By Big Tent Democrat

Have I found a candidate to really fight for in this election? Via Kevin Drum, Josh Green writes:

Though his talk of change and building a movement echoes Obama's, Franken's appeal is altogether different. He doesn't seek to unite Republicans and Democrats, as Obama does, but rather to draw sharp contrasts, as Dean did, in a style of chesty confrontation. I watched the speech with a young Navy officer and Iraq veteran named Tim Wellman Jr., who was wearing the military equivalent of a letterman's jacket, embroidered with his dates of service and where he'd deployed, with a couple of Franken stickers slapped on. Though it doesn't get nearly the attention his political activism does, Franken was participating in USO tours long before it was fashionable among Democrats, and has kept it up with trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, despite his opposition to the war (though he did not initially oppose it). I asked Wellman what drew him to Franken. "He brings a clear vision of right and wrong," he said. "He's been very strong about confronting Republicans on their own issues, like strength and war." Other Democrats in the audience said much the same thing.

(Emphasis supplied.) A REAL Dean Democrat? A real Fighting Dem? Then that is the guy for me. Go Al Franken!!

Newsweek spends three online pages discussing Obama's foreign policy experience. Shorter version: Is a multi-cultural upbringing the kind of foreign policy experience that makes one best equipped to be Commander in Chief or President? (More on this here.)

The article focuses on Obama having grown up in Indonesia. Some quotes from the article:

• Obama says he's more experienced than McCain or Hillary:

[L]ast week Obama signaled that he'd had enough of these attacks. Not only did he not lack experience, Obama cockily told a fund-raising crowd in San Francisco, but "foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

• From a neutral Democrat:

Even some Dems who'd favor him in any contest against McCain also worry that Obama is overplaying his experience. "I don't know whether he's drinking his own Kool-Aid," says a former senior member of the Clinton administration who is not backing either Democratic candidate but would talk only on condition of anonymity because of his private-sector job. "I'm all for talking to the Cubans, or to the Iranians. I'm just not sure he's the guy to do it. The biggest administrative job he ever had was collecting articles for the Harvard Law Review."

More....

By Big Tent Democrat

On CNN Late Edition, Obama supporter and Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey said that Senator Barack Obama regretted his remarks and that Obama should not be judged solely by those remarks. Casey said that Obama made a poor choice of words, took responsibility for them and expressed his regret for any hurt he had caused.

More . . .

Speaking to ABC News this week, former President Jimmy Carter said he will not endorse a candidate before the Denver National Convention:

"The only thing I know is that, I have not made an endorsement, and don't intend to, until the time of the convention."

He also laid out his view of the superdelegates' role:

Carter said he agreed that superdelegates should not overturn the will of the people but that "any superdelegate who wishes to deviate from that opinion should be perfectly free to do so." He went on to warn that "it would be a very serious mistake for the Democratic Party... if a candidate had the majority of popular votes, the majority of delegates and a majority of states -- all three -- were the superdelegates to vote contrary to that, I think it would be very difficult to explain."

In other words, for Carter, it boils down to a trifecta of:

• majority of popular vote
• majority of delegates
• majority of states

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Oliver Willis writes:

Hillary Clinton and her surrogates sure feel a strong need to echo right-wing attacks versus Sen. Obama. And that’s fine with me. At the end of the day this will teach us that no matter what the Clintons cannot be trusted anywhere near the leadership of the Democratic party in the future.

(Emphasis supplied.) I guess when Obama's camp says Hillary will "say and do anything," that repeating a "Right Wing attacks" is ok to Willis. But let's leave that aside. Willis' post reminded me of what Barack Obama said in 2006 about Dems and religion:

Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, some liberals dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.

Seems like Barack Obama forgot to heed to his own repetition of "Right Wing attacks." He appears to have "taken the bait" in his San Francisco remarks. Obama 2006 is quite harsh in his criticism of Obama 2008.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Apparently, the "Creative Class" blogosphere just fell off the political turnip truck. Josh Marshall approvingly quotes (now seconded by Matt Yglesias, will it make the complete rounds of the "creative Class"?) Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol:

I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing.

Um, if the difference between internal campaign discussions and candidate statements on the stump (and Ms. Skocpol's characterization of Obama's statements is extremely charitable at best) is beyond Josh Marshall, then it is pretty clear he has no clue about politics. But let's face it - Josh does know the difference. This is just more of his Clinton Derangement Syndrome. Oh BTW, I would not be trotting out a Harvard sociologist to defend Obama from a charge of elitism if I were the Obama campaign.

