Barring a stunning reversal of fortune, my party is heading into November with a candidate who thinks the GOP is “the party of ideas,” who badmouths socialized medicine, progressive partisans, liberals (and their Chablis-soaked limos), and who says he was “called to serve” by Christ himself.
As Obama’s former friend and mentor recently noted, “he says what he has to say as a politician.”
Sure, I understand that to overtake a more-popular and more-experienced party rival, it’s necessary and appropriate to destroy her and her husband’s reputation via completely fraudulent charges of racism. Sausage ain’t beanbag, as they say.
But was it necessary to piss away this “change year,” this once-in-several-decades opportunity to repudiate the Reagan Revolution, selling a mere façade of change and propagating — as shystee so succinctly put it — “the absolute fabrication that the problem with Washington is excessive partisanship”?
Je répète:
Just where — besides the SCLM, Rightwing radio, and Karl Rove’s lying piehole — did we get the idea that this country naturally tilts to the right?
- In 2000, Al Gore got more votes than Bush
- In 2004, John Kerry came incredibly close (if not closer, given another round of voting improprieties), despite Bush’s 9/11 and “War President” bounces, a massive slime campaign, and possessing the charisma of diet kelp
- In 2006, the Democrats won handily
- On a good week (for him), Bush’s approval rating barely cracks 1/3
So, isn’t it time to stop fearing our own shadow? If not now — with the wounded GOP practically holding our quivering boots to their necks — when will it be time?
When a candidate from your own party betrays your values and — more distressingly — your reality, you kinda start to wonder if he’s ever going to “ask for your vote.”
Et je répète encore:
The more I peel the Obama onion, the more I see his calculated disrespect of people like me (personally, and in terms of objectives).The personal:
* Lifelong Democrats
* Baby Boomers
* Rationalists
* Secularists
* People with memories
* People who are angry at Bush and his forebearsThe objectives:
* Fighting the Conservative
* Convincing others to say “never again” to all that’s happened on Bush’s watch
* Having the criminality of the Bushies fully exposed and punished
* Having Bush’s incursions on the Constitution fully reversed
* Making the Democratic Party become more progressive, more popular, and more successful — and not a marginal party with one charismatic triangulator (i.e., not a replay of 1994, when the Reaganites re-revolted because Clinton’s third way didn’t kill or even tame the beast)The Reagan thing is but one of countless examples, but his “W.O.R.M.” moment on Stephanopoulos’s show isn’t just “burnishing the Reagan show biz stategy.”
He is building a fucking monument to the most cherished and valuable Republican meme, that Democrats are the party of taxes and bloat. You’d have to work pretty hard to structure a better picture for Middle America of why Reagan Republicanism is a better brand than the damned Democrat Party:
Well, I think that, keep in mind Ronald Reagan came in during the 1980s, at a time when, I think, Democrats still dominated Congress, when the view was that we were going to solve our problems, oftentimes, by expanding government programs, and he challenged many of those ideas.I understand this recoiling from all-Obama-disappointment-all-the-time, but that’s what I’m experiencing watching this campaign, and that’s what I, for one, am writing.
Obamism has turned into a religion, and that religion is teaching precepts that we progressives know to be wrong (and a zillion endorsements from Democrats I genuinely like don’t change that fact, just like I don’t think their Jesus is the son of God, no matter how many times they say “God bless America”).
How much disempowering shit do progressives have to eat to put a relatively benign guy in the White House?
In my opinion, not nearly as much as he’s feeding us. Even though he’s feeding us that shit with friendly cooing and “here comes the airplane” talk, we need to grab that hand and tell him, as best our little voices can, to put some decent food on that spoon before we’re going to take another bite.
So, here we are, with it nearly certain that Obama’s Coalition of Red States We Can’t Win in November — plus his deal with Merriam-Webster to redefine the word “unity” — will pull him over the top.
And what becomes of a country that’s been hotwired, driven all night on a Robin-Hood-in-reverse bender, and smashed into a wall of torture and theocracy? Is the change we’re supposed to hope for going to materialize?
Even our dear friend Kos understands that we’re bringing arugula to a knife fight:
His refusal to acknowledge the political reality may very well be his greatest weakness. I hope it’s all an act. I can take cynical political rhetoric. I expect it. And it’s not like Clinton is offering anything different in that department. But if Obama actually believes it, then the Republicans will chew him up and spit him out.
