Welcome to The Conservative Cave©!Join in the discussion! Click HERE to register.
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
And many of these stories have cited me, using the two posts I wrote urging Obama not to water down his brand and tack to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters as examples of the "fire from the left."They must not have read the posts carefully. Actually, they must not have read them at all. So allow me to repeat a key graf from the first of these posts: [I've] looked at the Obama campaign not through the prism of my own progressive views and beliefs, but through the prism of a cold-eyed campaign strategist who has no principles except winning. From that point of view, and taking nothing else into consideration, I can unequivocally say: the Obama campaign is making a very serious mistake.Therefore, I am not "angry" or "outraged" or "howling that Mr. Obama is selling out the left." And his "policy switches" haven't given me "whiplash." I am not offended that he isn't marching in lockstep with progressives. I'd be worried if he was marching in lockstep with anyone. Other than himself. And that is the point I was trying to make.My problem isn't that Barack Obama doesn't always agree with me. My problem is that Barack Obama has started to not always agree with himself -- falling prey instead to the Conventional Wisdom sirens.SNIP Obama doesn't need to go down a checklist of progressive issues and mark 'yes' next to each one. His job is not to please the disaffected voter profiled in the New York Times who has decided to vote for the Green Party candidate or Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, who has raised over $101,000 for Obama -- but has put it in an escrow account, payable once Obama demonstrates "a firm commitment to progressive values."He needs to remain true to himself -- and, above all, to make it clear that he will not lead by sticking his finger in the air to see which way the political wind is blowing.SNIP The conventional wisdom pundits, the conventional wisdom campaign advisers, and our own worst instincts -- whether it be too much caution, or not enough -- come to the fore and hold sway when we are sleep deprived. "Every important mistake I've made in my life," Bill Clinton once said, "I've made because I was too tired."So tell the donors: the press-the-flesh dinners can wait until Obama is in the White House. His time is currently much better spent walking on the beach or doing whatever else it takes to stay connected to his own truth, his inner strength, and his core principles.As for the media: Not everyone is approaching everything in this campaign from a right vs left perspective. Stop trying to force everything into that tired old way of looking at American politics.
