David Neiwert

For years, progressives have been at a singular disadvantage when it comes to the money/media infrastructure needed to wage effective political campaigns. Here in Washington state, we've seen that manifested in the free ride afforded the building-and-development industry's lobbying arm, the Building Industry Alliance of Washington, which has run amok waging negative smear campaigns against Democratic candidates and bolstering their own hand-picked Republican, Dino Rossi. This year, progressives are fighting back.

So the latest WSJ/NBC poll  (the same one showing Barack Obama's lead slipping away) also shows that Americans think John McCain is running a negative campaign. And they're right. It isn't just opinion, it's quantifiable fact.

Darcy Burner didn't quite get the victory in Washington's primary election last night she was hoping for -- but it was close: Dave Reichert outpolled her only 48-45 percent.

David Zucker was on Fox's Hannity & Colmes program last night, whining about how liberals all think conservatives are bad people -- because evidently this somehow justifies making a film depicting liberals as bad people. And out of Sean Hannity's mouth came this nugget of wisdom in response: "I think — I think they think we're evil."

A few weeks ago it was "presumptuous." Now we're seeing "audacious" as the new word of choice among the wingnuts to describe Barack Obama.

Whatever you do, don't let Michelle Malkin and her horde of flying monkeys hear about Henry Cejudo, the Olympic gold-medalist wrestler.

The exquisitely named Orson Swindle has stepped up to claim that he remembers John McCain telling the "cross in the sand" tale back in the early '70s, even though the earliest appearance of it in any speech of McCain's is in 2000. The wingnutosphere invariably is describing him as "a fellow POW." But as usual, he's much more than that.

Tomorrow is Washington's primary election. Burner has built up terrific momentum so far -- she's out-raising Reichert by a wide margin and closing the gap in the polls. She's even managed to overcome the loss of her home to fire, thanks to the outpouring of support from around the country and her district. But on Tuesday it will be up to voters on the ground in the 8th District to make that momentum real.

The wingnutosphere is in top form today, which means that the whinging and moaning and bleating has reached a full-throated roar. NBC isn't being fair and balanced! The liberals are questioning McCain's honor! Whiiiiiine!

Some of you may have already seen John Gorenfeld's farewell post at the Campaign Silo. Unfortunately, the job of running a campaign site in an election year is an extremely time-consuming one, and John found that he needed to step back from the job of heading up our coverage of Election 2008. He was doing a superb job of reshaping the site, and we're sorry to see him go. As unfortunate as that news is, though, we've been even more fortunate in our quick search to replace him. Because heading up the Campaign Silo, beginning this morning, will be Lindsay Beyerstein.