Pretty amazing:
As everyone now knows, Bill Owens will be the first Democrat to represent New York’s 23rd since the mid-19th century, after defeating Doug Hoffman yesterday. This got me thinking about the representation of the region.
New York has 29 congressional districts. As of today, the state is represented by 27 Democrats. As recently as a […]

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Via John Cole, Wolcott nails it:
There are times when Democrats remind me of the episode of Seinfeld where, after a slapstick chain of mishaps, Kramer finds himself pinned against the wall like a soldier about to be executed as a tennis-ball machine bops one ball after another off of his head, until he groggily collapses […]

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Jane Hamsher with a perceptive and profoundly depressing post on how it all works:
People make a mistake when they think the battle for health care reform is about ideology, because it’s not.  It’s about who controls K Street and the cash that flows from it, which could fund a 2010 GOP resurgenece — or not. …
<snip>
And it seems […]

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… health care reform must go down in flames.
Glenn Greenwald explains why:
The Obama White House isn’t sitting impotently by while Democratic Senators shove a bad bill down its throat.  This is the bill because this is the bill which Democratic leaders are happy to have.  It’s the bill they believe in.  As important, by giving the […]

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Cenk Uygur nails it:
It is the unbearable weakness of Democratic being. They cannot find it in their hearts to strongly argue for their own position. To be fair, in this case, the weakness is mainly Obama’s. The White House has clearly indicated this weekend that they have already given up on the public option — […]

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Sullivan points to the same thing some of my right-wing correspondents are pointing out this morning - Pelosi knew:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC […]

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Politico headline today:
Reid to liberals: Back off
This, in response to liberal interest groups targeting moderate Dems in an attempt to force them to support Obama’s budget. 
Whatever. What strikes me about this is the fact that you’ll never, ever see the headline:
Cantor to conservatives: Back off
I mean - wasn’t that what the whole Limbaugh/Michael Steele bizness was […]

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Via Sullivan, himself via Matt Y., a fascinating column in the LA Times from Michael Hiltzik on the country’s changing view of the wealthy:

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I now have to wonder whether any Democrat anywhere has ever actually paid taxes.

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I wonder if Obama and the rest of the Democratic Party on the whole - but especially the bigwigs - realize that if Gustav is half the storm it sounds like it might be, they ought to be not out campaigning early next week, but pitching in in the Gulf states - as true leaders, […]

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One of the most amusing aspects of Obama’s speech was the build-up regarding the “Greek columns.” AP did a story yesterday - is this going to make Obama look presumptuous? What about the fact it was going to be held in a stadium? Nuremburg!
But as Obama spoke, we didn’t even see the columns. What we […]

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Glenn Greenwald on what’s been missing from the Democratic Convention:
The GOP’s attacks on Kerry in 2004 were mocking, scornful, derisive, demonizing and deeply personal — in speech after speech — and they were also highly effective. They weren’t the slightest bit deterred by the fact that Kerry was a war hero who was wounded multiple […]

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And it’s a hella speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7Jc8tNxck

Sullivan:
But since 2000, the worst aspects of Republicanism have crowded out its once necessary virtues. The reflexive impulse to use force over diplomacy, to use aggression over persuasion, to spend and borrow with no concern for the future, and to violate sacred principles such as the eschewal of torture with no […]

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Missed Clinton’s speech and John Kerry’s speech last night - both of which were said to have been excellent; will catch them on the Web later today - but did make it back from the fantasy football draft in time to watch Biden.
Wow.
If there’s a criticism of his speech, it’s that he didn’t lay into […]

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Because, you know, why not.
Watching all of this on MSNBC, where Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan provide the best one-two punch on any of the networks, IMO. Both noting, correctly, that Mark Warner’s speech was ridiculous - more designed to get Warner elected Senator in Virginia than in getting Obama elected president. All politics is […]

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Out of more of a feeling of obligation than anything, I watched last night’s opening of the Democratic Convention in Denver. To say I was initially unimpressed would be an understatement, particularly with Nancy Pelosi; to listen to her speak, she’s about as inspiring as the guy now occupying the White House, though more articulate and with […]

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We’ve lived in a political culture where, for the past seven-plus years but really longer than that, Republicans have defined themselves - and then been defined by popular culture - as strong and aggressive. Democrats, by contrast, were weaklings and whiners.
Boy, how things are changing.

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Hillary cruises in Kentucky, and it doesn’t mean much:
As recently as May 6, Obama trailed Clinton among superdelegates, the officeholders and party leaders who will attend the national convention by virtue of their positions.
But in the days following his convincing victory in the North Carolina primary and his narrow defeat in Indiana, Obama has […]

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RS sends me a bit this morning, regarding the special congressional race in Mississippi yesterday, where a district which once voted for President Bush by a 25 point margin instead elected a Democrat, Travis Childers, by an eight-point margin.
This is one of the many tea leaves which suggests that as competitive as we think the […]

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Via Jay at Atrios (himself via Matt Stoller), we get a clue to Obama’s success - and how this is the wave of the future for sure:
Money: MyBarackObama.com: With 1.5 million donors, this campaign has blown away anything we’ve ever seen in terms of grassroots fundraising. The technology is all centralized, so Obama knows […]

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