Update: It's a do-over. They will hold another one at later date.

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As noted earlier, the county delegates to the Nevada state convention were to be selected today. Those selected at local caucuses aren't binding. Both the Obama and Hillary camps did their best to get their delegates out today.

Most primaries and some Democratic caucuses are binding, meaning that national delegates won by the candidates must pledge to support them at the national convention this summer. Some high-profile caucuses, however, are just the beginning of a multistep process of selecting national convention delegates. In Nevada, precinct caucuses were held Jan. 19 to select delegates to county conventions this weekend. The county conventions will select delegates to the state convention in May.

The national delegates are elected at the state convention — the third step of the process. If all the delegates for each candidate show up at every step, the national delegates awarded Jan. 19 will remain unchanged. In Nevada, Obama won 13 delegates and Clinton won 12.

More...

By Big Tent Democrat

Here is an interesting development, as Jeralyn notes, Hillary Clinton reacted strongly to an Obama mailer that she claimed is filled with untruths.

I am well past mentioning the hypocrisy of Obama's decrying negative attacks, and that of the Media, as [an Obama blogger and] Rick Hertzberg demonstrates in this quote at the Obama site:

[HERTZBERG -] "Going negative" has been a bust. It could never be anything but a bust, because there is no audience for it in the Democratic Party...

[OBAMA BLOGGER] - Let's let Hillary know that the American people are sick and tired of negative attacks and want something new.

No, I am too familiar with the Obama Rules by now. My REAL question is this - if this race is over, why is Obama attacking Hillary Clinton?

NOTE - Comments are now closed.

The AP and New York Times report Hillary Clinton is fighting back today.

“Shame on you, Barack Obama,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after a morning rally, holding the flyers and shaking them in the air as she spoke. “It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”

....“Time and time again, you hear one thing in speeches and then you see a campaign that has the worst kind of tactics, reminiscent of the same sort of Republican attacks on Democrats,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The backstory, about the Obama campaign wrongly claiming Hillary said NAFTA was a "boon" is below:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

Well, David Shuster has no regrets:

From the beginning of his suspension, MSNBC executives "were perfectly fair and upfront, from the top on down," Shuster says. "I have no bitterness, no regrets."

Well, maybe one. File it under "Lesson Learned." "I have the responsibility to make my point precisely and aggressively, without using coarse language. Clearly, it was inappropriate for a lot of viewers. I made a horrible mistake by allowing people to be distracted by some words rather than focus on the story."

What story David? That Chelsea Clinton was campaigning for her mother? That was the story?

It seemed inevitable after being defended by the likes of A-List blogs like Talking Points Memo that Shuster would not learn any lessons. Shuster defended Chris Matthews for his sexist remarks and took a sexist approach to his coverage of the Clinton campaign. And was defended for it.

Of course the Clinton campaign was right that a temporary suspension was not enough. And I am not talking about Shuster. That was plenty for him. It seems that no one at NBC will address its pattern of sexism and misogyny.

By Big Tent Democrat

NOTE- The DLC does not support either candidate officially. My post was not intended to state that, but to discuss why many DLC-type figure do support Obama. Sorry for any confusion.

There is something both sad and hilarious about Kagro X's outrage that that the DLC and Lieber-types like Dan Gerstein are on the Obama bandwagon:

Please, God, don't let Harold Ford clamber onto the back of this [Obama] bandwagon now. . . . Allowing them suckerfish themselves onto what Obama's managed to build for himself would be an unimaginable tragedy. Allowing them to do it while they're also endorsing Republicans for Congress is a recipe for disaster.

UPDATE: Lord help us, it's a trend:

2 . Friday February 15, 2008

. . . Bill Bennett discussed the political landscape with Democratic strategist and Obama supporter Dan Gerstein . . .

This is sad and hilarious because not for one moment can Kagro imagine WHY the DLC and Dan Gerstein might support Barack Obama. He can not imagine that Obama's Unity Schtick is precisely what the DLC and Joe Lieberman have been preaching for decades and that the progressive blogs were supposed to be fighting AGAINST.

Excuse me, but has anyone in the progressive blogs actually been paying attention to what Obama has been saying? Probably not, too busy slamming Hillary Clinton.

NOTE - comments are now closed in this thread.

Big Tent Democrat wrote yesterday about the controversy that's developed over Barack Obama's reference in the Texas debate to an army captain who told him or someone in his campaign that his unit in Afghanistan had to fight without proper equipment and training. ABC News spoke to the captain and said he confirmed Obama's account.

