... A few cynics nicknamed Obama “Hopey,” giving rise to blog items with titles such as “Chutzpah on Race from Mr. Hopey"...
Yes, friends, I, lambert, wrote that post. And Wolcott's careless handling -- surely unintended -- bruised my tender and delicate sensibilities in several ways:
1. I'm not a cynic, though Obama calls me one; I'm a realist.
2. Worse, and there's actually some importance to this, Wolcott ignores the work that the post is doing. The subject of the post is Obama's deliberate smearing of the Clintons as racist. Je repete:
The One opines:
"[OBAMA] We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. ... This country wants to move beyond these kinds of things."
Well sir, if you want what the country wants, then you wouldn't be smearing the Clintons as racist, you mealy-mouthed moralizing toxic fraudster. Sean Wilentz has the timeline and the exhaustive details:
The Obama campaign's deployment of this tactic has been a source of tremendous anger at the injustice, and amazement at the short-sighted stupidity. Here, Wolcott misses the story.
3. Oddly, or not, Wolcott doesn't mention either racism -- whether falsely attributed to the Clintons, or not -- or the OFB
's virulent misogyny as sources of the schism at Daily Kos, his subject. In missing misogyny, Wolcott misses the story.
4. Finally -- and perhaps this is due to the long deadlines of print -- Wolcott misses the memes that have propagated. "Mr. Hopey," in fact, was a failure. The Unity Pony and W.O.R.M. were both -- I believe -- originated by the "few cynics" at Corrente, and have propagated very successfully. There's a reason for that, and it can be found in the nature of the Obama campaign.
So near, and yet so far. I coulda been a contenda!
NOTE Via TalkLeft.
UPDATE I forgot:
5. Wolcott misses the fact that some [not Obama] supporters were actually purged from Kos, and that the sysadmins had to be in on it, as this screen dump shows. I got one of those "You've Been Warned..." screens too. (IOW, it wasn't a team of outsiders). This could actually be a serious matter, since I'm not entirely sure why a web site that functions as a 527 for a candidate shouldn't be regulated like one. Here again, Wolcott misses the story.
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awww
email him--i bet he's cool about it.
You wuz robbed
and man, that really stinks. In my line of work we call it "plagiarism." It was odd that Wolcott cited your exact post title without linking--perhaps if you wrote him a very polite note, he'd remedy the situation? (My thinking is that it may have been a sin of omission, rather than comission.)
it might have also been
a secondary or tertiary link, from that Watson guy's blog or somewhere else, so he didn't go back to try to find it (altho he could have googled for it, no?)
like, the phrase stuck with him, but he didn't remember where he found it...
Naah, I'm not really mad
The stories he missed are the important part.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
There is no limit
to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit. - Ronald Reagan
I hope that quote makes you feel better. Or bitter.
------------------------------------------------
Real ponies don't oink - Patrick McManus
x
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“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
I just read it
And was about to report that you had been cited, though unnamed. Then, I find you beat me to it.
I think he misses where the anger is coming from to, he totally skipped over the racism and sexism, instead laying the blame on the do nothing Dem Congress.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
Did the term Great Orange Cheeto
start with that linked image?
More interested in scoring points
than making points, I think.
I don't know, KB
It may have just been "in the air."
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
I'm more interested in scoring
than scoring points.
------------------------------------------------
Real ponies don't oink - Patrick McManus
x
------------------------------------------------
“I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
Nah. Email the rat bastid.
He's a fastidious man, and a good critic. He's also very good about citing sources, should he know about them. If he can give a damn about the set designer of a TCM woman's picture, he can care about spreading the word about a blog that Dr. Paul Krugman's not ashamed to be seen with in public.
To be honest
When I finally got to reading the article, I'm a bit glad Corrente wasn't mentioned. I didn't care for the whole "fair and balanced" type smearing of Clinton-supporting blogs, equating TL, Watson, and others with the typically deranged, bigoted
anti-ClintonObama-supporting blogs.Besides, I can't help but think that the Flying Monkeys of the OFB
will swarm these sites to troll (e.g., this one user at TL who keeps repeating that the comments reminds him/her of Red State; another at the Confluence equating Wright with Clinton's Bosnia flap). And considering the recent problems with the DOS attack, perhaps its best.
However, you have been mentioned by Krugman himself, which I would prefer over this Wolcott piece.
Oh, one more thing, Mr. W --
The Daily Kos might be a battlestar, but I'm thinking the Pegasus myself.
The "it's OK to torture and rape Cylons as entertainment" ship? The "it's OK to shoot a second-in-command in the face when he protests a suicide mission" ship? The "the loyal crew has a plan for the future but its CinC is mad with power and on the verge of losing it all" ship.
Get it? Got it? Good.
LOL, myiq...
I'm so old I don't even play the game any more.
I was talking about Wolcott, just to be clear. I'm with Davidson about the tone and I wasn't thrilled with the general conclusion that the Democrats are only capable of circular firing squads.
I don't even watch the show
Yes, I know, I am damaging my liberal creds, here, but hey I don't watch much TV, only so much time in the day.
But I think your analogy is more apt, cg.eye.
Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
- Sir William Drummond
Here...
Don a pair to demonstrate that you're serious
Ummmm
Maybe Wolcott?
I did not have sex with that critic, Mr. Wolcott
In fact, now that I know people like him are watching, it's going to cramp my style. I'll be terrified that they're snickering behind my back about my spelling and grammar.
But I will be sure to send traffic your way. You have one of the sharpest wits in Progressive Blogosphere 2.0.
Come together at The Confluence
Come together at The Confluence