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Dear Obama supporters of the blogosphere,
By Ned | December 25, 2007
(And Andrew Sullivan in particular)
In the spirit of the season, everyone needs to chill the hell out. As Matthew Yglesias points out, people have a tendency to overstate their case when it comes to supporting or knocking down candidates during the primary season. Everyone’s guilty of it, including me. But for whatever reason, that seems to be particularly true of the Obama supporters of the Internet. So here are some things to keep in mind:
1. I don’t like Hillary Clinton either. That doesn’t mean that every single criticism of her, no matter how off-the-wall, illogical, or just plain silly (like the assertion that another Clinton presidency would be the continuation of a Bush-Clinton monarchical dynasty) has merit.
2. Regardless of the merit of Paul Krugman’s attacks on Obama’s rhetoric, Krugman is not Karl Rove. He does not have some kind of wild-eyed personal vendetta against Obama. He is not camped in the bushes outside of Obama’s campaign headquarters with a screwdriver and a sock full of quarters. He has serious concerns about Obama’s policy and rhetoric which should be treated as such, not as personal attacks on the level of salacious rumors about Obama’s mother.
3. And while we’re on the subject of his critics, not everyone who criticizes Obama is a secret enemy of the campaign or whatever. Re: Ezra Klein.
4. Barack Obama has screwed up. He has hedged, and he has pandered. Candidates do that from time to time, even the best ones. His campaign isn’t a small part of some huge movement or a political realignment - it’s a relatively conventional campaign being run by a guy with an unconventional personal biography. It’s not “people-powered politics,” like the Dean campaign. It’s a campaign all about electing Obama. That’s what most campaigns are.
5. Lastly: Take a deep breath. Seriously.
Happy holidays, everyone. It’s weird to think that Huckabee and I share a Christmas tradition, but I guess that’s some kind of metaphor for something. Or something.
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