alternative hippopotamus

I really have to wonder what voices in Steve Hildebrand’s head told him that this Huffington Post post was a good idea.

Greg Sargent observes, correctly, I believe that: (TPM)

As Ben Smith notes, the criticism of Obama from the left has actually been pretty mild, and the notion of a left “angry” about Obama’s “centrism” and “pragmatism” is largely a media creation. The key point here is that Hildebrand seemed willing to feed that creation by perpetuating the false idea that the “left wing of our party” doesn’t want Obama to be “pragmatic” and harbors a set of wild-eyed priorities that are somehow at odds with what Obama views as our major challenges.

There has been a number of stories written about anger at Obama from “The Left.” When I read one of these pieces, I have to shake my hate, and mutter “they’re they go again.” I do run into these fictitiously angry bloggers at sites like Open Left, and while I might not describe them as “sated pussycats” I feel safe in describing them as pretty happy about the state of political life in our fair fictitious city. Certainly, none of them allude to theories of primary stealing, or a conspiracy involving Obama and the DNC.

The PUMAs and their supporters may indeed be angry at Obama, but they’re hardly card carrying progressives. And, to be fair I see the PUMAs as borderline insane, while their supporters I see as just reflexively negative.

I see that Chris Bowers has written a post criticizing Obama for picking cabinet members too close to the center for his liking. Since PB 1.0 has all weighed in except for me, I should now put in my own .02 euros.

You may recall that just a year ago many of us were still considering moving to Canada. Or, if they would have us, Sweden. In the New Republic, Peter Beinert argued that Michael Moore should be banned from the Democratic Party. Now we’re debating whether the former president of Harvard is sufficiently within our good graces for a sub-cabinet post. Toto, we’re not in Bush country anymore.

The following analogy comes to mind. Imagine being kidnapped for 8 years. When the marines come, overwhelming your captors, one of you shouts out: “where is my martini?” You turn to him and point out: “But don’t you understand, we’re not hostages anymore.” He responds: “Yes, but I ordered a god damned martini.”

So, while some of us are happy that troops will be drawn down in Iraq, that some form of health care is likely to be enacted, albeit with a for-profit aspect, and Heckuva Job Brownie won’t be in charge of the economic crisis. Others are likely to be cranky until they get their god damned martinis.

I’m aware that some of us have been combing the blogosphere to verify their theory that Obama is really a closet Republican. (I’d suggest reading Clemmons comments on the post, that’s not his point) I have to ask: which closet Republican last appointed a progessive liaison? One who coincidentally was our last guest at DCDL.

I was scratching my head over how vastleft started from this article by Zack Exley, and reached this statement:

The fact is, I’m fairly sanguine about the new administration. I think the combination of major crises, Clintonian technocrats, and Obama’s smarts means there’s a decent chance he’ll do a decent amount of decent things decently.

But the fact is, we don’t have a president, just like we haven’t for the past eight years. We have a king — or, more accurately, a leader of an ill-defined charismatic movement.

He is in no way responsive to the public, certainly not the progressive half. He’ll be a good king, or he won’t.

But, the point of the original article is that Obama was creating a grass roots organization ahead of the Democratic primary. Zack Exley, of course, worked on both the John Kerry and Tony Blair campaigns. I recall him making the point, when speaking at DCDL, that in the Blair campaign they never went home until their work was done for the day, while in the Kerry campaign they never finished their work for the day. Exley is interested in how campaigns are organized, and was looking at the Obama campaign in that sense.

As far as I can tell vastleft started with this quote from the article:

There’s no question that Camp Obama is a beautiful thing. There’s no question that the leaders who attend gain a tremendous amount. There’s no question that communities benefit from the leadership development that takes place at Camp Obama.

Then, vastleft noticed that if you just take the first sentence, and ignore the rest, it sounds like Exley is expressing an irrational exuberance towards Obama. In other words, if you omit the right words, Exley is openly expressing his membership in The Cult. He’s a kool aide sipper, and probably a latte swiller as well. If, however, you include the other part of the quote, or for that matter, the rest of the article, Exley is talking about organization and leadership.

That’s a different thing, yes?

