I'm speechless.

John Kerry just explained not only why I'm a Democrat, but why I don't trust Republicans on ANYTHING -- including their so-called strength: "national security".

We can argue about whether it's fair to both candidates and how they've been treated.

We can argue about who can best help Obama with his media-manufactured "white voter" problem.

We can argue about what kind of feminist would spite Obama by supporting more Scalias, Alitos, Thomases, and Robertses on the supreme court.

We can argue about whether Clinton helps or undermines Obama's message of "change".

We can argue about the best way to unify the Democratic party -- and I have a tremendous amount of respect for Hillary Clinton, especially her work and stance on health care.

But we can't argue about this:

We can't have someone on Obama's ticket arguing that McCain is ready to be the commander-in-chief and Obama is not. Period. Exclamation mark. Double exclamation. (!!)

Hold onto your seats people, because I have some shocking and terrible news.

The good news: we are outdrawing the Republicans in the vast majority of the country. Even if you confine your gaze to hotly contested states by both parties, Democrats still had massive turnouts in  South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Colorado. Fuck, we even had bigger turnouts than the Republicans in Oklahoma and Georgia.

But I'm not trying to make any predictions about how these states will vote in November. I'm really just trying to understand what made the turnout work... because... well... I don't want to alarm people... but I think there's something wrong with the Florida and Michigan Democratic primaries!!!

(hat tip to Matt Stoller at Open Left)

John Heilemann at New York Magazine seems to indicate that Obama had an Edwards endorsement in the bag:

So appalled was Edwards at Clinton’s gaudy corporatism—her defense of the role of lobbyists, her suckling at the teats of the pharmaceutical and defense industries—that he’d essentially called her corrupt. And then, not least, there were the sentiments of his wife. "Elizabeth hasn’t always been crazy about Mrs. Clinton" is how an Edwards insider puts it; a less delicate member of HRC’s circle says, "Elizabeth hates her guts."

The lobbyist is a huge issue for me, and one of the reasons I moved into the Obama camp after Edwards dropped out.

Today I endorse Barack Obama.

I'm not a Kennedy. I don't have a record of accomplishment that makes my endorsement meaningful. But I'd like to think that my endorsement is meaningful because of my past criticisms of Obama.

I guess you could say my doubts came from how Obama handled McClurkin, Reagan, and Krugman. But more than anything, it was Obama's silence that irked me. Okay, reach out to conservatives. Okay, you understand how Reagan sold conservatism. When are you gonna sell progressivism?

Well, Obama shut down my criticism on Thursday:

"... we can afford to pay a little bit more so that that child in east Los Angeles who is in a crumbling school, with teachers that are having to dig into their own pockets for school supplies, that they are having a chance at the American dream, as well."

(APPLAUSE)

"I'm happy to have that argument."

Not only did Obama just advocate to raise taxes. He fought for the most unpalatable part of progressivism. And made the crowd cheer.

That's the kind of candidate I want fighting for me.

John Edwards has withdrawn from the race. You might be thinking a dozen different things, depending on who you support and why you support them.

But whether you're thrilled or depressed, I only have one thing to say:

This is a movement, not a campaign.

That goes double for his supporters. Repeat that again to yourself.

The reason I've supported John Edwards is because he embodies what he often repeats: "this is not about us, the candidates. This is about you." Especially the people who haven't had a voice. This is not about him. This is about the cause of his life. And it should be the cause of all of our lives.

This is a movement. And it ain't over.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a hit diary. Obama is a great, liberal senator. This is a diary about strategy.

I frequently hear that 2008 has the potential to be a re-aligning election. Re-alignment occurs when one party moves towards a policy, and the other party is forced to go in the same direction or face extinction.

For example, the arc from FDR to Johnson represented a wave of change that forced Nixon to follow. Democrats gave us the New Deal and the Great Society. Nixon knew there was no turning back, so he could only slow things down. Nixon continued school integration and gave us the Environmental Protection Agency.

Richard Nixon also offered America this:

The time is at hand this year to bring comprehensive, high quality health care within the reach of every American. I shall propose a sweeping new program that will assure comprehensive health insurance protection to millions of Americans who cannot now obtain it or afford it, with vastly improved protection against catastrophic illnesses.  

Yes. A republican insuring everybody. You HAVE to read this.

(Go ahead and click.)

http://news.yahoo.com/...

Saturday's prime-time presidential debates from New Hampshire will be less crowded because ABC News is eliminating ... Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.

The candidates failed to meet benchmarks for their support that were outlined prior to Thursday's Iowa caucus, the network said Friday.

With Biden and Dodd dropping out, that leaves four candidates to share 90 minutes of fame:

(1) Barack Obama
(2) John Edwards
(3) Hillary Clinton
(4) Bill Richardson

Iowa has already made its impact. It says a lot that the #1 and #2 slots are already defined. Kudos to the other candidates, and I wish the media could have given us more of a choice earlier on. But now that the field has been narrowed, it will be refreshing to take a closer look at the choices we have.  

