Cannonfire

Monday, June 23, 2008

Why we fight

Everyone in the anti-Oblogosphere is talking about Rebecca Traister's piece in Salon, "Why Clinton voters say they won't support Obama." Like the knife-thrower's assistant, Traister misses the point -- again and again, and always just barely.

Point 1: It's the gent, not the genitalia. Traister defines the phenomenon purely in terms of "ladies who love Hillary too much." Sisterhood is powerful: Hence, the PUMAs. It's a menopause thing, or so sayeth Traister.

Bullshit, sayeth I. Larry Johnson owns testicles, as does your humble narrator, as do a lot of other folk in PUMA-land. This is not a girls-only club. This is not about estrogen solidarity. In the end, this is not even about Hillary Clinton.

For the umpteenth time: I wish that Hillary Clinton had never run. For months, my motto was "Anyone but Hillary." I voted for Obama in the California primary, only to develop an epic case of buyer's remorse soon after.

This fight ain't about the Senator from New York.

It's about Obama. He's just not the right guy. He's just not the acceptable guy. The case against him resists easy summary, but one image may suffice: He moved Democratic Party HQ to Chicago.

For many years, Chicago corruption was the one aspect of Demo life that every party loyalist outside Illinois preferred not to think about. Whenever conservatives would spit "If you're so pure, what about the Daley machine?" -- we would whistle and sputter and tap our feet and try to change the subject.

And now: Barack Obama has moved the Democratic Party to Chicago.

Boy, has he ever. In every conceivable way.

Point 2: It's the blogs, stupid! For some bizarre reason, the online world receives bare mention in Traister's piece. Rebecca notices the carnage in her living room, but she can't see the big gray peanut-eater named Stompy.

Wanna know how PUMA began, Becky? Hit the wayback machine and read the daily spew from Kos, TPM and Democratic Underground throughout the months of February, March, April and May. If that exercise doesn't inform you of the central role played by the blogs, then you must be so stupid that you need an instructional video to teach you how to pour milk on corn flakes.

2008 may be the last election in which pundits can pretend that the traditional media matter more than the online media. After this cycle, let's all stop kidding ourselves. Stop acting as if the overpaid blowhards on the teevee deserve more respect than do the unpaid blowhards in blogland or the paid-off blowhards who run the best-known political websites. The Daily Cheeto, god help us, gets more hits than FOX or MSNBC get viewers, and is therefore just as deserving of our antipathy.

Yes, Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann and the rest of the gang said some pretty horrendous things during this cycle. I don't care -- at least, not as much as I would have cared in seasons past. I now live at the desk, not on the couch, and my right hand makes an instinctive grab for the mouse, not for the remote.

Each morning, Chris and Keith and the late Saint Timothy all got their thinking orders from the internets. The Obi campaign pulled ahead when it gained power over most "Democratic" sites. Control those sites and you control the terms of debate.

It's the blogs, stupid.

And boy -- were the blogs stupid. And ugly. And vicious. And vile. And just plain loathsome.

The PUMA meme, like the term itself, was born online. Anti-Obama sentiment would never have congealed into a movement if his followers had not behaved in such a repulsive fashion, if they had not cried "Racism!" at every perceived heresy.

For months, they disparaged the legacy of the best Democratic president since FDR. The so-called "left" regurgitated every right-wing hate-meme and wacko anti-Clinton conspiracy theory of the 1990s. Roughly twelve years ago, the Whitewater smear (along with all the cognate smears) made me love a president toward whom I had previously felt lukewarm. History crossed party lines in order to repeat itself: In 2008, the Moulitsas Mob transformed this Anyone-But-Hillary kind-o-guy into a Hillary-Or-Else kind-o-guy.

For me, the turning point was the "darkened video" controversy. My widely-read response to this particular meme had Kos and his Krew dead to fucking rights. On technical issues, my citations all went to good sources, and a posse of pros backed up the main argument. The article demonstrated that video codecs routinely degrade and darken videos as part of the compression scheme, and that the entire video in question was affected, not simply one image of Obama.

Did Kos apologize? Nope.

That incident woke me out of a trance. These guys weren't interested in debate or facts or reason. 2008 was 1984. Obama was Big Brother, Moulitsas ran the Ministry of Truth, Hillary Clinton was Emmanuel Goldstein, "progressives" were Outer Party members, and we were living through a half-year Hate Week.

