Thursday: Those Meddling Kids

Way to go, Janis! Your ad catapulted The Denver Group into the NYTimes.  (BTW, Heidi Li has a very nice post this morning that elegantly lays out why the convention must be open and transparent.) In Clinton Supporters Try One More Tack, Heidi Li and Mark Rubin’s advocacy group is prominently featured and what’s more, the Times actually seems to get the point of the FDR ad. Whoa! They *can* be taught.

Update: edgeoforever found another reference to us and The Denver Group at a local affiliate of ABC News.  We are described as “militant”.  Damn, camouflage makes me look washed out and clashes with my hair.  The comments seem to be very supportive at the ABC site.  It’s like, “Well, an open convention *does* seem rather reasonable when you think about it.”

Add that to the list of media outlets that have featured PUMAs or made reference to us as humorless troublemakers. You know, I have no problem with the troublemaker part. It’s only trouble for the people who think we are ruining their beautiful plans.  But humorless?  That just frosts my crockies, Conflucians.

All this media attention is heady stuff but it does have a down side.  We’ve seen some evidence of this in the spam filter.  BTW, Francine, you really need to take a break and cut back on the Kool-Ade.  The Obamaphiles are none too pleased right now.  We are about to ruin everything.  The media is dipping its toe into the water because, hey, the summer is slow for news, even with, or *because* of Obama’s Grand European and Middle East Best President Evah Tour.  A little conflict keeps the news junkies strung out.  Give them a little tease now and then, show a little bit of Diane’s shapely gams on Fox and watch the revenue pour in.

Now, I like the publicity, but the DNC is going to want to squash us like a bug.  You know it’s coming, though, what can they throw at us at this point?  They’ve already called us every nasty name in the book including racists, though I draw the line at Republican.  So far, we have been immune to guilt trips, the sweet enlightenment of reason and ridicule,  That leaves only a few options.  The most powerful is to divide us from within.  I’m not being paranoid.  Obama is the presumptuous nominee because the Dems were divided from within.  C’mon, John Edwards would have been a perfectly suitable candidate but he was ignored by the media.  Barack Obama was a much more potent adversary for Hillary Clinton because he pitted two vital constituencies of the Democratic base against each other.  Oh sure, the DNC loved him as well but they stupidly fell right into the trap the GOP laid for them.  The DNC pissed off its biggest voting bloc for the smaller one that has no chanve of expanding outslde of the party.   But nevermind.

My point is, they have done a lot already to get us to shut up, sit down and go away but we seem to be holding out.  So, they will have to send in the SWAT team to take a wrecking ball and split us into factions.

Hmmm, how do we get around that one?   Think, think, think.  I know!  Let’s first keep the mission simple.  If there is no mission creep, there won’t be a lot to argue about.  So, as our goal, let’s get Hillary;s name nominated at the convention in Denver.  Let’s not look beyond Denver for the time being.  Simple goal, And let’s try to keep our egos in check.  We are all in this together.  We all have a role to play.  Some of us are writers, some of us are organizers, some of us are media persons.  None of us can succeed without the others and none of us are better than the others.  We only get to be famous if we succeed.  Otherwise, we’re merely pains in the ass.

Now, Conflucians, the $%&@’s about to hit the fan.  Find a buddy, hold hands, stay together and look both ways before crossing the street.  We will be ok if we stick together.

Of further interest: Terry Gross on Fresh Air recently interviewed Ryan Lizza. Lizza wrote about Obama and his Chicago ties in the New Yorker.  It’s pretty clearr to me that Terry is in the tank for Obama.  Her voice almost sparkles when she talks about his book “Dreams of My Father”.  Earlier in the primary season, she interviewed political watchers and the fawning over Obama as better than sliced bread really grated on me so I’ve had to avoid some of her podcasts.  It made me think less of her as an interviewer and generally, she’s unmatched.  I’m not surprised though that she went for the affluent liberal schtick.  But Lizza seems a bit more grounded, especially when he says, ” Obama is incredibly lucky to have always been at the right place at the right time”.  Yes, indeedy.  Don’t miss the section where they talk about Trinity Church.  It sounds like Lizza was intially willing to cut Obama a break on his genuine religious conviction and later came to a more level-headed conclusion.  Listen and critique: Obama and the Chicago Establishment.