Progressive Movement

Yesterday Al Gore endorsed Obama, and McCain had to back away from a fundraiser hosted by a sexist and thoroughly discredited politician Clayton Williams.  To top it off, McCain tried to claim his people knew nothing about Williams’ notorious claim that rape was like the weather, so women should just sit back and enjoy it since they cannot fight it.

Everyone who followed politics back in 1990 heard about this statement.  This is a bold faced lie by McCain that his peeps were ignorant of Williams’ comment.  For crying out loud, he made it in the heat of the Texas Gubernatorial race that he lost to the extremely popular Ann Richards!  Of course his people knew about it.

In case there were any Hillary supporters contemplating McCain, this episode should permanently dissuade them from such nonsense.  The Republican Party, John McCain, and Clayton Williams, do not support women or care about their issues.

On the day that Al Gore, successful former Vice President, Nobel Prize Winner, Oscar winner, and leading advocate for fighting climate disruption, endorses Obama, John McCain has to back away from a supporter/fundraiser who claimed women should enjoy rape.

Can the difference be any clearer?

And yet the chattering class does not think this is a big deal nor want to make much of an issue about it.  To keep this devastating chasm in the limelight, progressives and Democrats have to force the media to cover it.  The difficulty lies in the fact that Obama cannot be seen as harping on this too much, lest he appear to be going negative.  However, there are some great progressive female surrogates who can drive this embarrassing episode into the public consciousness.  This treads a very fine line between being a legitimate issue and crass politicalization, but it has to be done.

At the least, make the point clear to wavering Democrats that McCain, who will not return the money Williams has raised for him, should be utterly unacceptable to anyone who even moderately considers themselves modern and progressive.  Heck, McCain’s refusal to back away completely from Williams is not even acceptable to people who consider themselves agreeable to the basic moral standards of the 20th century.  Taking that money essentially endorses Williams’ viewpoints.

Even if he returns the money, Williams’ comments show the moral core and attitudes of many of the Republican Party.  Who do you want representing the country, someone who bumps shoulders with Clayton Williams, or someone who bumps shoulders with Al Gore?

That is the choice this November.

Elections, McCain, Obama, sexism | 2 Comments »

As usual, I am behind the curve, but people are still madly dissecting the ‘Clinton collapse’, even going so far as to make fun of how much money she spend per delegate (over $100,000) just to lose. The only thing this says to me is that we need to make the process of running for President a heck of a lot cheaper.

I also believe that the ‘Clinton collapse’ is not really a collapse. It was partly if not wholly engendered by the media anointing her the front runner and repeating ad nauseum that it was her race to lose. Anyone who knew anything about politics had to know that Obama would be competitive.

So why do I think Clinton did not get the job done? Drum roll please…messaging.

Okay, you all knew I would say that. But seriously, her entire campaign consistently struck the wrong cord up until nearly the end.

Early Campaign

First, a bit of quick messaging overview. She started her run taking a decidedly middle ground, as if she was running a general election campaign rather than a primary one. Kerry made the same mistake in ’03 and corrected it quickly enough to stop Dean.

Clinton’s tactic was clearly aimed at bringing Independents to her cause, but like every moderate DLC Democrat, she misunderstood that Independents are not such because they have wishy-washy opinions, but because they do not like either Party. Watering down your policies does not win people in the middle over. Breaking the two-Party mold does. Standing for something wins votes. Pandering does not. Clinton, by not taking firm positions on key issues (witness her refusal to admit being wrong on the Iraq vote), simply did not excite the base nor win over Independents.

Another great example is health care. Clinton did not introduce her universal health care plan until Edwards did and started gaining traction on it. In a nutshell, (more…)

Messaging, Elections, Democrats, Edwards, Obama, Analysis, Hillary Clinton, Narratives, primaries | No Comments »

The dust has settled over the Obama nomination. What has remained? What is the lasting narrative we have seen over the last week?

Well, I feared that Obama losing SD would be a disastrous portend of things to come. And it still may be, but despite him limping backwards, practically mortally wounded, over the finish line, largely due to the help of superdelegates, the narrative was about how momentous and historic the occasion was. And it is. But it would have been for Hillary as well.

Obama was helped in this by two things. One, McCain’s terrible decision to have a major speech hours before Obama’s shining moment. Green backdrop, deadpan delivery, boring content, and 50 people in the audience – not good. Compare that to Obama’s gracious and soaring speech in typical Obama style on the night of his coronation. Even Fox News had to give the guy props and bash McCain.

Second, Hillary did not concede that night. Bad move, and that was all the networks could talk about. Of course now all the talk is whether we will get Obama/Clinton. I seriously doubt it; in fact, I will run around the block naked if he chooses her.

Those two things, and the very special significance of Obama’s win hide the fact that the Democratic voters were showing signs of buyer’s remorse. Only Pat Buchanan pointed it out, but no one took him up on the thread.

Needless to say, a great speech (and two bad ones), can definitely plaster over an unstable wall. I have fear that plaster may crumble, and unless Obama can fix what is causing the problem underneath, he may be in for trouble.

On the other hand, (more…)

Elections, McCain, Obama, Analysis, Hillary Clinton, Narratives, Elitism frame | 3 Comments »

Hillary cleaned Obama’s clock in PR today, a commonwealth that will not have a voice in the general election (would someone please makes them a state of give them independence – this wishy-washy, middle of the road commonwealth status must be dropped).

This victory makes it that much easier for her to claim she has won the popular vote, although she still only gets to make that claim by creative, self-selective math. But the media repeats it, so everyone will think it is true. Strangely, it mimics Obama’s supporter’s arguments when he was winning states but still behind due to superdelegates; the argument was that superdelegates should not overrule the will of the people. Well, now it is not so clear the will of the people has been sorted out. The vote totals are pretty close after more than 35 million votes cast.

The irony is that Obama supporters now claim the popular vote does not matter and only delegate totals do. Pretty easy to make that argument when your candidate now has more superdelegates than his opponent, huh?

But here is what is true. (more…)

Messaging, Elections, Democrats, Kerry, Obama, Analysis, Hillary Clinton, weak on defense label, primaries, experience frame, Elitism frame | No Comments »