Oh, Yes She Can
Here's what is scary. It's not August. There aren't any Republican attack ads.
And yet, Obama is getting swiftboated... by himself.
Admittedly, as someone who will remain a Clinton supporter to the very end, I have been enjoying the rude awakening that many Obama supporters have recently received from !quelle horreur! Barack Obama, himself.
FISA, gun control, public finance, the death penalty, religious-based initiatives, late-term abortions, Iraq, turning his back on groups such as MoveOn, and throwing people like Wes Clark under the bus. They all add up to Obama's progressive base wondering with justifiable uncertainty: Who is this guy and what the hell is he doing?
Well, it seems that Barack Obama can and will do whatever he pleases -- particularly if it paves the way to victory. In order to win the nomination, Obama posed as the candidate of Change. Remember he was the outsider who wanted to restore Hope in all of us. He was the candidate we could Believe in. Not surprisingly, after 8 years of Bush fear-mongering and Republican-led emoting hate towards terrorists, Obama's offering of emoting hope and unity towards feel-good horizons was extremely appealing. The marketing worked. Back then, Obama appeared pure, honest, and trustworthy; Obama was definitely not the entrenched, untrustworthy Washington-insider, Hillary Clinton.
But who is Barack Obama now?
Unfortunately, none of us know who Barack Obama really is especially in light of his recent mercurial political positions.
Usually when someone behaves in such an unrecognizable manner, you turn to the person in question's past history for reassurance. Not so with Obama since his public record is so short. Indeed, Obama's public life started a mere 10 years ago and his uncanny ability to spend no longer than two years in any one post or place translates to Obama never being held accountable. That lack of accountability translates to Obama being an unknown entity merely offering up his lofty, poetic, and very pretty promises to trust. But lately those pretty little promises aren't holding up much -- let alone anyone's trust.
And I am not going to shut up and trust Obama for the sake of party unity. Just like I refused to shut up and trust Bush after 9/11. Remember, Dissent is Patriotic. Obama promised to be something different. He promised to stand up and do the right thing. He promised the Change that many people were yearning for. While I never believed him to have authentic principles, Obama's early supporters did. And those early supporters are responsible for Obama receiving the nomination. They voted for Obama specifically because he said that he wasn't the type of person that he has now revealed himself to be.
So why is Obama acting like his early supporters don't matter to him?
Because he can. He doesn't need you folks anymore. Obama knows that he has all of your votes in his back pocket. He knows with certitude that you will not vote for McCain. So as long as Obama stays more than a hair to the left of McCain, he'll do just fine, thank you. Obama really doesn't need to pander to all of you and your silly Progressive causes anymore. He and Michelle have got a general election to win and a large swath of (perceived) centrist voters to sucker.
But if there was ever a year that the progressives could have run on a strong, strident and non-negotiable platform against the Republicans, 2008 should have been that year. More than 70% of Americans are unhappy with the course of our country -- a country that has had Republican leadership for the past 8 years. If Progressives and their candidates cannot be true to themselves and their core-guiding principles now, then when?
2008 is the ultimate year for an unyielding progressive platform and agenda because on every major issue that Americans care about (like for example Iraq, the economy, the environment, health care, and national security) the Republicans (and the policies of the Right and Center-Right) have failed miserably.
More pointedly, in 2008 when more Americans identify themselves as Democrats and supporting Democratic principles, why in God's green Earth would Obama or any Democratic candidate for that matter ever run anywhere near the center? It's idiotic. Take a look at South Carolina where Obama received more votes than all of the Republican candidates, combined. Go further and add up both Obama and Clintons' votes in South Carolina, and you have a Democratic landslide! And South Carolina is supposedly a fairly conservative Republican state.
So it's not that Obama is merely abandoning the Left. No, it's that Obama is abandoning the vast majority of the American people and what they truly want from their political leaders after 8 horrendous years of George Bush.
Alas, as many Clinton supporters already know, it's not so bad living under the bus once one's been thrown there. The important thing to remember is to not get disillusioned and bitter with the political process. You (yes, We) can all still make a difference.
Here are some simple ways to stay a part of the system and send a message to the tone-deaf Obama:
1. Unhappy with Obama's turnaround on issues that matter to you?
STOP SENDING YOUR CHECKS TO HIM. Spend 5 minutes on Google and send money directly to organizations that support your issue or cause. For many grassroots organizations, a little money goes a long way--your money will be well spent and better spent.
Remember that Obama opted out of public financing--that means he needs your money. If you stop sending it, he might pay attention. More to the point, by sending cash directly to well-established organizations that support your cause, you will know that your voice is truly being heard and appreciated.
Furthermore, such organizations will not materially change their position on any issue to fit the prevailing winds. With these people there is no risk of getting burned or thrown under the bus.
2. Nervous about Obama's seemingly lack of core-guiding principles and even more concerned about how he will govern as President?
Start supporting Hillary Clinton as his Vice President. Clinton would serve well as a stern rudder to Obama's wayward sails. Hillary Clinton has a well-documented public record and history. Like it or not, we fully know Hillary Clinton and we know how she governs. We know her core principles. More to the point, we know that there are certain non-negotiable, core Progressive principles that she would never capitulate on.
Any Obama supporters who initially found Clinton unacceptable because of her triangulation and willingness to do anything to win, might as well listen to your own recent justifications about Obama and his own triangulation and willingness to do anything to win. Enough said?
3. Reminder to all: The Superdelegates have not yet voted. They cast their vote at the Convention in August which means Hillary Clinton's "suspended" campaign could be reinstated. (Because, Oh, Yes She Can!)
Of course, this reality is probably why the Republicans have remained mostly silent against Obama since they'd rather run against Obama than Hillary. The Republicans know that a small window remains open for Hillary to get the nomination. And a coup at the Convention is not entirely out of the question-- particularly in light of Obama's recent behavior in thumbing his nose at the Progressive base. Yes folks, it's not too late.
It's July 9, 2008. There are 6 weeks left until the convention in Denver. And I think all Americans should be paying close attention to see what Barack Obama does. Does he continue to flounder and move to the center compromising important Progressive principles? Or does he correct his wayward ways?
Democrats must have a candidate with clear conviction to beat John McCain in November. The question that must be answered between now and August is whether Barack Obama is that candidate.
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You are delusional.
Clinton will NOT be the candidate.
If you persist, and manage to scuttle Obama's chances, I hope you're happy with President McCain.
My candidate didnt win so Im taking my marbles and going home!!!Puhleeeze
HRC supporters are the real cult of personality because you have been delusional since February. You will never admit that your candidate lost the nomination in February but continued her campaign in the sole hope to take down Obama's election in the fall. You will never admit that your candidate made a move to the right when she was in the Senate by joining up with the far right Christian group "The Fellowship". You will never admit that she moved even further right in the Democratic nomination process and used race bating to try and get elected. You will never admit that she would say or do anything to get elected and had no principles. For example she said the Republican candidate would make a better president that the fellow Democrat which is unprecedented in primary politics. She even brought up the evil specter of assassination to justify staying in the race. You will never admit that she was a deeply flawed candidate who actually had less experience in elected office that Obama. The facts are something that have left Hillaryland early on in the primaries and your contentions show that the facts still don't matter to you because Obama's supposed flip flop on Iraq was a Clinton campaign theme that never washed because it was not true then or now. Most of all PUMA's mission will backfire. Democrats are just going to remember her as the spoiler of the Democrats best chance to win the white house in years.
Thanks, KQ, for that brilliant summary.
Agreed, Hillary was deeply divisive and ran an impeccably flawed campaign. How can the supporters of Hillary accept her defeat does not surprise me at all considering Hillary never admitted anything wrong in her run and ads all over as if there is no tomorrow. Now, the leadership example to support and campaign for Obama has come and it is a bit uncomfortable for her to say things she didn't want to say...perh
When their leader and nominee cannot admit herself that she ran a bad campaign and that she was flawed, why should her supporters do what is most respectable?
Obama is not a perfect candidate. So get real with your gripings HRC supporters!
HRC's supporters won't "admit" all of those silly things because they don't agree with them. Just like you won't "admit" you are an idiot who would rather spend time venting on blogs to people you don't know, than to engage in thoughtful nuanced discussion elsewhere. You wouldn't admit that because you wouldn't agree with it. And perhaps for good reasons.
HRC supporters disagree w/ you for some good reasons too. They think HRC did have principles - e.g., having votes in MI and FL count, loyalty to her supporters who wanted her to stay in the race until BO had enough votes to win, FISA, - and many didn't trust that the prinicples BO espoused were really his principles. They don't think she stayed in the campaign to hurt BO, and in fact think that her staying in probably helped him - prevented him from looking stupid losing West Virginia to someone who had dropped out. And they don't think Reps are so stupid they couldn't have thought of any of the arguments HRC leveled at Obama. You don't have to like her, but your screed is stupid.
Anyway, as an HRC supporter, I'm voting for BO, adn it sounds like Ms. Breitweiser will too, as disappointed as she is with BO's recent positions (which HRC didn't force him to take, if you can stand to admit that).
Even the name, PUMA, shows this group is not for Democrats.
I'm going to send Obama another contribution right now. Thanks Kirsten for reminding me!!!
Ingenuous way to cut the scraps!
