(Democrats' favorite sport...)
David! Hillary! Barack!
Children!!!! Play nice!
Have we Democrats/progressives/liberals learned NOTHING from the past 30 years?
There is a massive difference between rooting for our preferred choice for candidate and presenting the enemy with gift-wrapped goodies they may be able to use in 2008.
And that choice does NOT mean sacrificing our principles. It just means remembering who the REAL enemy is. Especially after the last 6 years.
I don't doubt for a moment the sincerity of David Geffen's disillusionment with the Clintons. He feels that way - fine. I'm not going to express doubt in the sincerity of his beliefs. Do I agree with his perception of the Clintons? Perhaps I do. Perhaps I don't. But my views really don't matter in this instance. I value honest and direct expression. But there is such a thing as being smart and disciplined. There's such a thing as timeliness. About calculating if there's a bigger cause than the vital importance of expressing our own opinions in public.
If David Geffen sincerely believes that if Hillary Clinton became the Democratic candidate - and was elected President (as improbable as he may believe that to be) that she would be WORSE than any Republican likely to be elected president - then I would say that he had a moral duty to say what he said. That would be a valid concern. And it would be important and legitimate to express it. If you think Damien is going to be running the world - you do have to pipe up.
But if his position is that he's totally disillusioned with the Clintons - and vastly prefers Barack Obama as prospective candidate for many and good reasons - then that's a different story. Shut up about the Clintons! Ignore them. Use your considerable skills and even more considerable wealth to help Barack Obama.
Don't trash Hillary Clinton in public. You may be able to afford it. But 300 million other Americans can't. And if despite your personal endeavors for Obama, Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic candidate for President - then your sincerely held beliefs - and the unnecessary battle between the candidates will be held against her. And used effectively by the Republicans.
Those papering-over-the-cracks poses of former rivals clasping hands on the convention stage amidst a balloon-drop - a mere 3 months before a presidential election doesn't cut it.
All those jibes about character will get dredged up and used against the DEMOCRATIC candidate for President. And we really don't need that.
If Hillary Clinton doesn't become the Democratic presidential candidate - she's still a Democratic Senator for the state of New York. In a senate that hangs on a knife's edge. There is no honor and merit in attacking our own side - irrespective of the personal animus.
I know what the other side of this argument is. That staying quiet allows something you passionately disagree with to be perpetuated. That it's time to stand up to something that is damaging to the party. Well that's a valid concern to express immediately after a presidential election. When we're four years out from an election.
But we're less than a year away from the primaries. And just 20 months to the election.
This is just not the right time to discover and articulate principles that can and will be used against the Democratic Party.
I remember the arguments of my progressive friends who stumped for Ralph Nader in 2000. "Oh it's my principles... I just can't tolerate Gore. He represents everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party. So I MUST support Nader...."
That was a classic case where expressing and acting upon legitimately-held principles had disastrous consequences for this country.
I saw first-hand this same more-principled-than-thou attitiude in my original homeland in 1979. Many Labour Party faithful just couldn't stomach voting for the then British Prime Minister James Callaghan. I understood their position. But so what? That "principled" attitude led to the Thatcher-Major regime that terrorized Britain's working people for 18 long years - renting the social fabric of Britain.
The same disillusion with Jimmy Carter led to 12 years of the Reagan-Bush juggernaut.
Can any purer-than-thou anti-Carter Democrat now honestly say that Carter would have been WORSE than the privations inflicted on working Americans in those 12 years?
My point is simple. There's a time for expressing honest principles. And it's immediately AFTER a presidential election. Not a mere 11 months before the primaries.
So can we Democrats/progressives/liberals just resolve to work hard to promote the virtues and excellence of our preferred candidates - WITHOUT trashing other candidates on our own side IN PUBLIC.
There's no shortage of Karl Rove's proteges waiting to do that.
To do what David Geffen has just done is a Risky Business for Democrats. And the responses of both the Clinton and Obama campaigns have compounded that. That's a Risky Business we cannot afford to be in...