BY TAYLOR MARSH
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Via Mike Lux,
a former Clinton White House guy, who supported Obama in the primaries. I had
him on my show several times. “Capital Hill Caution” is an understatement.
… ..What I’m talking about instead is the sense of overall caution that seems
to have utterly infected the campaign. Instead of having the confidence to
win the bigger argument on investing in alternative energy production and
conservation, they make the shift on drilling. Instead of pushing back firmly
and assertively on the race card accusation, they have the campaign’s reply
be “No, we’re not playing the race card.” Instead of having the
confidence to really negotiate with McCain on debate formats, they fell into
the we’ll-just-do-what-candidates-have-always-done formats. Instead of having
the confidence to lay out some of his good new ideas on foreign policy that
are clearly different from the Bush doctrine in his widely watched Berlin
speech, he stuck to cautious generalities. Instead of having the confidence
to back up his strong and effective primary rhetoric on FISA and NAFTA, he
cautiously moved towards the conventional wisdom.I am haunted by this because of my past experience with Capitol Hill-shaped
“wisdom” around elections- being told by my brilliant young friend
David Plouffe, who was running the DCCC in 1998, that the PFAW/MoveOn.org
time to move on regarding impeachment campaign was a huge mistake, when in
fact it was the theme that ended up turning the tide on congressional elections
in our favor that year; being told by Gore’s people in 2000 that if they just
didn’t respond to the NRA’s attacks on the gun issue, the issue wouldn’t have
an impact; being told by Gephardt’s top aides in 2002 that the only way to
win the congressional elections that fall was to “take the war off the
table” so that Democrats could get on with other issues; being told by
Kerry’s team in 2004 that if they just ignored the Swift Boaters, they wouldn’t
get any attention.Caution kills when it comes to national elections, and the caution of my
friends in Obamaland is hurting him. … ..
The light is dawning. It’s just too late to do anything about it, because McCain is not an option for people wanting to change the direction of this country, and the race is over and Obama’s what we’ve got. For however valiant McCain’s biography, which no one around here is doubting, he’s not a man of the future.
Hey, but no one can say people weren’t warned. It’s just that those warnings, because they came from HRC, as well as this Clintonite, weren’t heeded. Never mind that Senator Clinton didn’t get a pass either when criticism was due. No matter that the words from Obama’s own mouth foreshadowed where we are today:
“I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other. I think that I have the ability to make people get beyond some of the divisions that plague our society and to focus on common sense and reason and that’s been in short supply over the last several years. I’m not an ideologue, never have been. Even during my younger days when I was tempted by, you know, sort of more radical or left wing politics, there was a part of me that always was a little bit conservative in that sense; that believes that you make progress by sitting down listening to people, recognizing everybody’s concerns, seeing other people’s points of views and then making decisions.” – Barack Obama(on ABC’s “This Week”)
When Obama said he wasn’t a partisan, people should have believed him, because there was plenty of proof from the start. I was there reporting on it. I know.
The “netroots,” sold themselves out for someone who doesn’t have their goals. They were suckered. They can’t say it, but it’s true. Edwards would be gloating if it wasn’t such an empty exercise and he didn’t have his hands full right now. As for the rest of us, to change the country, Obama is it. I simply do not want more of the same, no matter how flawed the Democratic nominee.
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