The haters taught us to hate right back.

For months, we stood on the receiving end of the most despicable, deceitful, paranoid, insulting and abhorrent barrage in the history of the Democratic party. Hillary's a Republican! Hillary's a fucking whore! Hillary's worse than Lieberman! Hillary FORCED Dubya to invade Iraq! Hillary wants to kill Obama, just like she killed Vince Foster! The prog-bloggers spoke darkly about the "Bush-Clinton crime family" -- a term which soon morphed into the "Clinton-Bush crime family." The Kossacks became the new Freepers, the new Dittoheads. Our lives were threatened.

The prog-bloggers kept shouting: Go! Go! Leave us, Clintonistas! This is OUR party now. Get out out OUT!

So out we went.

And we ain't coming back soon.

Don't kid yourself, Rebecca Traister. We will not forgive those who bigot-baited us simply because we refuse to doublethink our way around the Lightbringer's nonstop lies.

We have only one way to cleanse the party of Moulitsas, Stassinopoulos, Aravosis, Marshall, Obama, Axelrod, Plouffe, Dean, Brazile and all those other pieces of subhuman sewage. We must make sure that Obama fails -- either in August (very unlikely) or in November (more likely) or, if need be, in his presidency.

After that, and only after that, comes unity. On our terms.

posted: 12:52 PM

16 COMMENTS - CLICK HERE

Comments:

I also began as an 'AnybodyButHillary' voter. My first choice dropped out of the race, then my second choice dropped.

I then STUDIED Obama and chose HRC.

I will vote McCain if I cannot vote HRC.

I am not one who "loves Hillary too much", I am a patriot and a knowlegeable voter who has taken a clear look at the candidates, and feel it is my duty to do what I can to keep Obama out of the presidency. It is a matter of careful study and judgement, not "love".

posted by

Ellie : 4:56 PM

If you want to see the precursor to the Obama campaign (the event from which Axelrod clearly learned a great deal) recall the rhetoric and behavior towards the young woman, with the black and blue neck, who dared to accuse Kobe Bryant of having assaulted her.

I don't know if you saw the pictures - there is no way that first time consensual sex looks like that. Her neck is a solid mass of black and blue bruises.

And yet that bitch had the timerity to challenge Kobe and she had to be shoved back into her cave. There was no humiliation so small or so large that it couldn't be heaped on her. Same damn thing. Same damn thing.

posted by

lori : 6:35 PM

Lori, please provide a link to these pictures.

posted by

John : 8:02 PM

Mr. Cannon, first time at your site, left a comment on your essay about how the Cult of Obama is like last century's Communists and am going around reading other things. I think it was last week when The Common Ills noted they were delinking from LeftTurn forever. LeftTurn just published an article where they repeat the lie that you're debunking about the colorization. One thing I would add to your comments is Katrina vanden Heuvel who used The Nation to conduct a two year war on Hillary and is oh-so-tight with the Blogger Boyz. Also, Ava and C.I. (at Third Estate Sunday Review) documented the way Amy Goodman turned her show over to propaganda for Barack. There's a TV piece they did called "Democracy Sometimes" where they go into how Melissa Harris Lacewell was brought on by Amy Goodman and allowed to mention she just happened to catch Barack speaking (lead up to New Hampshire primary) and she never said she worked for the Obama campaign and Goodman didn't say it either. Goodman knew and had discussed it with her on Rev. Jesse Jackson's radio show the weekend before she brought Harris Lacewell on the first time. (The following week, when it was time to rip apart Gloria Steinem, Melissa would brag on air that she was working for the campaign and Goodman would also disclose Harris Lacewell's work.)This was not a one time thing and Harris Lacewell pulled the same stunt on Charlie Rose and Ava and C.I. have a write up on that as well. It's a journalism roundtable and Harris Lacewell isn't a journalism major. No other campaign had a seat at the table and Harris Lacewell doesn't disclose that she's with the Obama campaign nor does Charlie Rose. Harris Lacewell even comments on how Tavis Smiley is being attacked but forgets to disclose that the month before she launched the attacks with a piece called "Who Died and Made Tavis King?" (I believe Melissa Harris Lacewell also used her college program to generate astroturf for the campaign.)
Here's link on Ava & C.I.'s piece on Goodman and Harris Lacewell
http://thirdestatesundayreview.blogspot.com/2008/01/tv-democracy-sometimes.html

Here's the one to Harris Lacewell on Charlie Rose

http://thirdestatesundayreview.blogspot.com/2008/03/tv-goodman-and-rose-honoring-bad-tv.html

They also did a piece on KPFA's two hour 'analysis' of the Texas debate and how the entire guest list was people who had endorsed Barack and the audience was never informed of that fact.

