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:

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

With John Edwards out, there is nothing holding back the tide now. The Left blogs will go all out for Obama and will go after Hillary hard.

With the exception of a few isolated pockets, the Big Blogs, the wonk blogs, Big Media blogs, all of them, are all pro-Obama now. A poor Clinton supporter will be hard pressed to find a port in this storm, or even a place where Hillary gets half of a fair shake.

But don't sweat it too much Hillary supporters, this too shall pass one way or another. Either Hillary takes control on 2/5 or Obama gets the leg up. And it is likely that the nomination will be decided next week.

Either way, the Left blogs will stop hating the Clintons again next week after the 2/5 primaries.

I'll be offline much of the day and evening as I'm in the process of moving my home. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Thanks to all of you who contributed to TalkLeft on Monday, I'll be sending out individual thank-you emails next week. Your donations are much appreciated.

For me, the big news so far today is John Edwards dropping out of the presidential race. It means tomorrow night's debate will just be between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Pretty high stakes for both of them.

With the start of primary season, the amount of time spent blogging, live-blogging, number-crunching, researching, graphics hunting and more has really escalated.

On top of that, it's moving week for me -- always a dreaded experience both in terms of cost and anxiety.

I've made today TalkLeft Appreciation Day. If you have a few dollars to chip in, they would be most welcome.

Here's how, it's very easy. If you don't like paypal (which takes credit cards if you don't have a paypal account) feel free to pull a few dollars out of your pocket and send it snail mail.

If you'd like to donate anonymously, here's the Amazon link.

Thanks to all of you for reading TalkLeft. You are all appreciated, including those who disagree with us.

The Kennedy family is not united in its support for Barack Obama. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend issued a statement today:

"I respect Caroline and Teddy's decision but I have made a different choice. While I admire Senator Obama greatly, I have known Hillary Clinton for over 25 years and have seen first hand how she gets results. As a woman, leader, and person of deep convictions, I believe Hillary Clinton would make the best possible choice for president.

She shares so many of the concerns of my father. Hillary has spent a lifetime speaking out on behalf of the powerless and working to alleviate poverty, in our country and around the world. I have seen her work up close and know she will be a great President. At this moment when so much is at stake at home and overseas, I urge our fellow Americans to support Hillary Clinton. That is why my brother Bobby, my sister Kerry, and I are supporting Hillary Clinton."

The Gators are about to tip off so I leave this open thread so you folks can report the Al Gore endorsement . . .

Or any other news or issue you folks deem worthy of discussion.

Go Gators!

Barack Obama last night gave his top ten campaign promises on Letterman. But, that's not why I tuned in and it's not the clip below. Right after Obama, T.J. Miller came on.

T.J. was promoting the new movie he is in, Cloverfield -- and his fondness for drinking. He's also Marmaduke in Carpoolers, the slacker son who prances around in his underwear, which I wrote about here. Why am I writing about T.J? Because I carpooled him from 1st grade to high school and I'm excited to see him on Letterman. He really was a very funny kid and it's great to see him now all grown up -- well, sort of grown up.

And if you must see Obama's top ten list, it's here (followed by T.J. in the same clip.)

I'm working most of the day, so here's a place for those of you who want to discuss news and issues other than the presidential election.

Speaking for me only.

As I have seen the context of Barack Obama's infamous remarks regarding the GOP being the party of ideas, I believe I was unfair to both Barack Obama and TPM. While I do believe Barack Obama does too much unity schtick and is entirely too easy on Republicans and their ideas, the context of his remarks makes his statement much more defensible than I originally thought.

Below the fold is the relevant portions of the text: