You really think that Rush wouldn't have encouraged his listeners to vote Hillary had Kos not "gamed" the Michigan primary?

And smoke and mirrors?? It's simply a fact (backed up by several exit polls) that republicans began voting for Hillary in increasing numbers after Rush began his little campaign.

However, I don't think that the impact of the "Rushbots" on the level of debate/hostility of the campaign is as significant as you think it is.

I doubt their efforts have managed to net Hillary more than maybe 1 or 2 pledged delegates.

They have not helped keep Hillary in the race, she would have remained in the race without their "help".

Certainly, Kos (like alegre, and many others) HAS contributed to the less than positive level of discourse that has defined this campaign season, but he has done so through partisan blogging NOT through gaming Michigan's primary.  

the moment Penn stepped foot into the C. Campaign.

It will be a Democratic debacle if Obama is the nominee.

As I have often reported, I am a fifty-four year-old lifelong Ohioan and Democrat.  My family has been voting sixty years for Democrats, and never any other way.  Often, we were that poor, overwhelmed minority that voted McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis, when we saw the forthcoming debacles, and still tried to muddle through obliviously.

But not this time.  This time this bedrock Democratic family is, to a member, each and every one of us going for John McCain if Obama is the nominee.

This is one Titanic ship we will not be on.  

McCain will doubtless continue many of the wayward policies of President George Walker Bush.

But McCain, with his maturity, experience, and hero status, is infinitely preferable to allowing a three-year Senate neophyte like Barack Obama, unvetted and untested, to have the reigns of the most powerful position on Earth.

From his bizarre affiliations (like the Reverend Wright) to his equally bizarre temper tantrums, and his inability to take any criticism (witness his disastrous last debate performance; without the usual media lovefest, both he and his minions are utterly lost to find blame), Barack Obama is without a doubt the worst candidate ever put up by a major American party.  

Even the "no-nothing" accidental presidency of Millard Filmore and the perhaps never-to-be resolved odd election victories of Rutherford Hayes and George Walker Bush were as nothing compared to the sick joke Howard Dean's Democratic Party put forth in attempting to thrust the entirely inexperienced Barack Obama onto the national and world stage.

Yes, the blogosphere largely loves Obama, much as they once did Howard Dean and Ralph Nader.  But both are notoriously poor judges of presidential election-year politics.

The wayward Democrats joining the Obama minions individually and collectively have their own agendas.  The surviving Kennedy group in Obama's corner want to remain relevant, as do the Bill Bradley, John Kerry, Bill Richardson, and fellow losers group--none of whom will ever have the popularity or success that Bill Clinton did.

The broadcast and print American media have spent some fifteen years trying to destroy the Clintons, and denying just how successful the Clinton years were.  The American media yet adores the imagery of Ronald Reagan, inasmuch as they helped to create him as a viable political force, having been in reality little more than an addlepated second-rate film star, reconstituted by way of General Electric.

Which is why Barack Obama, on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, is still the honey of the American media, from Oprah Winfrey to MSNBC, to the blogosphere.  He himself praises Ronald Reagan and has spent the past six months tearing down everything Clinton.  

His forces would dynamite the party of everything Clinton to get their man the nomination, then expect those Clinton forces to fall in line for their man in the fall.

It doesn't work that way.  The only path to the presidency for Barack Obama, in January and now, is by way of a possible veep spot through Hillary Clinton.

The Clinton forces are the base, and as such the ineluctable part of winning a fall campaign.  Neither Red State America, nor "independent and cross-over" caucuses and primaries will truly matter come November.

Most states are still winner-take-all, and that means the populous ones count far more than do their sparsely peopled counterparts.  It is not how many states one wins, nor even popular vote totals (the Bush/Gore election is a classic example) that count, but which winner-take-all states a candidate can count upon, plus some key bell-weathers (Florida and Ohio are the classic examples here).

In sum, Barack Obama simply cannot get to the presidency without key Bedrock Blue big state America, and at least either Ohio or Florida in the winning column.  Dismissing those and trying for an alliance with an occasional swing mountain state like Colorado won't do.  

The Clinton way to the presidency worked twice.  The Howard Dean/Barack Obama path to the presidency is a fantasy, rather like the candidacy of Barack Obama himself.

About half, or better, of bedrock Democrats have not, and never shall, buy into that fantasy.  When the Obama forces went after the Clintons with a vengeance that endeared them to the MSM, they also instantly lost half of the party.  No kiss-and-make-up efforts afterwards, no obviously not-heartfelt endorsements will do.

