By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

I think well of Nico Pitney, but this post is a bad show from him. Nico argues that the ABC Debate was unlike any other. But how does he do this? He only looks at the last four debates (2 by CNN, one by NBC and the ABC Debate.) From this analysis, Pitney argues that ABC was unlike any other. But Pitney's cherry picking reveals the problem:

Policy Non-Policy Scandal

CNN (1/31) 31 3 1
CNN (2/21) 23 5 2
NBC 24 17 5
ABC 32 14 13

Even with this cherry picking, Pitney's own data proves the point - NBC in its post SNL debate in Cleveland, when it would have been on its best behavior, had 22 non-policy questions. (Pitney's "scandal" designation seems rather convenient to me.) Moreover, Pitney ignores the 20 odd debates PRIOR to January 31, 2008 and PRIOR to the SNL debate skit. He particularly ignores the infamous October 30, 2007 NBC Debate. By doing that, Pitney makes his analysis a mockery. He is better than this disingenuous post. More . . .

By Big Tent Democrat

NOTE: MTP used the story today. This now becomes an issue. I never thought the Move On/Clinton story actually hurt Clinton, but the methods used by the HuffPo poster have come under fire from Paul Lukasiak:

By Big Tent Democrat

I think this might be an interesting week of Sunday Talk. Because of the ABC Debate Brouhaha. I will be keeping an eye on Meet the Press but especially, George Steph's This Week program. They start at 9:00 am my time (EST).

Let's make this an Open Thread as well.

Jerome Armstrong at My DD writes about "the tiny tent dems."

Also check out:

• Eriposte at Left Coaster has the best examples, all in one thread.

• Anglachel's Journey
  

• Riverdaughter (The Confluence)

• Big Tent Democrat on Boehlert's Revenge
  

[Hat tip to Avedon Carol at Sideshow.]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

This is amusing to me:

A long time ago I said that Team Clinton hates [the Creative Class blogs] and that, if nominated, they will marginalize us and undo all the hard work we've put in . . .

Yes, and Obama has always been a "fierce supporter" of the "Creative Class" blogs:

Andrew Sullivan is crowing over a swipe Barack Obama took at Daily Kos, saying:

"One good test as to whether folks are doing interesting work is, Can they surprise me? And increasingly, when I read Daily Kos, it doesn't surprise me. It's all just exactly what I would expect."

BTW, here is Ezra Klein in his full hypocritical glory:

By Big Tent Democrat

With this title, Krugman's Latest Attack On Barack Obama Not Supported By The Evidence, you knew that a reasonable and rational counterargument would not be forthcoming. But the extent of Abramowitz's disingenuity is pretty stunning.

First, Abramowitz ignores Krugman's points on the bad politics and economics of Obama's statements. Which I took to be the main point of Krugman's column. But even on the "sociology," Abramowitz either misses or mistates Krugman's point. I'll explain on the other side.

It's Friday night. Time to lighten up. It's very funny.

This is an open thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In a response I took to be directed at Jerome Armstrong, Tom Watson and me, Markos writes:

You know those rabid Clinton supporters who think everyone is a sellout because of inadequate Hlllary worship (like this site, Keith Olbermann, Howard Dean, Stephanie Miller, etc)

I do not know what Howard Dean and Stephanie Miller have to do with it, but if Kos is equating his site to Olbermann's antics, that is saying he is proud to be a Hillary Hater. But to bring Markos back to the point, he endorsed this:

It's bizarre, but I don't really consider [Hillary Clinton] a Dem any more.

If refraining from saying Hillary Clinton is not a Democrat constitutes Hillary worship for Daily Kos, I think he confirms my point - the destruction of the Clinton Wing of the Party, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Legacy is what his web site is about now. Drumming Clinton supporters out of the Democratic Party is what his web site is about. If that is what Barack Obama's campaign will be about in November, he will lose. The Creative Class Wing of the Democratic Party is not enough.

By Big Tent Democrat

Paul Krugman speaks for me:

[T]he suggestion that the American heartland suffered equally during the Clinton and Bush years is deeply misleading. In fact, the Clinton years were very good for working Americans in the Midwest, where real median household income soared before crashing after 2000.

[I]f I were a Democratic Party elder, I’d urge Mr. Obama to stop blurring the distinction between Clinton-era prosperity and Bush-era economic distress. . . . [L]et’s hope that once Mr. Obama is no longer running against someone named Clinton, he’ll stop denigrating the very good economic record of the only Democratic administration most Americans remember.

To the "Creative Class," that might mean I am "not a Dem." But it is what I think. I am glad to be in Krugman's company on this.

By Big Tent Democrat

There is something incredibly galling about all the new harrumphing from these august figures about what ABC did in Wednesday's debate. The galling part is not the protest of the ABC Debate, which was a travesty. The galling part was the shameful and inexcusable silence from these same figures when it was NBC performing the travesties. Shame on the signatories to that letter, not for signing that letter, but for not signing one about NBC earlier. You have no credibility to complain now. None.

It is obvious that each and every one of those signatories do not give a fig about good journalism. The only thing they care about is St. Barack Obama and not blowing their chances to be on Countdown. This is Boehlert's Revenge:

By Big Tent Democrat

A great favor has been done for those who seem not to realize that the not all polls are equal. The key to polling is the likely voter model. But polling method is also important. An Indiana university poll that used SUSA to do its fieldwork with a poll it designed came out, with a strikingly different result than SUSA did with its own poll. Thus while SUSA has Clinton up 16. The alternate Indiana poll has Obama up 5. How could it happen? Turnout models. Polling methods. Definitions of the relevant universe. Etc.

SUSA explains:

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Jonathan Singer writes:

Reading Jerome's post this afternoon, I must respectfully, though strongly, disagree with the sentiment he passes along from Big Tent Democrat that Obama supporters' "hatred of Bill and Hillary Clinton has become more important to them than Obama's chances of winning in November."

. . . I wouldn't use the words of a Daily Kos commenter Markos points to, namely that the commenter no longer considers Hillary Clinton a Democrat . . .

Respectfully, Singer just did agree with me. Those are the words that I found objectionable. Singer continues: