Flames? Anyone disagre with the STRATEGIC elements of my diary (leaving aside the incredibly boring back and forth debate about the so-called advantage for the Culinary union)?

Hate to leave you here talking to yourself, dave. The thing about political junkies is that they tend to get carried away by all sorts of events along the way and go off on how THIS IS THE DEFINING MOMENT!

There is no defining moment. It's a process. Everything has give and take. If the Culinary Union comes out overwhelmingly for Obama, then it will likely be pointed out that there was some intimidation involved, and the fact that their caucus vote may turn out to be worth more than other across the state.

Secondly it doesn't matter.

Three, she said BEFORE the Iowa caucuses she thinks caucuses are unfair.

YOU ... YOU tell me why only casinos on the LV strip get the special caucus locations.   No off the stips locations ... of which there are dozens, hunreds? ... and why no casinos in Lake Tahoe or Reno get the same special treatment ... oh wait we know they were not affliated with the Culinary Union.

Opponents says why didn't people complain earlier?  The fact is Edward, Obama and Clinton all wanted the endorsement and they, along with NV Dem Party were scared to death of the Culinary unions power in the Dem party.

I think if there was a mistake, it was Bill getting so caught up in making the substantive argument.  I would have preferred the typical political strategy of remaining insincerely neutral.

Bill needs a good night's sleep -- seriously.  Those bags under his eyes in the clip where he lost it with the local news reporter looked like burlap sacks.  The man needs some rest.

"Obama has tons of room for vote growth amongst hispanic voters and working class voters"

yep!

Obviously he's great for creating excitement and getting the voters to come out, but I think many times there is the danger that he overshadows HRC's campaign. Sometimes he says something and it will completely suck out any media attention for 24-48 hours and I think that's dangerous for HRC to not appear as though she is playing second fiddle.

I think there is going to be a NYTimes piece tomorrow on his role during the campaign. The press focus should be on her and her proposals not on Bill.

As a Hillary supporter, I obviously would have preferred if this whole scenario hadn't played out like this, but I think the Clinton campaign knows what it's doing.

First, this may help Clinton win the state by energizing voters outside the strip to get involved.  There's a general sense by the unions supporting Hillary and by many others that it's not fair that only one group of workers gets to work at their workplace and others don't, and the whole thing seems to have given some of her supporters a jolt that these caucuses are important and that they better turn out (and, it's all about turnout).

Secondly, if Clinton does narrowly lose--due to the at-large precincts--there will certainly be a lot of attention on that as the factor.

The bottom line:  If Hillary wins Nevada, she probably ensures she wins at least 4 of the first 6 states and goes into Super Tuesday with decent momentum and wins that day and the nomination.  If Hillary loses Nevada, this could even out the press coverage on the matter, and still leave her in decent shape if she wins Florida.

In any case, I expect labor and Latinos (at least in the Southwest) to stay her strongly.

was back in October and November, when she was ahead everywhere and her campaign decided to treat all criticism of her voting record as "personal attacks" by "desperate" opponents.

Now she is trying to raise legitimate questions about Obama's record, but it looks like she is desperate.

I think you have misunderstood the tactics. First of  all the Clinton campaign has studiously avoided expressing any opinion on the lawsuit, so they are somewhat insulated from any negative consequences. Secondly, assuming the sponsors of the suit wanted to weaken Obama, this was a win-win situation. If they won the suit then they reduced the ability of Culinary to influence the outcome of the caucus. But even in losing they put Culinary on notice that people are watching the at large caucuses closely, and they have constrained Culinary to strictly legitimate tactics.

This suit made it very difficult for Culinary to pressure its members to support Obama, and legitimated the Clinton campaign's efforts to peal off Culinary support.