Yesterday was a curious day in the life of politics, and in the journey of a political Blog (this one)
We had, on one day, the splendid sight of a full-throated DNC sticking it to Republicans with grace, wit and, it has to be said, with facts!
We also auto-banned a Front Page Contributor, and while I understand the depth of feeling, there is also a note of caution that needs to be sounded.
No links, because there really is no need to re-hash.
We are winning. With a fair wind, and a decent ground game we could run the table of everything even remotely possible in November. However close the polling is, the simple fact is that the polling is trending blue to deep blue, just about everywhere it needs to.
In the Electoral College the President can really only be beaten by himself, or his Campaign, and that is a cause for not just quiet optimism and satisfaction, but for a growing sense of inner joy.
As yesterday's wonderful Diary pointed out ... We go to work not as if we were 10 points behind ... We go with a song in our hearts and a spring in our step knowing that if we keep doing what has been done so far, only the size of the victory is an issue.
That is why we must keep going. We need that gavel back in the hand of Nancy Pelosi, and her grip on it needs also to be firmer than that offered by a few Blue Dogs (we'll get Better Democrats, but we work with what we have).
President Obama could win 350 Electoral College votes, but without working majorities in both the House and Senate, he will have to compromise the return to sanity in much the way he has compromised the last four years. Four years that were enough (sorry Big Dog) to return the economy to health and protect the future of the majority of people. Four years that were enough to return close to full employment, if the right policies and Bills could have been passed.
They couldn't, and we know why not. Not because Barack Obama is a Centerist. Even if he is .. so what? He was forced to the Right not because his inclination was to go there, but because we didn't have the strength, or the numbers, to drive him to the Left. Honestly, it wouldn't have taken much pushing!
So we need the numbers, even if among those numbers are those who are reluctant heroes.
In the meantime, I don't think that falling on our swords will help much. A cartoon hit the Front Page yesterday. It wasn't a very good cartoon, that has to be said. Neither was it, as some might have it, a Right Wing message designed to, oh, I dunno, destabalise society as we know it.
It wasn't funny (kinda the worst crime for a cartoon), and because it wasn't funny it touched all the wrong nerves, and donut trigger-fingers. 100+ HRs in a Front Page Tip Jar is quite unprecedented, and quite unnecessary. We don't generally "pile-on" like that even for egregious comments and I can only imagine that the sense of disappointment caused it. I don't criticise anyone who vented their disappointment. Not the Hide Raters, not the commenters and not those who wrote Diaries about this ... again, it's hard to stay silent when one feels let down, and "silent", in my view, is not required.
Daily Kos Staff generally do keep silent about stuff like this. They seem (and I don't know) to work on the basis of "least said, soonest mended". The author concerned now has Infinite Mojo, and I hope, should the day ever come that I make a mistake; try my hardest but get it wrong as we all do from time to time, that my friends and fellow Kossacks would show a little more compassion, and a little more understanding than we showed yesterday.
I know .... It doesn't help when we rely on the Front Page to banner headline this Blog with stellar work and accurate journalism. Something they have done for many years now in a manner that has been received with broad agreement from most. We don't always agree with each other. This is not a "Stepford Blog", but a messy, creative, and genuinely inspiring place to be.
When we mis-speak, write that Diary we rather wish we hadn't, or post a comment that can now not be taken back, we need to remember the poor guy who simply erred in humour, and the Editor that didn't catch the mistake, and ask ourselves how we would wish the community to treat us.
Fellow Kossacks ... We are winning this thing, and every indication suggests that we are winning handily. What we need to do is win massively, and that might just be within our grasp.
Along the way there will be errors, that is just human. But when we err we need to be picked up and re-enthused. The other side will make as much mileage as they can from our mis-steps, we don't need to be helping them.
We are all on the same side, and this time, as in '08, it is the winning side!
Tonight our Standard Bearer will address the Convention. I rather suspect he will major on the positives.
Carry on.
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