After all the bitterness in your rant, and the unrealistic hopes of Hillary getting the nomination, I'm simply astounded that you have the nerve to tell us to stop being disillusioned and bitter about the political process. You should take your own advice.
I've been an Obama supporter from the start and I don't think he is changing his positions, maybe because I don't watch Fox "News" and maybe because I understood him correctly in the first place. I'm sick of people saying they don't know who Obama is or what he stands for. That's either political propaganda or pure laziness. How many books, speeches, official websites, interviews, debates, etc. do you need? Stop repeating the Republican talking points. If you want to use dissent to change Obama's politics, the great freedoms of this country allow you to do just that. But you shouldn't forget that along with freedom comes responsibility. We're free to own guns, and we're free to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Breitwho? What a joke you are. You are bitter, venomous and divisive just like the woman you still support and who political tactics you have adopted to derail Senator Obama. You and your have teamed up with scandal-driven media and the Rethugs to sabotage Obama. You are no longer as respectable as I once held you. You are just another angry, entitled WW like Farraro.
bitter? she expresses her opinion. disagree if you wish but calling her names doesn't cut it.
SHE had the nerve to tell us to stop being disillusioned and bitter about the political process FIRST ... She should take her own advice ...
pitiful post - full of childish i-told-you-so crap that isn't even based in reality.
"The important thing to remember is to not get disillusioned and bitter with the political process."
IKYABWAI.
"...gun control, public finance, the death penalty...
His stance on gun control and death penalty are not new positions. However, since you people are so zealous in your support of someone who votes to cluster bomb women and children, so much so that you're working at handing the country over to her fellow war hawk Senator McCain, I guess it's too much to expect any of you to realize, understand or accept that fact.
"And I am not going to shut up and trust Obama for the sake of party unity. ... Obama promised to be something different. He promised to stand up and do the right thing. He promised the Change that many people were yearning for. While I never believed him to have authentic principles, Obama's early supporters did. And those early supporters are responsible for Obama receiving the nomination. They voted for Obama specifically because he said that he wasn't the type of person that he has now revealed himself to be."
WAAA WAAAA WAAAA WAAAA WAAAA
Such a BREATHTAKING example of female grudge-logic. There, I said it. I know I'll get flack from many women for this post, but for pete's sake. You can't be a man and read that paragraph and not hear every single woman you've ever had a relationship with doing the classic "BUT YOU SAID BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH" when the specific "BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH" were the EXACT words you said 3 years ago or 8 years ago or 30 freakin' years ago - that you likely don't even remember saying, but the woman is reciting VERBATIM because god forbid you should do ANYthing one iota differently than the way you talked about it before once in the history of the freakin' planet.
um.
Thank you for that wonderfully sexist view.
"Any Obama supporters who initially found Clinton unacceptable because of her triangulation and willingness to do anything to win..." - Kristen Breitweiser
Thank you for finally admitting that Hillary is an unprincipled triangulator who will do anything to win. I understand how tough fessing up to these realizations can be for Hillary Drones.
Let's assume that Hillary and Barack can triangulate one another to a draw. Barack is *still* the better candidate. At least Obama's triangulations are subtle and "pretty". Hillary's are clumsy and transparent.
"...the Republicans have remained mostly silent against Obama since they'd rather run against Obama than Hillary." - Kristen Breitweiser
This is an abject falsehood. Hillary Drones continuing to repeat such a falsehood is absolutely Rovian.
FOXNews Channel -> Sean Hannity -> any time
"mostly silent against Obama"??? Huh?? Whuh?
The collapse of K. Breitweiser's acumen and judgment over this Hillary/Barack thing is as tragic as Britney Spear's head-shaving death spiral.
I mean, what are we Americans supposed to do if all of our icons implode like this?
i absolutely loved ms. breitweiser for standing up and demanding a proper investigation into 9-11 - posted about it many times on alt-politics. her group didn't get one, of course - but to go this route is a shame.
I have seen nothing new from Obama, and don't understand the problem. He is trying to unite the country. Not everyone is super progressive, and not everyone is a right-wing extremist. We need to change united - slower than the extreme left would like, faster than the extreme right would like. We need to unite this country.
Maybe you think McCain will do a better job of that than Obama. Then, go vote for him.
I agree 100%!
I agree. He said he would vote against retroactive immunity in FISA and he did today. He has a 100% rating with NARAL and Clinton, too, has reservations about partial birth abortions. His faith based initiative is nothing new either. He's been in favor of this for years. Capital punishment, he has said that he favors it only for heinous crimes like child rape. (I disagree with him on this.) His stance on getting the troops out in 16 months has not changed.. He has not wavered on universal health care !!! He even has Elizabeth Edwards working with him. He has already built a high level team for a 150 million dollar energy initiative. He has a middle class tax cut, is pro-union, is reasoned in his foreign policy decisions, unlike Clinton who wants to "obliterate: Iraq. I think this is a conspiracy from Clinton supporters to steal the nomination from him or at least get her on the ticket. It won't work. He will win.
