About a year ago, my wife and I were invited to the home of the Lion of Los Angeles liberals, ostensibly for a book party for Sid Blumenthal, former advisor to Bill Clinton. Blumenthal didn’t even bother plugging his book, but launched into a 30 minute warning to wavering westside Democrats that the Hillary train was “leaving the station” and those of us who weren’t on board would be remembered for their disloyalty.
Needless to say there was a good bit of rebellion in the room and Blumenthal was decidedly taken aback that the “Inevitability” argument had so little traction with people who at one time or another had supported Bill Clinton. The Lion sat back with quiet bemusement as Blumenthal struggled to close the deal. It was of course a complete failure, but a window into the hermetically sealed world of the “Clinton Restoration” crowd.
Now the inevitability balloon has been popped and we will watch Bill Clinton himself struggle like Blumenthal for the next four days in New Hampshire, trying to make Hillary “Comeback Kid 2″. As I’ve said before, I think that effort will fail for the same reasons it failed in Iowa. Progressives, libertarian independents and Republican’s tired of 8 years of incompetence will come together in New Hampshire and give Obama another big victory. Adam Nagourney who was so wrong three days ago, comes around:
The images stood as evidence of the success of Mr. Obama’s effort to reach out to thousands of first-time caucusgoers, including many independent voters and younger voters. The huge turn-out — by contrast, 108,000 Republicans caucused on Thursday — demonstrated the extent to which opposition to President Bush has energized Democrats, and served as another warning to Republicans about the problems they face this November in swing states like this.
As I’ve been saying for a while, the Students for Obama Movement is real. The embrace of Obama by progressive independents and Republicans is real. I don’t think Hillary can stop it and the whining pundits like Paul Krugman, Daily Kos and Digital Democracy. who can’t imagine a post partisan world which might render their screeds less relevant, will just have to readjust.
3 responses so far ↓
sauer kraut // January 4, 2008 at 6:45 am |
Looks like the train to the coronation got derailed. And that is not a bad thing.
avram miller // January 4, 2008 at 6:08 pm |
I feel like it is the sixties again. Lets just hope he stays safe.
Obama’s First Test « Jon Taplin’s Blog // June 4, 2008 at 7:43 am |
[...] they thought was the Democratic Party headquarters, waiting for the restoration of their regime. Earlier in these pages I recalled the story of Propaganda Minister Sid Blumenthal 16 months ago, telling a room full of Los Angeles [...]