During the 2002 election was it like this?

[Ladyhawk]

People getting scared and other people jumping on them for not being positive? I just want to know.

Me? I was in complete political apathy. I didn't care who won, really. Perhaps I should have been a tiny bit afraid? (I was speaking here of the 2000 election before I changed the title.)

It seems to me that fear is a sign that something is wrong and that you'd better do something about it. It's just an emotion. It shouldn't be automatically condemned. I don't like it when people berate me for having an emotion. I'm human. I have lots of them.

I just have to turn the emotion into some kind of positive act and hope for the best.

[Elidor]

1. As I recall, the DU servers were down a lot back then...

They didn't have the new software yet, so it was a lot harder to have an argument. Yeah. That's it.









hehehehe

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. DU didn't exist then.

n/t

[Ladyhawk]

3. Well, then it would be hard to compare, wouldn't it? :)

How about the 2002 elections? Did we see the pollyannas, the realists and the doom-and-gloomers fight it out? Let me change the title of the post...

[greatauntoftriplets]

7. Yes, as you said during the 2002 elections.

Same old, same old.

[Elidor]

9. Ah, yes, 2002...GAWD

It got really ugly. And it was only the midterms! I knew then that 2004 was going to be tough. And so it is. The DU Civil Wars are really tough to endure. I flee at times, until I regain my peace of mind.

But no matter how bad things get here, I'd go mad without DU.

[Philostopher]

10. There was some of that,

but actually, we were very optimistic leading into it. To our regret, in most cases -- Democrats were drubbed in '02. You have to combine that with the fact that Paul Wellstone's plane went down shortly before the election, and that really zapped the dynamics around here.

I think you make a good point, though -- that doom and gloom/polyanna bipolar behavior did exist, but there weren't as many people participating back then, and it was right after Wellstone died, too, which put a bit of a damper on both emotions.

I think the combination of the surprise of losing our scant majority in the Senate and Wellstone dying was very painful, and yet most of us learned not to be either too optimistic or pessimistic about results, especially polling.

There may be a sort of 'you weren't here when Wellstone died, you don't know sad,' factor working here, too. And while I feel that way, I also understand the Chicken Little people who rise and fall with every poll.

It's a tough call whether we'll win this one or not, I freely admit that. I think it's too close to call in most of the states Kerry really needs that may go either way, and that things could either improve or go down the toilet between now and then. The only real alternative to becoming bipolar yourself is either to invest your emotional energy and time in the campaign (or your money, if not the other things), take frequent breaks from DU, polls and the TV news, or just realize that when somebody posts a 'sky is falling' post there are going to be a certain number of people who are going to agree and an equal or greater number who are going to say 'oh, grow up -- it's always like this!'

[Elidor]

5. I was going to have SUCH GREAT FUN with this!

And you let the cat right out of the bag. :(

:spanky

[Ladyhawk]

6. Aww...sorry. :) You just can't keep 40,000 voices quiet. :)

I would have caught on...I hope. :P

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. What can I say?

:evilgrin:

[dennis4868]

4. please correct me if I am wrong.....

but i dont believe DU was around during the 2000 election....but if I am wrong abnout that I would appreciate another DUer correct me....

[Awsi Dooger]

11. On other political sites, October was very similar to this

Not September, with Gore in cruise after the convention triumph and then several winning performances on talk shows. Bush had a miserable month, with gaffes like the "RATS" line, subliminally included in one of his commercials, and that "major league asshole" comment regarding Adam Clymer. With the debates looming and Gore already ahead, liberal sites and posters were exuding confidence.

After the first debate and especially the 2nd, I remember dismay and arguments very similar to here and now. Bush took a small but seemingly solid lead and Gore was cartooned in the media every day as an exaggerator, like Kerry is supposedly a flip-flopper.

On edit: now that you've updated to include 2002, I was very new here but the overall theme was rampant optimism, given the lousy economy including a stock market that briefly dipped to about 7800 that summer. We assumed the out-party would make the typical significant gains, especially given the mortivation after 2000 theft, probably increasing the senate edge and especially a likely bonanza in gov seats, many projecting a net gain of 8 to 12. Myself included. I have admittedly turned more glass half empty since 2002, considering what they did to Max Cleland and Dems in general, and also due to GOP advances in GOTV, which I believe is the hidden factor in this campaign.