To Republicans and Democrats: Why 'hackers'?

No clue!

i have read the 3 articles
and to me it is opinions and not hackers

I can explain it pretty easily. Sensationalism. If you start tossing around words like "HACKER" on the internet, it gets people's attention.

Anybody who does not agree with them is essentially a 'hacker'. Keep in mind, these people do not use terms correctly. In particular internet jargon. They don't know what a troll means, they certainly not using 'hacker' correctly.

As such, their articles are open to non 'hacker', meaning people who agree with them. So essentially a 'hacker' to them is someone who disagrees. The antonym of 'hacker' is we agree, let's get together and argue about how much we agree with each other.

Hey, Austin, I am just trying to explain the inexplicable.

I think they are referring to Obama volunteers that monitor sites like Gather to be sure to add positve comments when negative articles appear. It is a new twist on an old preactice. Campaigns have had designated callers to radio show and people that write letters to the editros scripted by the campaign. This is just a new technology version. The actual term hackers is incorrect.

Alright. I was beginning to suspect that this was some sort of bizarre political recoining that I'd been unaware of.

Linda is half correct. Usually she is 100% not correct. Love you Linda, just living up to my 'hacker' label.

More precisely, Austin, it's "Obama Hackers." You won't see McCain "Hacker." They use it I think to talk about people like me, I guess.
As you know Obama is not a traditional, typical candidate. His name is Barack Hussein Obama. He is relatively new to the scene. So you've got a bunch of people posting all kind of stuff to define the guy, introduce him to America.
That's where we come in.
We set the record straigtht. We dispute false information and provide references to everything we say.

It's not an old twist. It goes with Obama core voters demographics. Think about it, you think his voting coalition listens to talk radio? No, they are on the internet.

I have no contact with the campaign other than blogging on barrackobama.com. Any suggestion such as what Linda says above, i.e. designated, scripted, is not accurate.

The pro Obama people I met at Gather are just random people setting the record straight and arguing about the issues in general.

No idea why they say 'Hacker'. This is not hacking. Then again, they are not familiar with internet jargon as Alan says. Go back to talk radio. Or shall I say thrash radio.

Hey, can't leave without some thrash talking.

Maybe they meant something like "political hacks?" Not that I think that would be correct, either; that's just all I can come up with.

I've read the article you linked to, so now I think I need to go lie down. Man, talk about your histrionics!

Jared explained to a T.

I have been accused of being an Obama Hacker as well, but the campaign is not telling me what to say, and did not hire me to set the record staright. I am from Illinois, where Obama is very popular, but nationwide his record has been bashed. It needs to be straightened out, so I chose to do this on my own. I doubt there is a hired band of hackers, like Linda suggests, but if there is I am not one of them.

People take Gather a wee bit too seriously. If they hired people, they would be at Politico, the WSJ, DailyKos, and the purely political blogs.

I'm not sure, but as a computer geek myself, I think the same thing when I see the word "hacker".

I don't know.

Now see, I am from an older generation. When I hear the word "hacker" I think of someone that writes profusely but not well and does not bother about checking facts, historical and geographic data, etc., presents opinion as fact, and uses circular reasoning.

I have no idea what an Obama Hacker is supposed to be.

hi austin

Austin, I don't know why they picked up on the word "hacker" when they obviously don't know what it means. I do think though that some of the ones that are using that word do not know what a lot of things mean!

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There are some excellent explanations on here of this whole thing. I in the end do not think that these people "get it", in fact I don't think they "get much of anything" that is going on in the real world that is far outside of their polluted minds. There are a few on here that are way worse than others. Three come to mind and I will just say their first initials C, C and T. To give them any more attention is almost adding credence to their pathetic take on the world and I have decided not to do so. In fact I will wish them well.

The world will change around them, in fact more so in spite of them and they will still be stuck in their pathetic mindset. A mindset that does not even have enough intelligence to understand exactly what the word hacker has meant since it became part of the vocabulary. It took a couple of wise people who showed me that at times "discretion is the better part of valor". What I have really learned is that the stupidity these people write speaks for itself and while I think calling attention to it and letting people see just how stupid it is, is in some ways a good idea. But with these people they are too clueless to realize that they are a limited minority in the world today and that their ideas of how it should be are more like ideas of how it once was. Or better put, you can't change ignorance and hatred especially when it is there only for the sake of ignorance and hatred and it is best to spend your time trying to change the things that you can instead of wasting it trying to combat ignorance that can't be changed!

I see the word hacker a little different, for computer folks it's a person who breaks into computers or networks.

In a basketball game a hacker is the person who will put a hard foul on the opposition- thus hack or hacker. This is now a trite term used often to describe people who disagree with a given authors opinion especially Obama supporters who set the record straight against what are often time off the wall, racists and bigoted allegations.
I'm an Obama backer and that's about it, but I have no problem in setting a record straight.

Same here Brian, The problem is that we have such ignorance in so many places here that they would rather lie and swear to it, than insult you when you ask them to tell the truth or give you facts. It's useless o argue with a few of them and in the end I think they are their own worst enemys