Hillary the Elitist
Hill certainly took something Obama said at a private gathering and ran with it. As a matter of fact, she ran with it well past the point where she could be credible with her accusations.
I have an accusation to make now that will carry some water, unlike Hill’s ridiculous “elitist” label that she tried to pin on Obama. While Barack was guilty of nothing more than vocalizing the paths that the frustrated in America take, Hill is guilty of much more. As we see here, Hill believes anyone not in lockstep with her is an “extremist.” This sounds a whole lot to me like that famous Chimpy refrain of “you’re either with us, or you’re with the turrists.”
Elitism takes a whole lot of different forms. One of the forms elitism takes is the belief that you know what is best, and anyone who doesn’t agree with you is stupid. Read what Hill had to say and tell me there’s not a powerful elitist streak in her. Yes, you probably knew that already-but still.
Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) had harsh criticism for the “activist base” of the Democratic Party during a private fundraiser for her campaign, The Huffington Post reports.
“We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party,” said Clinton, heard on an audio clip at Huffington. “MoveOn didn’t even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that’s what we’re dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers.
“[T]hey are very driven by their view of our positions,” continued Clinton, “and it’s primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don’t agree with them. They know I don’t agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominate them and really intimidate people who actually show up to support me.”
Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, which officially endorsed Obama’s candidacy this February, released the following statement to Huffington in response to the report:
Senator Clinton has her facts wrong again. MoveOn never opposed the war in Afghanistan, and we set the record straight years ago when Karl Rove made the same claim. Senator Clinton’s attack on our members is divisive at a time when Democrats will soon need to unify to beat Senator McCain. MoveOn is 3.2 million reliable voters and volunteers who are an important part of any winning Democratic coalition in November. They deserve better than to be dismissed using Republican talking points. Reaction among progressive bloggers has been swift.
Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake writes that she’s “tried to stay out of the [Clinton-Obama] pie fights of late, but as a long-term defender of MoveOn and other progressive organizations — this is completely unacceptable. ‘MoveOn opposed military action in Afghanistan’ is a Republican talking point, articulated specifically and purposefully by Karl Rove.”
Quips Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (a.k.a. Kos) at Daily Kos, “Well, for a campaign that has morphed into nothing but ‘Republican talking points,’ it shouldn’t come as any surprise.”
Jonathan Singer at MyDD says that “even more astounding than Clinton’s specific attacks on MoveOn, a grassroots organization founded to defend her husband against the Republican power-grab that was the 1998 impeachment, an organization that is made up of more than three million activists, most of whom are diehard in their loyalty to the Democratic Party, is the fact that Clinton is maligning the Democratic base, specifically those who have been driven to the polls at least in part in response to the Iraq War.”
Oliver Willis writes, “You don’t become the nominee of the Democratic/progressive movement by undercutting the Democratic/progressive movement.”
And Jolly Roger says, “get the fuck over yourself. Your campaign is in trouble because you’re running a gutter campaign. If you want to know who is to blame, MoveOn-to the nearest mirror and have a quick look at the source of your problems.”
Tags: 2008 election, elitism, hillary, obama
April 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I think that she says America doesn’t want Elitists is a very patronizing statement; it has the undetone of :Americans are stupidists!
April 19th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Hillary’s elitist nose is so far in the air that she cannot or will not see her base dwindling before her possesed bloodshot eyes.
April 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
naj, Chimpletons ARE “stupidists.” They are PROUD of having a brain-addled monkey as their “leader.”
April 19th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Once again, JR, you give me a great belly laugh. That last paragraph is outstanding.
I don’t think Hillary is any more/less elitist than any other Repub/Demo politician. She’s just an asshole, like Cheney.
I still don’t trust Obama since he is a product of the political machine, but I hope, once again, that I am wrong.
April 20th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
That last paragraph is outstanding………….Shillery has been her own worst enemy……..the repug/Rovian gutter campaign was what has done her in with eank and file demacrats as well as Superdelegats like Richardson and Reich who WERE former Clinton people.
I havent spent the last 7 years loathing Roves type of politics only to embrace it when another Demacrat stoops to that level……..she and those like her need to be excised from the demacratic party like a camcerous tumor.
Clinton has jumped the shark with Bosnia and with the moveon statement you can stick a fork in that loser because she’s finished………by Early June she will be history!
April 20th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
You are completely correct.
When were you there?
Are you part of the brotherhood? I feel that you may be, I feel a connection to you. You are very brave to say the things that you do that are the truth about our current government. They don’t take these things so lightly. What freedom?