In my assessment, the North Carolina vote was the clincher. We’ve all-but-officially got a truthy candidate who disrespects us, instead of a feisty warrior who’s got a real good grudge goin’ against the VRWC. My hats off to the millions of Americans who turned out for Hillary, in spite of the unfathomably huge Clinton-hate campaigns from the right and what used to be the left.
What does this (probable) outcome mean for your humble blogger here? It means I no longer have a dog in this hunt. As best I can tell, I’m through talking about this campaign.
FSM as my witness, I will not fail to vote for the Lesser of Two Evils. Though McCain has been the victim of a racist smear, and Obama the perpetrator of one, I’ve seen too much of the evil heart of today’s GOP to fail to honor my word and scribble an X next to the D this foliage season.
No need to ask for my vote at this late date, Senator Obama. You have it. But you sure haven’t earned it.
Whatever happens, one thing’s for certain:
As faux-Yoko put it long ago… (click for audio)
Front page
I, for one, welcome our new "creative class" overlords
As they create their own reality — and ours!
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Lambert, you always know just what to say!
I love ya, man!
[lambert blushes modestly]
[wipes tear]
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
But doesn't it look like a pattern to you?
That BO has had his political career based on stuff he got but did not earn… hence the gigantic sense of entitlement visibly on display by him his wife and their supporters.
How many of us women readers here can recount stories of some younger, less competent guy being promoted over the heads of smarter, more experienced, and yes, older women?
And pass me the puke bucket if I have to hear more from him about how democrats need to stop being nasty to religion and how partisanship is an awful disease.
I think I’ll take the opportunity to decrease my “books I need to read” pile while the GE campaign goes on… that should make tons of book reviews for Corrente!
Franky, I don’t see how else I’ll keep my sanity.
(And I’m in love with VL too and I’m the first one to state it, so, Katiebird and BDB, back off!)
Hillary won the tie-breaker.
She won Indiana. She won the tie-breaker.
Why does that somehow make Obama the winner?
Book reviews would be wonderful
Even if the only goal is to preserve your sanity.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
They're coming, Lambert
Just as soon as I’m done grading my finals (BO has no monopoly over academics).
And VL, I am truly impressed at your French fluency!
Violet,
I think St. Hopeful got what he needed last night to dampen the doubt in the court of public opinion. Obama Rules dictate that Hillary’s expected landslides in WV and KY won’t matter… just because.
I’d love to be wrong about this.
Only because the media is spinning it that way!
What actually happened was that Obama repeated his win in South Carolina and LOST a bedrock state that he should have won. The news should be that he LOST Indiana.
It is pure Obamabot bullshit for the media to spin a win in NC and a LOSS in Indiana as sealing Obama’s nomination.
If we all know it’s bullshit, and we know that the media shouldn’t be allowed to pick our candidates, why go along with it?
"If we know it's bullshit..."
At the risk of the wrath of Godwin, there sometimes comes a point when you realize that truthiness is tromping through your town, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.
I felt it in 1980, when I knew in my bones that Jimmy Carter was dead as a doornail, and I’m feeling it now.
I’ve dedicated over two years to supporting the blogosphere’s media critique, and we’ve ended up with this.
Like Howard the Duck, we’re trapped in a world we never made. And when we tried to remake it, a whole lot of our sisters and brothers — especially brothers — suddenly said “fuck it.”
The main reason I’ve been an Obama skeptic is the importance of framing. I can’t help but conclude that he’s won the battle of framing for the superdelegates. Whether it’s by force, as it was with John Lewis, or by Nancy Pelosi (whom Barack once listed among examples of “perverse liberalism”) buying Obama’s premise on how the supers should vote, I just can’t see how he doesn’t have them right where he wants them.
How come it’s always us
How come it’s always us broads who have to give up OUR dreams and aspirations for the good of the party and go to the back room to stuff some more f**king envelopes like good little girls?
I wish Hillary had found her knife-fightin’ side a lot earlier. Damn.
We don't instill fear, because..
our voices are not heard. Only Hillary had the microphone and that is about to be snatched away.
To stop this crap, we would have to be united (numbers), and inflict some pain-either through no funds or bad pr, or both.
