As has been said often throughout history, the perfect is the enemy of the good, or in this case. The perfect is in the enemy of the great. Barack Obama and his campaign are by no means perfect, and yet they represent the closest thing this country has come to a Strong Progressive President since RFK was gunned down on that cruel June night in Los Angeles. That so many Progressives are currently failing to see the historic chance and finding every reason in the world to oppose it this is frankly shocking. I for one find the attacks astounding and sad, as well as universal surrender to the Clinton Political Machine, which while having the potential to pass many positive pieces of legislation and the ability to appoint positive Supreme Court Justice, does not have the ability to win over the whole country as so many ears are already closed to her, and worse still with the Clinton Machine comes simply old ways of thinking. With Barack Obama we get something different and special, if Progressives turn down that chance because of our quest for perfection, we are all indeed truly lost.
Obama within shouting distance and being shouted down by Progressives
In all the FrontPage stories yesterday about the demise of the Obama campaign, from
Chris Bowers Post-Mortem http://www.openleft.com/... along with Kos’s near post Mortem http://www.dailykos.com/... and also all the attacks on McClure affair, a tremendous truth was missed;
Barack Obama is within striking distance. In a new Iowa poll Barack Obama was within 2.3% of being in the lead of Hillary Clinton and with the inevitability memo created, a loss in Iowa could now very well propel Barack Obama into a very real race with Senator Clinton. In addition this one Iowa poll, a Saturday New Hampshire Poll had Senator Obama cutting, seven points off of Hillary Clinton last lead in New Hampshire. The Fox News national poll had a 32-point national lead shrink to a very manageable 17-point national lead. Despite the nay saying, Barrack Obama is very much in this race. It would help if the Netroots rather than rewarding Hillary dogged determination to blur the difference, would have a bit more historical memory and remember that she in fact inherits a very mixed Clinton Presidential Record when it comes to things Progressive Care about. Instead it is Obama not Clinton who takes most of the fire. In fact, just Yesterday John Edwards launched his broadest assault on The Clinton Record to date, and while there was coverage in the Politico. There was almost no coverage on the FrontPage of Kos. In short, the negative coverage of Obama versus the non-coverage of Hillary is a net plus for the Clinton campaign with almost no thought behind it. Getting shouted down by Progressive simply doesn’t help things.
What Obama has built.
Yes, Barack Obama has had some of the least direct outreach to the Netroots of any of the Presidential Candidates, but it is also important to note that on every major issue we care about, Barack Obama has always voted right and spoken right. If your goal with your primary vote is to send a message on Trade, as a David Sirota would argue, I agree Barack might not be your guy but if what you want to see is a Progressive President not tied to an old political machine, Barack Obama is your guy. Just look at the type of campaign he has built. 350,00 Donors, that is not a money statistic that is a people-powered statistic. Large Political Rallies all across the nation, in Boston, Austin, Atlanta. A pioneering small-donor kickoff approach that is now being replicated across the country and because of this people powered movement, the money to compete on an even playing field with the Clinton Money Machine. For those doubters just spend some time on the website, particularly this page http://my.barackobama.com/...
In the states you will see innovation and events and energy. The fact that some in the Progressive Blogosphere question the messaging shouldn’t make us blind to the tremendous grassroots energy Barack Obama has brought to us. Also as a Young Person myself I can say, the numbers of Young People who are inspired by Barack are tremendous, whether it is the facebook numbers, or the college students at his crowds or his high quality performance before the MTV/MYSPACE debate, or the IOWA Barack-Stars. The Obama campaign has made tremendous strides at real, innovative campaign change, that the National Polls are slow to reflect this, should not make the Netroots so dismissive.
The McClurkin Affair
The criticism surrounding this incident has been some of the most frustrating and quite frankly most ridiculous I have ever seen and shows both political ineptitude and also just poor empathy across the entire Netroots. Before we can attack a man, we need to walk a mile in his shoes. The story is here http://findarticles.com/... The basic outline is the Donnie McClurkin was raped twice when he was very young, survived Leukemia and went on to be a gospel singer. Mr. McClurkin believes that his Homosexuality was an infliction on him and that he was saved from this infliction. While as progressives we may find this troubling, because it argues against the belief that is scientifically held that Homosexuality is not a choice, For Mr. McClurkin, he believed it to be a choice and for him a wrong and evil choice. This makes him fundamentally different from a James Dobson, or Pat Robertson. He is mostly responding to his own personal story in ways we may not like. However his History and Music have been inspirational to many people and also have been recognized with a Grammy Award for Gospel Music. He is a draw in the African American Community because of his Music. That Senator Obama’s association with such a person whose beliefs about sexuality maybe be misguided, but are obviously deeply personal would cause him to be the subject of such scorn given his overwhelming positive record on GLBT issues, is just frankly sad. Do I agree with Donnie McClurkin, of course not and neither does Senator Obama but the fact that was so obscured by the netroots is the fact that Donnie McClurkin support for Barack Obama means that he is willing to support a candidate who disagrees with him on Homosexuality. In some ways he proved himself more tolerate than us. Donnie McClurkin and Gene Robinson can support the same candidate that is uplifting. The work of uniting this country is difficult and Senator Obama is doing that. Why is the netroots not praising the fact that 2000 South Caroline’s went to a Gospel Concert for a Democratic Presidential Candidate that kind of new outreach of talking to people where they are, not where we would like them to be is to me inspiring.
Social Security
Another Obama attack that is fundamentally misguided is over Social Security. As everyone and their Grandmother knows seniors are disproportional likely to vote and while Senator Obama is trying to change that, He cannot assume he will. Therefore talking about Social Security is a smart tactic. Now, we all agree, me, you and Barack Obama that Social Security is not a crisis but it is indeed a problem. One for which Barack Obama proposes a fundamentally progressive solution of eliminating the cap and taxing higher incomes more. Senator Clinton has so far not supported this progressive measure, instead continuing her streak of basic generalities. Senator Obama is using a powerful issue to stake out a more progressive stand, to force Senator Clinton to talk beyond generalities, on a real problem, which is not a crisis. This was the exact position of House and Senate Dems, who were willing to work on a Social Security Solution once Privatization was off the table, with George Bush it never left the table, so no fix was ever discussed. Barack Obama has so far in this campaign done a fabulous job of re-framing the tax issue, debating fairness of the code, rather than the issue of less or more Taxes. The Social Security Ad is part of that effort.
Conclusion
The only crisis for the Obama Campaign is the media narrative of doom and gloom that the blogs are now re-enforcing as if wanting to take credit for his defeat before it even happens. That this result would nearly certainly result in Nominee Hillary is seen as nothing can be done. Matt Stoller went so far as to gloat about the Netroots lack of support for Obama, http://www.openleft.com/...
This is incredibly short-sited because A, if Hillary wins than who knows how much longer a machine might control our party and B, if Obama does win without the Netroots than our potential to influence this Progressive President will drop. It is really is a pretty big shame.