Over here (if that linky thing works) I wrote a bit about why I'm not panicking.  And some of that was about concern trolls, which led to some people asking whether I thought they were concern trolls simply because they were worried.  A concern troll or just a "nervous nellie", as one commenter put it.

First, about concern trolls.  Being concerned doesn't make someone a concern troll.   A concern troll sounds something like this:

(Concern troll mode ON!) 
Oh crap!  Have you seen the latest electoral college projections?  I don't see how Obama can win now.  I really don't.  Why are liberals such idiots?  Can't they see that Palin was a masterful choice by McCain?  Of course she was fully vetted!  And why can't liberals see that pointing out Palin's lies is only going to backfire on them?  I'm a loyal Democrat but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to wait until 2012 to have any hope of seeing a Democrat in the white house, thanks to Obama and his obnoxious Obamabots who keep calling me a concern troll even though all I'm doing is pointing out that they're stupid and Obama has doomed the Democratic party.
(Concern troll mode OFF!)

Some concern trolls are more subtle, but that's the gist of it.  Take out the "concern" part and it's mostly wingnut talking points.  Deliberate and repeated attempts to exaggerate negatives and minimize or ignore positives, wrapped up in feigned concern.

And common another characteristic of concern trolls is certainty about doom.   It's not "I'm worried that the Republicans might eat our lunch again this year."  It's "here's why the Republicans are going to eat our lunch this year."  

Their purpose is to spread gloom and doom, and asserting that the gloomy outcome is inevitable is a better way to spread doom and gloom.   And if they can't find legitimate arguments, they'll latch onto whatever they can get.  In their most desperate state you might even find one of them quoting some wingnut pundit as "proof" that the Republicans are going to eat our lunch this year.   Nothing else, just quoting some wingnut pundit who is high on Palin fumes.  But from that they conclude .... we're dooomed, doooooooomed, doooooooooooooooooooooooooomed!


The thing is, I'm a "nervous nellie" by nature.  But I'm not panicking about November, at least not yet, although I remain poised to leap into full panic mode, because, as I said, I'm a nervous nellie by nature.

But I find the concern trolls encouraging, believe it or not.  You know that if there's a valid concern to find they'll find it and bring it here to express their deep, deep concern.  In between reminders that they're loyal democrats and just concerned at the way Obama is dragging the party down to certain doom, of course.

But are they finding valid concerns?  Let's take a look at the Palin angle.  How do they get from the choice of Palin for a running mate to gloooooom and dooooooom?

They point out, accurately, that Palin could turn out to save McCain's campaign. Well sure, in theory, that's not impossible, but they make their case by ignoring the huge, huge negatives that Palin brings to the ticket.  Having to use his veep pick to lock up the base vote took a lot of flexibility away from McCain. 

He ended up with an unvetted, incompetent, dishonest, vindictive running mate, and with no choice but to join with her in trying to sell a facade of lies for six more weeks.   I'm not denying her positives.  She's got an undeniable knack for playing to the camera, and a life story and views that appeal very strongly to social conservatives.  It could be a disaster for Obama.  But she's barely gotten started, and there are so, so many ways she could take down the ticket.  But you'll only hear the pro-Palin case from wingnuts and concern trolls.

They adopt a "voters don't care about lying" premise, and with a shoulder shrug and a sigh they pull a blanket of helplessness and defeat over their heads.   And yours, too, if you let them.

They start from a "Rove can do no wrong" premise."  Palin looks like a desperate, unvetted choice, and the McCain/Palin campaign has degenerated into nothing but a facade of lies.  But Rove is behind this campaign, isn't he?  Therefore ... it must be a trick!  She must be a brilliant pick!  Etc. 

Then of course they look at the convention bounce as if it were something other than a convention bounce, they look at old polls and polls within the margin of error and so on and cherry-pick the "evidence" that Palin is clobbering Obama.  And so on, and so on, and so on.

Go back over the case they make and strip out the half-truths and the cherry-picked evidence, push back on the gloom-doom-and-helplessness assumptions that are the foundation for their case, and what's left?

Not much. 

It's the absolute best case for concern they can come up with.  A few of them are very good at wrapping even half-assed concerns in powerful rhetoric, but strip that away and they don't have much at all to use to pump up concerns.  If they had a stronger case for concern, they'd be making it.

When they can make a strong case for concern, without the disingenuous arguments and exaggerated negatives and gloomy assumptions, then I'll panic.  It could happen.  But so far the concern trolls are as desperate and as dishonest as McCain himself.