Robert Shrum: The Democrats' Self-defeating Crybaby Chorus

[flpoljunkie]

Robert Shrum

The Democrats' self-defeating crybaby chorus
After a special election loss in New York City, many on the Left are boneheadedly fleeing Obama — just when they should be rallying to his side

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

James (Carville) is on target about one thing: Obama has to "make a case like a Democrat." But that's what this president is doing now. Day after day, he is drawing the dividing lines. He does have to keep at it — and show as well as say that he's the one fighting for ordinary, hard-working, and out-of-work Americans. That's been the right course for some time — and with Obama on course, he doesn't need to be told: "Fire. Indict. Fight." It's a catchy aphorism, but it's only one-third right.

Ever since the pains of August intensified, Republicans have increasingly hoped, and Democrats have feared, that Barack Obama is another Jimmy Carter. The GOP is doing its best to block recovery as a conscious strategy to reclaim the White House: kill jobs to get the job. But there is grave risk for Republicans in this transparent cynicism; the president has the voice, and we've learned before that he has the strength of will to set the choice and win the big battle. Indeed, that's what makes the comparison with Carter absurd; from health reform to financial reform to the salvation of the auto industry and the prevention of depression, Obama has a historic record of achievement.

The next step is to consistently push for jobs and growth. The president may not pass his bill — the odds are against it — but you can bet he won't be a prisoner of Republican intransigence. Obama is a fourth quarter player. And the fourth quarter has come. It's time for the crybaby chorus to leave the critic's row and get in the game. The president will do his part. And then his victory in the 2012 election will be remembered long after his phony defeat in a peculiar special election fades into a footnote.

The panic isn't justified — and Democrats can't afford it. Grow up. As Carville might say, there's too much at stake, stupid.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Shrum is no fan of the Blue Dogs. He's exactly right here.

[Enrique]

5. looks like a headline malfunction

he seems to hold up Hoyer and Carville as examples of the problem, and seems to hold up Sherrod Brown and Nancy Pelosi as people that have the correct approach. So why does their headline say "the Left"?

[flpoljunkie]

9. Perhaps Shrum did not write the headline

[Union Scribe]

45. But you couldn't wait to leave it flaming on DU's doorstep, could you?

"Oooh, I can insult DUers and claim I'm not!"

[flpoljunkie]

68. It's not about you. It's mostly Senators who are whining--the usual suspects who hurt our party.

[OHdem10]

3. And there are certain Centrists types , you can count on eveytime

a strong wind blows, to get out, act like dummies
and give Fox News Fodder for a whole 24 hour or more
news item.

I am going to say it. Why do these members even bother
to call themselves Democrats. It seems they would be
much happier with the GOP.

Why do they stay hidden under their desk. If they did
not want to lose elections, it seems to me they would
be on the air making the case for the Democratic Principles.

One election does not a trend make. Even Koch as he sent
one message to Obama, made the Republican Candidate promise
to keep SS and Medicare as Federal Programs. He must
buck his own party if they (GOP) start trying to privatize
or make extreme changes to these programs. The Democrats
on the Hill still have their issue to run on. Or are
these Centrists going to vote with GOP to change the Programs.

With so called Democrats like these, how can a President
be expected to accomplish anything.

Thanks Nancy Pelosi, for keeping the House Democrats in line.
You know what Leadership is.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. The name calling bullyism routine is a big turn off

It seems to be the fall back position of the OFA, and all it does is make me recall the 'faith and family tour' and all the name calling 'gays are vampires' that the various 'ministers' were infamous for using. I'm sick of the entire tactic, it is to me, a Republican tactic, I reject the name calling crap, fully and without hesitation. When you are promoting a President that has a hard time saying 'Republicans' when casting blame, the contrast with the words used toward liberals and gay people by the 'supporters' could not be more evident. When an organization has a large track record of bully boy homophobia and sexist remarks lingering from the last primary, this business of calling people 'crybabies' just returns us to that 8th grade Christian School locker room mentality, where you call your rival a monster and a war monger and hold up minorities for open ridicule. The OFA people are not known supporters of the people, and thus they get no benefit of the doubt when they come around with their trash talk and name calling. How has the OFA trash talk method paid off in the last two election rounds? Very poorly, we keep losing seats, like mad. And that can not be a surprise when you look at the methods and lexicon of the 'supporters'. Imagine someone knocking on your door to say 'hey, cry baby, do you want Palin to be President just because you got no pony'. And from what I see here and in print elsewhere, that is the full sum of their political technique, derision, name calling, labeling, and if need be,open homophobia and sexism on parade.
I see Obama speaking softly about the Republicans, he blames not Republicans but 'partisanship'. And then each day, after hearing the latest coddling of Cantor and Walsh, I read the Democrats are 'pony wanting crybabies who need to grow up' and that is added to the words of the various surrogates of past,and the message is very negative and off putting.
The Snark and Remark crowd is working hard to lose more elections as they have been doing since2010.

