I think you all at TPM have lost your minds.
Why on earth are you giving so much coverage to a small fringe group?
Of the past 60 posts on TPM 34 of them have been on what you have called "the tea party extravaganza"

That's 56% of your coverage, over a period of time that included TWO mass shootings?
WTF team?

There are pro health reform rallies, phone banks, and canvasses happening every single day.
But what do you all cover? Michelle Bachmann.

You're giving them a soapbox. I'm astonished. Throughout the 2008 campaign I could count on TPM to cut through the bullshit. But now you're inadvertently one of the largest mouth pieces for it. How has this happened?

You've completely abdicated the frame of the debate, even going so far as to call the President of the United States, AARP, and the AMA message "Counter-Programming" !

I don't doubt which corner you're in. I just don't think you understand the amount of power you're giving the opposition.

Here's the free earned media you've given the tea-baggers over the past 72 hours:



http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/dancing_to_her_tune.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/the_freak_show_we_live_in.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/sheesh_again.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/priorities_1.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/about_those_arrests.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/numbers_game.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/more_on_arrests_at_pelosis_office.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/tpmdcs_evan_mcmorris-santoro_spent_the.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/tea-partiers-came-with-2010-warnings.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/party_on.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/2009/11/the-storming-of-capitol-hill.php?img=1

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/tea_partiers_arrested_outside_pelosis_office.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/roaming_the_halls.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/party_foul.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/tea_party_moving_indoors.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/wilson-mania.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/manchurian.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/running_updates.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/take_over.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/ahh_special_moment.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/tea_baggers_to_attempt_sit_in_at_pelosis_office.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/not_the_kryptonite.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/thousands_plural.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/crowd_gathering.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/first_to_strike.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/message_conflict.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/bachmann_rallies_tea_partiers_for_last_stand.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/hill_staffers_listen_up.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/mums-the-word.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/bachmann_watch.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/11/getting_whackier.php

These are the TPM PRIMARY FEED POSTS!
What the hell is going on?

Crooks and Liars has a great find:

Union members at a coal mine in West Virginia boycott work because their management invited the NRA to film an anti-Obama ad!

Awesome!

440 Brave Americans

This extended nomination process, while exhausting, gives the democrats a huge advantage come the general. Here's why:

As the campaigns travel from state to state they are doing an enormous amount of work that will provide a solid foundation for the general election.

They are:

1) Registering thousands of new Democrats in every state.
2) Training hundreds of local organizers and activists. (From trainting young students to build events all the way to updating long time activists on contemporary data management)

and perhaps most powerfully:

3) Updating the state parties' voter files with correct addresses, cell phone numbers, new addresses and removing old and bad numbers/address

A lot of hoopla has been made about the Dems wasting money or delaying their "closing of the ranks."

But to an organizer, the real wealth is in the data, and because of this contest, the Dems' are light-years ahead.