“‘Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] — which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down,’ Clinton said to a meeting of donors. ‘We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn’t even want us to go into Afghanistan. [sic] I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it’s primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don’t agree with them. They know I don’t agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me.‘”
As Sen. Obama racks up the endorsements of Robert Reich, Sam Nunn, and David Boren, Sen. Clinton gets her own private fundraiser gaffe: To wit, audio surfaces of her blaming the netroots and “activists” for her dismal showings thus far. Well, I’m sure that‘ll go over like gangbusters. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, it’s now screw the southern whites, screw the red states, screw the insignificant states, screw the impressionable elites, and now screw the netroots. But, if you’re a white working-class northerner without an Internet connection, you’re the bedrock of the nation, and no mistake.)
I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it’s primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them.
More evidence that they just ran a stupid and doomed campaign from the start. How could any semi-intelligent observer of the political scene over the past 10 years not see which way the wind was blowing here? Or, even failing that, how could any supposed Machiavellian political genius just dismiss over 3 million intensely engaged voters, volunteers, and donors out of hand? I know it’s natural to fear a new power base rising within the party, but if you really know what you’re doing, you co-opt and neutralize them. I’m sure lots of MoveOn’s membership would have been more than willing to march into hell for her if she had just asked them. Christ, the organization was founded to defend her husband during the impeachment, and is in many ways based around a philosophy of pragmatically and doggedly fighting back against the right. She should have been their natural candidate. How could the Clintons not get this? As a member of the class she is criticizing, I’m more dumbfounded at the bloody-minded stupidity of it all than mad at the content. Mind, I’m glad that they’ve been this stupid, because it makes it a lot easier for us to take over the party, but I’m still just kind of baffled that this was the leadership I had real faith in and goodwill for up until 2004 or so.
This also proves to me that she either a) totally buys the Fox News caricature of MoveOn, or b) actually still views her Iraq vote as correct and as a matter of conscience. Maybe both, which is freaking terrifying(if unsurprising,) especially if it’s indicative of the broader consensus of the Democratic old guard.