Despite all the talk that Obama doesn't have executive experience, in less than a year he's built a huge, well-run, cohesive, national infrastructure of hundreds of employees and a $100 million budget.

And he's accomplished this with an amazing lack of internal "drama."

If you're looking for clues to what kind of Democratic nominee Obama will be, on what kind of President he'll be, and how the White House staff will operate, then read Ben Smith's article in the Politico today which has some great details...

More below the fold...

Before I get to Jennifer Hunter's absurd non-review of the Audacity of Hope, a little background...

I had a previous encounter with the Chicago Sun-Times columnist following her debut piece on Obama. Though couched as a historical review of Lincoln, it was ulitmately a hit piece that seemed intended to undermine the campaign -- accusing it of "hubris" for the Springfield backdrop -- on the day before the official Feb. 10th announcement speech.

Opinion is opinion, and that's fine, I suppose, but this timely scolding was incorrectly labeled as "news."

More below the fold...

I know this may be poor form, but I think it needs to be done...

Say this out loud in your best upcoming SNL impression (seriously, get into an Obama groove -- and the Obama campaign should really put this on video)...

But admit it Matt Stoller, Obama makes the ask...

[More below the fold...]

[Crossposted at What's the Point?]

During the 2004 election season, a campaign by MoveOn.org, Arianna Huffington, and Joe Trippi implored John Kerry to "go big."

The kick-off email began...

Dear MoveOn member,

As George Bush's poll numbers drop, John Kerry is facing an important choice — perhaps the most important choice he'll make in his campaign. He has to decide whether, as some consultants will urge, he should be cautious, or whether he should present a bold agenda for change and rally all Americans around a common vision for our future.

Throughout his life, John Kerry has made a practice of standing up for bold initiatives to provide health care, protect the environment, and guarantee truth-telling in government. Together, we need to let him know that we want him to be his best, boldest self — to go big, ask more from us, and power his campaign on the politics of hope and progress.

[How this relates to Obama, below the fold...]

[Crossposted at What's the Point?]

There's a John Updike collection of short stories called Too Far to Go that describes, among other things, the deep sadness of a married couple who are losing or have lost the connection that brought them together.

In the title story (I think - I may have some details wrong, but this is what I remember), there is a deeply melancholic scene that describes the husband lying awake while his wife is sleeping in the same room, but in a separate bed.

(More on Mele...)

Last weekend, Vermont was host to the most important political happening since then Attorney General Pat Leahy wrote in support of skinny-dipping…

Yes, you guessed it folks: The First Annual Vermont Daily Briefing/Green Mountain Daily Political Barbeque and Hamburger Summit!

Organized by two of the leading Vermont bloggers, VDB’s Philip Baruth and GMD’s John Odum, the event brought together Vermont bloggers (yes, even the great Carpetbagger), activists and politicians, including most of the current Democratic contenders for statewide office: Scudder Parker, Peter Welch, Matt Dunne, and John Tracy.

Even Charity Tensel, Grande Dame of Vermont’s conservative blogosphere, and Brendan McKenna, the communications director for Martha Rainville, one of the Republican candidates seeking Bernie Sanders’ House seat, showed up to chat.

All these people together in one place, just months before the primaries and the election, and nary a reporter in sight. (Save, Shay Totten, Vermont’s independent media guru.)

Gotta love Vermont.

Read on for many links to photos and commentary...

On May 12th, Media Matters sponsored a panel discussion called "Why Media Matters: The Role of the Media in the Democratic Process" which details the essentials of the differing perspectives of media critics and the members of the press who are on the receiving end of that criticism. Often a hot topic in netroots circles, to be sure.

Many of the arguments that I've heard from both sides were detailed and eloquently stated. And it provides a one-stop shopping spree for those of us like me who are obsessed with the discussion of -- as Greg Sargent puts it the tagline of his blog Horse's Mouth -- the reporting of politics and the politics of reporting. Or, as Brattlerouser and Jamison Foser would remind us: It's the media, you rather-less-than-super-sharp person.

