Ben Sollee — A Few Honest Words.

What’s on your mind?

Always trying to move hippies to the right... (photo: Neubie on Flickr)

Hi, I’m Ed, and I’m a professional leftist. Here’s my message to you, President Obama, and your spokesman, Robert Gibbs.

I’m big on baby aspirin and some eye-drops for a vision issue. That’s about it for drugs. Oh, and caffeine and ibuprofen. I admit to being both a professional writer and a leftist. I don’t get paid for either.

That may be why reading Robert Gibbs’ views of me and my writing is so aggravating. You and he and your Senior Administration Officials don’t have any idea who I am, or who my colleagues are. That’s because you make no effort to find out. We have readers, Mr. President, hundreds of thousands of readers. That doesn’t happen just because we are professionals, but because people want to know what we think. You don’t.

I have a set of principles about the way society should function. I write about those too, and name people whose ideas motivate me, including Albert Camus, Richard Rorty, Hannah Arendt, and John Rawls. You have never done that, and it makes me think you have no principles.

I don’t insult people who disagree with me. You do, and so do your Senior Administration Officials.

In my first post on this site, I argued that we should demand that you pursue accountability for specific acts of the prior administration. You preferred to court the Party of Bad Faith rather than condemn its violations of our criminal laws.

Where is the accountability for the people who wrecked the economy? No bankers were fired, Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke screwed up and got promoted, Robert Rubin led the deregulation craze and you listen to him and his protégés.

If you click my name, you can read in detail why I think you have failed the left and the country, in detail, with facts and reasoning on full display. It’s a lot easier to punch the air where a dirty hippie might be than to deal with my views, let alone those of my colleagues.

You think I should be a cheerleader for you? Why?

Ed Walker

(photo: wallyg on Flickr)

[Update - Michael Bennet just beat Andrew Romanoff and has been declared the winner of the Democratic primary for the US Senate race in Colorado.]

The important election news so far tonight. Linda McMahon won the GOP primary for US Senate in Connecticut. Also in Connecticut, Dan Malloy beat Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for governor.You can find part one of the liveblog here and a description of the important races to watch tonight here.

You can find results at Politico or the Georgia Secretary of State.

The GOP governor race in Georgia, the GOP governor race in Colorado, and the GOP Senate primary in Colorado are all extremely close at this point.

10:07 pm – In Dem Senate primary incumbent Michael Bennet is looking strong with 63.6% reporting Bennet 54.4 – Andrew Romanoff 45.6. The Republican primary is a lot closer but tea party backed Buck is looking good. Buck 51.6 – Jane Norton 48.4. In the GOP governor primary things are extremely close. Dan Maes 50.4 – Scott McInnis 49.6.

Democratic governor candidate John Hickenlooper is one lucky man. He will likely face not one but two extreme right wing candidates in the general. Tom Tancredo is running on the American Constitution Party ticket.

10:13pm – Michael Bennet just beat Andrew Romanoff and has been declared the winner of the Democratic primary for the US Senate race in Colorado. Bennet preformed better than almost all polling indicated. He is currently beating Romanoff with 63.9% reporting by roughly 9 points.

10:22pm – We have a potential upset in the making in Minnesota. With 25.3% reporting in the DFL primary for governor Margaret Kelliher 45.3 – Mark Dayton 36.8. Polling from right before the election had Dayton with a large lead.

10:25pm – Sam Caligiuri has been declared the winner of the GOP primary in CT 5th district. He will go on to face incumbent Chris Murphy in the general.

[Click through for the latest results.]