By Big Tent Democrat

Ron Klain writes an interesting post about the left blogosphere that stumbles onto a central truth, that the left blogosphere should NOT have favorite candidates, it must have favorite principles and issues. Klain writes:

[N]otwithstanding this stunning success, this week’s withdrawal by John Edwards, coming a week after the departure of Dennis Kucinich [Klain clearly is not THAT familiar with the blogs], means that both of the preferred presidential candidates of the liberal blogosphere are now out of the race.

Despite Klain's glaring error, Barack Obama was at least the second favorite candidate of the blogosphere, he hints at an essential truth - the blogs should not be about favorite candidates. It should try to persuade and/or pressure Dems, candidates and officeholders, on the issues that matter to them. In 2007, I was very critical of the blogs' performance on withdrawal from Iraq. Why? Because it was candidate centric, not issue centric.

In essence, Klein gets to the issue in a roundabout way when he writes:

If you missed our earlier open threads this week, you may not know I haven't been blogging for a few days because I'm moving.

I am finally in the new place, 3.5 miles from the old one, and everything is still in disarray. If you're in the mood for details, click on "more" below:

By Big Tent Democrat

It is always hard to know about these things, but the latest Rassmussen and Gallup polls provide evidence that the minority view expressed by me and Markos that the debate benefitted Hillary Clinton (not that she won the debate, but that she benefitted from it) was right.

The Rassmussen poll has Clinton moving up 2 in the Friday tracking and the Gallup poll has Clinton moving up 4. Her leads in these national polls are 8 and 7 respectively. Who knows if this is right, but it is the only evidence we have seen post debate.

By Big Tent Democrat

Dan Gerstein, LieberMcCain Dem extraordinaire, has the funniest column I have seen in a long time. dangerstein claims that Obama's win in South Carolina is a defeat for daily kos and, as far as I can tell, a win for JOE LIEBERMAN. I kid you not:

[South Carolina] resolv[ed] the pre-eminent conflict of the party's present -- between the politics of hope and the politics of Kos. (That being the Daily Kos, the nation's most influential liberal blog and the left's poster child for partisan pugnacity.)

. . . The country got an initial taste of this tactical tussle in 2006 when the Lieberman-Lamont Senate campaign in Connecticut went national -- and an initial test of the relative merits in the general-election portion of that race (in which I was Joe Lieberman's communications director).

. . . The hope candidate [Joe Lieberman to dangerstein!] soundly beat the Kos candidate -- Kos actually taped a commercial for Lamont -- by 10 points. . . .

There you have it. Lieberman's 2006 run was a test of Obama's politics of hope. Never mind that Lieberman is no longer a Democrat or that he has endorsed McCain. Anyway, this is truly one of the funniest pieces I have ever read.

By Big Tent Democrat

President Bill Clinton will offer his regret regarding the tone of the campaign in South Carolina:

On Sunday the former president is scheduled to visit black churches in South Central Los Angeles, where he's expected to offer a mea culpa to those who "dearly loved him" when he was their president, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) says.

Does Clinton NEED to apologize? Perhaps not. But I think it is good he will. And not just for the Clinton campaign. I think it is good for the Democratic Party and the country.

It takes a big man to stand down sometimes, even if you are not sure you did anything wrong. The Big Dog is a big man. Good for him.

One of the interesting things about this political campaign is how events that would normally crowd out the race have failed to. SOTU, New Years, etc. The Dem political race particularly has remained largely the biggest story most every day.

The biggest test for this phenomenon however comes Sunday - the Super Bowl, with a New England team looking to make history. Will politics have a chance that day and the day after? Will the campaign be frozen tomorrow until Super Tuesday?

This is an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Harry and Louise. The infamous fictional couple used by the Health Insurance industry to fight against health reform remain synonymous with the power of special interest money in politics. As a result, Paul Krugman's charge (see also Ezra Klein) that Barack Obama's campaign is playing the Harry and Louise game is a serious one:

Obama does Harry and Louise, again

The Obama campaign sends out an ugly mailer. Sorry, but this is just destructive — like the Obama plan, the Clinton plan offers subsidies to lower-income families. And BO himself has conceded that he might have to penalize people who don’t buy insurance until they need care. So this is just poisoning the well for health care reform. The politics of hope, indeed.

By Big Tent Democrat

FWIW:

In a resounding vote today, MoveOn.org Political Action's members nationwide voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. The group, with 3.2 million members nation-wide and over 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states, will immediately begin to mobilize on behalf of Senator Obama. The vote favored Senator Obama to Senator Clinton by 70.4% to 29.6%.

I am not a fan of Move On, as a result of its capitulation on the Not Funding issue on Iraq. Your mileage may vary. Does it matter? In a word, no. Not one bit.

By Big Tent Democrat

The last season of the West Wing featured the fictional Democratic Presidential candidate Matt Santos giving a rousing speech that ended with him saying "I'm proud to be a member of the Democratic Party." Last night was a Matt Santos night for Democrats. The Presidential debate produced an "I'm proud to be a member of the Democratic Party" night.

Barack Obama produced his finest debate performance of this campaign. He was engaging, funny, personable, knowledgeable, hard on Republicans and specific on issues. I am not sure what he could have done better. If political debates were like debating society debates, he might even have scored a win last night.

But political debates are NOT debating society debates. They come with existing narratives and stories. Going into the debate the stories were about the Clinton campaign's negativity, Ted Kennedy's endorsement and Obama's mo. The story coming out was how well both candidates did, how capable our candidates are and how well they both represent the Democratic Party. Sounds like a fairly neutral storyline no? But consider WHAT IT WAS before. When both Clinton and Obama are perceived as historic, even inspiring, candidates, Obama has lost some of his edge. If people are writing that the debate reminded them that they actually LIKE Hillary as opposed to the campaign of the last weeks, then this was a good night for Hillary Clinton.

mcjoan at daily kos brings us this good news:

The Senate leadership has reached agreement with Republicans on how to proceed with the surveillance bill, and they held tough. According to leadership sources, these key Democratic amendments will get a simple majority vote: . . . more

The B-52's and love shack. Perfect for the love-fest that took place during the debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama tonight.

By Big Tent Democrat

From the moment they walked out on the stage, an African American and a woman, the Democrats won. Whomever wins the nomination, whomever wins the election, Democrats won. And America won.

Eugene Robinson said that that was the most electric moment of the night, and it was for me too. I did not expect to feel that way. I knew this already. But seeing it made it different. It just did. John Edwards said he was getting out of the way of history. And as powerful as his message and campaign were, he was right.

Folks can try and figure out the tactical who won or lost, and I will, tomorrow. But tonight I feel proud of my Party and yes, proud of my country.