Obama's tainted victory
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I've said all along that Obama hasn't asked for my vote (see bleeding feet, friend with) because he doesn't want it. Now Obama über-fan and, for what that's worth, avowedly neutral DNC fonctionnaire Donna Brazile confirms me in my view. Via TalkLeft:
BRAZILE: Well, Lou, I have worked on a lot of Democratic campaigns, and I respect Paul. But, Paul, you're looking at the old coalition. A new Democratic coalition is younger. It is more urban, as well as suburban, and we don't have to just rely on white blue-collar voters and Hispanics. We need to look at the Democratic Party, expand the party, expand the base and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Well. A few thoughts. First, it's not entirely clear who the "we" is in Donna's rant. Oddly, Donna leaves out African-Americans from both the "old" and the "new" coalitions.
Second, when Donna is suitably rewarded by a Democratic administration -- by which I think I mean Hillary's administration, given recent polling -- I certainly hope they don't give her an ambassadorship to anywhere important. Or if they do, they assign her a minder with a big plastic bag and a shovel. Because I react to Donna Brazile calling me part of the "old coalition" about as well as the Europeans reacted to Rummy calling them "old Europe" (especially since it turns out that old Europe was right about the war, and Rummy was wrong, but couldn't listen).
Third, though I think I know What Donna Meant, it's hard to square that with Obama's behavior (factoring out his rhetoric, which is by definition meaningless at best). While Brazile says she doesn't want to throw the baby [now the "old" coalition is a baby?] out with the bathwater, it seems to me, and to many, that this is just what Obama does, by walking back universal health care (and adding insult to injury by running Harry & Louise ads), by dogwhistling on Social Security, by saying Reagan had a lot of good ideas about this, that, or the other, and on and on and on. Both in terms of policy, and in terms of the critical work that so many of have done to combat right wing thinking, Obama is just not there for us, or is outright destructive. When you combine all that with the vile misogyny of so many Obama fans (Exhibit A: Michael "Dry Pussy" Woolf) and the Obama campaign's casual leveraging of baseless charges of racism [VL, you had the best link on this] to win temporary political advantage, it's easy to see how many members of the "old" "coalition" despair both of Obama's ability to make government work again, and over the casual destruction of ideals that many worked years to uphold. Bottom line is that for all Obama's spinning, he's not expanding the base, he's fracturing it.*
So, in the same interview, Clinton's Begala calls bullshit on Donna, and Donna responds, with some justice, that he's distorted her position. But then Donna says this:
BRAZILE: When John McCain secured the Republican nomination, he had to do some homework and reaching out to the Bill Bennets. If Barack Obama secures the Democratic nomination, he will have to reach out to blue collar, white voters and neutralize Senator Clinton's advantage on the economy but -
But Donna. If the Unity schtick had any meaning, Obama would be "reaching out" now. He would have been reaching out all the time. He might even be contesting WV and KY, since he's got more money than God, instead of giving the finger to Appalachia, as he's doing. He wouldn't be winning the nomination by any means necessary and only then, when they have "no place else to go," giving a few speeches to women, Latinos, working people, and "white voters." That's not how it works.** And it's crystal clear that Brazile doesn't understand Obama's problem with working class voters. The problem isn't that Obama needs to put together an economic package after his coronation; the problem is that Obama needs to accept all members of the coalition as moral agents; "It's not the bitter, it's the cling to." He needs to accept them as fully human and as capable of responsible choice as he is. That's what Hillary does both with the boring bullet points, and by listening, not orating. Alas, the evidence is at best mixed that Obama, let alone his key providers of media, ideological, and creative services, will be able to do any such thing.
Obama orotates about Unity in his victory speech; Donna Brazile taints that victory by showing that, in practice, there is no such Unity nor any plan for it.
Hope, as it turns out, is not a plan.
E's not pinin'! 'E's passed on! This Unity Pony is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the stall 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the track! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! This is an ex-Unity Pony!
