Local political bloggers fuel partisan animosity

Over the course of this historic Democratic primary, many pundits and party activists expressed fear of irreparable harm from a growing level of animosity between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. No where is that animosity more intense than in the blogosphere.

Most bloggers who support one Democratic candidate over another engaged in civil debates over policy and which candidate would best lead the Democratic party and our nation. When either campaign seemed to steer attention toward sideshows, those same people discussed the real political implications in a civil manner. More attention, however, was focused on bloggers whose vitriolic name-calling has some questioning whether Democrats can come together behind one candidate or another or whether both parties can work together in Washington.

I asked several local bloggers who they believe are the top two political bloggers in Tennessee who align themselves with either Clinton or Obama. Most of those who responded via email, Twitter and phone identified bloggers Sean Braisted as an avid Obama supporter and the multi-authored blog Tennessee Guerilla Women as an avid Clinton supporter. Both blogs focused more on the candidate they want to lose than the one they want to win.

Surprisingly, I only had to look at the last month's worth of posts before finding animosity taking shape in the form of emotive name-calling. Some of the language would never be used by pundits in mainstream media and was left out below.

Tennessee Guerilla Women for Clinton	Sean Braisted for Obama
Obamazombies | a particular type of ass | the Misogyny Channel | Obamabot | deaf, dumb, and blind | Obamabots | Dinosaur | raving lunatic | jerk | first class coward | ugly rightwing | infamous in your face arrogant | downright mean misogynistic media | Whining Obama News Network | sleazy | ugly strain of misogyny | overt misogynist | Obama la la land | fuzzy gentleman | Frigid Ice King Keith Olbermann | cheap misogyny | snarky | sexist followers | vile misogyny | Race baiting Obama supporters | Bitter Obama Alienation Syndrome | baby fits of rage | Hillary hating pundits | this miserable cowboy country	chain smoking inbred idiots | elitist hicks | big bowl of crazy with a side of nutz and a wackadoodle chaser | merry band of complainers | empty pantsuit | rightwing hack | race-baiting, lacking a better word, bitch | stupid, bullshit | shrill and repulsive | racist whites | a bunch of egg heads | incessant pandering | effing pathetic | a backwoods hole in the wall throwback to a worthless era | uneducated rightwing moonshine swilling elitists | congenital liars | racist white dudes | 71 year old white guy | washed up elitist HACK | a gun-toting, bible-thumpin', whiskey pounding good ol' gal | best goddam small town school marm East of the Mississippi