The Clark County democratic convention was held Saturday. It was a do-over from February. Hillary won and she now leads Obama statewide in delegates to the state convention.

More than 6,300 delegates participated Saturday, according to the Nevada Democratic Party. Clinton won 1,330 delegates from Clark County while Obama won 1,133 delegates.

Heading into Saturday, Obama had won the majority of the delegates in the state’s other 15 county conventions, 512 of 900. But Clinton’s win in Clark County, by far the state’s most populous county, gave her the lead statewide 1,718 to 1,645, for delegates to the May 17 state convention in Reno, where Nevada Democrats will select delegates to the national convention in Denver this August.

Nevada has 33 national delegates. As to why Hillary won in the January caucuses, here are the reasons: [More...]

A very old one from the Rolling Stones. Renamed Glastonbury Girl for this concert. What are you listening to tonight?

This is an open thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Ezra Klein is now upset about the Media coverage. Obama is getting hit so it bothers him now:

It's not damaging because we think it foretells him doing something harmful to the country. It's not damaging because it suggests his policy agenda is poorly conceived, or his priorities are awry. If you think of policy and politics as two circles in a Venn diagram, this is damage that only exists in the politics circle, and doesn't even come close to the area of intersection.

Indeed. Funny how Ezra Klein, noted health care blogger, has not a WORD of concern about how Hillary Clinton was falsely smeared on the Trina Bachtel story. Even though Hillary Clinton was actually making a substantive point about an actual issue (indeed, one Ezra claims to care a great deal about), health care. Paul Krugman noticed. Ezra Klein chose not to. To complain now about this standard issue crappy political journalism after standing silent for all the BS that has been thrown at Hillary Clinton on a substantive issue makes Ezra Klein not credible. I do not respect him or the Left blogs precisely because they have stood by and said nothing about the media coverage in this contest. As Eric Boehlert said:

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog writes that every top blog "has had it with Clinton". That is patently false, whichever way you slice it.

One example: MyDD, which has more traffic than AmericaBlog.

In fact, out of the top trafficked liberal blogs, only Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, and America Blog favor Obama over Clinton. Huffington Post as a news source seems to editorially favor Obama, but its multitude of bloggers can't be pigeonholed so easily.

Most of the top bloggers writing about the elections are not taking sides: Crooks and Liars, Atrios, Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, Digby.

These blogs will vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is. They have not "had it" with Hillary. Just as TalkLeft, which favors Hillary over Obama, will vote for Obama if he's the nominee. Democrats don't give up on each other.

Perhaps John has caught a bit of Obama's sense of hyperbole. Here are the top liberal blogs that write about the elections and weekly page view numbers, from the Liberal Blog Adverstising Network:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Oliver Willis compares this McCain statement to the Obama Gaffe:

It’s the influx of illegals into places where they’ve never seen a Hispanic influence before,” McCain told me. “You probably see more emotion in Iowa than you do in Arizona on this issue. I was in a town in Iowa, and twenty years ago there were no Hispanics in the town. Then a meatpacking facility was opened up. Now twenty per cent of their population is Hispanic. There were senior citizens there who were–’concerned’ is not the word. They see this as an assault on their culture, what they view as an impact on what have been their traditions in Iowa, in the small towns in Iowa. So you get questions like ‘Why do I have to punch 1 for English?’ ‘Why can’t they speak English?’ It’s become larger than just the fact that we need to enforce our borders.”

More . . .

I can't help wondering what John Edwards thinks about Barack Obama's slam of rural Americans. Hillary increasingly has been adopting Edwards' positions over the past months. She showed it again this morning in Indiana:

Clinton took the stage to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” a song that was used primarily by former presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards prided himself in being the candidate for working class Americans, often reminding the crowds that he was the son of a mill worker. With Edwards now out of the race, Clinton is hoping to take the reigns. “When my dad grew up, it was a working class family in Scranton,” Clinton told the audience. “I grew up in a churchgoing family, a family that believed in living out and expressing our faith.”

I have to believe his phone is ringing off the hook with calls from reporters today. What would he say?

No one understands swift-boating better than Edwards, given the effect it had on his and John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. The last thing he wants is a John McCain win in November. [More...]