Party bases are ridiculous. I'll say, the extreme left makes me grit my teeth almost as much as the extreme right. Those liberal loonies who voted for Nader because Gore was "too conservative" are pretty much my shining example of how the base can be very, VERY stupid at times. So how does the "Almost-Huffington" quote relate to the base? In both parties, the base would rather lose on a pure-message than win on a good one. I, on the other hand, am the opposite: I'd rather win and get some of what I want done than lose and get none of it.
So far, some liberals have been pissed at Barack Obama for having (what must be) a near blasphemous premise to his campaign: victory. It seems that Barack Obama got a taste of victory in the Presidential Primary, and has decided he likes it. He'd like to go on and win the whole thing. Shocking, I know, a Democrat who has a drive for victory. But there it is. However, some idiots online think that if he has to change some of his message points to win, or if he has to associate with the likes of Sam Nunn, Evan Bayh, or Chuck Hagel, then he isn't worth working for.
Do me a favor, people; shut up.
And don't give me the whole, "I have the right to voice my opinion" thing. Of course you do. You can say whatever you want. But then don't come crying to me when your opinion shows you have a grasp on the political system that reads at the Kindergarten level. We're going with "War and Peace" here, not "Hop on Pop."
The fact is that Barack Obama isn't going to waltz into the Presidency like people think he will. Sure, he's got a good message and a fantastic campaign structure. And Republicans did they smartest thing they could, they ignored the ramblings of the Limbaugh-esque base and nominated the only candidate with a shot in hell of winning. John McCain is a real threat, and he might just win.
My big problem now is this VP thing. Some of the nutjobs on Daily Kos (I still to this day refuse to open an account and comment there out of fear of just being associated with those people) insist that if Obama picks Nunn or Bayh, than they will stop sending him money and stop working for him.
Really? You'll do your part to hand the election over to McCain just because Obama picks a running mate not as "prograssive" as you'd like? I'll tell you what: why don't you stop being such a party purist and instead use your brain? Do you want to keep Social Security? Do you want Universal Healthcare? Then you're going to have to let Obama pick a Vice President that'll help him win. That might not be the one you want. In my mind, Evan Bayh, a moderate Democrat, is probably the best choice. Behind him is Joe Biden (who actually has a worse rating from NARAL than Bayh), also a moderate Democrat.
Obama's not picking Clark. He's not picking Reed. He's not picking any of your little liberal darlings. Frankly, Obama wants to win. And he's going to pick the VP that helps him do that. All you're doing at this point is contributing to the PUMA effort to destroy the party.
I do see things in "black and white", especially in politics. There is a good political move and a bad one. Sure, the extremities and good and bad are there, but in the end, black is still black and white is still white. Good is still good and bad is still bad. I believe that the old terms of Liberal and Conservative DO still apply, on individual issues and on the whole. The Democratic Party is the more liberal party, and Republicans are the more conservative. Jim Webb is more liberal than Ben Nelson. Jeff Sessions is more conservative than John Warner. Mark Warner is more conservative than Barbara Boxer. Olympia Snowe is more liberal than Dic Cheney. One of the biggest goals of the netroots, it seems, is to destroy these labels because, frankly, labels can be damaging. But the labels DO still apply. My opinion is not that the labels don't work anymore, but rather we shouldn't let the labels keeps us from working with those across the aisle. Conservatives and liberals SHOULD work together for progress. Call me crazy, but I'm a pretty solid disciple of the Third Way policy, and I think Obama advocated a lot of that in his campaign. He's not gonna shove his message down consevative throats, he wants to unify us and find common ground. That's why I got onboard, anyways.
Finally, this isn't addressed to "all the netroots." This is addressed to those insistent on forcing Obama down their path rather than his path. His FISA vote was, in my mind, the right vote. Still, because it was oppossed by the Kossacks and the like, some netroots stopped giving money to Obama. The same thing now with the VP pick, if Bayh or Biden (in my mind, these are the two most logical choices by a longshot) is the pick, they'll sit on their hands. That, to me, is just plain stupid, and I'm sick and tired of it. I hit the PUMAs earlier for their crap, now I'm hitting the opposite extreme. Just like the PUMAs want to dictate the party, some of the netroots want to dictate the candidate's path. We should trust that Obama knows what he's doing, and work for what's in reach rather than getting greedy. Some online, like you Lowell, show tremendous maturity and wisdom that seems to elevate you above the common level. But the danger of the netroot community is that any fool (point in case Matt Stoller) can become an important voice.
Finally, I must disagree with you that the Republicans are more "conservative," unless you consider massive budget deficits to be "conservative," a foreign policy that is not realistic or strong to be "conservative," disrespect of our veterans and soldiers to be "conservative," lack of respect for civil liberties and the privacy of people in their personal lives to be "conservative" (Barry Goldwater must be spinning around in his grave right about now!), etc., etc. The fact is, I started out Republican but this party left me a LONG time ago. Today, it is a radical party of "neocons," fundamentalists, war mongers, crony capitalists, homophobes, xenophobes, and anti-government/anti-tax fanatics. The Democrats are far from perfect, but compared to the Republicans, they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.