Saturday, April 26, 2008
(4:03 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
The Audacity of Worry
Many Democrats are worrying about whether the ongoing primary is hurting the Democrats' chances in the general election. My worry: that this public hand-wringing itself will hurt the Democrats in the general election. Having most of your side's leading public figures on the verge of despair over the party's weakness could very well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.The American people seem like, all things considered, they'd really prefer to elect a Democrat -- and so, naturally, the Democrats are trying their best to talk them out of it. Doesn't this sound like a nice, upbeat, and basically realistic response to the primary situation: "Yes, we have such a surplus of great candidates that we still haven't decided which will be our nominee, though we do know that either one will be a historic first"? But no -- it is the sworn duty of every Democrat to provide free advertising for John McCain's fearsome political skills and broad appeal.
(On another note, this post is yet another example of the fact that the culture of Democrats is absolutely saturated with the "consultant" mindset -- all we bloggers do all day long is talk about strategy, positioning, framing, rhetoric. Even calls to talk more about concrete policy are framed in terms of the perceived political effectiveness of talking about policy!)