Greg Sargent and Steve Benen have interesting taxonomies of the Democrats who should buck up and clap louder.

Today, members of NOW delivered 1,500 baby bottle tops to Alan Simpson, the Republican co-chair of the President’s deficit commission, as part of a “Tits for an Ass” campaign demanding Simpson’s resignation.

What unites progressives, mainstream Democrats and moderates is the belief that Social Security belongs to the people, and that no politician should take the benefits away, especially when the fixes to the system are so minor in the grand scheme of the budget. Can they campaign on this successfully while the administration continues with the Catfood Commission’s threats to Social Security?

But all of this “hippie punching” isn’t about turning out voters. To do that, as Obama well knows, you have to inspire them. Notice that nobody actually running for office is wagging their finger at voters and scolding them like a bunch of children.

No, this isn’t about GOTV. It’s about setting up a narrative for who will take the blame for a disastrous election. And once again, the White House doesn’t care if they make matters worse in order to deflect responsibility from Obama.

Clearly, what’s needed now more than anything are another round of tax cuts.

Technically, today is sort of election day in Ohio, Vermont, Georgia, South Dakota, and Iowa, given that voters can start voting in person for the midterm elections.

I’ve never seen a politician run an election with the message “Don’t be stupid, quit your bitching and vote for me.” This goes orders of magnitude beyond “Here are the stakes, my opponent would vote against everything you care about. That at least has a certain time-tested quality. That would make the election a choice and not a referendum. But “vote for me, you simpletons”? There’s a reason that strategy has never been employed: because it’s so insane to think that open berating would inspire a voter to action.

With real energy reform and/or climate change legislation completely stalled on Capitol Hill, the fight for environmentalists is in the states. One of the most important fights for the environmental movement right now is against big oil’s Proposition 23, which would cripple California’s landmark greenhouse gas legislation.

On Sunday, Stan Collender made the outlandish suggestion that the Republicans would move to shut down the government as early as this week. By Tuesday, Jim DeMint had begun to make that a reality. . . .

Probably a good thing for Rahm he decided to step down before he was pushed. But as for entering the Chicago mayor’s race — well, that might be a complex and difficult task.

• Our gain is Chicago’s loss.
• Gosh, it’s lucky the Democrats are in charge.
• How to win hearts and minds, cont’d.
• Now this is how it’s done — and this is not.
• Um, okay?