Legal Commentary

More On Unity, Krugman, Obama And FL/MI

By Big Tent Democrat

Steve Benen concedes Paul Krugman's point but then does not absorb it. Indeed he makes it. Steve writes:

I don’t doubt for a moment that many Clinton supporters “feel that she has received unfair, even grotesque treatment.” In fact, I think those supporters are largely right and have every reason to be offended by some of what we’ve heard during the campaign. . . . The problem, I think, is that it’s a little too easy to misidentify the source of the problem, and I think Krugman may have been a little too quick to mention “Obama and his supporters.” There’s a difference, and it’s important.

Have some Obama supporters been quick to denigrate Clinton? Absolutely. But I’m not sure it makes sense for Clinton supporters to help John McCain — either directly (by voting for him) or indirectly (by staying home) — because some Obama fans were intemperate towards their favored candidate. Obama and Clinton have had a few dust-ups between them, but nothing outrageous or even unusual in the midst of a competitive process.

Krugman did not say it made sense. He said it could, even would, happen. He said voters are emotional. Steve Benen seems to believe all things in politics are nice rational choices by voters. They are not. Obama supporters would not treat Hillary Clinton as Satan and embrace the likes of Andrew Sullivan while vilifying Paul Krugman if that were the case. But they do. Heck look at Steve himself fall into complete nonsense in the very same post:

Last week, Clinton traveled to Florida to tell Dems that the party’s nominating process is not only illegitimate, but reminiscent of slavery, Jim Crow, and Zimbabwe. The message was divisive, misleading, and hypocritical. As Ezra [Klein], hardly an Obama cheerleader [Ezra is pretty much an Obama cheerleader in my estimation btw], put it, “As a message, it’s a mixture of toxic lies and scorched earth campaigning. It doesn’t help her win the nomination, but it makes the nomination worth a little bit less for the likely nominee…. She shouldn’t leave the race. But she should stop using her presence in it to rip apart the party and try to push major states out of Obama’s column.”

(Emphasis supplied.) Both Ezra and Steve have been completely obtuse on the Florida/Michigan issue. They have said, and Steve says, just plain false things about Hillary Clinton's argument regarding Florida and Michigan. Steve Benen's entire paragraph cited above is simply false. Clinton did not say any of what he said she said. He has taken her comments completely out of context and just plain told a falsehood about them.

Because Steve and Ezra do not care about counting the votes in Florida, they think it is unreasonable (or as Ezra puts it -- "a mixture of toxic lies and a scorched earth campaign") for anyone else, including Hillary Clinton, to care. The reality is Steve just made Paul Krugman's point, while attempting to refute it. An amazing performance.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 26, 2008 (boomark / email).