You! Ex-Edwards supporters! Yeah, I mean you. How disappointing. How sad. How pathetic.
Two primaries over (forget Michigan...meaningless). The vast majority of all democratic party delegates still up for grabs.
And yet already--already!--many, many Kossacks here have apparently begun to abandon their first choice for President of the United States--John Edwards.
Disgraceful.
Warning: Rant to follow below the jump.
I'm sorry if that comes across as overly harsh, but you know what? We get this chance but one time every four years. And you know what? With the economy spiraling downward and soldiers still dying in Iraq, there is an awful lot at stake.
The results
from the latest 2008 Daily Kos straw poll, posted last Wednesday, shows what I'm talking about all too well:
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Obama 8772
Edwards 8074
Clinton 2458
Kucinich 10265
Other 273
No clue 550
21153 votes cast
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Obama over Edwards. The new media-anointed "cool kid" over the candidate who was the overwhelming peoples' choice.
John Edwards had led EVERY Dailykos straw poll tabulated on this website since March 2007. Ten straight months. Every freaking one.
In the last straw poll, January 2, on the eve of the Iowa Caucus, Edwards' lead was overwhelming. He garnered almost 50% of Kossack support. Obama was a distant second. Hillary was barely given a second or third thought by most.
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Edwards 10,989 (48%)
Obama 6121 (27)
Clinton 1817 (7)
Dodd 1013 (4)
Kucinich 887 (3)
Biden 450 (1)
Richardson 284 (1)
All the rest 998
-----------------------
So. Here we are. Obama now in the lead. Given this fact, what are some reasonable conclusions to draw? About those former-Edwards supporters who have already jumped to another ship. Well one is that they've concluded that, if they do not switch to Obama now, Clinton will win the nomination.
Huh. 'Cause Obama earned the first win. Because Hillary had the support of the establishment, and a lot of money. Because two weeks is a long time in politics.
Huh.
Maybe some former Edwards supporters have simply re-thought their support. Suddenly, they've concluded that he's not the candidate they thought he was just two weeks ago.
Huh. Call me crass, but I suspect this is but a small handful.
My conclusion: a large number of Kossacks have fallen into the trap of letting the traditional media knuckleheads tell them Edwards is done, and that abandoning Edwards is just what they should do.
Or to put it another way -- Baaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! Or as Roger Waters put it in the song Sheep:
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
"Meek and obedient." Sounds harsh, but I'm sorry -- it appears to be accurate. And it saddens me.
How many times have I visited this website to read the words of an angry Kossack, or Kos himself, expressing outrage over what was then the latest and best example of the media telling you and I what to think? About WMD. About Iraq. About Plamegate. About illegal political hiring at the Justice Department.
How many times?
I cite only these few examples, but the list is legion, and I could go on and on giving similar examples. It is no misstatement or overstatement to point out that the smart people on this website recognized the scope of these outrages well before the knuckleheads in the traditional media. As to Iraq and WMD, we recognized that our nation was being rushed into an unnecessary war under fictitious pretenses. In Plamegate and with DOJ, we saw that people were being personally attacked and threatened by the Bush administration because of they had the audacity to believe something different or belonged to a different political party.
In fact, the people here recognized these outrages AS ... AS ... the traditional media virtually ignored them. AS ... AS ... the traditional media was telling us they were not important enough to merit our attention. AS ... AS ... the traditional media was telling us to "shut up! You have no say so. We will set the parameters of this discussion. We will tell you what details we want, and what to think about them. IF we decide to do so. But in the meantime, shut up!
How many times has this community responded with indignation to such unfiltered bullshit? By standing up and saying, "It is not your country, it is my country! And we will set the parameters of this debate! We will decide what is and is not important! And we will not be ignored. and you will not choose for us!"
How many times have we expressed contempt towards those who would treat us as sheep? Who doubted our backbone? Who would blithely ignore these obvious injustices so that the calm grazing might continue undisturbed? Who would instead have our stampede and attention aimed at the important matters of Britney; and Al Gore's "exagerations"; and John Kerry's lack of patriotism; and John Edwards' haircut?
How many times?
Today the powers-that-be have a new message for you and I. Their message is -- forget about John Edwards ... John Edwards has no chance ... it's a two-person race ... he didn't win in the first two primaries, so there is no way he can win the third. We're telling you. (Oooops! Romney wins Michigan!) We're telling you that Obama is unstoppable! (Oooops! Clinton wins New Hampshire!!) We're telling you to give up and fall into line. We're telling you that there is no hope that the son of a mill worker, or his like, might ever one day be President of the United States.
You better stay home
And do as you're told
< Sigh >
I'm going to end this rant by giving every last one of you more than a little bit of credit: I'm going to assume that two weeks ago, two months ago -- every last one of you who voted in Kos's straw poll put a lot of thought into your choice before placing the arrow of your mouse over the circle next to your candidate's name and giving it a click. A lot of thought.
But I'm going to give a little more credit ... no, a LOT more credit ... to those of you who weren't automatically doing as you were told and mindlessly choosing the media-ordained "front runner" as your candidate. Because you didn't rely on the likes of Tweety and Tucker to tell you who was "viable" and who was not. You didn't rely on polls to tell you that your candidate had no chance. That the results of two contests in two states meant everything.
It is you people, this last group--people who thoughtfully made their selections and then defended such "blasphemy" against the relentless media onslaught--it is you people that real movements are all about. It is you people who stick to your guns and think on your own -- who know better than the elites in Washington, D.C.-- and who don't act like sheep. It is the likes of you who will raise your children to do the same, and who will be the salvation of this country, who will put the years of decay behind us, and who will preserve and defend this country's values for generation to come.
Stick to your guns people. Most Americans have not yet voted. This race has barely begun. The media morons want you and I to act like sheep. They want to have power over you. They want you to abandon John Edwards.
In short, they want to make your choice for you. God dammit, don't you let them!
By the way, Voting is still open.