I'm a member of what I would imagine is a relatively small group of people here at Dkos; people with no candidate preference in the upcoming presidential primaries. As a result, I've gotten a pretty solid "outsider's" perspective on what's going on in the primary wars. I feel that's put me in a pretty good position to say this:
Stop acting like jerks. I'm serious. Like...now. Because it's annoying as hell, and it's doing more harm than any of you seem to realize.
Ok, that's probably a little bit unfair. Obviously not everyone is acting like an idiot. I'm sure, if I wracked my brain really, really hard, I could think of some people who didn't fly off half-cocked at the barest hint that their chosen candidate did not, in fact, walk on water. But there are more than enough people acting simultaneously sanctimonious and petty that it's hard to notice anyone else. It's gotten to the point that one can't enter any sort of candidate diary, positive or negative, without running into a 50 comment spat about whose candidate bears the greatest resemblance to the spawn of Satan.
I'll let you in on a little secret; when I enter a diary about a great speech or policy proposal one of the candidates has given, and all people are talking about is a hedge fund or adultery or whether someone is black enough, I don't remember the great speech, but I do remember that people were acting like children.
And that, I think, is probably the ground on which you all should be the most receptive to this. I doubt many of you care whether or not I enjoy reading people's diaries. But you should care that it is affecting my impression of your candidates. Fair or not, a candidate's supporters have an effect on how a candidate is perceived. I don't think I'm remotely alone in that regard. If you're acting like a jerk, you're hurting your candidate. Not a lot, and you're not going to cost them the nomination or anything, but you're polluting the water. That matters now, and it matters down the line.
Remember, eventually, someone really does have to win this damn thing, and that person really is going to have to run against a Republican. It would be nice if they didn't have to run against Democratic ill-will at the same time.