SIVACRACY.NET

From a letter from a Democratic fundraiser to Talking Points Memo :

... I agree with your posts from about a month ago about how irrational it is for a Democratic voter supporting the losing primary candidate to defect to McCain in November, since Clinton and Obama are so close on the issues compared to McCain. But I have to say, as someone who was marching in New Hampshire in 1991 for Bill Clinton, who ran the campus Democrats for his '92 campaign, who interned in his White House, who argued against impeachment at every turn, who even defended the pardons, who has been an enormous and unwavering admirer, and who has been disgusted with his own parents for their seemingly irrational hatred of Hillary Clinton, there is something about the way she has run this campaign. From having people on her campaign raise Obama's drug use, to her jumping on the bandwagon for every right-wing cheap shot, to her new populist, "got no truck with economists" stance, its been craven. More craven than I could possibly imagine.

If somehow against all odds she got nominated, I'd vote for her, but I'd do so utterly unconvinced that the quality of her leadership wouldn't bring about disastrous results no less than the disastrous results that McCain's wrongheaded policies and own cravenness would bring about. Yes, her policy positions would be much better than McCain's. But if she's this divisive, this self-preserving, this craven, I think the results can still be horrible, even with policy positions that are much closer to mine. At this point I feel like it would be the hardest vote for a Democrat I'd ever cast.

Now, I'm a Democratic fundraiser. And as detailed above, a very long time Clinton supporter. If I'm this repulsed, if it seems this craven to me, and I'm this pessimistic about her leadership, can I be alone? That doesn't even factor in the breach with younger voters, netroots activists, and African-American voters a Clinton nomination would bring about at this point.

Had to get that off my chest.

I could not agree more. As angry as I have been about Sen. Clinton's Republican tactics of late, I found myself even more disgusted Sunday when she dismissed the judgment of almost every decent economist in the world by sticking with her profoundly cheap gas tax holiday plan.

Clinton no longer believes in facts, expertise, or empiricism? Could she BE more Republican?

Catherine and Ann have written in the comments to previous posts that Obama and perhaps other Democrats have also adopted Karl Rove's playbook this year and in the past. But they offered no examples.

I honestly cannot remember another national Democrat left-baiting and lying like this in the past 20 years. I remember some conservative Democrats doing stuff like this to liberals back when there were conservative Democrats. But that's been a long time. It's 2008. Sen. Clinton spent her life dodging the worst possible lies generated by the right-wing hate machine. And now she is recycling what they come up with to attack Obama. This isn't new? This isn't significant? This isn't disgusting?

Can anyone name one example of Rovian tactics administered by the Obama campaign? Has he linked her to radicals? Has he refused to quash rumors that she is a Muslim? Has he called her an elitist? Has he adopted a profoundly stupid tax cut for the sake of a cheap primary victory and then used it to bludgeon his opponent for not caring about working people?

How about by the Kerry, Edwards, Gore, Bradley, Clinton, Tsongas, Gebhardt, Dukakis, Jackson, Hart, or Mondale campaigns? Did they do anything like this? I can't remember anything like this from any of them. And I have never seen a Democratic primary battle in which so many good Democrats grew so disgusted with a major figure in the party, someone we all respected so much for so long.

Have I missed something?

A year ago I stood ready to defend Sen. Clinton against all critics, as I have since 1992. As late as 2006 I wrote glowing accounts of her service in the Senate and her abilities to stand up to the Republican hate machine with strengths that Gore and Kerry could only dream of. When friends tried to raise tired arguments with me about how she was hated and would be divisive, I punctured those attacks with accounts of her abilities to reach out to all New Yorkers. She showed the best of her talents and judgments in New York while running for Senate and serving with distinction.

She worried me when she voted for the Iraq war. But so did Kerry and Edwards. So I could not really dismiss her because of that (even though the others were wise enough to apologize).

Now she has disappointed me like no other politician has. I take that back. Bill Clinton disappointed me more. But that was another story.

There are plenty of good reasons to support Sen. Clinton for president. And there are plenty of good reasons to question Sen. Obama's policies and preparedness. But she has abandoned all the good reasons and sunk to the lowest depths of political cynicism.

This country deserves so much better than Sen. Clinton is willing to offer.