Now, the Pentagon is challenging it and Sen. John Warner, who chaired the Senate Armed Forces Committee when the captain was in Afghanistan, has asked Obama for details of the man's unit and when and where the alleged incidents happened. He intends to bring it up at a hearing next week.

What Obama said (from the debate transcript):

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The Washington Post reports Obama Fever may be breaking. A rash of new Internet sites have cropped up which the Post says, show "Obamamania may be hitting a wall."

It's the nature of the Web -- and, really, of life. What goes up must come down. What's popular becomes too popular. What's seen as hip and hot and cool eventually gets mocked. Even, yes, Barack Obama.

Two of the sites named by the Post:

• Is Barack Obama the Messiah
• Obama is Your New Bicyle

Some of the sites, like the Bicycle site, are by Obama supporters.

More...

Ralph Nader seems poised to enter the 2008 Presidential race. He'll be on Meet the Press Sunday.

[2004 Nader spokesman Kevin]Zeese said he could only guess what Nader might do, but added:

"Obviously, I don't think ("Meet the Press" host) Tim Russert would have him on for no reason."

Nader formed an exploratory committee last month.

I can't imagine who he thinks would support him.

By Big Tent Democrat

People wonder why I spend so much time defending Hillary Clinton from unfair and sexist attacks in the Media and unfortunately, progressive blogs, including, maybe especially, the A-List blogs. I do not support her. I wish she would not have run and put herself through this. But Digby captures it:

The reasons she didn't go for the jugular is that she knows it doesn't work for her and, contrary to popular myth, she won't do or say anything to win. I know that's shocking to those of you who are convinced that Clinton is a monster, but it's true. Her campaign has not been, by any historical standards, a negative or nasty one. She has stated repeatedly, and again last night, that the party would be unified and in light of the fact that she is losing, that remark takes on a different character -- she will not turn the Democratic party inside out just for the fun of it or greatly damage the front runner in some quixotic quest for power. (It's hard to believe that anyone but Ann Coulter would ever believe she would do such a thing, but there you have it.)

Her final comment was gracious and heartfelt . . . This is a person of maturity and depth and one of whom most Democrats in this country are actually quite proud.

It is a shame that progressive blogs have led the charge in demonizing this fine person who has dedicated much of her life to progressive causes. I am not sure I will ever get over what some have written about her. The unfairness, spite, falsehoods, nastiness and sexism demonstrated will be hard to forget. I imagine I am not the only person who feels that way.

(Comments now closing.)

By Big Tent Democrat

So it turns out there was this big to do on the Right blogs about something Obama said in the debate last night about a soldier in Afghanistan. Obama was accused of making it up. Jake Tapper says he did not:

I called the Obama campaign this morning to chat about this story, and was put in touch with the Army captain in question. He told me his story, which I found quite credible, though for obvious reasons he asked that I not mention his name or certain identifying information. Short answer: He backs up Obama's story.

Who would have thunk it, blogs got something wrong.

The AP has the latest news on the superdelegate front. Ignore the misleading title,"AP survey: Superdelegates jump to Obama" (which implies scores of delegates are jumping ship or changing from Hillary to Obama)and read the text of the article:

Clinton still leads among superdelegates — 241 to 181, according to the AP survey. But her total is down two in the past two weeks, while his is up 25. Since the primaries started, at least three Clinton superdelegates have switched to Obama, including Rep. David Scott of Georgia, who changed his endorsement after Obama won 80 percent of the primary vote in Scott's district. At least two other Clinton backers have switched to undecided. None of Obama's have publicly strayed, according to the AP tally.

The reality, from their numbers: Hillary still leads in total superdelegates and despite his ten or eleven recent wins, only 3 out of 246 have left her for Obama while two have changed to undecided.

Reality #2: The superdelegates can change their mind up to the time they vote at the convention. If Hillary takes Texas and Ohio and stays in the race, she could gain more or take some from Obama.

Right now, the superdelegates are not the issue. Texas and Ohio voters are.

I wrote earlier about the Daily Texan's endorsement of Hillary. A comment to my post made me do some checking.

Here's the thing. In the debate last night, Barack Obama pointed out that every major Texas newspaper has endorsed him. The Daily Texan says it's a major paper who hasn't endorsed Obama, but leaving that aside, Obama's right and here's the list.

What Obama didn't point out was that in 2004, except for the Corpus Christi Times, every one of those papers endorsed George Bush over John Kerry.