The most surprising and disappointing aspect of our politics is how little pushback there has been against the vile, extremist rhetoric that has characterized such a large part of the anti-Obama movement.

The door swings both ways on vile, extremist rhetoric; to the left and to the right, mentioning one without the other seems to be kinda vile and extremist rhetoric

I don't believe they do. They already are strident as well as tabloidish. The “news” magazines are a vulgar form of info-tainment, often differing little from, say, People or Us.

(What to read instead on airplanes or wherever else you're captive for a while? Aside from the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, my favorites include the Economist.)

It's no use trying to reason with those who have already, immediately seized and firmly hold incorrect conclusions (often for highly emotional reasons).

Even you should agree, however, that the far right currently excels in the art of spreading emotionally-charged propaganda as a substitute for reason.

I can't. Maybe the words “communist” and “socialist” offend you more than “fascist” and “teabagger”, but they're all meant to group, belittle and dismiss people en mass. I've seen as much, if not more, hatred and blanket put downs on DailyKos and HuffPo as on WSJ. It's not constructive, logical, or civil, but it's common.

the fact that clinton was a rotten president in no way justifies the shrub's actions or behavior.

reagan's misdeeds in no way justify the crap that clinton pulled.

see how it works? if they did something wrong then they're wrong, plain and simple. what really sux is that our choice last year came down to obama/biden vs mccain/palin. a mccain/palin administration is a pretty terrifying thought. i'm really hoping [against all odds] that obama can turn out to be better than they might have been.

candidly, obama is the worst president in my living memory except for reagan, clinton and both bushes; but he's working really hard to catch up with them and has made a remarkable amount of progress in a very short time.

More importantly, is this just another variant on the theme of the GOP being a comic-book caricature of spayed and neutered Democrats, as a token “opposition”? The infighting between farther- and lesser-left people is far more interesting as well as substantial.

This undertaking resembles the bleating of the misnamed “mainstream caucus” containing Republicans who were defending Big Government after the 1994 elections.

Or is it like some already in Washington, trying to ingratiate themselves with Obama and a strong Democratic group who currently runs the place?

Maybe they really mean what they're saying, but history advises us to be awfully cynical about it.