This will be a short diary. I just have to say, I'm really surprised Markos went 'there' with the perceived snub of Bill Halter by Michelle Obama in Arkansas over the weekend. Don't get me wrong, I have enormous respect for Markos, and I think most, if not all of us, want Bill Halter to win the primary over Blanche Lincoln. But when I saw Markos go conspiratorial, making the assertion that Michelle purposely left Halter off her litany of people to thank, I thought to myself, "This is a joke right? He's making fun of right-wing pundits who look for slights and political missteps where there aren't any, right?." And then I realized he wasn't when, disappointedly, I did not to find a quote or clip of Rush or Hannity in a Daily Show-style 'gotcha' moment. Markos was serious about his claim.
Although this site is still my primary source of political information, I'm increasingly dismayed that DKos has started to follow the trend of political discourse being all about shock and awe campaigns of blame, scapegoating, and playground childishness. Markos is a leading progressive voice, and for him to float something like this I think is irresponsible as 1). it starts a faulty and disingenuous meme about a possible White House smear campaign, and 2) props up the equally ridiculous argument from the right that it is progressives, not conservative smear merchants like Rush and Hannity, guilty of the type of slash-and-burn, isolationist, political bullying we've come to know and hate.
This has been and should continue to be a forum for fact-based discussions and solutions, not name-calling (unless it's called for) and disinformation. We're better than that. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. And Markos of all people should know better.