OK, I can't do it.

For about 13 seconds I thought "Franken: Sense & Mirth" was an amazingly clever title for a post about Saturday's Bernie Sanders benefit featuring Al Franken. But I quickly realized I must not be the first person to think of that. And a google search showed more than a few references, including Franken's one-time plans for using it as the name of his show.

Can't decide whether "Weekend at Bernie's" would have been worse.

Across the street from the Flynn were some trucks with Tarrant and Tarrant-inspired signs decrying "partisan hatred." All well and good if you ignored the ~U.S. Congress is controlled by Zionists~ signs right next to them.

Here's a leaked photo of Tony Snow practicing for his new post...

I love the sad, shameful grasp of putting in a blow-dried newsmodel (in Snow's own not blow-dried newsmodel way, of course) in the role of Deputy Liar. It may turn out to be a good move by Rove, but funny nonetheless.

Since I need to fill this up lest the diary robots deny me, I wanted to add a bit of commentary about the latest Blogads survey.

The big difference between this survey and the Pew Dean study is the low percentage of women.

In the Dean study, women and men are represented almost equally. And arguably, what's left of the Dean community still operating at Blog for America, is dominated by women.

The role of women in netroots activism is really essential, I think, to a vibrant web community for a campaign. Because, though this is certainly not across the board, men are more inclined to get into pissing matches in blog comments and women are more inclined to set up voter registration tables.

Are the robots happy now?

Just got an email from TrueMajority with a link to a clever video...

With a funny nod to the now-famous "Bush: Worst Disaster in American History" news crawl, it features a portion of Bush's Besmirch Veteran's Day speech with the helpful addition of a faux news crawl providing the appropriate factual rebuttals to his claims...

Here's a screenshot:

Bob Somerby is detecting an interesting change in the way the pundits on the Chris Matthews Show this past Sunday reacted to that odd host's attempts to slam Hillary Clinton...

To Somerby's surprise, they didn't take the usual bait to attack a major Democrat with the typical array of "they're wishy-washy" slander...

And he has an interesting theory as to why that may be the case.

More after the fold...

In diary comments, here and here, I tended to conflate my attempts to defend Bob Somerby with a call for less bluster and more logic here at Daily Kos. This made sense to me in this context, but only served to cloud the argument, caused some to misinterpret my comments as a bit self-pitying, and resulted in a pointless squabble with Armando.

So, seeing as I haven't been very effective in defending Bob Somerby of late, I thought I'd let him do it himself.

While he responds directly to Armando in Sunday's post, his Saturday post is the one that should be read first.

More after the fold...

Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler has written a rather reasonable response to the outrage over his criticisms of Joe Wilson over the past few days.

He may be guilty of parsing language too sharply from time to time and losing the larger context, but in this case he points to how the rallying around Wilson by the press and the left undercut the larger issues surrounding the propaganda campaign in the Iraq War build-up.

I would ask that you keep an open mind and read his comments after the fold...

[From madison.com]

Click for more...

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=240

Here's a tease...

I think Democrats need to widen the idea of "family values" to refer to the entire "American Family."

This is compatible with Rich Kolker's American Compact idea that seeks to establish a short set of core actions that help define the Democratic Party's interest in the Common Good...

The Democratic Party: Stengthening *Our* American Family

Are bloggers journalists? Do they deserve press protections?
An Apple lawsuit against the operators of fan websites stirs debate on whether bloggers can claim legal protections.
By Randy Dotinga | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0202/p03s02-usju.html

In the small universe of powerful bloggers, Joshua Micah Marshall and John Hinderaker are separated by 900 miles and an even wider political divide. Mr. Marshall leans to the left from Washington D.C., while Mr. Hinderaker, a Minneapolis attorney, sits firmly in the conservative camp. But the two men do share something in common: No one is really sure what to think of them.

Are they journalists with an obligation to check facts, run corrections, and disclose conflicts of interest? Or are they ordinary opinion-slingers, like barbers or bartenders, with no special responsibilities - or rights?

[Click link above for more...]