NOTE * Of course, the OFB will say that Hillary's the one who's doing it, and WWTSBQ. But the same argument applies, with equal force, to Obama. Why won't he quit? He's sure God damaged the party, too: What's disenfranching FL and MI, but damaging the party?
NOTE ** It's late, but there's a result in experimental economic (maybe I read this in Freakonomics?) that people playing a game that forces an unfair choice on them will stop playing the game, even though accepting the unfair choice is to their economic advantage.
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Comments
What victory?
Obama needed to win both states, and needed a 20 pt margin in NC.
IOW - He lost.
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Real ponies don't oink- Patrick McManus
That old coalition
Donna B. better be careful there. We old farts are gonna be around for awhile. And while she's pissing off the Hispanics she needs to remember that the Hispanic portion of the population is growing at a faster rate than the AA portion.
I sit back watching this crap in total amazement. As I've posted before, when/if (and it looks more like when) Barry gets the nods as nominee, the general election in November is gonna be a disaster for the group formerly known as the Democratic Party. I'm a part of the group they feel they no longer need so I feel no particular reason to vote for their nominee.
No candidate from either party wins California
without the Hispanic vote. Not realistically, unless you come up with a "everybody but the Mexicans" strategy. Whites are less than half the population, and Hispanics will soon pass them to be the biggest group. Around 2020 Hispanics will be the majority here.
No Democrat wins the White House without California.
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Real ponies don't oink- Patrick McManus
It's depressing because we wanted her to finish
first tonight, in all the races. But Lambert told us himself, Obama had to win by over 15% in NC and over 5% in IN to have a 'win', and he didn't.
So we are still chugging along. Hillary's gonna need some dough and we are going to have to dust ourselves off, square our shoulders, and get back in there.
I'm not done fighting until she is. It's still going to be a contested convention, just like before, it's still going to be difficult, just like before. It's still bloody depressing some times, just like before.
The new playbook
Isn't this the Ruy Teixeira strategy? I seem to recall a book he wrote a few years back where he predicted that upscale, high-information voters were poised to become the new Democratic base, and he advised Democrats to concentrate on them and not waste so much time on white working-class voters, whom he thought were becoming increasingly conservative. It seems to me that Obama's campaign is following Teixiera's advice almost to a T.
...for the rest of us
Donna transmitting
Donna is just transmitting what she heard at the Vatican in Chicago. So now we know the whole story. Obama is a 3rd party candidate who needs only AA and the creative class. Screw the blue collar workers, Hispanics, Asians and any Democrat, obviously a racist, who doesn't vote for him.
That's actually OK. Let him run as the 3rd party candidate and Hillary as the Democratic (old coalition) candidate.
Beyond tainted
...there's simply no way I can vote for this man. I know it in my heart and I won't change my mind, no matter what other dirty trick or lies he and the o-bots have up their sleeves. Obama's new slogan: "Cheater from day one!"
Todd Beeton post
Here. Basically: it's over, Clinton will concede within a few days or next week, and she'll possibly take the VP spot.
I still don't know how in the world such a "unity" ticket would withstand all of Obama's baggage (and Clinton's). Oh, and the whole disenfranchisement of two states won't go away either.
re Todd Beeton
I've always wanted the Unity ticket. I'm not sure it'll work with Clinton as the VP. But one positive thing if she gets the VP nod -- she sure will be able to effectively play the attack dog role. Obama would not be good as a VP candidate. He'd be too much like John Edwards. No bark or bite.
Hey Lambert
I keep seeing these women declaring themselves secretly in love with you.
Having been relegated to the dry pussy demographic* -- and as BTD says, demography is destiny -- I guess I have to be beyond all that. I'll just have to love you like a mother.
Besides, I'm not sure it wouldn't be dangerous to my health to be in involved in a Lambert lovefest with a bird and a cat.
