We have blundered, big time. I don't think Obama can beat McCain in the fall, and several months back the Democrats were a sure thing. It's not clear that Hillary would beat McCain either, so we totally effed ourselves. Here's what's scaring me today--blue collar workers support Hillary, not Obama. Which means that they are somewhat likely to defect to the Republican side in the fall. I think that blue collar workers are more likely than other groups (such as educated white women like myself) to switch sides. If you're following me, you'll see the scary risk that lots of Democrats will jump ship, making our case even more sketchy in November than it already is.
Where did we go wrong? We probably shouldn't have focused so much on what we each wanted as Democrats. We should have focused on who could beat McCain, or any Republican (because smart Democrats would have taken this route long before McCain was the presumptive nominee). But, we're not smart Democrats, and we all fought bitterly amongst ourselves to get our favorite candidate with no regard whatsoever for who could win. Effectively, I think we handed the next four years to the Republicans, and we did it with gusto. Bravo, Democrats, bravo. Y'all suck (myself included).
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4 comments:
As some glimmer of hope (though not much):
I just came out of working in a VERY blue collar field (linework), and a lot of the old union boys I know say they're voting Obama. Not that that's representative of the whole country or anything but, yknow, it helps to hope.
It does help to hope. And hope I shall. What were you doing in linework?
Where did we go wrong? We probably shouldn't have focused so much on what we each wanted as Democrats. We should have focused on who could beat McCain, or any Republican (because smart Democrats would have taken this route long before McCain was the presumptive nominee).
Oh come on now. We've been doing that for how many elections in a row? We did it with Kerry. That didn't work out so well.
I have to say that I'm confounded by this thinking. The fact that blue-collar working Democrats preferred Hillary Clinton the primary doesn't mean they won't support the Democratic candidate in the fall. Obama won the black vote and the college-educated vote -- would we honestly believe that those same people wouldn't have voted for Hillary Clinton if she had won the nod? Of course we wouldn't.
Will some defect? Yeah, but they'd do that with any candidate. It's how things work, and any candidate you pick will be hated by a certain group of people. But I really think we're buying into the ring-wing talking points here. That's where Democrats shoot themselves in the foot -- by letting them set the discourse and constantly lamenting our own candidates, even when we do actually get a really, really good one.
Oh I was doing admin, what I do best!
It's a cool field though.
I worked here: www.lineman.edu
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