Leaders lead

lambert's picture

Obama doesn't. What tepid Obama supporter BTD said:

In today's top story in The Miami Herald:

Asked by The Herald why he doesn't just concede Florida to Clinton since he's so close to the nomination, Obama didn't answer directly. ... "The DNC has a decision to make and we're not in the way." Pressed on why he doesn't use his influence to grant Clinton the extra Florida delegates and end the dispute, he said he doesn't control the DNC. "The delegates aren't mine to give," he said.

There is an old saying - "Lead, follow or get out of the way." It seems clear now that on the question of Florida and Michigan, Obama has chosen to get out of the way.

Well, heck. It's only about making sure that millions of voters in two states we've got to have in the general have some fucking influence over the outcome of the race that may determine their President.

And hey! I've got an idea! Obama? Hey, Obama! Down here! O-b-a-a-a-a-m-a! Way down here! Why not -- just like your OFB told us over and over again that you would do on issues like, oh, universal health care -- get all the parties to sit down around the big table, and use your mad negotiation skillz to work out the problem. Would that be so hard? I sure hope not, because the issues get a lot harder when you get to be the Leader President.

Passive aggressive, much?

Find it hard to do more than collect money, give speeches, look cool and collected, and look on while your team throws people under the wheels of the Hopey Express and smears your opponents?

C'mon, guy. Leaders lead.

Legitimate ones, anyhow.

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zuzu's picture

What I find interesting

is the meme that Florida and Michigan shouldn't be seated because Hillary was tardy in rushing to their defense.

Aside from the fact that it would have been political suicide for her to speak up before too-tetchy-for-words Iowa and New Hampshire held their primaries (the fact that Obama withdrew from Michigan as a sop to those states has been sent down the memory hole), it really doesn't matter. Florida and Michigan both filed challenges to the rulings which stripped them of their delegations, and those challenges are going forward, regardless of any intervention or assistance by the candidates.

Hillary didn't file those challenges; she simply took up their cause. Yet even smart politicians like David Paterson are acting like the challenges shouldn't be heard because she hadn't raised the issue right from the start.

Really, a lot of the problems in this primary system could have been avoided simply by telling Iowa and New Hampshire that they don't have an exclusive right to be first. Why these two small, white, utterly unrepresentative states are able to pick the nominee escapes me.

orionATL's picture

bo, passive progressive

nicely said.

senator obama is a master of duck and dodge, which, i have to say, is a necessary, if irritating, political skill. however, being so does not comport well with a "new style of leadership" which gets everybody to the "table" and solves problems.

the would-be emperor has no clothes, declares lambert.

myiq2xu's picture

You are obviously referring with approval to Huckabee's

comments to the NRA.

Shame on you for suggesting that the Precious be harmed! And referring to his "skill" at ducking and dodging is also a dogwhistle to racist sterotypes about black people and dancing.

Furthermore, the code words regarding "table" and "solves problems" is undoubtably intended to perpetuate the idea that blacks aren't good at math. (multiplication tables, probelm solving)

When Odrama is coronated, you and your kind will be rounded up and sent to Gitmo for reeducation at the Richard B. Cheney Memorial Waterboard Park!

/snark

------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers

x

------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers

Weasel statements come easily to The One, as well.

Remind you anyone we've had to deal with for seven plus years so far?

amberglow's picture

why is it that FL2000 and voting rights

never come out of Obama's mouth ever? seriously--why doesn't he care?

and this is very relevant--Alterman--on Recount, and how the media lied about their very own report on FL2000 and re-legitimized Dubya after 9/11 even tho their own report said Gore won -- http://mediamatters.org/altercation/200805230004#3

cal1942's picture

The Diversity Scam

"could have been avoided simply by telling Iowa and New Hampshire that they don’t have an exclusive right to be first. Why these two small, white, utterly unrepresentative states are able to pick the nominee escapes me."

Escapes me too.

The DNC said they picked the first four states for the sake of diversity. The DNC's choices provide evidence that the organization is brain dead.

The DNC seems to believe that race is the only criteria for diversity. I suggest that ethnicity is an improper criteria for diversity in a nation with ambitions to render ethnic differences meaningless. Selection of states, those with diverse economies and a typical ethnic mix would be a legitimate standard. It would be hard to find a more "typical" state than Michigan. It would also have been more meaningful because of the nation's loss of manufacturing base, a critical problem that must be solved even if brain dead neo-libs object.

zuzu's other point:

"What I find interesting is the meme that Florida and Michigan shouldn’t be seated because Hillary was tardy in rushing to their defense."

Reminds me that when Hillary first broached the subject (in late January if memory serves) the Obama crowd rabidly frothed at the mouth with rage. Now they're claiming that she should have spoken sooner. Sheesh.

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