Legal Commentary

Defending The "Left Flank?"

By Big Tent Democrat

Chris Bowers provides a strange defense to "the Left" against Glenn Greenwald's charge that it allowed itself to be coopted by then-candidate Obama's Presidential campaign:

In this passage, [Greenwald] is explicitly accusing a large number of unnamed progressive organizations of cynically exploiting support for Obama--support which the leaders of these organizations apparently did not share--into increased traffic, membership and revenue. This argument is in unfair. It accuses the leadership of many progressive organizations of actually being on Greenwald's side in desiring more left-wing pressure on Obama, but being trapped because they engaged in bad faith support for Obama during the campaign, thus tricking their gullible new members into believing those organizations were actually cheerleading squads for President Obama.

(Emphasis supplied.) The defense is strange to me for 2 reasons. First, as I recall, Glenn cited to his own experiences regarding his Accountability Now project. Second, because Chris seems to accept that in fact these groups did not "desire[] more left wing pressure" on Obama. Bowers does not explain why these groups "did not desire," much less exert, "left wing pressure" on Obama. I would love to hear his explanation for that phenomenon.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 16, 2009 (boomark / email).