But I think their repeated work on how Bill Moyers Journal slanted his coverage was probably the best. Including two Sundays back when they asked the question about why, if Bill wanted to discuss Hillary's 'crying,' he didn't play the clip but instead said he wanted to discuss it and then played Jesse Jackson Jr. attacking Hillary and distorting what happened. They used that clip to 'discuss' Hillary.

posted by

Brad : 9:50 PM

John,

I've spend a couple hours looking for them and they aren't online anymore. They were grim though. It was a solid ring a few inches wide of bruises all around her neck. It was pretty shocking.

posted by

lori : 9:53 PM

I'm not so sure it's "very unlikely" Obama is going to fail in August. Thank God. I think he's going to be practically radioactive by then.

If it's not Rezko, it'll be the "gay affairs" accusation (which, pardon my cynicism, may actually "take" even in the minds of the Kool-Aid victims). If it's not the "gay affairs," (does a couple of coke-addled blow jobs in a hotel room really count as an "affair"?) it'll be the "whitey tape," (no, I don't believe that tape actually exists, or that the fakes which might exist contain the real Ms. Obama, but a half-convincing hoax will do) and if it's not the tape...Barack Obama's Love Child. Barack Obama's Intern Affair. Barack Obama's Caucus Fraud. Barack Obama's Fake Birth Certificate. The scandals won't all be based in anything factual, but there will be enough for some of it to stick. If not all of it.

"But it will never sway the Kool-Aid crew against The Savior!!" you may say. And maybe it won't. (Although I did see a flickering ray of hope this week, when a few folks I know who voted for Obama for the worst, most deluded reasons imaginable balked at the FISA thing.) It will, however, make it very difficult for the Democratic Party and its power structure (who, contrary to popular belief, have never been sold on Obama) to justify going ahead and nominating him. Particularly if the MSM decides to forego pushing the other scandals and just drops the Rezko bomb first.

"But, but the scandals haven't come out yet!! If Obama really had any skeletons in the closet, the media would have skewered him by now!!" scream the brainwashed masses. That's like saying that Bush was an honorable man, simply because mainstream media never reported anything about his crimes.

The media/neo-cons are just waiting for as many name Democrats as possible to be "behind" Obama's nomination to break out the mother of all smear campaigns. This is the real objective of many of the Obama backers: destroy as much of what is left of the Democratic Party as possible.

posted by

Anonymous : 2:57 AM

Went to 3rd Estate with Brad's links. The Moyers stuff the two women did is strong:

For some strange reason, Bill Moyers elected to discuss the 'moisty' moment not by providing viewers with a clip of what actually happened. It was more important to him, to play Jackson's clip (in full) and to let lies stand. Dr. Kathy, asked about the Jackson clip, let the lies stand as well. She needs to answer for that. The clip was played on PBS, on her segment, and, when it ended, Moyers specifically asked her for her 'analysis.' She didn't call out the sexism, she didn't call out the lies. She mumbled the sort of b.s. that never offends any sexist pig. She enabled and encouraged the trashing of Hillary and she has to answer for it.

http://thirdestatesundayreview.blogspot.com/2008/06/tv-strength-greeted-with-confusion.html

I can't find the KPFA thing via googs or site search. But thanks for linking to that. I was really kind of shocked by how a lot of women were just silent during all of this and one of the things I found by C.I. and Ava was a piece where they just rip into the ones being silent. Strong stuff and strong women.

posted by

Frank : 1:03 PM

joseph-

wow!

well done.

this is a really powerful little essay. i enjoyed reading it. i stumbled upon a cite to it at corrente this p.m.

posted by

orionATL : 2:10 PM

Well Lori, the reason why I asked is because my opinion is vastly different than yours apparently is.

I do not believe that the woman had a black and blue neck from Kobe, I do believe that she set him up for a fall, and I do not believe the issue is relevant to the Obama campaign.

