Why the Cult Critique of Obama Backfires
This will be pretty short, but I just had to put it out there, specifically after Joe Klein's (and others, but <a href=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1710721,00.html>this piece</a> seems to cover it) seeming endorsement of the "Obama Cult" theory.
While I understand that the HRC camp really wants to win, and has to do something to attack Barack in order to make that happen, I'm pretty sure critiquing his supporters and pushing the "you all are cultish fiends line"* backfires. I was loathe to vote for Hillary before, even in a general against the GOP, since she's tacitly endorsed calling me a mindless fool, I'm pretty sure I have no motivation to turn out for her if she does win the nomination.
This is a problem. The woman has fully 40-45% of the country that does not like her. At all. She cannot afford to have numerous party activists stay home because she needed to win the primary. If she wins with this line of argumentation it isn't merely that she loses the new turnout youth vote (although, that would be devestating too. With the number of new people Barack is bringing into the process, we could turn OH, PA and FL just on turnout...that's significant and they only turnout for one person) it's that she and her team are alienating parts of the party's base apparatus. The part that gives money. The part that mobilizes to phone bank, knock on doors and just generally GOTV.
There are only two possibilities.
Either she suffers from such a delusion of grandeur that she really believes she can call people mindless and still get their vote, or she is so desperate to get her shot at the presidency that she's willing to put herself in an untenable position vis a vis winning, totally ignoring that it may put the GOP in the White House, because she feels it's owed to her somehow.
Neither option is good. I am sick of leaders who suffer from delusions of never being wrong and entitlement. I am equally appalled that one would run a campaign on a strategy aimed at ridiculing a substantial portion of the base of the party.
While I understand that the HRC camp really wants to win, and has to do something to attack Barack in order to make that happen, I'm pretty sure critiquing his supporters and pushing the "you all are cultish fiends line"* backfires. I was loathe to vote for Hillary before, even in a general against the GOP, since she's tacitly endorsed calling me a mindless fool, I'm pretty sure I have no motivation to turn out for her if she does win the nomination.
This is a problem. The woman has fully 40-45% of the country that does not like her. At all. She cannot afford to have numerous party activists stay home because she needed to win the primary. If she wins with this line of argumentation it isn't merely that she loses the new turnout youth vote (although, that would be devestating too. With the number of new people Barack is bringing into the process, we could turn OH, PA and FL just on turnout...that's significant and they only turnout for one person) it's that she and her team are alienating parts of the party's base apparatus. The part that gives money. The part that mobilizes to phone bank, knock on doors and just generally GOTV.
There are only two possibilities.
Either she suffers from such a delusion of grandeur that she really believes she can call people mindless and still get their vote, or she is so desperate to get her shot at the presidency that she's willing to put herself in an untenable position vis a vis winning, totally ignoring that it may put the GOP in the White House, because she feels it's owed to her somehow.
Neither option is good. I am sick of leaders who suffer from delusions of never being wrong and entitlement. I am equally appalled that one would run a campaign on a strategy aimed at ridiculing a substantial portion of the base of the party.
