Elwyn Tinklenberg makes his pitch to the Daily Kos

...and gets a very positive reaction, for the most part. I'm writing this shortly after midnight, Minnesota time. In the "Recommended Diaries" section of the Kos (one of the most widely read political blogs in the United States) is piece by Elwyn himself, announcing his run against Bachmann.

It's generated 225 comments so far; a respectable total. And diaries don't get elevated to the coveted "Recommended Diaries" list without the intervention of Kos staffers, so they are paying attention, too. (Wrong, according to Karl in our comments thread.)

Tinklenberg aide Dana Houle is in the comments thread to the Tinklenberg announcement, fielding the occasional question from commenters. Most of the comments are quite supportive, some Kos readers are even donating money to Elwyn on the strength his announcement on the blog. As you may know, the Kos readership and other liberal/progressive blogs did an outstanding job raising funds for Tinklenberg in the final weeks of his last contest with Bachmann. Donations were received in small amounts from regular folks who hailed from every state in the union.

The incident that triggered the donations was not something Tinklenberg did. It was something Michele Bachmann did: her appearance on Chris Matthew's Hardball news show. When she called for a media investigation of her fellow congressmen and senators to check for anti-Americanism, the outrage at the Kos and other blogs was palpable--and readers reached for their checkbooks and credit cards.

Tinklenberg is an intelligent politician. So his diary in the Kos does not contain his other announcement: that he does not intend to abide by the decision of the DFL in the primary, if they do not select him to run against Bachmann. Pointing *that* out, would cause some people on the Kos to put away their checkbooks and credit cards--and generate quite a bit of hate mail in the comment thread, I suppose.

I doubt that very many of the commenters on the Kos tonight are from Minnesota. Their contempt for Bachmann and kooky lies is obvious, but so is their lack of knowledge about the strange election dynamics we have here in the Sixth District. A few commenters are critical of Tinklenberg, but that seems to be because he's a Blue Dog or because he failed to beat an obvious kook, despite all the help he received last time.

None of the Tinklenberg criticisms so far cite his "I'm going to ignore the Dem decision on the nominee, unless it's me" stand. None of the more than two hundred comments so far explain the possible consequences of that decision or the effect of the independence voters on the election.

Neither Tinklenberg nor Dana Houle seem inclined to mention those unpleasant realities to Kos readers tonight. I'm not wading into that comment thread to explain those issues either, because it's entirely possible that ET may end up being the Dem nominee again and I'm certainly not going to be the one to try to discredit a likely Dem candidate.

Tinklenberg and his managers have obviously decided to go after the netroots support now, before Clark officially announces. That's probably wise, from the ET camp's point of view. Though Clark has filed, she hasn't "rolled out" yet--and a strong show of financial and moral support from the netroots is going to be critical for any Dem candidate hoping to defeat Bachmann.

We can't blame Kos readers and editors for being naive or ill-informed about the election dynamics of the Sixth District of Minnesota. Bachmann's craziness makes headlines around the country, the election dynamics of the Sixth District don't. I would wager that most Minnesotans who live in and outside the Sixth District don't understand why a Bachmann victory is the statistical way to bet. Most of the Minnesota political press doesn't bother to explain how the different political interests in the district can generate a Bachmann plurality despite the awful state of her district. If most of the local reporters don't know or report, how could people outside the state understand?

I have explained election dynamics on the Kos before, but I'm just another diarist there--one of thousands. A *very* good day for one of my articles on the Kos generates only from ninety to a hundred comments, nothing like the attention that Tinklenberg is receiving tonight. Even if the Kos community doesn't have all the information it needs to make a good decision about which candidate to support, its heart is in the right place: they know what Bachmann is, and they want to help us get rid of her.