It seems to me AH has gotten a little tight on its enforcement of their
perceived political post rule... there have been several posts that
do not seem political to me but they are locked...

Most not even be closed due to political comments, comments like "Flame baiting, flaming, being abusing, being disrespectful, trolling, spamming or posting to incite or annoy is not allowed" would get them closed as well.
What confuses me is some of these people who start a thread "hoping" it wont go bad knowing damn well it will, why bother?