I've also got more good news about the debate:

(Disclaimer: I'm pointing this out not because I think it should be news. But to pre-empt the spin that will likely come from all kinds of democrats.)

Last week, Karl Rove offered advice for Republicans on how to beat Hillary. In doing so, he calls her hard to beat.

Now, yesterday, Karl Rove offered similar advice to Barack Obama. A memo entitled, once again, "How to beat Hillary (unofficial sequel)".

What the heck does it mean?

Live Blog #1 by sgary. Edwards!

Live Blog #2 by JohnD. Richardson and Biden!

Live Blog #3 by noweasels. Dodd!

Live Blog #4 by citizenx. Clinton!

Live Blog #5 by oysterface. Obama!

STRONG STRONG STRONG speeches by Edwards and Obama. But don't let that influence you.

What were the highlights?

Lowlights?

Hillary Clinton excels at nothing if not campaigning.

Right now, the other candidates are playing right into her hands. Attacking Hillary lets her play the hero in this election story.

Words can't describe just how horrendous this act is.

http://www.news.com.au/...

A WOMAN who was sexually abused, beaten and forced to eat rat and dog faeces while being held captive in a West Virginian home for at least a week may be the victim of a hate crime.

Six people arrested including a mother and son, and a mother and daughter, are white. The victim, a 23-year-old woman, is black.

The FBI plans to investigate whether racism played a part after one of the suspects, female Frankie Brewster, allegedly cut the victim's ankle with a knife while telling her she was a "nigger", USA Today reported.

We can only hope and wish that the allegations are untrue. But some shit you just can't make up. And hoping and wishing doesn't make these problems go away.

Dear Al Gore,

I just saw the Oscars. We are all so proud of you, Al. You earned every last bit of praise, and deserve even more.

Your passion, integrity, and intelligence are greatly needed in the Whitehouse. While I haven't chosen my preferred candidate, I know you'd already have a great platform to run on. There's a damn good chance you'd have my support in the primaries. And you can guarantee that you'd have
every last bit of my enthusiasm for your presidential campaign if you won the nomination.

I was excited about you entering the field of candidates. In my dreams, you would win the Oscar. You would get up to the podium, the people chanting and calling for you to run, and your plans to not run would quickly erode. If not during your acceptance speech then a few days from that, you would announce your candidacy. And the crowd goes wild.

Today, with the Oscars looming, I changed my mind...

Al, please, I'm begging you, please. DO NOT RUN.

We found out today that John Kerry will not be seeking the Presidency in 2008. However, he may very well seek re-election in the Senate. This diary is to commend his years of service to his country and the world.

A lot of people on this site have mixed feelings about you, Senator. The 2004 election. Some people thought the President was so incompetent and vulnerable that it would only take the truth to defeat him. Others recognized a well-organized Republican noise machine, with swift boat attacks, carefully crafted and timed messages, and frames that the Democratic Party was just not organized enough to break. This diary isn't about that, though. On that subject, though, I will say one thing: you would have made one of the greatest Presidents of the United States in history.

(retrospective and warm fuzzies below the fold)

In these postmodern times, we hear two kinds of rhetoric in the leadup to a war. One is the World War 2 rhetoric, that the enemy is determined to inflict violence and they must be stopped. The other is the Vietnam War rhetoric, that the conflict is not necessary.

Inherent in that rhetorical one-side-versus-the-other battle is the underlying belief that war is morally gray, not black and white. Talking about taking life to save life is morally muddy, at best... and we navigate it by invoking "just wars" (WW2) and "unjust wars" (Nam).

We seldom hear politicians invoke the third view -- that it's never ethical to condone a war, and it's always better to abstain from war. In all those glorious videos about WW2, you seldom hear of what Gandhi was saying at the time. Passive resistance has rarely been considered an option against the Nazis, even in retrospect.

The elites who influence today's media oligarchy believe we are cockroaches. A pest. A nuisance. Somewhere along the line, they fell in line with the GOP message that "you're either with us or against us".

These people believe that if we infest the Democratic party, it will be sight too digusting for the average American's eyes. And seeing as we're the Democratic Party's "problem", all the media has to do is turn the lights on. Our appearance, so terrifyingly shameful, will push us back to the edges of the political discourse, where we belong. And if the party insiders don't get freaked out by our presence, then the American people will.

That's their strategy. Shine a spotlight on DailyKos, and Americans will be horrified.

Who was the moron who said the following quote:

Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason...Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy.

Was it:

1. Ann Coulter?
Or 2. Hitler?

Test your knowledge at the website below:

http://www.people.virginia.edu/...

And share your score below the fold.

"I'll just tell you right now. We welcome that debate. We'll clean your clock."
- quote from GOP Sen. Lindsay Graham, on the debate over whether Judge Alito should become Justice Alito

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
- quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

Tomorrow I will be 25 years old. And if you believe in inevitability, tomorrow Judge Alito will become Justice Alito. I couldn't help but ask myself... how will the course of history be written over the next 25 years?

And I've decided that I'll be happy even if we lose.

(For this, and more thoughts with only a half hour until a vote on cloture, click the fold...)