Milbank: Obama is Killing the Progressive Movement

Anyone want to replace Michelle in this photo?

The solicitation I received today from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee offered the chance to win an opportunity to have my photo taken with Barack Obama. Opting to unsubscribe from the DSCC’s mailing list, I included a message giving my reasons why I left the Democratic Party a year ago and re-registered as non-affiliated. I listed the usual: sexism, misogyny, ageism, Rules Committee violations, rigged convention and in general, the party’s eager embrace of the tactics of left-wing extremists - whatever it took to nominate Obama.

I’d even become ashamed to describe myself as liberal or progressive, so I had only mixed feelings when I read Dana Milbank’s opening line in today’s Washington Sketch, “President Obama is just killing the progressive movement.”

Milbank reports:

For the past few years, liberal activists have gathered in Washington each spring for the Take Back America conference, where speaker after speaker -- Obama sometimes among them -- would give rollicking denunciations of the Bush administration before packed rooms of partisans.

But now that Obama has actually taken back America, the activists at this year's gathering feel a bit like the dog that finally caught up with the car. Organizers changed the name from Take Back America to America's Future Now, but that didn't prevent a sharp decline in participation.

At sparsely attended sessions this week at the Omni Shoreham, the progressive leaders debated whether they should shift their efforts to defending Obama, or fighting him when he strays from liberal doctrine. "It was easy taking back America," Robert Borosage, the conference organizer, told about 250 of the faithful at yesterday's closing luncheon. "Now we have to remake it. . . . That's the hard work."

Apparently so. Speakers at the closing session exhorted the liberals to take back America -- from Obama. "The president of the most powerful country in the world is doing all right, but there are a lot of people in this country who are not doing all right," writer Naomi Klein told the crowd. "Obama is making us stupid," she added. "Love can make you stupid."

Comparing last year’s energy at the conference to this year’s lethargy, Milbank writes:

Hickey estimates attendance dropped from 2,500 last year to 1,500 this year, and even that may overstate things. At yesterday morning's four concurrent "issue briefings," 585 chairs were set out. Only 213 of them were occupied, including just 15 for the session on global warming. "Radio row" was quiet, the "TV Terrace" was empty, and two people sat typing on "Blogger Boulevard."

"It's been much less busy this year," said a guy in the nearly empty exhibit hall who was handing out stickers from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force saying "Power is Sexy." Nobody was shopping at the book kiosk in the middle of the room, where the titles leaned toward the battles of the George W. Bush years: "The Constitution in Crisis . . . a Blueprint for Impeachment." "The Uprising." "Plunder and Blunder." "The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule."

Read more:

The Media Rips Palin While the Joe Biden Gaffe Clock Keeps Ticking Away

The press was complaining mightily yesterday about being shut out of Sarah Palin’s meetings with foreign leaders in New York. These are the same people who for days after she was introduced on the national stage ripped her to shreds, including every dimension of her family life. The media’s rabid misogynous assault on Sarah Palin nearly topped its brutal attacks on Hillary Clinton throughout the Democratic primary.

In the meantime, Joe Biden has put his foot in his mouth almost every time he’s opened it in public. But as we would expect, the media has allowed the male Democratic vice presidential nominee to get off easy. It’s been up to the GOP to launch a Biden Gaffe Clock to record and publicize his most embarrassing off-message remarks, for example:

‘“Biden Said That Barack Obama ‘Ain't Taking My Shotguns’ And That ‘If He Tries To Fool With My Beretta, He's Got A Problem.”’

‘“Biden Said That He Didn't Support Clean Coal And Said ‘No Coal Plants Here In America.”’

‘“Biden Said That His Own Campaign Ad Criticizing John McCain's Computer Use Was ‘Terrible.’”

That last comment reminds me that not only has the so-called progressive wing of the Democratic party demonstrated a powerful strain of misogyny, it’s also resorting to the bigotry of ageism in its attacks on John McCain.

"Progressives" Petition Obama to Return to His Principles

Barack Obama’s sudden lunge to the center following the conclusion of the Democratic primary continues to distress many of his most ardent extreme left followers who have usurped the label of progressives. (No one has informed Obama's base yet that authentic progressives don't typically assign negative stereotypes to women or seniors.)

Katrina Vanden Heuvel reports at the Huffington Post an open letter signed by several big-name, so-called progressives urging Barack Obama “to stand firm on the principles he so compellingly articulated in his successful primary fight.”

Vanden Heuvel’s invitation to other members of Obama’s base to sign on reads as follows:

“Please join Phil Donahue, Barbara Ehrenreich, Studs Terkel, Walter Mosley, Gore Vidal, Bill McKibben, Jane Hamsher, Tom Hayden, Zephyr Teachout, Juan Cole, Matt Stoller and many others in signing this open letter which will be delivered to the Obama campaign before the Democratic National Convention begins on August 25.

“We are posting the letter today at TheNation.com.

“The Letter praises the dramatic grassroots movement that has built up around his candidacy.”

Read more here.