I should add that it's painfully ironic...
… how Obama is a master of framing, yet he’s destroying his own party’s framing as fast as he fucking can.
He even has George “Framing” Lakoff unwittingly renouncing his life’s work, and Arianna Huffington flogging a book about framing while cheering on a fellow who’s painting us into a pathetic little Kumbaya corner.
Violet...
Hillary’s winning strategy must start with securing the popular vote, which is critical to her being able to coax her uncommitted SDs off the fence (I think there are a fair few that want to come in for her, but they probably want at least one set of numbers to be erring in her favour, even if only by a slim margin). That means drawing roughly level, give or take half a point or so, in the absence of MI and FL. In that scenario, I could see her perhaps convincing a fair few SDs that, with MI FL considered, she has a case for being awarded the nominee (i.e. pop vote and wins in GE swing states).
But that first step gets harder and harder as time passes. Because she didn’t make further inroads towards achieving that goal (the opposite in fact) yesterday, her “win” by less than 2pts will ring hollow in terms of her campaign’s aims.
Hmmmm
This sounds like WWTSBQ
? 2.0. Sorry, but it does.
The court of MSM “public opinion” does not equal votes. Nor does it necessrily transfer to undecided SDs switching.
I think the Democratic Party that won me over when I was younger (in the late 90s) is worth fighting for, Dammit! Hillary is the only candidate, and one of the few Dem leaders apparently, who still represents that Party and I’d go into battle for her if I have to do it alone. Its that important to me. And I’m sure its that important to our friends with bleeding feet.
You are right, VL...
plus, as I’m sure someone has noted, by destroying the Clintons as racists he has lost the post in post racial.
Oh, I get it
Hillary’s winning strategy must start with securing the popular vote…That means drawing roughly level, give or take half a point or so, in the absence of MI and FL.
So no Florida now, huh?
It sounds to me like Hillary’s “winning strategy must start with” n, where n is some unattainable goal extracted from the ass of the Obama Boyz.
Failed to capitalize
She failed to capitalize on the win in PA, and she’s behind in delegate count, not leading. All he needed to do was stay ahead by about the same margin, but he did better than that. There isn’t enough race left for her to close in again, unless he makes a major mistake. It’s not over because nobody has 2025 delegates, but it’s the beginning of the end.
Hallelujah
to what gqmartinez just said.
happily immune to all religious indoctrination
Sorry, guy
[[“But was it necessary to piss away this “change year,” this once-in-several-decades opportunity to repudiate the Reagan Revolution,”]]
We HAD a Clinton in the Presidency for 8 years, and he didn’t repudiate the Reagen Revolution.
In fact, it got more entrenched.
It got more entrenched because a decision was made to triangulate issues instead of standing on principle; and a decision was made to ignore Red states, thus making them redder and redder, and making the Senate and Congress become Republican.
I have no idea why you believe that the election of Hillary Clinton would be a repudiation of the Reagan Revolution.
We need a sea change.
God bless Bill & Hillary Clinton, but they aren’t one.
Still wearing my colandar hat (hopefully it won't rain)
Dammit she is worth fighting for. Now if we could only get reg helmets….
*sniff*
If the media hops over to a McCain bandwagon, I’ll be annoyed. I’m getting used to me against the world. Canadian singer or not. Where the hell is Babs when you need her.
“I’m not only IMMUNE to religious indoctrination, I AM religious indoctrination”—the new Buddha—jeqal
Sea Change
Yeah, and this is? Or this?
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
Violet, I don't understand,
I included FL. But according to the numbers (admittedly I’ve only looked at one source for this, RealClearPolitics), for MI and FL to give her a lead in the pop vote, she is still going to have to be neck-to-neck (possibly more) with Obama on votes from the remaining 48 states. What I’m saying is, that if she doesn’t at least tie the pop vote in these 48 states, whether MI or FL are counted in some way become completely moot, because they won’t give her the extra needed to take her over the hump. Her only chance then is that the SDs overturn the pop vote and pledged delegate count, which they aren’t likely to do because it would completely contradict her campaign’s current emphasis on appealing to the the will of the majority.
