McClatchy:

"We need to get rid of caucuses," said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Penn., who traveled to lobby the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform.

"Caucuses are inherently unfair," she said. "I work in a restaurant. I can't take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?"

Why, indeed?

Apparently, Obama's made-for-TV self-coronation spectacular is on. He'll be flying back to Iowa, first victory, means a lot, hunky bused-in Abercrombie & Fitch guys, yadda yadda yadda, to surround himself with appropriate trappings of splendor and triumphalism for a metric, "majority of the pledged delegates [as of May 20]," that is totally without meaning according to The Rulez. But Obama apparently won't actually use the word "victory", in supposed deference to the tender sensibilities ("Sweetie") of Clinton supporters. ("Sure looks like a victory celebration to me, Keith." "Yes, it does, and so it should. Here comes the balloon drop! WWTSBQ?") But hey. It's all about looking good! And stealing your opponent's airtime. And suppressing the popular vote in the remaining primaries, of course.

Expectation: Obama will manage to piss off some constituency--I'd guess people who don't like Michelle's tiara, or maybe even the voters in the next primaries, at least, who are being told their votes are meaningless. It never fails. Say, I wonder if he'll have a free moment to leave a message on Hillary's cellphone this time?

Bonus paranoia: Will Obama wheel out another banked endorsement at the coronation?

Expectations: As for the KY and OR votes, nobody knows anything.

[NOTE: You could also post cute pictures of puppies for Leah. That seems to be the only thing that will induce her to post.]

[UPDATE Welcome, Cheetopians! If only Obama were a real progressive!]

This one has me really worried, because before NH, OH/TX, and PA I felt doomstruck and hopeless and depressed, and Hillary won them*.

So, now I'm feeling pretty good, and that gives me that old "It's quiet. Too quiet" feeling. It's bad if I feel good, so I'm going to be biting my nails and chewing o my hands today.

Let's repeat the expectations:

All at the same time.

Survey USA, which has been the gold standard of polls this election season, just released their latest results for Pennsylvania.

Hillary leads Obama by 18 points. MyDD has more.

SUSA was the one that correctly predicted Hillary's 10 point win in California when many others showed it to be a close race or even had Obama ahead.

Don't want to hear it? Too bad. Way to blow the entire election, Dems. Without MI and FL, McStain certainly looks more problematic, no?

The poll also asked what impact the failure to count votes would have on the November elections, and Gelber warned that the results should send a message to national political leaders, and Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Voters said that if the controversy is not resolved and Florida Democratic voters do not have a voice in choosing the Democratic nominee, only 63 percent will still vote with Democrats.

"We need that in the 80s or 90s,'' Geller said. Among the other voters: 14 percent said they would send a protest vote and consider voting for a Republican, 12 percent said they were unsure, 6 percent said they wouldn't vote for the Democrat for president but would for state and local races and 5 percent said they wouldn't vote at all.

Let me just say that I can understand how they feel.

One of the better roundups on the state of the "first" primaries to date. I'll exerpt the whole thing, be advised there are live links at the original post.

by: John Deeth
Saturday (09/08) at 07:14 AM

The Iowa Caucuses will be Jan. 14. No, seriously, Jan. 14.
That's the official word out of Des Moines Saturday as the Iowa Democratic Party's state central committee met, mostly in closed session, without taking action in response to other states that have moved their contests ahead of the Democratic National Committee's official calendar.

 Read more…

I've got a lot to do today, so the short version: we need to get moving on what we are going to do and say in anticipation of the megaprimary that will happen next year on Feb 5. It's a whole new primary ballgame, having one so early and so huge, I know Lambert and others hate it, but it's the reality and we can't change it for now. We've got less than a year to flex the muscle, so let's talk about it. Here's the complete list of primary dates for both parties.

I have tried to stay out of this mess, as I can see both sides of the argument. Readers, what do you think? Can Democrats ever use FOX to their advantage? Is there a way to "get through to" a FOX viewer, if you're a Democrat or liberal? There is a lot to this story, beyond just knee-jerk distrust of FOX, and not all bloggers agree on a course of action.