Granted, I've been seeing less of it over the past couple of days, but in the hours and days following the debate, genuine worry about Obama's performance and the narrowing polls, lead some people to express those anxieties. And lead some (and I stress, SOME) other commenters to label those people some variation of "concern troll."
Man, do I dislike it when any expression of opinion is smugly dismissed by labelling the commenter as being less than genuine. Have for years. And in this case, it doesn't even make sense.
From what I had always thought, a concern troll comment was where the person making the comment was perceived as not being genuinely concerned at all, but wanted to hurt the candidate/issue they appeared to be so concerned about. Something like this:
Hey guys, this story up on Drudge right now is making me very, very nervous.
or
I used to think this election was in the bag, but I went to Romney's campaign site and read his tax policy. I hate to say it, but it's actually pretty good.
or
Uh oh. I just read what Dick Morris wrote about the campaign so far. Ordinarily, I wouldn't take it seriously, but it corroborated what Pat Caddell and Doug Schoen said as well. I'm not liking Obama's chances.
Those could be examples of either naive commenters or concern trolling.
But as we all watched Obama give a maddeningly ineffective debate performance, and as we all saw some polls narrow (at least before today's Gallup tracking poll), it's entirely reasonable for some people to feel a little bit bummed and nervous.
This isn't the Obama campaign website, this is a progressive website. We support the candidate, but we do not have to pretend things are sunshine and lollipops when they aren't. That's what Stephanie Cutter is for. And we're not Nate Silver either, for crying out loud! If someone gets worked up because some state poll narrowed for a day, don't call them a troll simply because said commenter didn't look and the trendlines, the internals, or the track record of the pollster. We're not all sophistimacated around here.
Being concerned does not make you a troll. We all want Obama to win in November, but we're allowed to comment with our id. Those who post "uh oh" comments aren't trying to suppress turnout or tick people off. Sometimes, a concern is just a concern.
Umm, but by the way, if anyone has a good broccoli-chedder soup recipe, I'd be quite receptive to that. Thanks!