The all-purpose excuse (UPDATED)

New poll on Kos: "What is the biggest factor driving anti-Obama sentiment?"

Results (as of this writing):

Anger toward his mistreatment of the Clintons -- 2 votes
Don't trust his experience - 3 votes
Racism, pure and simple - 56 votes

(The poll gives us no "Obots are vile" option.)

Of course, as I keep reminding my readers, Colin Powell could have had the White House in 2000 merely by pointing at it and saying "I'll take it." Everyone knows that. And so endeth the "racism" argument.

Progs live in dreamland, and they refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. My favorite line from Deconstructing Harry applies here: "I think you're the opposite of a paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you." Irrationally convinced of their own lovability, progressives cannot admit that they created the intra-party rift.

One of my readers defined the situation perfectly:

First, they said they didn't need me.

Now, they're telling me: "The beatings will continue until your attitude improves."

In another Cheeto post today, you will see tons of CDS. So much for unity. True, a few Kossacks contributing to that thread try to hold the Clinton-hate in check. The ones doing the holding back are just as hate-filled, but at least they understand the tactical advantage of trying to pretend to tolerate the Clinton supporters. (But they still won't confess to the tactical advantage of an apology.)

She gave the mcbush campaign talking points. She made herself LIEberman with internal plumbing.

her miscreant hubby

My disdain for all things Clinton is well documented in my previous posts.

Did Hillary really mean everything she said? Were there coded messages in her speech we have yet to uncover?

If Obama is successfully elected, we'll be able to forgive.

During the primaries, the Clintons did nothing -- absolutely nothing -- requiring forgiveness. Obama and the Kossacks did plenty. Case in point: The NAFTA smear.

Re: Clintons. Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, shame on me. The Clintons will never again fool me.

freakin Campbell Brown The first thing she said after the speech was something like, wow, what a great speech, this must make lots of people wonder why Obama didn't pick her as his VP.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I only flipped to cnn for one second and that is what I got. flippin useless drivel, I'll never watch that shit again.

PUMAs are Republicans

This one is particularly cute:

Libertarians seem to be to Republicans what the Greens seem to be to us...

Err...Kos is a libertarian. Arianna Huffington is a libertarian. Andrew Sullivan is a libertarian. Obama's economic advisers Goolsbee and Feldman lean libertarian. I've sounded this theme for months: The virus of libertarianism, having done all the harm it can via the Republican party, has found a new host. Libertarianism is taking over the Democratic party by way of Obama and his supporters. Since I consider libertarianism the primary enemy, I will never support Obama. PUMAs come from the anti-libertarian wing of the Democratic party.

racists in democratic skin.. bye hater

Once again, the "go away" theme. Yep, rhetoric like that will unite the party! And here's more:

pundits and poseurs...That's all that's left in the PUMA camp.

It's time.

The last car on the train has just called all aboard - the rest were never Democrats to begin with.

Then why is Obama losing to McCain?

She was capable of, and could have done, so much more than she did.

Is Puma dissolved? Has the party been united?

Hillary never ran PUMA, moron.

That wailing sound over in the corner? The sound of 8 PUMA's in their death throes. Good night and good riddance...

That ain't a wail; that's a snarl. And when Obama emerges from this convention with the kind of bounce you get from a concrete basketball, then let's talk about "death throes."

my deepest wish is that she divorces bill and just gives herself over to the work of governing this country without the divisiveness and cynicism of bill's (and mark penn's) micro-targeted, identity politics.

"Identity politics"? Hillary had the black vote. Obama took it after mounting a smear campaign falsely claiming that the Clintons are racists. Who, exactly, practiced "identity politics"?

The one good quality about narcissists like Bill Clinton is that they hold themselves in too high of a regard to ever not "shine".

About the racism charge:

he brought it on himself

How?

He's still an assclown

I do believe he brought it on himself and I can't say I feel much sympathy

I'm over Bill Clinton, seriously.

lost his cred when he took advantage of a young woman almost young enough to be his daughter, in the White House.

Ah yes. That. From an alleged Democrat. But then again, aren't all weapons fair in the never-ending prog war against the Clintons?

I'm going to get criticized for saying this, but I don't care. "Took advantage" how? Fucking a (grown) woman who throws herself at you may not be honorable -- in fact, if you are married, it may be decidedly dishonorable. But how the hell is it "taking advantage" of the lady? Rock stars don't take advantage of groupies; the groupies take advantage of them.

Let's close with a lyric from the "too little too late" choir:

You don't just kick two great politicians out of the party.

Then why did Moulitsas say that Hillary was no Democrat? Why did the progressives repeatedly tell all Clinton supporters to leave the party? Don't those idiots understand that words have consequences?

UPDATED: Today, Josh Marshall twice reprints this reader comment.

After all of your pleas for democrats to "attack, attack, attack" why are you letting Hillary off the hook?

TPM's top story at this writing:

Body language analysts agree! Hillary's heart wasn't in it.

Marshall, once the king of bloggers, has become a clown. Does he really think the Clinton supporters created the rift? The man must lack a mirror, because he seems to be unable to see himself as he truly is. Marshall is a better PUMA than riverdaughter or Larry Johnson!