On Obama: What Cable-Television Democrats Don’t Tell You

Many of the cable-television Democrats are smirking, chortling and smiling as they say how clever it was for Barack Obama to name Rick Warren to give the Inaugural invocation because they believe, in the great tradition of Clintonian triangulation, that it is clever, cunning and shrewd to humiliate gays and because they believe, falsely, that this will create some real good will for Obama that will ultimately help him. I believe: It won’t matter any more than naming Bob Gates will help Obama with Republicans, unless Obama adopts Bush-like policies on Iraq.

The Rick Warren case is actually complicated. Warren is a relatively open-minded, ecumenical conservative Christian. He should be courted and respected, though I would not have chosen him for the invocation. Something larger is at stake, which is symbolized by condescending, demeaning ridicule offered by some Democratic insiders such as Peter Fenn against some of the most loyal, faithful long-term supporters of Obama, whom he scornfully demeaned in a recent post here on The Hill’s Pundits Blog.

I like and respect Peter Fenn, but I believe his post, like so many comments by cable-television Democrats, was outrageous and wrong. He referred to those concerned about some Obama moves as part of what he called the “leftist blogosphere,” and “a few disgruntled malcontents,” the “far left” and “so-called” Obama supporters. This is the kind of utter nonsense and demeaning ridicule that we expect from Karl Rove, the Republican National Committee and Rush Limbaugh.

I have to laugh when Fenn cites for his case “pundits,” “the press” and “polls.” It was the pundits and press who marched in lockstep when George Bush led America to a profoundly wrong war in Iraq, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Democratic insiders who, like Fenn, looked to the polls, the pundits and the press.

Let’s get a few things straight. I, for one, am a Democratic insider, but I also believed what I wrote when I was one of the early columnists and insiders who supported Obama. I believed what I said to the media, very publicly, from before the Iowa caucus through Election Day. I am a Sam Nunn Democrat on defense with more than two decades of high experience working with military and intelligence people and I vehemently, aggressively opposed the Iraq war from the beginning because, like many in the military privately believed, it was the wrong war and a bad war.

When I opposed the war, I heard the cable-television Democrats of that time then, as now, tell Democrats to support that war.

They went to the cable shows then, as now, with their clever talk of how the pundits and the press and the polls all supported Bush on Iraq and told the world how it was such a clever, cunning and shrewd move for Democrats to support the war, which many did, 4,000 Gold Star Mothers ago.

And then, as now, the right wing, the Rove political operatives and many of the clever Democratic cable pundits attacked those who opposed the war as “lefty bloggers,” “disgruntled malcontents” and various demeaning slanders of those who turned out to be right.

I am of the center, or the center-left, not the far left, but how I describe myself should be irrelevant. And how Peter Fenn and many of the cable-television Democrats describe those who dissent is somewhere south of laughable, except to note that many of us find it offensive that certain Democratic pundits slander and demean early and faithful supporters of Obama with the same snide condescension, on the same cable shows, giving them the same forum, in the same way, that the right uses this ridicule on Fox and Rush.

I believe it is valid to ask whether it is wise for the secretaries of State and Defense to be among the leading supporters of the Iraq war from the beginning. Fenn and many cable Democrats say we should have listened to what Obama said and we would have known this was coming.

Did anyone hear Obama, when he talked about how Iraq was such a blunder of bad judgment, tell voters of Iowa that his highest officials would be those who supported this blunder of bad judgment? Did anyone hear Obama tell voters of New Hampshire, when he talked of fundamental change in foreign policy, that not one early and correct opponent of the disastrous policy would be secretary of State or Defense?

This is a valid question: Is there any real accountability in a Democratic national security establishment that was so wrong about Iraq? Or is being so wrong a qualification for high office, and being right a disqualification?

What concerns me is that after a campaign for the fundamental cause of change, we see so many of the same old A-Team being brought back to power. What concerns me is the empty chair of the administration, the absence of someone such as Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) or many like him who were right, early and strong on the greatest blunder in national policy since Vietnam.

What concerns me, above all, is what I see as the creeping triangulation of the Clinton style of politics, the idea that it is smart, clever politics to publicly dis loyal supporters, and to have those who were such loyal supporters treated with contempt, condescension and ridicule by certain Democrats who were never as early, strong and faithful supporters of Barack Obama as those expressing their valid concerns.

I am a member of the Obama wing of Obama supporters and was one of the first, early, strongest and most faithful supporters of Obama. I wish the administration well, will do everything I humanly can to make it succeed brilliantly, and will support Hillary Clinton and others I did not recommend.

But: There is too much talk of continuity for my taste, and not enough change. Lincoln did not seek continuity with Buchanan; FDR did not seek continuity with Hoover; and Obama should seek minimal continuity, and maximum change, from the worst president in American history.

So, as an early supporter of Barack Obama, I will continue to support him, but I will be damned if I will remain silent when I disagree or silent when some of his most ardent supporters are insulted by a strategy of political triangulation or insulted by Democratic pundits or fellow insiders who think the clever, smart and cunning thing to do is roll with the tides and cite pundits, the press and polls for demeaning attacks against early, loyal and strong supporters of Obama.

Those who believe these attacks will help Obama are wrong. Those who believe that favor can be curried with the most partisan Republicans or neoconservatives by insulting the same people they insult, using the same words, are wrong. Those who think that change means replacing one group of the establishment with another group of the establishment are wrong.

True loyalty means speaking truth to power and offering unvarnished advice clearly and with integrity. I do not support continuity for a failed security strategy or a failed economic strategy.

Change means change. I support change.