But love you I do. Thanks for keeping me laughing through my tears. And for giving me a place to vent among friends.
*I'm glad you mentioned this. Lets me post this without being completely off topic.
I think that
Donna Brazile's main goal is to get an AA candidate nominated regardless of whether he wins---that's the only way to explain it. And, from a certain point of view, if she can cement a particular pattern within such an institution as the (D) party, it may not be such a dumb thing, if your goal is entrenchment of an AA power brokering bloc, which again, is not such an odd goal to have in general.
So I'm not certain that Brazile's words and actions in this campaign haven't been entirely well-considered and thought-out.
Reality-based community, guys...
There's a racing term for what happened last night: "horizon job."
It's not over cause nobody has 2025 delegates, but it's going to take a major error on Sen Obama's part to lose the nomination now.
The only good news is, he's just the guy to make that major error.
Clinton's Best Chance at the Nomination
Is for Obama to become the presumptive nominee. Every time she's looked out of it, the press has started to turn on him and he's always handled it badly. Then he starts to tank and the press helps him over his crisis so as not to give Clinton any openings.
I'd say there's a 20% chance he's roadkill by the time the August convention rolls around. Once Clinton is "out", the GOP smear machine and press will go after Obama.
Of course, given that we're talking about the democratic party, which has never met an election it couldn't fuck up, I'm guessing they'll go forward with him even if he is roadkill. As apparently some Super Delegates told Craig Crawford, they'd rather have Obama even if he loses because he's the "future" of the party.
Late sleeper....
1. "Lambert told us himself ..... " Sheesh, I'm a writer, I'm not any kind of authority. I just do to do the analysis. Please, always think for yourself!
2. What's a horizon job?
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Lambert: "Horizon Job", IIRC
It's defined as "Finishing so far ahead of your opponents that they were left over the horizon." The term is used most often in boat/yacht racing.
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The enemy of my enemy is STILL my enemy. Those who forget this end up being Vulture scraps.
It was defined in the NYT, no less
But we've been using it for a long time:
A yacht finishes a race so far ahead of its opponents that it has left them over the horizon. The definition of this term is not unlike the reply given Queen Victoria when she asked who was second to America in the 1851 race around the Isle of Wight that led to the America's Cup series: "There is no second, your majesty."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...
I spit on the Unity Ticket
The very idea makes me shudder.
Ah, BDBlue....
You've said something that's been scratching at the edges of my mind all day.
That she should stay in. Press for as many delegates as possible. Do NOT suspend campaign. Keep pressing SuperD's. Obama could very well hit the Fan this summer.
Not interested
I can't say positively (being dumb Normal and low information) that I won't vote for Obama in November, but right now I am not interested in voting for a Unity pony, for someone who spits on universal health care, for someone who says anything at all good about Reagan (even rhetorically), for someone with so little class and self-respect he flips off his opponent (dodgedly) on camera, for someone who "brushes" Hillary off his shoulder like bird poop, for someone who sits by sanctimoniously while his supporeters engage in the most blatant, hateful, trashing of another Democrat (and only of the other Democrat)- based nearly entirely on misogyny- who happens also to be the most qualified, driven candidate for president in my lifetime (of any race, class or gender, including her husband and I don't engage in hyperbole), and who, through sheer hubris and willfully myopic internalization of others fluffing will gladly split the Democratic coalition of middle-class and working class whites, hispanics and African-Americans in half to achieve his poll-driven ambitions.
Right now I feel I've waited 8 years to set our country straight and can wait four more to avoid 8 more years of Republican-lite, especially when I don't think the Unity Pony stands a snowball's chance in hell of winning in November and am confident anyway that if either McCain or Obama is elected they would be 4 (rather than 8) year presidents.
Of course we also have the dynamic, forceful, Democratic majority in both houres of congress to save us from the excesses and Judge appoinments of an out of control President McCain.
Or not.....
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Good night and good riddance!