Half or better of the Democratic Party is getting ready to leave the ship Titanic if Obama is the nominee.

As to Howard Dean's path to "proportionate representation," it has been an utter disaster.  The current Democratic Congress is seen as inept as is the current Republican President.

If Senator Clinton isn't granted the nomination, we soon-to-be-departing veteran Democrats will always have our memories.

The Clinton years--for the most part years of peace and prosperity.  The Clinton presidency--the last multiple presidency for the Democrats since the years of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

And indeed, Bill Clinton will have been the last Democratic President for many long years to come if Obama is the nominee.

KOS and company may think that their path to White House power was in trashing the Clintons.

Come November, if Obama is the nominee, that group will learn sadly that trashing the Clintons was the path to Democratic Party oblivion.

Let the SuperDelegates ponder that sobering fact.  They can jump from Ship Obama now, and save themselves the certain misery of millions of lost November souls.  

i think the influence of kos, and, er, this site, are radically overestimated by you.

the election turned out like it did, clinton was not prepared for the obama boom, nobody was, it caught all with their pants down.

obama was not ready to be the front runner, to take the direct hits that have only just begun.

its nobody's fault, but pennslyvanians, vote early and often, its never too late, never give up, do not hold onto loathing just paddle

Hillary was inevitable until people started casting ballots! Stupid, ungrateful wretches!!! Don't they know it's her turn? Her turn, dammit!

/Clinton fanatic

Don't blame Markos for Hillary's shoddy campaign. She has no one to blame but herself and her stunningly incompetent and arrogant staff. Turns out we had an election and not a coronation, after all.

Funny what did Marko's post the wed after the great BO super tuesday meltdown.  Lets see???  The darkened clip.  Not once, not twice, but three times.  Three fing times.  Then the 3 am ad is racist because the little girl was white.  The day after NH it was "HRC won because of the racist voters who lied to pollsters.  

And funny what does Marko's even know about racism growing up in the Western Chicago burbs.  NOTHING!!!!  People like him throw around race for poliicical grain.  DISGUSTING.

If there is any bigger loser this GE it will be him. His use of and flaming race will hurt the democractic party for years to come.

david

I guess it was a gamble for him, and I'm not sure how it's supposed to pay off.

One would think that his ad revenue stream would be largest if he could attract hits from the entire Democratic party.  Having narrowed his focus blatantly and exclusively on the Obama segment, one has to wonder whether the Obama fan base's enthusiasm really compensates for the hits he's no longer getting from Hillary supporters.

At first, I was a bit in denial about how different DailyKos had become, then I stuck around to try and balance things out.  Now I just don't go there very much.  

The Clinton fans man-crush on Markos is just so adorable.

Yeah, he's gonna get his comeuppance, watching President Obama enter the WH next year....

let's not give the smug little shitte the time of day here.

that dkos could have been a very important component to this election, but the silliness that followed Markos' endorsement of Obama just made it more apparent that the site became a partisan, anti-HRC, pro Obama no matter what, yelling chamber.

In fact I have to thank dkos for showing me how unqualified Obama is to be president--with the kind of yelling nonsense, trolling, and insulting that goes on over there, mind you-no substance, it is a poor reflection on Obama himself.  I moved from JRE to HRC for many reasons, and the dkos site just confirmed my reasoning.

Credibility?  Both the site and markos have suffered greatly in that category.  And now he's writing for newsweek?  How biased is that?  

I won't support that site with any hits whatsovever...every hit that the site gets makes more money for Markos.

most democrats and yes, most of them, don't even know who Markos is.  And no, they aren't all "old people" who don't know how to use the web.  

and probably would be taken aback by some of the swill he promotes over there.

recced, but with the caveat that i disagree with speculation that markos has been offered a job. i can't fathom any constructive role the guy could play in a government position, and he's have to give up running his blog AND his mouth in order to do so. i think he's incapable of that.

markos doesn't understand how politics works.

Markos started his blog for the purpose of uniting Democrats. He said that we should welcome all factions of the Democratic Party.

But then a few months ago, he started saying that Hillary was not about what his book "Crashing the Gate" was all about. As the diarist has said, he became so negative towards Clinton and her supporters that it's almost as if he wants Clinton supporters purged from the Democratic Party. Bloggers on the DailyKos started talking about that they were superior to Clinton supporters because they were more educated then they and they were racists. Markos may get his wish by getting most of those "uneducated racist" Reagan Democrats to vote for McCain.