By Carter Bundy
Ever wonder why World Cup soccer hasn’t caught on in
The Italian Azzurri – World Cup champs – are horrible to watch. Sure, they’re brilliantly talented players, but if someone breathes on them from 10 yards away, they go into something slightly resembling a serious seizure.
Likewise, the keystone of Duke’s 2001 title run was Shane Battier, a guy so prone to exaggerating contact that he’s disparagingly known to hoops fans across the country as “Floppier.”
What’s that got to do with politics? Everything, of late. There are examples from all the Democratic campaigns, so to be fair here is one from each of the two frontrunners.
Reagan the (scary) transformer
When Barack Obama said Ronald Reagan was a transformational figure, he was merely stating what every reader of this blog already knows. In the entire 20th Century, there were really only two presidents who changed the very nature of how we think about government.
FDR showed how well-run programs can help people help themselves and help the overall economy.
Reagan took the novel approach that the organization he headed was incapable of good. His disdain for government, disinterest in making it work and disregard for the people it’s designed to help laid the foundation for the current administration’s incompetence in everything from budgets to bids to Katrina.
Saying Reagan was transformative doesn’t mean you like him. I think his influence is still enormous, and I’m certainly not a fan. When Barack said it, he made sense.
But Hillary Clinton supporters (and John Edwards’) were incredulous. They acted as though Barack had just committed some cardinal sin by saying something everyone knew was true. They tried to milk their “outrage” for political gain.
Kinda like Floppier getting grazed by an opposing power forward and throwing himself ten feet back to get the charge call. Ick.
Race matters
The Obama campaign and its supporters have done much the same on the race issue. Just the other day, I got a nasty e-mail accusing the Clintons of being racist because Bill Clinton noted, accurately, that Jesse Jackson had carried South Carolina twice, riding to wins on massive support from the state’s huge African American turnout.
Of course, Clinton went out of his way to say that Barack ran a great campaign in South Carolina and had run great campaigns elsewhere (including lily white states), too.
The
It’s relevant because the
But Obama supporters were incredulous. They acted as though Bill had just committed some cardinal sin by saying something everyone knew was true. They tried to milk their “outrage” for political gain.
If you haven’t seen one of the Azzurri writhing on the ground grabbing a shin for five minutes waiting for a penalty kick call (and then miraculously jumping up after some of that “Jesus-in-a-can” spray)… well, now you have. Yuck.
Focus on the big things, Democrats
It’s not so much the rhetoric of the two campaigns that needs to be toned down, it’s the apoplectic reaction by activists that needs to end.
When Hillary and her supporters waste time even hinting that Barack is a Reagan fan, or Barack and his supporters waste time even hinting that the
The activist hysteria is reminiscent of the guy who moaned incessantly at Paul Wellstone’s funeral, pleading that Republicans should just quit running against Dems as a tribute to Wellstone.
Wellstone was a tough, authentic liberal. As such, he’d have never made that request. He and most of his supporters got up in front of people, made a strong case for Paul and his policies and didn’t obsess on statements from the other side.
Good, tough liberals like Wellstone know there are too many real battles and don’t focus on little slights, real or imagined. Not just because it’s a waste of time and energy, but also because voters think it’s lame.
Voters of all stripes know it won’t get any easier when the Dems face the Rove machine this summer, and it’s even harder when you lead the free world. With American voters, whining never wins.
The remaining Democratic candidates are as talented as the Azzurri and more genuine than Duke hoopsters. Let’s start acting like it, lose the flopping, and show Americans we’re tough enough to run the show.
Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME in