Kicking Bill Clinton To The Curb
Posted on Tue Jun 03, 2008 at 08:35:00 AM EST
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Unlike Jeralyn, I believe this campaign is all but over and Barack Obama will be the nominee. Believing that, most of my thoughts have been focused on how Democrats make sure they do not kick away an election they should win comfortably. What concerns me most is whether the impulse we read from many Obama supporters and in the Media to purge the Democratic Party of its Clinton Wing is the thinking of the Obama campaign. Last night, Josh Marshall provided a variation on this theme:
I think the most revealing thing . . . is that Bill refers to the youtube viral video of Rev. Pfleger as "the movie." In a sense, of course, this is just a triviality of word choice; he's a little out of touch with the lingo. But for me -- maybe just the personal prism through which I see the drama -- it communicates the larger truth: that Bill is a man out of his time, out of his element, which is something painful to watch and must be a unique agony for him to experience.
I find this a dangerous attitude for two main reasons. First, because Marshall seems prepared to toss out the Democratic strength of being able to point to the Clinton Presidency as an example of Democratic governance. Second, it seems to me to show a real contempt for older people, who, in case people have forgotten, STILL vote in higher numbers that the much vaunted youth vote. It is a dangerous game to play. More.
One of the aspects of the Obama image that should be of most concern to Democrats is that his message of hope and change has become, in some sense, a message of disdain and condescension. This is really manifested to me in the discussion of Obama's so-called "Appalachia" problem and the ridicule heaped on older white women who support Hillary.
It is clear to me now that Barack Obama does not have Bill Clinton's gift (and I daresay Hillary Clinton's gift or John Edwards' gift) for demonstrating empathy and concern for the concerns of all voters, but especially working class white voters, seniors and women. His image has taken on a patina of hauteur and disdain. "Elitist" has stuck for a reason. But instead of recognizing this problem, some want to bury the past. Marshall writes:
Bill Clinton was on so many levels the master of the politics of the 1980s and 1990s, the magic with words and connection with people, intuitively sizing up the tempo and undercurrents of the political moment.
(Emphasis supplied.) Here is the danger for Obama - a belief that "connection with people" is so 1990s, that a politician does not need that anymore. I think hardheaded and clear thinking Obama supporters and Democrats need to see this problem and address it. Barack Obama needs to be MORE like Bill Clinton. He needs to think a little bit more like the 1990s Bill Clinton. Because the Obama coalition as it currently exists can win the Presidency, but it could lose it too. Instead of concentrating on expunging Bill Clinton from the political memory, Obama needs to remember what made Bill Clinton a great politician and try to draw from it.
In my view, not addressing this problem in Obama the politician would be the biggest threat to a Democratic victory in the Presidential election.
By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only.
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