The Progressive Blogosphere and Obama

Evil, corporate, right-wing far-left fringist left-wing bloggers, an arm of the Republican Party. [chuckle]

Boy, those ObamaCo remote, arrogant, elitists who expect full media and comment control are upset.

It seems that Booman's article boils down to: "unless you support everything Obama has ever done, how dare you feel offended at this remark?" Dumb. I don't know what "progressive" blogs this dude reads, or if he's just been in lockstep with Obama on every issue since the beginning of his campaign, but I find that progressive blogs tend to be pretty nuanced, and tend to call Obama out when he needs calling out. They also spent a great deal of time and energy working through the Obama-Clinton fight, and eventually supporting Obama, getting folks out to the phone banks and getting people to give that $20 or $50 -- it was a "grassroots" campaign, remember? It shows remarkable lack of insight to criticise them as "fringe" when they were and continue to be such a huge part of any success Obama has.

"They also spent a great deal of time and energy working through the Obama-Clinton fight"

On "the street" during the campaign last year, they were "Dean meet-up" people on steroids.*

That there were foreigners coming in and working in Obama campaign offices isn't surprising, not because he's appealing to those who want the USA to become European, but because he had a populist-idealistic following outside as well as inside this country.

* Ironically, prior to the self-wrecking of the health care effort, when Obama was on the campaign trail once again, he also encouraged these street foot soldiers to get active again and resume campaigning, too, this time for health care "reform." So now he's reaching (or he has reached) a point where some of his biggest fans on the far Left are specifically being attacked for not being faithful enough. Ironic.

In general, I like Booman and I applaud anyone who spanks the self-appointed and self-important of the world. But his rant misses the mark on at least one important point.

Right off the bat he says that you (the reader) either supported Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Actually, I supported neither of them. To be completely honest, I think both are conservatives in the truest historical sense of the word. It is easier to see them sitting down and agreeing with George HW Bush than it is to see them going along with the plans of Roosevelt, Truman, or Johnson. Heck, I'd say that Richard Nixon might even fall to Obama's left (remember, he gave us the EPA, OSHA, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment, and signed both Title IX and Title X - plus wage and price controls).

The problem is that too many on the left believe that Bush was wrong on policy, but right in political strategy. The way to get something done, they believe, is to ram it down the throats of the opposition. Of course, Barack Obama campaigned on changing the tone in DC...so this approach is apparently distasteful to him (as it should be).

So I'd say there are two criticisms of Obama from the left. First, that he isn't forceful enough. People that say that simply never listened to him. Second, that he isn't actually Progressive enough. Well, he's a conservative, and I'd say that anyone who disagrees hasn't really listened to him, either.

But what do I know? I supported John Edwards. If I had my way, the President would be facing a paternity suit rather than a Nobel Peace Prize.