillary booster sites such as Hillary is 44 which do nothing but raise the specious talking points that are currently favoured by her campaign.

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I agree that there are many petty minded Obama supporters (even myself at times) but even I have tried peacemaking and have been attacked for it by Clinton Boosters. That I could ignore but then I saw how EVERY approach made by Obama supporters was similarly greeted with ridicule, it seems in fact that many Clinton Supporters do not wish for peace to break out here because that would not suit their purpose.

I strongly suspect that every other site that does not openly support Hillary is attacked in the same way (look at the sheer vitriol posted here about KOS, Huffpo and TYT). Such attacks here serve 2 purposes; firstly they put out a view that the posters wish to establish as a perceived truth, and secondly they encourage attacks from normally reasonable members who oppose this view. The disruptors then claim victimhood and seek sympathy from less aggressive board members. These tactics are not easily countered on an open board such as this, for banning the offenders (except for the most egregious offenses) allows them to claim "censorship" by the Board Admin. An outbreak of peace would undermine this tactic and allow Admin to be more free in the tombstones it delivers.

Given all of this, and I suspect more, do you really wonder why peoples gorge rises with every passing day. Can you not see why Hillary is castigated as much as she is? Could it be that in addition to "not getting Obama" you do not get the small minded viciousness of the Clinton Campaign and the surrogates who post here so often? If you cannot "get" this point then are you a Clinton supporter - or an agent of the Clinton Campaign?

/edit for poor souls with tiny monitors