By Big Tent Democrat

When an A-List progressive blogger can write that Chris Matthews is right in his sexism and misogyny, via digby, then something is rotten in the Denmark that is the progressive blogs.

Jamison Foser explains why:

Matthews lashed out at the Clinton campaign, saying that Clinton should "get rid of the kneecappers that work for her," referring to her communications staff who go "after the press." Matthews added, "The kneecapping hasn't worked. Her press relations are lousy. ... If all you do is intimidate and punish and claim you'll get even relentlessly, people of all kinds of politicians -- and in all fairness, the press -- human reaction to intimidation is screw you."

For the record, Matthews' overt hostility toward Hillary Clinton cannot honestly be described as a reaction to how her presidential campaign has treated the press: More than six years ago, Matthews said of Clinton, "I hate her. I hate her. All that she stands for." More to the point, Matthews' apparent blaming of the Clinton campaign for his own sexism is the clearest indication yet that he doesn't "get it" and that MSNBC doesn't care that he doesn't get it.

(Emphasis supplied.) And a lot of A-List male bloggers do not get it. Do not hold your breath waiting for any of them to comment on this . We have a malign acceptance of sexism, and it extends well beyond the Media.

TalkLeft is now part of Newsweek's blog coverage, with all of our election posts appearing simultaneously as we post them here on Newsweek's group blog page, The Ruckus. Here is their press release announcing it.

Newsweek and the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) have invited three new blogs to join 'The Ruckus,' a group blog about politics published by Newsweek.com. Joining 'The Ruckus' are Brian Leubitz of Calitics, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft and David Oatney of The World According to Oatney.

"The newest contributors to 'The Ruckus' represent key states in the 2008 presidential race -- California, Colorado and Tennessee," said Deidre Depke, editor of Newsweek.com. "As the campaign progresses, we'll periodically introduce new blogs to reflect the changing political landscape."

Big Tent Democrat's election posts are included as well -- his posts appear with his byline to differentiate them from mine. [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Open Thread. Please note that all comments violative of our comments policy will be deleted.

For whatever topic you wish to discuss. This is an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

What do you think of Roger Clemens? Sorry, I got nuthin.

This is an Open Thread. Remember the comments rules. I am just deleting now for all nonconforming comments that I see.

I've got a lot of work to do today, so here's an open thread for you. All topics welcome, but remember the commenting rules and keep it clean and civil. And urls must be in html format or they skew the site requiring the deletion of your comment. Thanks.

Hillary Clinton won several counties in Virginia, some by very large margine. What do they all have in common? They are almost exclusively populated by whites. Virginia's population state- wide is 73% white and 20% African-American.

Here are the demographics for the first half-dozen or so counties she won (all I've checked so far):

• Allegany: 93% white, 5.5% AA
• Bedford: 92% white, 6.3% AA
• Bland: 95% white, 4.4% AA
• Buchanan: 96% white, 3.2% AA
• Carroll: 98.5% white, 0.7%AA
• Dickenson: 98.7% white, 0.6%AA
• Grayson: 96.7% white, 2.4% AA

This is a continuation of the Virginia/MD/DC results thread. Update: Almost 200 comments, time to close here. You can continue on the newer threads.

I'll be at work most of the day. Here's an open thread for you. You pick the topics, whatever is on your mind today.

Caution to new commenters: You must put url's in html format (use the link button at the top of the comment box to paste it in) or it will skew the site and I have to delete your entire comment when I see it. I cannot edit comments, only delete them.

TalkLeft's comment policy is here.

By Big Tent Democrat

I am off now but J. will be back soon. What do you think was the most undercovered story of the past two days? I say Shaq being traded to the Suns. I can not believe what little coverage this has garnered. Shaq was once the best player in the league. And are the Suns worried about their chemistry? How does Shaq possibly fit with a running team especially given his physical problems and age?

If you do not find Shaq as interesting as I do, propose your own undercovered story. This is an Open Thread.

1:39 am ET: Wolf Blitzer on CNN gives these Democratic delegate totals:

Hillary Clinton 591
Barack Obama 476
Total Needed 2025

That's it for me tonight. The spin on both sides begins tomorrow.

AS for my take, let's see who won the popular vote nationally and who has the largest delegate total. I may be in the minority on this, but I don't give much weight to winning the rural, less populated states with few delgates. Particularly those that aren't likely to go Democratic in the general election. (Idaho, Utah, Alaska, etc.)

What Obama has going for him is momentum. The question is, how long will it continue? Hillary has the big states and the biggest number of Democratic voters. The California delegate breakdown will be important. And a big unknown is still the superdelegates in all the states.

I'm in a room with around 400 of my fellow citizens waiting to be called or excused from jury duty.

No lawyer has ever let me serve on a jury. It's too bad because I'd like to see the process from that perspective.

Anyway, it looks like I'll be here for at least a few hours before being sent home, so here's an open thread for you.

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: