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Reports

Fretting All the Way to the White House

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Posted on Aug 25, 2008

By Eugene Robinson

    DENVER—If they want to win in November, Democrats have one task to accomplish this week: Snap out of it.

    Somehow, tentativeness and insecurity have infected a party that ought to be full of confident swagger. It’s not that Democrats don’t like their odds of winning the presidency and boosting their majorities in both houses of Congress. It’s that they are even bothering to calculate and recalculate those odds.

    That’s what you could catch Democrats doing last weekend as they assembled for the convention. We’ll win, they would say, but we just have to do this or Barack Obama just has to do that or the Clintons have to do this, that and the other. And the stars have to align just so.

    People, the stars don’t line up any more auspiciously than this. George W. Bush is to presidential unpopularity what Michael Phelps is to aquatic velocity. The Republican candidate for president is a wooden, uncharismatic denizen of Washington whose “maverick” image belies the fact that he has supported Bush on practically every big issue. The economy is sagging, the financial system is in crisis and gasoline prices remain punishingly high. In recent polls, as many as eight out of 10 Americans have said the country is on the wrong track. You don’t need a soothsayer to read omens like these.

    Since I landed here Saturday night, though, I haven’t heard a lot of Democrats crowing about the terrible whuppin’ they’re about to administer. I’ve heard predictions of victory, yes, but also a lot of questions. Will Hillary Clinton’s die-hard supporters refuse to lay down their arms, even if their champion begs them to? Will an unreconciled Bill Clinton steal the show? Will Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field be so stirring and poetic that the Republicans will slam him again for excessive eloquence?

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    In other words: Are Hillary Clinton’s followers, many of whom care deeply about women’s issues, ready to accept a Supreme Court majority that would do away with Roe v. Wade, which John McCain would surely deliver? Has Bill Clinton forgotten everything he ever learned about politics and forsaken his lifelong loyalty to the Democratic Party? Would Obama be wise to effectively renounce the use of his great oratorical gifts, which constitute one his most powerful and effective weapons?

    All these questions are just excuses to fret. Unlike Republicans, Democrats like to obsess about what could go wrong. It’s kind of a partisan hobby.

    I was going to say that the Republican Party’s hobby is driving Democrats crazy with worry, but the truth is that the Democrats are doing this to themselves.

    People here complain that the polls are too close for comfort, forgetting that there is rarely anything comfortable about a presidential contest. When was the last time a non-incumbent Democrat cruised easily to the White House? Clinton, remember, won only a 43 percent plurality of the popular vote in 1992. You have to go all the way back to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. Why would anyone think for a moment that Obama could win this without a fight?

    I’m being somewhat unkind, because the truth is that the Democratic Party has tried mightily this year to fight its depressive tendencies. The party is even playing offense for a change, taking the fight to McCain in states that used to be a forgone conclusion for the Republicans. Here in Colorado, recent polls show Obama with a small but significant lead; in Virginia, which hasn’t gone Democratic since 1964, the race is a dead heat.

    As for the Democratic states that McCain is trying to contest, Democrats should take the advice of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. Last Saturday, as Joe Biden was being announced as Obama’s running mate, Rendell was asked how to keep his state in the Democratic column. His answer, and I’m paraphrasing here, was to quit whining about it and just go out and win the state. He helped the Clintons pummel Obama in the primary, and he pronounced himself raring to help Obama and Biden do the same to McCain in the general.

    Even with the fundamentals teed-up and the stars smiling, winning the White House was never going to be a walk in the park for any Democrat. The party will have had a successful convention if, at the end of the week, Democrats stop all the worrying and declare a moratorium on second-guessing. Go shake some hands and kiss some babies.
   
    Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.
   
    © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group



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By Big B, August 26, 2008 at 2:46 pm Link to this comment

Anarcissie

Ijust got home and read your comment. I had a similar experience at my parents house the other day.
Both have been staunch dimmos since they voted for mcgovern, but they uttered at dinner that they will not be voting for that (insert racial epithet here).
I find that attitude fairly prevelent among the older folks here in western PA. Barry and the boys should worry!

paracelsus

We folks here in the Pittsburgh area have always preferred our hometown boy, Bruno Sammartino to the Hulkster, but I feel your pain.

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By choirgirl, August 26, 2008 at 11:45 am Link to this comment

Listen, gene, i love ya. but i’m gonna turn this right back at you all in the print and other media…. wasnt everybody infatuated with obama, and talking about his lead in the polls - until about 2 weeks ago, when everybody started questioning his ability to be elected…. what has gone on here?? WHOA - and the polls dropped because? It’s the media stupid! who is carrying the water - to the repuklikans convention next week…. this bogus feud btn the clintons and obama - not enuf drama for you alls, is that the problem?? or do you really want to ensure that mccain is elected?? Guess you do - you know, gotta protect the phoneybaloney jobs, that it? whoa, gonna love that impact on our first amendment rights, yeah. No, i dont believe in a partisan media…. but what has gone on here?
Gene,  come ON.

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By Paracelsus, August 26, 2008 at 10:08 am Link to this comment

“If Obama doe not win in Nov, hilary and her supporters better be holding on to their skirts.
Blowback is coming their way!
If hillary thinks real dems will ever forgive her for
manipulating and pitting women against minorities
RFK assasisnation request-3rd times a charm Hill?
“Obliterate Iran”
Snotty ass “and the sun will come out”
Geraldine Ferraro “Only because he’s black”
Using the same stereotypes used against women to get her way
Making a Clear endorsement For McCain against Obama
Making up BS stories and outrageous claims about her ‘experience’ in the WH
Failing to release her Delegates
Refusing to Concede
Demanding a Roll Call…....
She needs some serious psychological counciling and reality check.
I have no doubt Hillary’s tongue is still out and drooling over the possiblity for an ‘upset’(fulfill her Request?) or 2012.
She get no more ‘Benefits of the Doubt’!
And tell her ‘Hill Raisers’ to kick in a Buck 25 each and pay off her damn Ego driven unwarranted debt!
As a 2x Bill supporter of the ‘90’s I Never want to hear Clinton again in any position of power!
kick it to the shit pile with Reagan,Bush,Cheney, rumsfeld. Wolfowitz, Rice,Mukasay…..What a POS she turned out to be!”

I miss Andre the Giant. Hulk Hogan could real move a crowd. Do you like professional wrestling?

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By oregoncharles, August 26, 2008 at 9:12 am Link to this comment

So why the hell are the polls showing them even? (Well, sort of.)  As I’ve said before: 

The only way the Dems can lose this year is deliberately.  Their structural advantages are just too great. 

So why is it looking close?  What advantage is there in that?  I want you to think about it.  Frankly, if we fall for this we’re just suckers.

And Anarcissie says:  ” The calculation is, of course, that they have nowhere to go.  But maybe they do.”  Damn right they do.  That’s what the Greens are for.  We’re here for you, just in case you feel like voting for someone who’s on YOUR side.

http://www.runcynthiarun.orghttp://www.gp.org

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Purple Girl's avatar

By Purple Girl, August 26, 2008 at 9:10 am Link to this comment

If Obama doe not win in Nov, hilary and her supporters better be holding on to their skirts.
Blowback is coming their way!
If hillary thinks real dems will ever forgive her for
manipulating and pitting women against minorities
RFK assasisnation request-3rd times a charm Hill?
“Obliterate Iran”
Snotty ass “and the sun will come out”
Geraldine Ferraro “Only because he’s black”
Using the same stereotypes used against women to get her way
Making a Clear endorsement For McCain against Obama
Making up BS stories and outrageous claims about her ‘experience’ in the WH
Failing to release her Delegates
Refusing to Concede
Demanding a Roll Call…....
She needs some serious psychological counciling and reality check.
I have no doubt Hillary’s tongue is still out and drooling over the possiblity for an ‘upset’(fulfill her Request?) or 2012.
She get no more ‘Benefits of the Doubt’!
And tell her ‘Hill Raisers’ to kick in a Buck 25 each and pay off her damn Ego driven unwarranted debt!
As a 2x Bill supporter of the ‘90’s I Never want to hear Clinton again in any position of power!
kick it to the shit pile with Reagan,Bush,Cheney, rumsfeld. Wolfowitz, Rice,Mukasay…..What a POS she turned out to be!

Report this

By Cran Berry, August 26, 2008 at 8:30 am Link to this comment

I was at a gathering the other day in one of Connecticut’s largest and richest cities, and there, for the first time in the entire sorry campaign, I overheard someone say, and I quote: “I am going to write in Hillary because there’s no way in hell I’d ever see a n… get in the White House.” Fretting, indeed. There’s a disheartening undercurrent in the election that is by-and-large ignored by the media.

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Paul_GA's avatar

By Paul_GA, August 26, 2008 at 7:26 am Link to this comment

If the Left stays with the Demos now, they are cowards. Anyone who stays with either of the two major parties because they’d sooner vote for the “lesser” of two evils than see the “greater” evil in the White House, is foolish; greater or lesser, the two major parties are still EVIL. I’m a disillusioned former conservative Repub, and I’ve voted Libertarian from 2000 onwards and never regretted it.

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Anarcissie's avatar

By Anarcissie, August 26, 2008 at 7:12 am Link to this comment

Dumping the Left was certainly a chancy business.  I am surprised that Obama was so abrupt about it.  The calculation is, of course, that they have nowhere to go.  But maybe they do.  After eight years of Bush, a lot of people may figure they’re tough enough to endure anything.

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By Big B, August 26, 2008 at 5:11 am Link to this comment

The dimmo planners should be fretting. They should be fretting like nobodys business! Why? Because the convention has begun, the national poles show a near dead heat, and the dimmos are in Denver organizing prayer meetings and kissing the asses of evangelicals instead of consolidating their base!
As a liberal, I guess I could have seen this coming. The party abandoned its liberal wing in 1992, and have not looked back. That is perhaps the most ironic part of this election season. The ultimate goal of the liberals was to empower our most politically vunerable demograghics, blacks and women.
With a black man about to get the nomination and a white woman in the race to the end we should be reveling in our success. Well, why aren’t we?
It’s simple when you think about it. While liberals were empowering the downtrodden in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, the dimmocratic party was selling its soul to the same corporate masters that cracked the whip over the repugs. Now, there is no decernable difference between the foreign and economic policys of the two major partys. Outside of reproductive rights, their views on social issues have gravitated towards each other as well. That may be why dimmos are cow-towing to christian wackos in Denver, instead of sucking up to the liberals. I’ve got news for the the dimmo elite, you will never attract enough evangelicals to the party to replace the true liberals. National elections are a numbers game, and they should be concentrating on finding replacements for the voters that they will lose because of Barry’s skin color (pivitol in states like PA, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Virginia) not sucking up to religeous wackos that will only hold them in contempt because of their views on abortion and immigration.
If the dimmos don’t draw the line and make a discernable difference between themselves and the repugs, the election could/will be lost.
That is why you need true liberals on you side, dumbasses!

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