I will admit that I had a lot of strongly held opinions, not all of them necessarily fit for public airing, after the announcement of the GOP VP choice and during the nasty, nasty RNC. But hey--I'm over it, and I'm rolling up my sleeves, because our team has the superior choice in Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
I thought I'd share something with y'all from my ancient, dusty college philosophic class in logic. Have you ever heard of an ad hominem attack? Here's a hint: it is a poor choice in attempting to refute an argument by attacking the person proposing it instead of the argument itself.
Let me rephrase it: attacking or making fun of someone who holds a position you don't like doesn't discredit their argument. It only makes you look bad.
From wikipedia, on ad hominem attacks:
An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument to the man", "argument against the man") consists of replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim. The process of proving or disproving the claim is thereby subverted, and the argumentum ad hominem works to change the subject.
It is most commonly used to refer specifically to the ad hominem as abusive, sexist, racist, or argumentum ad personam, which consists of criticizing or attacking the person who proposed the argument (personal attack) in an attempt to discredit the argument. It is also used when an opponent is unable to find fault with an argument, yet for various reasons, the opponent disagrees with it.
Other common subtypes of the ad hominem include the ad hominem circumstantial, or ad hominem circumstantiae, an attack which is directed at the circumstances or situation of the arguer; and the ad hominem tu quoque, which objects to an argument by characterizing the arguer as acting or arguing in accordance with the view that he is arguing against.
Here's a recent ad hominem attacks at DailyKos (not going to dignify crappy little trolls of varying) from the front page:
Is it okay to insult McCain's appearance?
And you've all seen numerous diaries with very little real substance which come and go very rapidly regarding Palin. There's plenty to attack them about on the real issues, folks. They don't have an economic plan. Or a health care plan. Or an environmental plan. Or an energy plan. Obama and Biden do. Let's hear more about that.