It's any caucus system that sucks, big time. The culinary workers on the strip (mediated by their union) can caucus in high numbers. Other workers, who aren't at work on the weekend, do not have such convenience, and therefore will not vote in such high numbers. Isn't that disenfranchisment? Plus, what does a worker do who disagrees with his union president? He has to stand up in public and voice vote for Edwards or Hillary or Kucinich... and not care about the ribbing (or worse) he's sure to get.
Sure looks to me like the equivalent of driving up to the voter's house, taking their ballot, and leaving them with a bottle of gin. Oh. But no, it's a New England town meeting! Hey, we got the secret ballot for a reason. We got universal suffrage for a reason. Caucusing is just an apparently democratic means for recapturing the role of the party institutions. Be a union member in the right union, you get a convenient vote and a disproportionate number of delegates.
I'm still waiting for a genuinely progressive stance on any issue from Mr. Obama. He's to the right of Hillary and Edwards.

Posted at January 18, 2008 7:43 AM in response to Let the People Vote

Look, it's about time for everybody to be honest and respectful for the other side. Reporters should do it, but so should members of the same party who believe, more or less, in the same things. Stop it with "shills," and say, "supporters." Stop it with thinking everybody but you is driven by evil motives. People honestly disagree. All right? Stop sounding like the Savage show.

Posted at January 8, 2008 7:53 PM in response to How Could the Polls be so Wrong?

I can't believe how much the so-called "leftists" have been worshipping at the altar of Limbaugh, and Matthews and the rest. Does Obama have any other policy but Hillary-hatred and airy-fairy bipartisanship that exists in his own brain? Has the campaign of Edwards cost him so much that he can't say something like, "Well, this campaign has been hard on all of us," and then say why she's wrong about this or that? No moments for compassion? What is your politics making of you?

Posted at January 7, 2008 5:18 PM in response to Hillary Teared--and Edwards Blinked

Oh, get a life. It's not just you and your pompous positions that are real. I get so tired of people like you who call themselves leftists, when all you are are pontificators.

Posted at January 7, 2008 5:13 PM in response to Hillary Teared--and Edwards Blinked

Hey, Obama's "inspiration" leaves me blinking to find it. It seems to be all wrapped up in that statement, "In the blue states, we have an awesome God." Like hell we do. That smarmy turn of phrase is as revolting when he says it as when Falwell says it.

But what I wanted to criticize mostly is the idea of Dowd and most of the rest as "elite" media. Much of the "elite" media are wealthy pigs driven by strange obsessions, nothing more, and Dowd more than others. The rule by the Mean Kidz has got to end. The rule of our politics by the billionaire corporate types has got to end. Period. They would raise Caesar's horse to the Senate, and would as gladly ruin a reputation as the proverbial wanton boys. I'd love nothing more than that we pass legislation undoing all of these conglomerates, for the good of Democracy.

Posted at January 4, 2008 11:07 PM in response to From Concord, NH: Obama's Music

You know, I'd really appreciate it if "supporting Hillary" wasn't "shilling for her," and a million other little insults like that. All it impresses me with is the fact that a lot of Obama supporters only seem to be able to support their guy after saying something snide about Hill. Grow up.

Posted at December 28, 2007 4:44 PM in response to Al Qaeda Did It?

Hey, Common Dreamer. Axelrod said something stupid. It happens. Bill and Hillary have done it too. Grin and bear it. Your golden boy screwed up for once.

Posted at December 28, 2007 4:02 PM in response to Al Qaeda Did It?

I have grown to mistrust Obama because he's triangulating Hillary from the right. He's got her wedged up against Chris Matthews and his nightly glossalalia of Hillary hate, and he keeps pushing. And I wonder how long it will take the Hillary campaign to catch on to the rabbit punching, or what I think would be the "don't you throw me in that briar patch" psychology that these street-smart Chicago pols are using. The comment by Shaheen was not a smear. It was a response to a question, raised by the Washington Post, not Shaheen. "Oh, we're being smeared!" Yet, in the HuffPo, there's more real smears per hour of Hillary than you could imagine.

It comes down to this: Somerby is right. Any Democrat will be trashed like Gore was.

Posted at December 13, 2007 4:58 PM in response to Obama Talks the Talk, But Where’s the Walk?

I remember the immediate post-9/11 period, and I think the mood was about 90% in favor of torture, because it would give us a magical shield against EVIL. But the thing about torturers is, they don't sleep well. And their political alliances tend to flip rapidly. Maybe we should torture the Italians, to get them back in line -- Nah, let's go back to the constitution.

Posted at December 11, 2007 11:54 AM in response to Disentangling Torture TapeGate

Is it not absolutely meaningless without the participation of Hamas? It seems to me that every leader of Fatah was hunted down or rejected as acting in bad faith, until Hamas was there. What does Abboud run, anyway?

Posted at November 27, 2007 9:53 PM in response to Initial Thoughts on Annapolis