Over the past few months many here have decried the unrelenting hostility of the candidate wars. Personal attacks became too common and troll ratings were tossed around like firecrackers on the Fourth of July. As a result, GBCW diaries were posted. Community members avoided the candidate diaries, disenchanted by the behavior of too many. Recent concerns about the fall-off in traffic here at the largest site devoted to electing Democrats came precisely when one would anticipate a surge of interest.
Now that the first votes have been cast in the most important nominating campaign our nation has seen in decades, I've sensed a worrisome new development: a failure to win graciously. Some postings and comments have a "rubbing the salt in the wound" tone. It's not universal, but it's pervasive enough to make this plea - to the supporters of all campaigns:
We are all friends here who share a common goal (electing Democrats) and in a few weeks we will all need to be united in our effort to win back the White House.
I say this as an Edwards supporter who finds himself surprisingly inspired and excited by Obama's Iowa victory. Would I have been more delighted if Edwards had managed to win on Thursday? Undoubtedly. Do I think this race is over? Not at all. But I do recognize it will be over soon - perhaps sooner than I would like.
Most of the harshest comments and postings here are (predictably after the past few months) directed toward Hillary and her supporters. An honest evaluation of my own comments over the past couple of days reveals a tendency on my own part to be a tad bit harsh toward the Clinton campaign. I'm only human. But, I also remember the bitter disappointment I felt in past campaigns when I had spent days canvassing and volunteering for the losing candidate in a primary campaign. My memories of how I was treated by representatives - both official and non-official - from the winning campaign lingered. Occassionally, the bitter taste of defeat was so strong it made voting for the winner in the general nearly impossible. I'd hate to see that happen to any of the newly energized activists and voters during this, the most important presidential campaign of the past 40 years.
I'm not naively asking everyone to play nice - this is politics after all. I'm simply requesting everyone to remember what we learned as children. No one likes a sore loser. And people like a poor winner even less.
Be gracious in both victory and defeat and we can suceed as a united party in November.