I think this was major mindfuck
It worked. We all got hit by it. I think HRC was affected by it as well as she sounded a little stunned last night (although both She and Bill had been losing their voices in these past days). It was hard to avoid at it came at us from different fronts, the Obama campaign, the Democratic establishment and the MSM. Last night, we got shell-shocked (metaphor alert!!!)
Now, that we know it. We need to get back on our feet to fight the WWTSBQ
2.0 (love it, GQ, let’s use it more!).
Let’s give money and support for the next primaries where HRC needs not only delegates but strong popular vote.
gqmartinez, I hear ya
If I weren’t fully convinced that the deed is done, I wouldn’t say it was.
I certainly don’t want TSB to Q, but for me hope isn’t a plan, and that’s all I’ve got at this point.
Barring something unforeseen, I don’t expect Hillary to take this to the convention. I would love to be wrong.
While I’m a lot of things, “liar” isn’t one of them. I can’t pretend to have “faith” in an outcome which I’m sure has been precluded.
Rather than go through the motions of pretending I think there’s still a horse race, I’m putting the above post out there, a strongly worded telegram that — in that hope-against-hope scenario where there’s life in the gal yet — might encourage someone, somewhere… maybe a superdelegate ! … to do the right thing.
If anyone’s thinking of donating to Hillary, note that the Obamaites are gloating about her campaign debt, which is being discussed by the pundit class as a bargaining chip for her “surrender.” Whether a donation goes to proving me wrong — I welcome a stay in the Hillary pillory — or helping make her campaign whole, it’s still a great thing to do, if you can afford it.
ignatz,
Bill C. was president at a time when the country wasn’t near as disaffected with the Repubs as it is now (or at least as it was until Obama told us that our problems were caused by both parties).
Also, Hillary has memories of the Gingrich Congress that Obama apparently can’t even fathom.
Now, what is it they say about payback? I forget. But it’s certainly not “an equivocator who constantly bashes his own party.”
But vastleft,
he transcends parties, and therefore is allowed, nay, encouraged to bash his own party while placing Reagan on a pedestal.
He is the mighty transcendental one.
happily immune to all religious indoctrination
Even if its over
what does giving up accomplish? If you are a basketball team down by 50 with 8 minutes to go, do you just let them pile on the score or go out with a little pride?
F*** the “no mas”.
And Vastleft, We Can't Forget
That the GOP Media Machine was just starting to spread its poison far and wide - and many of the news orgs that the Progosphere regard as shills for the GOP were still regarded as “Objective” and “Truthful” by the General Public.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The enemy of my enemy is STILL my enemy. Those who forget this end up being Vulture scraps.
The delegates do not vote until August.
They can declare anything they want before then. Until the actual ballots are cast we do not have a nominee.
Assume that Obama begins running against McSame now as if were the actual nominee. Do you think the GOP Slime Machine is going to sit idle while Obama starts telling America that Republicans a bitter bigots that cling to guns and religion?
Karl Rove will turn his lidless eye towards Obama, and his nazgul will emerge from Mordor to spring the trap the OFB
have blundered into.
Let’s also not forget that to the media Obama is a Spring fling, but Johnny Mac is their true love. Obama’s recent troubles have been his own making, not Hillary’s, and who will the attack chihuahuas feast upon when she is gone?
She is Zombie Hillary, and zombies always win in the end.
————————————————————————
Real ponies don’t oink- Patrick McManus
That's the idea
Clinton has held off on attacking Obama since last night, most recent reports show her levelling her awesome guns at McCain. Hopefully, Obama will follow suit, leaving him open to the attacks we know he can’t withstand. That would help a great deal.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
"Karl Rove will turn his lidless eye towards Obama..."
That’s the first good laugh I’ve had all day!
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
what the real story is...
What actually happened was that Obama repeated his win in South Carolina and LOST a bedrock state that he should have won. The news should be that he LOST Indiana.
is that Obama could not repeat the success he had in that other southern state he supposedly puts in play, Virginia.
He won VA by 29 points (64%-35%). He won NC by less than half that. Obama won the white vote (62% of the electorate) in VA by 1% (50=49%) and carried 89% of the black voter (30% of the electorate) there. Bush beat Kerry in both NC and VA in 2004 54-46%.
