I've been posting a lot recently, at least a lot on my watch. I don't think many of my readers are getting a chance to see everything, since they aren't used to this many posts. So before you read this one, check out the previous few since the PA primary.
Paul Krugman, Princeton Economist and stupidhead, has been one of my favorite people the past couple of months. He's definitely been a stalwart Democrat through the tumultuous times in the past fifteen years, but has been offering fresh air into the recent conflict in the Democratic Party that is diving the progressive movement, and it all has to do with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For some reason, the supporters of each candidate have become increasingly rabid. I have kept myself out of the fight, since I'm still in love with John Edwards, so I think I might still be able to provide some objectivity when it comes to observing this fight.
Supporters on both sides don't even seem to listen to what the other candidate and his or her supporters have to say. All they hear is "blah blah blah lies lies lies I'm an idiot." And this is very problematic for Democracy in America. This group of progressives is on the verge of making a major breakthrough in American democracy, reviving it, and advancing it to the next stage, a new golden age of American priciples. But we are really getting wrapped up in this my team vs. their team mentality in this primary race. The Left bloggers, especially, are very partisan in their attitudes, and are extremely hard on Republicans (warranted, I might add), but these hyper partisan attitudes are surfacing in defining Obama and Clinton as ultimate adversaries instead of friendly competitors who are striving to make each other better candidates.
All we've heard is how negative the campaigns have been recently, and everyone wants to blame Clinton. Well, she had to play the negative card first, because she was behind first. That's what you do in American politics. But as Krugman says:
But how negative has the Clinton campaign been, really? Yes, it ran an ad that included Osama bin Laden in a montage of crisis images that also included the Great Depression and Hurricane Katrina. To listen to some pundits, you’d think that ad was practically the same as the famous G.O.P. ad accusing Max Cleland of being weak on national security.
It wasn’t. The attacks from the Clinton campaign have been badminton compared with the hardball Republicans will play this fall. If the relatively mild rough and tumble of the Democratic fight has been enough to knock Mr. Obama off his pedestal, what hope did he ever have of staying on it through the general election?
Krugman is a master at succinctly laying out his arguments, and in this case, his gripes. He is extremely concerned with the Healthcare issue--definitely a progressive value--and the economy--something Obama has no clue about. So in this respect, Krugman leans heavily towards Clinton, though much closer to Edwards, who is of course, missing.
Also, something that has made Clinton and Obama supporters more bitter, has been that the hype train is finally slowing down in regards to Obama. Yeah, he's just not all that exciting anymore. People have figured him out. He always says good stuff, but I'm no longer transfixed by his words, voice, or looks. The proverbial cool-aid is starting to wear off. Says Krugman:
Decidedly not cool, and not inspirational in the least.
What increasingly bothering me about Obama supporters is that they keep changing their strategy. First Obama was religious, and would be able to get the religious right to drop the Republican Party. Well, instead of doing that, the religious right is just going to stay home if Obama gets the nomination. So that doesn't work. What's next? Ah, celebrity endorsements. If Scarlett Johanssen likes Obama, it's gonna make everyone want to vote for Obama. Cool! Oh wait, those aren't regular Americans. That didn't work. Okay, so phase three is to paint Republicans as regular American people, which is decidely not something the Left Bloggers would have ever even thought about advocating before, and Obama somehow is getting Republicans to vote for him, even though he has been painted as very liberal, and the math they are using is based on the closed PA primary. What morons.
Says Krugman:
And if it were racism, Krugman would have pointed it out, since in his book, The Conscience of a Liberal, he talks about how racism has affected American politics very openly. PA voters aren't racist, especially not the Catholic ones. Some people are racist in PA, but they are either Republicans, or they don't vote, because they don't give a crap.
So through all this, Hillary Clinton still has supporters. Somehow. Clearly, something in Obama's message isn't clicking anymore. The 50 State campaign strategy for Obama looks dead (Just check the front page of MyDD.com) All signs should point to Hillary being dead. But she's not. We have to figure out why. We need to win this presidency, and finding the answer will hopefully allow Obama to get a clue and stop trying to be so damn unique, should he win the nomination in August.
And unless Democrats can get past this self-inflicted state of confusion, there’s a very good chance that they’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.
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