You remember that around this time 4 years ago, an enterprising blogger started a campaign to apologize to the world for the reelection of C+ Augustus. That blogger appears to be back now with a campaign to invite the world to hang out.

Which is a good idea. Hanging out with the rest of the world.

But hey, how ’bout we do it at their place?

This from Chris Cillizza got me thinking: (WaPo)

Democrats will expand their majorities in the House and the Senate. Republicans will be relegated to minority status in both chambers, forced to re-calculate what their party stands for and how they can draw a blueprint to return them to the majority in subsequent elections.

My first temptation was to offer, a la Norquista that an elephant, once castrated, will stop peeing on the furniture.

After further reflection I realized there was more advice I could offer the minority party (insert double entendre on the word “minority here):

• You may be tempted to regroup to be more moderate. Don’t give in. Remember: compromise is what latte-sipping Volvo-driving liberals do. Go rogue! It’s workin’ fer ya.
• Challenge any one who insists that the Civil War is over. It ain’t over until the fat pollster sings. If anything, this is a good time for you to think about seceedin’.
• Don’t give no rights to nobody, except fetuses. Rights is for city people. And fetuses.
• Keep on denying scientific principles. If God wanted us to have science, he wouldn’t have given us Liberty U.
• Continue to refer to all non-lilly white folk as terrorists, socialists, and atheists. It’s workin’ fer ya.
• Greet everyone you meet with: Jesus loves you. Mohamed, Budha, and Secular Humanists don’t. It’s sure to raise a smile.

Just don’t go changin’ a thing. Ya betcha.

I voted for Obama (as well as various local officials here in the People’s Republic of DC) at the church in back of my building. DC precincts break the line up by alphabet. In my case I had one person in front of me. I also had the option of touch screen or paper, but I went with the paper. I can only describe my polling place as classic Americana: the church bake sale, a baseball field, children playing on the jungle gyms. If you didn’t know it was “urban” you would swear you were out in the middle of the fly-over states.

My mother, on the other hand, voted in Rockville. It took her over 1.5 hours. Two people fainted in line.

I’ll have pizza and beer tonight watching the returns. If things break early, we may go walk down U Street and join in on all the commotion.

Meanwhile, I understand the PUMAs have all voted Republican. Weird how they get all defensive when I say they’re a Republican dirty tricks operation.

I used to think Victoria Jackson was funny. Perhaps she still is on stage. But, this is just sad: (HuffPo)

“I don’t want a political label,” she wrote on her website, “but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti- Christ and I’m scared to death that un- educated people will ignorantly vote him into office.”

Later in the posting she wrote: “We must in all seriousness ask if Barack Hussein Obama could be a Muslim terrorist sympathizer or a Marxist mole. His closest friends include Communists, domestic and Muslim terrorists, racists and convicted felons. In his book Audacity of Hope, Barack Hussein Obama says, ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’”"

John Murtha, East Coast sophisticate:

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) is in an unexpectedly tight race for an 18th term after effectively calling the constituents of his southwestern Pennsylvania district racists and rednecks.

Yes, growing up in Rockville, MD, I have had my share of being referred to as a redneck. Hint: it doesn’t go over well with the locals.

I thought this reflection by a former PUMA was interesting, and at least suggestive of a Republican dirty-tricks operation:

Over the last couple months I noticed my favorite Hillary board begin to change. Republicans were made moderators and the new members vs old members was 2:1. People who were the foundation of the board began to be silenced and censored. I had posts deleted for pointing out Sarah Palin supported giving $150 per severed wolf paw in Alaska that was killed from an aerial plane. I had posts deleted that said trickle down economics doesn’t work. I had posts deleted that showed McCain favors giving tax cuts to the wealthy while Obama wants to give a break to the poor and middle class. I was told by “Hillary supporters” that McCain has a better tax plan AND healthcare plan than Obama. When I said no and pointed out reasons why..you guessed it..my post was deleted. Right there was my proof these were never Hillary supporters. How can someone favor, much less state, McCain has a better plan for the economy, a better plan for middle Americans, a better plan for healthcare, when Obama and Hillary’s aforementioned plans were almost identical?