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There is no valid reason for this incessant vitriol against Sarah Palin by some posters.

I beg to differ. There most certainly is. In fact, I can think of two valid reasons -- "valid," that is, in terms of doing damage to the forces promoting limited government conservatism.

1. To demoralize Palin supporters in order to push them toward a different candidate. Reading the posting history of FR's most vocal Palin critics, I see that in most cases, about HALF of their posts are dedicated to trying to convince people they shouldn't support Palin. The balance of their posts are to support their own candidate (Perry, mostly) and miscellaneous topics. It's interesting that most Palin supporters' posts are directed toward boosting Palin and criticizing her critics, while a relatively small percentage are directed at tearing down other candidates; Perry's most vocal supporters, on the other hand, dedicate about half their posts to knocking Palin. You can confirm this easily by looking at the most vitriolic Palin bashers' "in forum" record. They spend about half their time on FR attacking Palin as opposed to promoting their own candidate.

2. To foster enmity among we limited government Tea Party conservatives in order to create bad blood that will rile when it's time for us ALL to band together, after the nominee is chosen. I think there's a pretty good chance that several posters on here, BOTH Perry AND Palin supporters, whose posts are heavy in vitriol, have one purpose: to sow seeds of discord and anger between friends. For them, it doesn't matter who wins the nomination; their purpose is to foment hard feelings between all of us, who must unite after the primaries.

Paranoid? I used to think that it was a myth that some FR posters were paid operatives. I have since become disillusioned and know otherwise. So I say to ALL of us who are sincere in our wish for limited government conservatism to win: be suspicious of vitriol when you see it, no matter WHICH candidate it supports.