By Big Tent Democrat

Your turn again. But I have bashed enough bloggers today for all of us. Let's leave that out of this Open Thread. Anything but that. Deal? If not, your comments might be deleted.

Have a good evening. Hasta luego, as we pesky Latinos say.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

I tell you, today is quite a day in the blogs. Look at what Chris Bowers writes today:

Clinton's primary coalition thus far has been largely kept afloat by older Reagan Dems who also tend to be white southern Baptists. And yes, they also tend to be older, as exit polls have shown. . . . I don't care if Democrats never make up any ground among Reagan Democrats ever, as long as we lock up the support of expanding groups like the creative class, white non-Christians, Latinos and Asians for a generation. . . . While Clinton's advantage among Latinos and Asians does not make it a perfect match, Obama's primary coalition is far closer to the coalition we need for an expanding future of the Democratic Party, while Clinton's primary is a lot more like the coalition we have been chasing after for the past twenty-five years or so. . . .

Yep. Except for those pesky Latinos and, of course those older women, and white working class men - I hate the Clinton coalition and I love the way Obama does not make appeals to Reagan Democrats. Why yes, that is what I really love about Obama - the way he is sharply partisan against the Republicans and has not run one of those Unity Schtick campaigns to appeal to Reagan Democrats. Heck never would Obama even say a word of praise of Reagan EVER. And Republicans? No where to be seen in that Obama coalition. Nosirree.

Some things can not be parodied. More

By Big Tent Democrat

Because the continuing pattern of railing against everything Clinton and defending, excusing and praising everything Obama has been prevalent in the Media and the blogs, I think the point has been reached, as it was during the 90s with rabid Republicans, that most people simply do not pay attention to these shrieks from the usual suspects. Their outrage at everything Clinton and their effusive praise or defense of everything Obama is of course the subject of SNL parody, but consider this wild post by Spencer Ackermann that seems beyond parody:

I've got court this morning so it's up to you to keep each other informed. What's of interest in the news and what's on your mind today?

I'll be back late this afternoon.

Bumped by BTD.

By BTD Apropos to nothing, here's one of my favorite artists singing a song by one of the greatest, if not the greatest, songwriters:

NOTE - Comments closed. New Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

If there is one thing that has truly has bothered me about the reactions of some of the Left blogs is the blatant hypocrisy they have displayed. The outrage they have voiced on behalf of every perceived slight of Barack Obama and his campaign has been just plain laughable while they have excused every smear, sexist or otherwise against Hillary Clinton.

Note - Comments are closed.

By Big Tent Democrat

One thing I doubt you will hear the Obama campaign claim is that it "won" Texas, as this top reccomended dkos diary does. Why? Because, if in fact Obama garnered more delegates in Texas after losing the popular vote, the whole argument of the pledged delegates reflecting the "will of the people" is utterly exposed as a sham. The will of the people is expressed in the votes in the primary in Texas. Clinton won.

If you insist that Obama won despite the fact that more people vote for Clinton, you have destroyed the false moral legitimacy of the pledged delegate leader argument. That is happening already of course but nothing will accelerate it more than insisting, as the dkos denizens do, that Obama won Texas despite losing the popular vote. Can anyone say Bush v. Gore?

By Big Tent Democrat

Samantha Power resigns:

With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an advisor the Obama campaign effective today. Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama, and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months

It is sad yet appropriate. Samantha Power is a good person who said an inexcusable thing. I think she had no choice.

NOTE - Comments closed. I hope supporters of both candidates can exhibit better discourse going forward than I saw in this thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

(Speaking for Me Only)

Ras has them. In MI:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that Hillary Clinton would attract 41% of the Primary Vote while Barack Obama would earn an identical 41%.

In FL:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that Clinton attracts 55% of the Sunshine State Primary Vote while Obama earns 39%.

Come on Barack, let's do the revotes. Clinton and Obama should fund them. Now Obama has nothing to fear from this. Let them vote. Full primaries. Let them vote.

By Big Tent Democrat

On a conference call today, a reporter for the St. Pete Times asked Howard Wolfson, why not just split the Florida delegates 50/50? Wolfson is a professional and did not ask how stupid that reporter is. The last thing the Clinton campaign wants is to have this story go away and Wolfson leveraged that silly question to hit his talking points for the Clinton campaign, it is a close race, 1.7MM Florida voters, Obama can not win the big states - you know the drill by now.

I predicted that Michigan and Florida would come to the forefront. The day of the Texas and Ohio contests, I wrote:

A British writer makes the case for legalizing cocaine.

Anyone disagree? The war on drugs has been an abysmal failure.

Excellent news. Puerto Rico has decided against caucuses and in favor of a primary and moved the date up to June 1.

[Puerto Rico will] change the voting process from 8 caucuses to a primary with voting places in all 1,800+ barrios in Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities. This is done in light of the hundreds of thousands of Democrats expected to turn out on June 1, a late date in which we would have originally expected a pro-forma vote with low turnout.

Puerto Rico has 55 pledged delegates. The DNC has approved the move up to June 1. The last states will now be Montana and South Dakota, which vote on June 3.

Update [2008-3-7 10:15:21 by Big Tent Democrat]: I want to make one point about Puerto Rico that I think some folks are missing when predicting what will happen there. First it is not a winner take all contest. Nonetheless, I believe Hillary Clinton will run up big margins in Puerot Rico. As much as any jurisdiction in this contest, Puerto Rico has political machines for churning out the votes. There are no "new voters" for Obama to turn on. The political bosses turn out the vote. They are mostly with Clinton, especially the ones with the most powerful vote getting machines. The Governor of Puerto Rico, is not going to go all out for Obama and his machine is frankly, not as strong as others for THESE purposes. Puerto Rico will go Clinton 2-1 imo.

As a follow-up to my earlier post about Samantha Power and surrogates gone wild, Drudge reports Barack Obama has renounced and rejected his senior foreign policy advisor's remark to a Scottish newspaper that Hillary Clinton is a monster.

According to Drudge (the only place right now this is appearing):

Statement from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton: Senator Obama decries such characterizations which have no place in this campaign...

ABC News reminds us:

In December, Obama said he had "been very clear to my campaign. I do not want to see research that is involved in trying to tear people down personally. If I find out that somebody is doing that, they will be fired. And I have been absolutely crystal clear about this, and I have been clear about this for a very long time."

Also check out Martin Lewis at HuffPo.

I want to know more about Samantha Power besides her educational and publishing background. If Obama is elected, she could be in his cabinet. What are her positions on foreign issues?