Pinball Wizard by the Who.

This letter from the Michigan Democratic Party to the DNC Rules Committee explains the history of what happened very well.

Update: Hillary picks up superdelegate from Washington. The state total now stands at 7 for Obama, 6 for Hillary and 4 still uncommitted.

This is an open thread.

Washington Post reporter Paul Kane had an online chat today. He was asked a few times why the Post didn't report on Rasmussen daily tracking polls and the recent Gallup poll showing Hillary doing better than Obama against McCain in the swing states.

His answer: He's covered the superdelegates extensively and he knows they don't care.

Question 1 on the topic:[More...]

As a general rule, I do not like to judge an entire group of people by the e-mails that get sent to me. For that matter, I do not like judging an entire group of people because of comments from a select few.

That is why I like to name names when I criticize. I am criticizing the person I name, and no one else.

For that reason, I disagree with what Duncan Black chose to do in this post and in this post.

This is an Open Thread.

Speaking for me only

Comments closed

On Saturday nights, Atrios invariably gave a listing of the guests expected on the Sunday shows and he would title that post "Document The Atrocities." Have you noticed how the Left blogs no longer document those atrocities anymore?

Bob Somerby still does:

Russert assembled a jury of six angry scribes—and not one juror spoke for Clinton! He didn’t have Romano there—Romano, who had conducted the interview. He didn’t have Marie Cocco there—Cocco, who had written a biting piece about the misogyny for the Washington Post. Were Cocco or Romano invited? We don’t know. (We e-mailed Cocco; she hasn’t answered.) But surely, Russert could have located someone to assert the Clinton view. Instead, he had a jury of six—and they all trashed Clinton for everything.

No one seemed to have any idea what the two Clintons were talking about. Matthews, Shuster, Olbermann, Carlson? Such names slipped all jurors’ minds.

Left blogs used to be outraged about this sort of thng. Not anymore. I wonder why. Nah, I know why.

Speaking for me only

We're coming to the edge,
Running on the water,
Coming through the fog,
Your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

An open thread. Go ahead and vent.

Clinton's (and her supporters') situational ethics

. . . . Remember, Clinton supported the Michigan and Florida sanctions when she thought she'd coast to the nomination. . . . [T]he most infuriating part of this campaign is Clinton's lack of intellectual honesty. The shifting rationales. The constantly moving goal posts. The disrespect for rules and the intelligence of the public. It's rank dishonesty and purposefully flawed readings of history.

Here is some history. Kos on Clinton and Michigan in January 2008 [More...]

• No verdict today in either the Michigan trial of attorney Geoff Fieger or the Chicago trial of Tony Rezko.

• DNA evidence has freed Illinois inmate Dean Cage after serving 12 years for a rape he didn't commit.

• The Boston Globe has a five page article on whether Barack Obama can redo the electoral map to win in November. [More...]

Howard Kurtz covers what everyone knows, MSNBC is in the tank for Obama:

Terence Smith, a former correspondent for CBS, PBS and the New York Times, says . . . [a]s for Matthews and Olbermann, Smith says, "there's no confusion on 'Hardball' or 'Countdown' as to where they stand. They are and have been enamored of Obama from the beginning."

Here 's a funny line - "The Obama campaign, for its part, has not complained about MSNBC's coverage." Uh huh. They have not complained about Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo's coverage either. That was a hoot.

And finally, from the DUH file:

In the bitter battle for the Democratic nomination, MSNBC is widely viewed as being rough on Clinton.

Hey, it's the Obama News Network -- it is Obama's answer to Fox. And Olbermann is Obama's O'Reilly. But it has helped in ratings, at least the Obama love part. The Clinton Hate? Not so much I think.

Speaking for me only

Harold Meyerson, in a generally patronizing and now typical for him, atrocious, column, also proves he knows nothing about the Florida and Michigan controversies:

Had Florida and Michigan conducted their primaries the way the other 48 states conducted their own primaries and caucuses -- that is, in accord with the very clear calendar laid down by the DNC well before the primaries began -- then Clinton's marchers would be utterly justified in their claims.

(Emphasis supplied.) Psssst, Harold. This whole mess started because New Hampshire did not like the calendar and jumped ahead of Nevada. This infuriated Michigan who then thought, well if the calendar does not mean anything, we'll move up too. And then in Florida, the GOP controlled legislature and governor decided to do some mischief and moved up their primary one week, but AFTER the so called all important "early 4 state window." [More...]

Via Glenn Reynolds, I found this TalkLeft mention by an old blog friend of ours, Bill Beutler, ironic:

No matter, the Isikoff story [on David Axelrod's lobbyist connections] still made it into the blogosphere. But as far as I can tell, only conservative blogs mentioned it. Even TalkLeft, which remains Clinton supporter central, hasn’t picked it up. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) I can not speak for Jeralyn, but I saw the story. And I did not think it worthy of attention. Just as I deemed the McCain lobbyists story absurd and not worthy of attention. Since the moment Obama and Edwards played the stupid "I won't take money from lobbyists" game, I have detested this argument. It is ridiculous. It is hypocritical. It is not even politically effective. NO ONE CARES.

So that's why I did not write about the latest iteration of the stupid lobbyist stories. Anyway, this is an Open Thread.

Update (TL): I completely agree with BTD. "No money from lobbyist" claims by candidates are a game. Lobbyists don't even make the list of issues I care about.

The film director Sydney Pollack has died:

Academy Award-winning director Sydney Pollack, who achieved commercial and critical success with the gender-bending comedy "Tootsie" and the period drama "Out of Africa, has died. He was 73. Pollack died of cancer Monday afternoon at his home in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, said agent Leslee Dart.

Pollack, who occasionally appeared on the screen himself, worked with and gained the respect of Hollywood's best actors in a long career that reached prominence in the 1970s and 1980s.

RIP. From Tootsie:

Steve Benen concedes Paul Krugman's point but then does not absorb it. Indeed he makes it. Steve writes:

I don’t doubt for a moment that many Clinton supporters “feel that she has received unfair, even grotesque treatment.” In fact, I think those supporters are largely right and have every reason to be offended by some of what we’ve heard during the campaign. . . . The problem, I think, is that it’s a little too easy to misidentify the source of the problem, and I think Krugman may have been a little too quick to mention “Obama and his supporters.” There’s a difference, and it’s important.

Have some Obama supporters been quick to denigrate Clinton? Absolutely. But I’m not sure it makes sense for Clinton supporters to help John McCain — either directly (by voting for him) or indirectly (by staying home) — because some Obama fans were intemperate towards their favored candidate. Obama and Clinton have had a few dust-ups between them, but nothing outrageous or even unusual in the midst of a competitive process.

Krugman did not say it made sense. He said it could, even would, happen. He said voters are emotional. Steve Benen seems to believe all things in politics are nice rational choices by voters. They are not. Obama supporters would not treat Hillary Clinton as Satan and embrace the likes of Andrew Sullivan while vilifying Paul Krugman if that were the case. But they do. Heck look at Steve himself fall into complete nonsense in the very same post: