This is my first presidential campaign since joining DU

I have never seen so much division and derisiveness. When I joined, bush and his minions were the targets, not fellow Dems. Face it, just having bushco out of office will be a huge plus. And I feel very confident that a Dem will win the presidency. I know that there are significant differences between our candidates, but any of them will be a win for us.

To some, politics is a sporting event. "My team is better than your team." That's really all it is. During primary season, the "other" team takes on new meaning.

But I don't worry about Dems beating up on each other during the primaries. It's just what we do.

It was between Dean, Kerry, and Clark, and each had massive camps that were just continually sniping.

So there were whole universes of insults they never got to try.

only in a grudging "we gotta get this asshole outta the WH" way.

Watch what happens as the eventual nominee is chosen--it's get VERY bitter, and then there will be grudging acceptance and then we'll pretty much all agree we gotta beat those bastards!

There's a lot at stake. Another four years of Republican rule could seriously destroy this country — not in a metaphorical sense, but in a tangible sense.

What if Obama really isn't tough enough to withstand the inevitable Republic slime assault? What if Clinton's negatives really will make her a loser? If John Edwards can't do better than 3rd in these primaries, will he bring out enough voters to clobber the Republican candidate? I think some of the stridency is driven by fear that if we pick the wrong candidate, we'll lose again.

Another factor is that many of us are sick of the compromise. We used to be a country that absolutely renounced torture, and now we're talking about how much torture is too much — it's upsetting. One example is the anger that some people have over Obama's association with an anti-gay gospel singer. Are the other leading candidates really going to be that much better for the gay community? I don't know, but I do know that a lot of people are sick of being betrayed by Reid and Pelosi and aren't in a mood to be forgiving anymore.

That's my take on it.