Mencken called them professional job seekers. Nothing has changed. The naivte' of your blog is staggering and comic.
America, beaten, ripped off & screwed for decades turns it's lazy eye toward yet another huckster and purveyor of stardust dreams and champagne wishes.
Prepare to be fleeced, talked down to, hoodwinked and patronized AGAIN.
Yeah. Mc Cain is SOOOO much better.
Get over it. This is bigger than you and me. This is about what's best for the country.
This type of article is counterproductive to party unity, and is the very thing that GOP will jump on to divide and conquer us on in November.
the article is not counterproductive to party unity. what is counterproductive to party unity is the lack of substance, experience and expertise in the presumed nominee.
NO, what is counterrproductive to party unity is your attitude, your supposition that your thinking on this matter is better than the majority of Democrats.
It's arrogant, foolish and may leave us with a GOP candidate in the White House. You're willing to put this country through 4 more years of hell because you're a petulant, whiny crybaby who didn't like the outcome.
Hillary Clinton has no one to blame but herself. She hired Mark Penn. She signed off on a failing strategy and she let the mismanagement of funds go on too long.
With all that 'mismanagement' I'd be reluctant to hand her, and her lobbyist friends, the keys to the White House front door.
But, as I have said elsewhere this election will separate true Democrats from the Repub lites that have been infesting our party for years. If you seriously are voting for McCain over Obama, despite Hillary's request that YOU NOT DO SO, then please change your party affiliation to that of the party whose interests you truly represent - Republicans.
Your candidate was and still is obviously superior to magniloquent, done-nothing trainee senator Obama, but your best hope is that another of his unsavory associations comes to light before or during the convention. If you've been holding back another or a few, it will be great theater when you drop them on the Democrats at the convention. yeeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaa!
If you don't have any, let me just give you one...
The Obama du jour is now positioned way to the right of those who blissfully voted for him in the primaries, i.e., his newly observed unsavory (to leftists) associations are centrists and conservatives. The view from the distant left is like this: Communist "father figure" Davis: Okay; hate-fueled anti-America "spiritual guide" Jeremiah Wright: Okay; Racketeer buddy Rezko: Okay; Would-be domestic terrorist friends Ayers and Dohrn: Okay; Wife who doesn't much like America: Okay; Centrists: "Intolerable!! We've been hornswoggled by that lying asshole! Waaaaaa!"; Conservatives: "Good gods, he associates with VERMIN!! AAAAAAAAAA
For some reason, the Obama thralls are willing to overlook the clear and unassailable fact that their guy is years away from being as good a choice for the presidency as the average senator, and they don't see the absurdity of elevating to Commander in Chief one who attended to Jeremiah Wright's anti-America lunacy for two decades, lifting neither finger nor tongue in defense of the country. They don't even snicker at his laughable attempt to deny that he heard that stuff.
Man, learn English...
Seeing you try to justify that impulsive snivel would be great fun. It would also provide a learning opportunity for you, and even for the likes of you it's never too late to start trying to take advantage of such opportunities. Just tell me what you were referring to, and I'll do my best to help you along with the start of your education.
1) Your glass house was damaged by your "hate fueled" stone.
2) Your glass house, comprised of Iraq war authorization, Kyl-Lieberman bill, Levin amendment, cluster bombing ban votes was likewise damaged by your "lifting neither finger nor tongue in defense of the country. " stone.
3) Check out the law firm Senator Clinton worked at before you toss around Communist insults.
4) Check out which domestic terrorists President Clinton pardoned.
5) Listen to Mrs. Obama's quote about being proud. Don't lie about what she said. Listen to it.
That was pretty funny. Had you intended to try to refute what I said, or was that desultory snivelfest just a way lf lowering the air pressure in your head?
Trying to dismiss the grandiloquent, done-nothing senator's wife's assertion that she only recently had her first episode of respect for her country is obligatory for Obama groupies, so I won't even mention how stupid that is.
You item 2 was especially amusing, in that it was only remotely related to the fact I mentioned. You were unable to connect the parts of the sentence you excerpted. You may try again if you like. Since you tried to change the subject, I remind you that voting the party line is no big deal,
"Communist insults"..
By the way, I am a long way from being a fan of Bill Clinton's wife. The only positive thing I've said about her is a couple of mentions of the fact that she was the best candidate the democrats offered.
zzzzzzzzzz
Are you Jethro or Ellie Mae?
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