Obama did a LOT worse in NC than he did in VA, and IMHO he needs to explain why that happened?
hint…the reason is that Clinton didn’t bother to put a VA organization together, thinking it would all be over on ST. Obama did have VA organized, and a week after ST, was able to sweep the Potomac Primaries —- of course, Obama can’t admit that the only reason he did so well in VA was no competition…. so he really should be asked to explain how come he lost so much support in one of his “I can expand the map” states.
sure Paul...
so he really should be asked to explain how come he lost so much support in one of his “I can expand the map” states.
but who’s going to hold his feet to the fire and make him answer?
The Emperor Has No Clothes
Last night should’ve scared the hell out of the democratic party. Far from showing that Obama could withstand an attack and still win, he showed that he has continued to bleed support he will need in November. He was simply able to cover over that with a larger than expected AA turnout and a higher win percentage among liberal whites. The two groups least likely to abandon democrats for McCain (and I say that as a white liberal).
Let’s look at that squeaker in Indiana:
Obama lost the white vote 60-40. He lost white democrats 65-35 and white independents 52-48.
Obama lost the Protestant and Catholic vote. He won “other” and “none”.
Clinton won white Catholics and Protestants, which made up 61% of the electorate, 63-37%.
Once again while he crushed Clinton among voters who described themselves as very liberal and beat her more closely (53-47) among those who identify as somewhat liberal, he lost the two groups most likely to swing, moderates (53-47) and conservatives (63-37).
But here’s the kicker -
46% of voters said Wright was important to their vote. That’s nearly half of the electorate in a democratic primary, where registered democrats made up 67% of the electorate, and Clinton won 71% of those votes.
Guess how many people in NC said Wright was somewhat or very important to their vote. That’s right 46%. Clinton won got 58% and 57% of these voters, respecfully. And got 61% of the white vote overall.
And yet all I heard last night was how Obama put his electability problems behind him. Because apparently getting 2% more of the white vote in NC and 3% more in Indiana showed he’s successfully shored up his leaky boat. That he can take a hit and still win (nevermind he LOST Indiana, a large part of which is essentially a suburb of Chicago).
I have become convinced that a significant part of the party and its leadership have decided to hold hands and jump off the cliff with Obama. They can read an exit poll, they just don’t want to. The decision has already been made, they’re just going through the motions of having these elections.
So we can all stand pointing and screaming that Obama has no clothes. but they can’t see it because they’ve got their eyes closed. And that’s a deliberate decision on their part.
* All exit poll data comes from CNN.
Democrat for President '08
Obama will not get my vote in November. If his name is on the ballot, well it is. But he hasn’t earned my vote.
I think I WILL have to make my own bumper sticker or campaign sign. Democrat for President ’08.
My rent just went up, my Visa card just upped the interest, gas and groceries are more expensive… When I became disabled due to MS, it kicked me right out of the middle class. Oh, yeah, my health insurance isn’t going to pay for my expensive meds which just happen to be effective… I can’t afford another Republican.
What’s his name for President, if need be.
Can I have one of those
bumper stickers too?
happily immune to all religious indoctrination
Happy thoughts...
perhaps if Precious were elected, he would get the Justice
Dept after the criminals in the current government.
Not that I’m holding out much hope for that but a little hope…
Does the emperor ever have any clothes?
That’s worth converting into a post, BSD — with the links.
We aren’t going multi-culti any time soon….
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Wnaz,
There you go again with your partisan politics. The new way is reconciliation w/o truth.
Do the clothes have an Emperor?
That is the real question.
—————————————————————————
” … we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …”- Winston Churchill
I will drink no KoolAid before its time...
It ain’t over until we decide it’s over…who ever thought that Hillary would prove Blutarski to be so relevant?
If I get some time tonight, lambert
I’ll put it into a post.
arugula to a knife fight--
perfect line—is there buyer’s remorse among the blogs?
(the media’s already getting over him too — even with the renewed Hillary has to go bs last night and today)
They never wanted a fighter—fighters make trouble and the permanent DC establishment would actually be put on the spot with a fighter pushing them to actually not cave for once, and to start doing their jobs.
And it was hysterical that McGovern crossed over today—perfect symbolism of the established losers backing Obama….Dukakis will be next, i guess.
"Hillary is the type to bring a gun to a knife fight"
I saw that somewhere.
” … we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender …”- Winston Churchill
we need guns & more--GOP brings nukes
every time.
powerful.
thank you, Vast.