Monday, January 28, 2008


Donna and I aren't going to let the Kennedy endorsement change our votes next week, but it was certainly interesting.

I don't pretend to know about the relationship between the Kennedys and the Clintons, but I've never gotten the feeling that it was any more than cordial. I don't think it's even going to be that friendly after today's announced endorsement of Barack Obama by the Senator and Caroline Kennedy.

I expect to be hearing and reading lots more about it later today, so I'll just have a few uninformed comments to throw in for the time being.

It seems to me that what we have here is a public division between two factions within the Democratic Party. The Clintons represent the more centrist views of the Democratic Leadership Council, for which Bill Clinton is the poster boy. Since the mid-1980s, when it was formed, the DLC has pushed the Democratic Party away from 'progressive' agendas and more towards a corporation-friendly, cut social programs route. The Kennedys and their allies are still of the older faction which did not perceive 'liberal' as a bad thing. The rise of Obama and other more progressive types in the party threaten the balance in the Democratic National Committee and I think we'll be seeing more in-fighting over the next few months leading up to the convention.

Of course, I could be way off base on all this and expect those of you more knowing in the ways of the world to set me straight.

Am I totally wrong here, Joe?

3 comments:

Elayne said...

Your theory would have merit were it not for the fact that Obama is also DLC-approved.

Anonymous said...

Hey Steve,

I think the other comment by Elayne
raises a good point, Obama is tight with the DLC crowd too; don't forget he claims Joe Lieberman as his mentor and if my memory holds he even supported Lieberman's independent campaign against Lemont after Lieberman lost the Democratic primary in Conn.
That said there may turn out to be differences between Obama and Clinton. I think Obama would get the progresive vote at the end of the day (whether that carries the primary for him is yet to be seen.)
Kennedy's endorsement actually may be statement like you suggest, we'll see how far its effect will go.
I'll say this: I wasn't planning on doing much voting this year at all, in either the primaries or the general election. However I'm now leaning towards a vote for Obama in the NY primary because I feel a Hillary Clinton nomination, or worse a Hillary Clinton presidency, will be a awful disaster for whatever is left of the progressive movement.

Joe

Steve Chaput said...

I appreciate the two of you setting me straight. I really should look into these things more before going off on some tangent.

I probably knew at one point that Obama was DLC (as most of the current crop of Dems seem to be), but had simply forgotten.

I still think that the Clinton/Kennedy split will make for interesting viewing come the convention.