And until such time that real evidence shows otherwise, I'll speak my mind about the subject, and blast false accusations when appropriate.

John
SluggoJD

posted by

John : 6:16 PM

Just leave and shut the fuck up already. Fortunately the number of you nutbars is too small to make a difference in the election.

posted by

Anonymous : 10:30 AM

Well, MR. Anonymous, you want to spew your venom against us 'nutbars' but are too chickens**t to leave your name????

Good piece, and right on! BO is not presidential material. He is a narcissistic blowhard whose left side of his mouth can't keep track of what the right side is saying, and vice versa.

So I say 'Any man but THIS ONE!' (Isn't that what some of you Obots said about Hillary...any woman but THIS one)

posted by

Justmy.02 : 3:23 PM

Wow. That's just... wow.

He moved the DNC to Chicago? That's the top line in why Obama sucks?

And then only because of imagery from the 60s and 70s?

That's just absurd. Moving to Chicago is not a bad thing, it gets the DNC out of the beltway and smooths coordination. Even if there is some minor image hit, it is arguably the right move, and hardly the first reason not to vote for the guy.

As for the video debunking and all the other stuff about the
so called obamabots or whatever denigrating term you want to use... not voting for someone cause you don't like unaffiliated supporters is very, very silly. I mean, not voting for, say, Hillary cause you think Mark Penn is evil is at least somewhat reasonable because she chooses him and continues to associate with him. Not voting for Obama because you don't like Axelrod is similarly reasonable. But Obama really has nothing to do with Kos or the Democratic Underground.

posted by

Anonymous : 3:43 PM

I LOVE this. I found you via Alegre's Corner, h/t commenter Campskunk, and a post I have on Traister's article at my blog.

It's my first time here, so I'm going to spend some time poking around, starting with that video-darkening post. That is what broke me too. And eventually led to me blogging myself. So thank goodness the freeper came out in the left, otherwise, we'd all still assume we were in the same boat, working toward complimentary, if not similar, ends. I much prefer to the truth to just about anything.

posted by

Anna Belle : 4:38 PM

Anon, you can't read very well, can you? (Obviously -- or you would have seen the rule against anonymous comments.)

I did not say that the Chicago move was the entire case against Obama. I've devoted many posts to presenting different aspects to the case against Obama, and I still have not exhausted the subject.

I used that one act as a symbol for everything else.

Obama is a crook and a chronic liar. Haven't you read Evelyn Pringle's work?

Similarly, the "darkened video" controversy was but one outrage among literally hundreds. For me, it was the turning point. For others, another turning point applied.

Moulitsas' refusal to apologize for his smear forced me to devote my life to making sure that Obama never attains office.

"Unaffiliated," you say? Bullshit. In 2000 and 2004, Dems cried "Bullshit!" whenever "unaffiliated" Bush supporters did something outrageous.

The fact is, Obama and Dean had near-total control over the blogs.

Don't laugh. They really did.

Look: The big Blogger Boys want nothing more than to be considered "players." If they had received one phone call from Obama or Dean or someone of similar importance, the Blogmasters would have said "Yes, Master! Anything you say, Sir!"

That phone call never came. Not once did Obama say to Moulitsas: "Hey cool it -- you're tearing the party apart. I want to win, but I don't want to win THIS way."

Obi COULD have said that, but he didn't.

Which means that Obi must have liked what was going on.

And yes, Moulitsas, Stassinopoulos, Marshall and Allen had control over the commentary on their blogs -- just as I exercise control over the comments here. Don't you dare try to tell ME how blogs are run.

posted by

Joseph : 4:54 PM

Yup, I was accompanying you out the door after Moulitsas posted the egregious "darkened" photos and accused the Clintons of blatant racism without a shred of proof.

As far as I can tell, the blogosphere has become even more toxic since Obama became the presumptive nominee. The cultists who patrol the blogs are out in force to slap down anyone who expresses even the mildest criticism of Our Dear Presumptive Nominee.

posted by

Radiowalla : 5:31 PM

GREAT post! The MSM and many bloggers seem to be neglecting the very inconvenient fact that not all Hillary supporters are women.
I got here by way of a link left by Campskunk at Alegre's Corner. Going on my bookmarked list now. I look forward to reading more of your insightful posts!

posted by

Common Sense Gram : 9:37 PM