I have decided to run for President in 2012.  But, first, I must win the nomination of my party.  Based on Obama's brilliant argument, I have a foolproof plan.  I will decide which states I am likely to lose, and then, sytematically withdraw my name from the ballot in those states.  Thus, whoever wins in those states will have their delegate and popular vote totals disqualified.  Given the absolute agreement that this logic is universally approved, my success seems inevitable.

When I first started reading political blogs, I checked two on a regular (okay, daily) basis: Dkos and MyDD. I enjoyed both but in different ways. I lurked for a while on both, and first started posting at Dkos. It wasn't until recently that I got the courage to start regularly posting here. Why? This place intimidated me. Chris Bowers gave a pretty good explanation of why (here):

Within the progressive blogosphere, our relative influence far exceeds our relative traffic levels... Rather than a community blog, MyDD tends to be a professional blog.

I was intimidated because the discourse on MyDD always felt more reasoned, more knowledgeable, more professional. This, I think, was a good thing; lurking at MyDD made me (at least feel) smarter.

Now, I know that, like flowers blooming in spring, silliness and stupidity will bloom during primary season. Certainly, blogtopia has been feeling much dumber and more divisive as of late. But, MyDD? Yes, I think it's safe to say that, even here, otherwise smart and level-headed progressives find themselves caught in the midst of silliness.

I'm going to try to deal with some of the sillier arguments floating around this primary season. I was an Edwards man through and through, so I don't really have a horse in this race. I do, however, lean Obama. But I doubt I'll make a lot of my fellow Obama supporters super happy; many of the arguments I'll dissect come from my own camp. And, obviously, much of what I say will probably piss off some of the more outspoken Clinton supporters, too. I hope--this is for the more partisan supporters on either side--that you do read this diary.

I hold no illusions about my writing; I don't think I'm going to change everyone's mind or make peace here at MyDD. Hell, I'm sure I'll say plenty of stupid things you all can pick apart in the comments, if you so desire. But, I hope that, at the least, some of you all read and comment and discuss what I bring up. I know that we can at least learn something of what "the other side" thinks, and maybe from there we can continue building that common framework from which real, mind-changing debate is possible.