There IS passion in support of Obama's historic candidacy because it is the answer and the solution to George Bush policy and George Bush politics. Obama is the OPPOSITE OF GEORGE BUSH, the opposite of deception and manipulation, the opposite of war for profit, of hundreds of thousands of innocent people needlessly killed, maimed, or turned out of their homes, the opposite of the corruption of our Justice Department in the name of political manipulation, of the cronyism that led to the collapse of our Homeland Security department and Federal Emergency Management (Hurricane Katrina), and the erosion of our civil liberties and our nation's good standing in the world. We have lost a great deal in the past 7 years, and some of us want a new direction we want it with a passion.
Yes, there IS less passion out there for the Clintons. There IS less passion for a return to the 90's and the Hillary's technocratic approach to our broken government. There is less passion because the Clintons are LESS OPPOSITE of Bush in two important ways. Hillary and her speech writers can blame Obama for being able to communicate effectively and inspire people to "ask not what your country can do for you...." But they must also blame the global catastrophe that is the Bush Administration, Hillary's vote to authorize the Iraq War, and the fact that the Clintons have yet to effectively distinguish themselves from Bush/McCain policies and Bush/McCain politics in the eyes of the American people. If there ever was a time to get passionate about the course of American history, this is the year. It may be a bad thing for the Clinton machine, but it is a good thing for America.
For the last 30 years, some Republicans have been working hard at canonizing Ronald Reagan. As a true saint, Reagan gets today attributed acts for which he had nothing to do with. And they have been waiting for the second coming of Reagan, which, just as all millennial cults, believe it is about to happen soon.
Yet what they really fear is the second coming of FDR. As much as they want to build Reagan up as a paradigm changing force, Reagan is the conservative JFK: an inspiring person of their party, but historically a footnote.
FDR is still the giant in American politics that changed our country for the better, and whose legacy we still are benefiting from. If it weren't because of safeguards put in placed by the FDR administration, today we would be living through a a full blown deep economic crisis similar to the Great Depression.
Now to the story: conservative journalists fear the return of FDR, and the passion that Obama is generating is disturbing them. Why? Because Obama seems to be able to activate people the same way as FDR did.
Obama seems to be able to get people who have been turned off from politics to participate. He has been able to get young people voting, canvasing, and actively participating.
The trouble that Obama represents is not a Democratic president; most conservative ideologues understand that this is what is going to happen. The problem with Obama is that he is reviving our democracy.
The more people participate, the less conservative policies that favor the rich at the expense of the middle class and poor can be enacted.
Conservative ideologues have a strong contempt for democracy. It gets in the way of their policies. That is why they are doing everything they can to discredit the resurgence of people's participation.
No one represents the DLC more than Hillary.
I know the meme of the Obama cult has been making the rounds and our vapid national media has picked up on it. But I have yet to see evidence that this is coming from the Clinton campaign or is apart of her strategy.
If you have the evidence to back up your assertion, you ought to provide it. I for one would like to see it.
If you not have that evidence, however, then IMHO, you ought to change the title to your diary, because it is very deceptive.
Clinton's camp has been circulating stories criticising the "cult" of Obama in the hope of portraying "Obamania" as a mass delusion. Media Matters, a watchdog organisation sympathetic to Clinton, compiled a report headlined, "Media figures call Obama supporters' behaviour 'creepy', compare them to Hare Krishna and Charles Manson followers".It was forwarded by Sidney Blumenthal, a top Clinton adviser, to select reporters. The campaign entered a nasty phase last week with the determination of Clinton's team to revive delegates from the "ghost" primaries of Michigan and Florida, by legal action if necessary.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...
Doesn't Clinton's campaign understand that the more they use these kinds of tactics, the more they turn off Democrats?
So if the diary slammed the Clinton for taking advantage of the meme and spreading it, I'd agree with you. But it clearly asserts the Clinton strategy was behind creating the meme.
That said, now that it is her the Clinton camp, according to the UK Times article, does appear to be using it for its gain, and that is a mistake. Thanks for finding the article and bringing it to my attention.
Hillary's path to the nomination does not lie in going negative on Obama or his supporters. It lies in arguing the legitimate criticisms of Obama based on the merits (lack of experience in higher office, lack of universal health care, lack of experience in dealing with the GOP attack machine, and several others) combined with an effort to bring her strongest, traditionally Democratic constituencies back to her (women, union households, latinos) through a strong economic program.
The diary doesn't seem to claim who originated the meme, but that the campaign is using it. Of course I only got that after reading it several times. It is hard to read the content when one has to make one's way through the tone.
I would rather that neither campaign do this.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the most charismatic of all?
Believe me, if the Clinton camp could create Clinton Mania, they would have no problem with it at all.
"Superdelegates are not second-class delegates," says Joel Ferguson, who will be a superdelegate if Michigan is seated. "The real second-class delegates are the delegates that are picked in red-state caucuses that are never going to vote Democratic."