I'd like to share a couple quick thoughts late here on the West Coast.
I'm not pretending that this will be the world's greatest diary and I certainly am not aiming to ratchet up any tensions or internecine blog battles.
Here goes...
Thought one:
I've now had the privilege of meeting, interacting with, talking to, texting, IM'ing, emailing, conference calling, working side by side with, canvassing with, precinct walking with, strategizing with and in general, collaborating with hundreds of supporters of Barack Obama, well-known and unknown and for the vast most part, distinctly in between.
My direct experience of the campaign is that the whole "cult" thing is just so not true.
First, almost everyone you ever hear from who actually works for the campaign itself sounds like, uh, a typical midwesterner. That makes sense, alot of them are from Illinois. I'm not saying that people from the midwest can't or don't join cults or wear birkenstocks and drive priuses...uh, they do...what I am saying is that, being from Minnesota, and knowing a bunch of people from Chicago, the idea that Barack Obama's staff and supporters are "cult-like" or are all "latte drinking, prius driving, sandal wearing liberals" is laughable.
It's just not true.
Can I vouch that Obama's staff and volunteers are people just like you? Nope, but that's because I don't know you. We're online! But I've seen nothing to indicate that if, say, the cross section of Obama volunteers and staff and the cross section of, say, Yearlykos Chicago attendees were to all meet up in some big convention center that we'd be able to say anything other than...well...we're all a hell of alot alike.
But, of course, that goes for Clinton and Edwards supporters too.
The whole idea that we've degenerated into this level of name calling is just sad, in my view.
And, yeah, because Barack Obama probably more fully personifies the 50 State Strategy and appeals to young people, there are one hell of a lot of bloggers I know, who, one way or another, support or, in some cases, are privately rooting for, Senator Barack Obama.
That doesn't mean I don't meet, every day, people who support Senator Clinton. I talk to people. Alot. I talk about politics. I ask them what they think.
The level of sincere, honest support for Hillary Clinton is large, especially within our party's core. I've seen it first hand. Many of these folks are my friends. Some are women, some are men, most are utterly sincere in their support of Hillary and many are just, flat out, excited about electing a woman to be President.
One thing I can say, since I've been able to converse with tons of folks who support Hillary is that sometimes the discussions are tense. People are very invested in this thing. People have very personal investment in the race for the nomination for president. And that personal investment shows through. I've made the mistake of "jousting" when I should have listened more sometimes. I regret that.
And, yeah, I'm not alone. It's just true. Our job in response to that is to get beyond the name calling I think and just, uh, understand that people have sincere views even if our experience online is that there are tons of trolls who hijack that at almost every turn...especially in mainstream comments sections out there. Sheesh.
Thought two:
This is pretty simple. I think anyone looking at the campaign so far would conclude that Senator Barack Obama has earned his place on the Democratic ticket.
One thing that bugs me, given that, is why the Clinton campaign is going so scorched earth on the guy. You can, as kos does, argue persuasively that the more tough they are on Barack, that the more he can claim to be battle-hardened. And the more he campaigns across the USA, the better he will have built up local support for his run in the fall.
All that is true.
But, in my view, the Clinton campaign has missed a crucial opportunity over the last couple weeks.
If Senator Clinton had turned her firepower on the GOP and kept our race for the nomination positive, you could argue that she'd be in a much stronger position right now.
In effect, Senator Clinton has continued to play a "winner take all" game. That means no "dream ticket," however unreal that dream really was. That means, inch by inch, "latte insult" by "prius jab" we are moving towards a kind of politics of rift within our own party. Why? That makes no sense to me. Especially since one side has been winning convincingly in state after state.
I personally think Clinton would be doing better in the polls has she NOT gone so negative and just ruined some powerful arguments she had going for her. The implicit "Dream Ticket" argument + talking about Health Care as a Democratic Value (her greatest strength, imo) was her best hope. She just hasn't managed her strengths all that well. And that's just one among other things, unfortunately. Her campaign has not been well run in terms of message, media or money. That's sad, but true.
And I say that as someone who respects Senator Clinton and values her as one of our Senators from New York.
What do you think?