Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left points out teh stupid:
Elizabeth Drew writing in Politico confirms what we have been seeing for months - the House Dem leadership is populated by fools. Consider this unforgivable ignorance:
[T]he congressional Democratic leaders don’t draw the same conclusion from Pennsylvania and also earlier contests that many observers think they do: that Obama’s candidacy is fatally flawed because he has as yet been largely unable to win the votes of working class whites. They point out something that has been largely overlooked in all the talk – the Ohio and Pennsylvania primaries were closed primaries, and, one key congressional Democrat says, “Yes, he doesn’t do really well with a big part of the Democratic base, but she doesn’t do well with independents, who will be critical to success in November.”
Ohio was an Open Primary. Indeed, the exit polling indicated that 69% of the Ohio vote was Democrats, 16% was Independents and 9% was Republicans. Clinton and Obama split the Republican and Independent vote equally. Clinton won Democrats 56-42.
(emphasis added)
Or is it really teh stupid to blame?
Recall, if you will, the nineties, when the Democrats last controlled the White House. When Bill was elected, one of his top priorities was health care reform. Hillary chaired his HCR
task force, but the reform effort failed miserably.
There is much misinformation regarding that failure, almost all of it wrongly placing blame on Hillary. Among the actual reasons for the defeat of "HillaryCare" was the failure of Congressional Democrats to support it.
The same is true of other Clinton initiatives, such as ending the ban on gays in the military. Throughout the nineties, the Congressional Democrats failed to actively support Bill Clinton, and sometimes actively opposed him.
I've often wondered at the overt contempt of the Village Idiots for the Clintons, including so-called "liberal" members of media. Could these things be connected?
Clinton Derangement Syndrome was always considered mostly an affliction of the right-wing and members of the media. This election is causing me to suspect that CDS is far more pervasive that previously believed.
I think it has always afflicted the Congressional Democrats as well, although they kept it publically hidden. That would explain their past and current behavior, as well as the media's. The bootlicking sycophants of the Beltway media knew they had nothing to fear among the Democratic party elites.
Thankfully, the rank and file party members are not infected. Apparently the epidemic is confined to the Beltway.
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they're afraid of alienating
African-Americans -- and don't care at all about older voters or lower-class ones or women.
amberglow: That doesn't explain the nineties
the Clintons were tight with the AA community until Obama came along to unify us.
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Real Democrats aren't afraid of democracy
48 + 2 = legitimacy
x
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“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
The Party Leaders Are In the Tank for Obama
They give reasons because they have to. It doesn't matter because they already know what they want, they just make up whatever reasoning afterwards.
Having said that, it shocks me not at all that Congressional Democrats can't read an exit poll. If they could, they would notice that the only ideological group Obama won in Pennsylvania, according to CNN, was "very liberal." Hillary won moderates by 20 points. You tell me whose base all those independents and Republicans will be closer to in demographics and ideology. Unless there are an awful lot of very liberal African American college students in Pennsylvania who aren't registered as Democrats.
They want access to Obama's fundraising. That's what this is about.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Oh, Hell, It's the Politico
I take back my earlier comment to the extent that I don't believe anything the Politico reports unless it identifies its source. Who the hell knows what Drew means by "Democratic Leaders"? She could be using only Obama SDs as sources. In fact, given that this entire piece is nothing but Obama's talking points that wouldn't surprise me in the least.
Obama and his team have been spinning on electability like a top. I don't believe all of the SDs are so sanguine about his demographic problems.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
BDB: Are they "in the tank" for Obama
or are they just backing Obama because he's the ABC candidate(anyone but Clinton)?
They seem strangely blind to his faults considering that they are professional politicians.
------------------------------------------------
Real Democrats aren't afraid of democracy
48 + 2 = legitimacy
x
------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
I'm Not Sure It's Either, myiq2xu
I posted my comment before I realized the "reporting" was from the Politico. Anonymous sources, generic description. Maybe the undecided leaders are in the tank for Obama, maybe they hate Clinton. I don't know and nothing in this Politico piece changes that.
For all I know, Elizabeth Drew interviewed Jim Clyburn and he's her source.
This is one of those pieces where the reporter appears to be deliberately pushing a candidate's agenda. And doing so with unnamed sources. Not to be trusted, especially from the Politico.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
The fierce urgency of spin
Remember when that anonymous Democratic "leader" (Brazile) commented on how Clinton was "Tonya Harding?" I, too, am hoping this is similar foolishness.
BDB: Forget Politico
there are numerous other examples. Nancy Pelosi for example.
------------------------------------------------
Real Democrats aren't afraid of democracy
48 + 2 = legitimacy
x
------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
don't forget that most of the House Dems
are in safe lifetime seats. They are looking to protect their own majority and committee control, etc. (even tho Congress will definitely flip if either win)
worth a repost--
" So the truth about the super Ds is that they would rather lose with Barack than win with HRC, because they KNOW that if they lose with Barack, their pal John McCain is president and they get the royal treatment for two years..AND they pick up yet more seats in 2010, thus insuring they remain Chairman of whatever committee it is that they chair." -- http://www.slate.com/id/2189635/#dlssuperdees
Politico and Drudge are useful--
you get the GOP spin on everything--and by seeing what they cover and what they don't you can learn a lot.
on MSNBC, they just said that State candidates are
very worried about Obama, but not DC. The GOP is running ads in the Southwest now too--tying state candidates to Wright and Obama, like in PA and NC.
Obama is an anchor
in red and purple states/districts.
------------------------------------------------
Real Democrats aren't afraid of democracy
48 + 2 = legitimacy
x
------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers