I think the Severins of the world will multiply. The rumor-mongers will spread contemptuous slander and lies about Obama. A small but consistent percentage of Americans will believe the rumors and their anger and resentment will generate a self-reinforcing feedback loop of extremist rage. The right will act — no matter what margin Obama wins by or how boringly centrist his policies are — as if the Obama administration is illegitimate.

Based on the evidence you cite in this post, Ian, I believe that violent elements in this country will be awakened from their slumber by this network of organized right-wing hate. The Severins of the world think, to a degree, that they’re playing around, that this is all a political game, but when they realize what kind of monster they’ve encouraged to life, and then perhaps moderate their wacko claims, it’ll be too late.

I hope I’m wrong, but I think the woman who shouted “socialist!” at Obama will seem in three-four years’ time like the polite end of the right.

I certainly think John has a point that people may stop reading a blog if it takes a half-hour to read. But I also agree with Lee that there should be room for occasional longer pieces.

Meanwhile, does anybody have anything to say about my idea of the “New American Politics”. Is my argument persuasive?

Back on the point though Ian, I think – with apologies to Churchill — you are right that November 4th will merely be the end of the beginning.

Andrew Sullivan, to select the obvious example, can post more than 4000 words per day, but in ADD-style bursts of commentary on hundreds of topics or hundreds of lines of attack on the same topic (say Palin). Glenn Greenwald tends to post one much longer entry of sustained analysis per day.

I think History is Happening Now tends toward the latter model, though we haven’t settled down on a single style of entry yet. That said, maybe what we can do is add a “below the fold” feature so that it’s easier to browse through entries.

The idea that blog postings have to be below a certain length doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, the number of readers may diminish as the length of our postings increases, but not necessarily.