Month: January 2008

Ron Paul’s New Hampshire Defeat

Dave Weigel fights back the tears. If Paul cannot win or even beat Giuliani in New Hampshire, his most promising state, then what hope does he have? His ads sucked. Bottom line:

Paul simply underperformed. The problems were threefold: a late start in actual campaigning, a strange ad campaign, and a waste of energy among novice volunteers who should have been getting out the vote.

But the freedom movement he helped galvanize is much more than one man. And if we enter a second Clinton era, we will need it as much as ever.

Fighting The Depression

Yes, I know how many of you feel: crushed. This country is being given a chance to move beyond its vicious partisan, polarizing past, and last night, core Democrats picked the most polarizing figure in the country. They picked a machine politician who resorted to identity politics as a final gambit over a man who has single-handedly managed to change the debate over race. A reader channels many others:

I’m 40, a lifelong liberal-leaning moderate, and have rarely voted Republican.  In fact, my general tendency if I don’t know enough about a candidate is to pick either the Democrat or the woman on the ticket, with the idea that our country needs more of both.  Not anymore. I feel more depressed today than I did the day Bush was reelected. Why?  Because the prospect of four or eight more years of bare knuckle Clinton-Bush politics is just too much to bear.  If Hillary wins the Democratic primary, I will tune out until it’s all over. I just can’t take any more slash-and-burn politics. Obama is our ticket out of the inferno, but I fear too many Democrats would rather wallow in the partisan mud than rise above.

If you look at many of the reader comments floating around on the blogs and news pages, the venom spewed against the "inexperienced" and "pie in the sky" Obama is spooky.  I’ve even seen people say they won’t vote for him because they’re tired of people playing the race card.  What?  I don’t know where these ideas are coming from, but it’s clear a huge chunk of the electorate know nothing about Obama and are getting their information about him second or third hand.

If there is a silver lining to all of this, it’s that Hillary will be crushed by pretty much anybody on the Republican side because of her galvanizing effect on conservatives, libertarians, and disaffected liberals far and wide.  Then, maybe, we’ll finally be rid of the Clinton-Bush era.  But at what price?  Obama is the real deal, and it’s unlikely this generation will see another leader of his caliber.

All the more reason to fight on. This moment will not come again for us.

MoDo On Clinton

She gets the core narcissism at the heart of the Clinton machine:

There was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us. But it was grimly typical of her that what finally made her break down was the prospect of losing…

My fear is that if you merely wound her candidacy, you are in danger. The Clinton machine is now poised to pull every partisan lever and deploy every cheap tactic: the gender card, the elderly card, the 527s, the teachers’ unions, AFSCME, the Human Rights Campaign, the super-delegates, and the core Democratic base. This is always about the Clintons. If the Democrats have to lose to McCain in November so Hillary Cliton can become the first female nominee for any major party, that’s a price the country will just have to pay.

Now they have to either kill or coopt the hope that Obama has unleashed. Just as Bush coopted McCain’s New Hampshire message in 2000, so Clinton is coopting Obama’s message in 2007. She didn’t find her own voice; she took Obama’s, removed the eloquence and added a spice of identity politics.

She is the Bush of the Democrats. Which is why Obama must defeat her.

Rage Against The Machine

A reader writes:

Watched the NH returns with some friends last night, and something quite unexpected happened when the AP called it for Clinton — inexplicable ANGER.  I was surrounded by people in their early 30’s, registered Democrats, receptive to the Clintons in the 90’s, and I swear I thought someone was going to throw their wine glass at the tube during her ‘victory’ speech.  We made a pact last that we all followed through on this morning — logging on to BarackObama.com and donating $100 each to his campaign (this is the first time ANY of us has donated money to a campaign).  Oh, and did I mention we’re all New Yorkers?

Women Spoke

Iowaericthayergetty

A reader writes:

I am a 52 yr old, gay woman who is a resident of Illinois and who has enthusiastically supported Obama since he ran for State Senate. Iowa made me swoon and I looked forward to seeing the New Hampshire primary put the Clinton candidacy to bed. But, by Monday night, I was sputtering that "we are not electing Jesus here" and was appalled/furious at the undisguised and creepily malevolent glee that the talking heads (Fox bobbleheads/barbies and Chris Matthews deserve particular mention; and you, sir, do not come out unscathed) were throwing up as "analysis" of the "Hillary meltdown" and of their frankly undisguised loathing of her. I thought it was sexist and so did every woman I know.

You dismissed the Steinem editorial as "old-line lefty". Newsflash: there were twenty copies of that editorial in my in-box before breakfast yesterday morning – all of them from women who are ardent Obama supporters.  We remain Obama supporters and will work "until the last dog dies" (thanks, Hillary!) for his nomination. However, we are just about done with a media that cannot report, analyze or provide information on candidates without first filtering it through its self-aggrandizing, inside-the-beltway-fantasy- filter about what would provide a better election narrative. Okay, so much of the media does not like Hillary? Neither do I. They just have to stop with the comments about tears, wrinkles, brittleness, legs and her alleged cackle. I may not want to vote for her—but I have always respected her. Peggy Noonan was too-obviously thrilled to write that Obama "took Mama to school" in Iowa; looks to me like Mama took the country to school last night.

I hear you. I missed this. I see it now.

(Photo: Eric Thayer/Getty.)