Notes From The Trenches: Drive-By Orange County Democrat Wars

The summer has been typical on the Gold Coast of Orange County, California, the most maroon of red counties in the nation. The languid Pacific Ocean has seemed to reflect the leisurely pace of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

In the cradle of the John Birch Society, the Minutemen and in the starting line of Richard Nixon's political career, something is truly amiss. In an informal bumper-sticker survey at the affluent conservative crossroads in this sun-drenched make-believe bastion of gratification, the Bush-Cheney 2004 bumper stickers outnumber the McCain 2008 fly-paper by a ratio of 500 to 1. We have counted in three months over 300 Obamas, no left-over Clintons and 6 McCains! Is this an ominous omen? A portentous predictor? An under-reported undercurrent? Or merely meaningless?

We stopped in front of a Target a month ago to see what was up at a Democratic Party registration table. Behind the table sat three harried and frightened Obama folks and one Clinton supporter. Confronting them, we guessed, were eight or ten OC matrons and Jennifers from the far-right of the political spectrum, veins in their tanned necks bulging with rage. We had parked to get a better sense of the combat. Man, were we wrong: it was a pack of Clintonistas conducting a take-no-prisoners Russian invasion-style aggressive diatribe against the Obama folks, especially the two women behind the registration table. In the spit-fest, the words "traitors" and "bitches" seemed to have garnered some adjectival magic for the screecthers. The crowd of some thirty or so seemed to be almost pornographically excited at this one-sided "girl-fight." As the agitators hurled their invectives, the crowd (mostly delighted Repubs, we suspected) watched and the victims sat back close to tears, quietly begging for "party unity." As we left we wondered how many more concessions, short of the nomination, the losers would extort from the Obama camp before harmony, like the crescendo of the Overture of 1812, would begin to attenuate the cacophony of Hillary's rabble.

Comments

[08politicaljunkie]

Wow! What are the Clintonistas real motives? If they feel that strongly about her, why wouldn't they donate to her campaign? If they were personally maxed out, why didn't they hold fundraisers?

Instead of backbiting, bickering, and belittling Barack Obama, why didn't they get off their butts and bellyhoo Clinton's virtues (if she has any)?

Seriously, what does all this hatred stem from? Do they hate Bill Clinton as much as they hate Obama? Bill hurt Hillary's campaign; Barack didn't.

[Faith1101]

Wow, one instance I've heard of of Clinton supporters acting badly towards Obamabots. I've heard of THOUSANDS of instances of Obamabots directing the most vile, rude, disgusting behavior toward Clinton supporters. But, of course, this is the one that's played up in the most overblown, hackneyed fashion.

When your unqualified, unelectable candidate goes down in flames, I hope (the word ruined by Barack) you will learn to stick to reality, and not a pack of lies. Make your words sweet, because you just may have to eat them.

[KarlaElisa]

Yah, the Obama-ites I know would have been nowhere near tears either. Especially if it were Clintonista's trying to harrass them. Those folks are just clinging to a failed dream. They'll get over it.
The real shame is that the Dem party has become so unable to communicate with each other over this.
Shows a serious inability to reason and I can only hope these folks aren't parents.

[closetodemfection]

We'll see how failed the dream is next week. By the way, have you seen O's poll numbers lately? Frightening. The people clinging to a dream are the ones that think the Dems are going to throw away an election because the media called the race to soon. Somehow, I don't think so.

[lisaintexas]

Lots of hate in this group. Wow! So much for the United States of America and Democratic Unity. Two good candidates - one wins one loses and now it's supporters fighting to help the Republicans do even more damage to the country your keep saying you love. Hope you guys will be my enemies - friends like you I don't' want or need.

God help America.

[susanb2010]

I can't wait for this to be over.... what started off as an historic, uplifting event has been tainted by bad behavior on both sides. I will say, however, that I am appalled with the continued sense of entitlement from the Clinton side and frankly, I am hard pressed to enjoy the convention because of them.

[claudiam]

I second these thoughts. Why isn't Hillary doing everything possible to get a Dem elected to the WH?

[politicojunkie]

She's too busy getting her video together to present at the convention on Tuesday night.
I don't know why O is allowing her to do this. She's giving a speech and having the roll-call. Enough is enough!

[yhgtup]

"victims sat back close to tears". All I got to say is, obviously those Clintonistas had the right Obama supporters sitting at that table, that day! Close to tears, I THINK NOT!!! I've done voter registration drives for Barack, & ran into some "not so friendly" Clinton supporters. Believe me, me & my group were never "close to tears". If anything, the "Clintonistas" ended up "close to tears". We didn't want anything but positive conversation. But, when they "went there", we took the lead & told them where to go, in a very "DEMOCRATIC" manner. Sad, but true.