[izquierdista]

6. Snark and Remark

I like that description. I don't have to vote FOR someone because the other choice is worse. I can vote with my feet and leave.

[flpoljunkie]

8. Leave? That's a cop out.

[izquierdista]

10. Tell that to your grandma

Or whoever it was in your family that immigrated here. I know why my grandma left the old country -- it was a shithole with no opportunity. When countries start to go down the tubes, the smart people vote with their feet.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

27. What You Say Maybe True And Is Definitely Sad

As depressed as I am about my own prospects , the prospects of those closest to me, and my nation I am not prepared now to say the decline is inexorable.

[jefferson_dem]

19. Seems some of our resident DUers are doing their damnedest to prove Shrum right.

[jefferson_dem]

17. Buh bye!

"If you got to go... go now." ~Dylan

[izquierdista]

24. I'm just back for the clown act

“When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat.” -- George Carlin

Once they all pile into their little clown car and drive off, I'll return to a place with public transportation and health care.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Shrum is not OFA and these crybaby Dems need to be called out for what they are

Crybabies who will take all the Dems down.

[Bluenorthwest]

11. It is the mean language that will and already has begun to

take us down. OFA in charge for a few years now. What have they gotten? A Republican majority, that's what. Again, the President's own sweet talk to the GOP added to the invective leveled at liberals and gay people by his 'supporters' here and elsewhere brings a sum that does not bring us votes, but instead delivers the apathy of 2010 and of NY 9. Why keep up the same losing tactics? Those methods have not served us well. I understand it allows for folks to indulge in nasty words toward others, 'for Obama' but it is not really helping Obama, much less other Democrats. All you have to do is look at the results of elections with OFA in charge. 2010 defines the value of these school yard tactics,and the value is zero.
Those who need to call names and be rude should sit it out. It is harmful. Never was a vote won using that sort of bullshit.And the folks who do the name calling are of course very upset if they are called any name ever. If 'cheerleader' is unacceptable language, then so is 'crybaby'. Pick one standard, not one for you and another for others.
Sarcasm is not a vote winning modality.

[patrice]

43. Get into Thom Hartman's archives; you think it was OFA who got Dems in WI & elsewhere to crossover

for Tea Thugs in the 2010 primaries, on the theory that the crazies would scare everyone so bad that it'd be easy for Dems to beat them? You think that was OFA's idea?

Hartman was fielding phone calls from people saying there was a significant amount of that going on. Apparently he received enough phone calls pushing this idea that in the last week or so before some of those primary votes he was advising people in the strongest terms possible NOT to do that kind of stuff. I know he got a call from at least one party leader, in WI I believe it was, telling his listeners how wrong headed all of that was, but some sort of Rovian wanna bes out there were waaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of the curve on this shit. Not OFA.

[Bluenorthwest]

12. So I see how well your style and method works in your State

and I do not care to see Oregon be like Florida. So you keep up with your methods, which keep Florida so shiny, I will stick with that which keeps Oregon Blue. What would we rather have, a Congress filled with Rubios? Sorry, but I take advise from winners.

[DURHAM D]

15. Amen. nt

[ProSense]

21. What utter drivel

Spacing wouldn't even help!

[Number23]

47. !

:spray: :spray: :spray:

[SidDithers]

58. Hehehe...nt

Sid

[paulk]

64. case in point

[frazzled]

23. For the life of me I don't know what you are talking about

OFA trash talk? Snark and remark? Honestly, maybe this is something personal with you, but it is way opaque. It appears to be vented in some secret code and doesn't comport with any reality.

Who are the OFA people? It's just a grassroots organization of volunteers. You've probably never heard from its directors and wouldn't recognize their names. What does a statement by Bob Shrum have to do with this? He never even had anything to do with the Obama campaign, and still doesn't.

Since when I approve of a post I sometimes write "Stop Making Sense," here I have to say, "Start Making Sense"

[Bluenorthwest]

29. Perhaps you only understand name calling and labeling?

It is a tired, old and worthless tactic. It is also highly hypocritical. Shurm, who has never worked for a winning Presidential candidate, sits on a pile of wealth taken from the corrupt election system and calls the unemployed 'crybabies'. It is what it is. He says 'crybabies' and there is not a rational response possible to that, the silly name calling bully boys. They are just bullies trying to start fights, which is what bullies do, in Shurm's case, to huge personal profit. I've dealt with that lexicon and personality type for a long,long time. Their quiver is empty save for such intellectually complex arguments as 'you are cry baby'. I expect that is followed by 'I'm going to tell Mommy' and some more name calling.
All of the bully names that deride emotion are based in sexism and homophobia. They are fighting words, and Shurm is welcome to come over here and say that. No one ever made a valid point using labels and name calling.
The invective needs to end. It is not helping, it is hurting. People despise that sort of language. They do not allow their 5 year old to use it. But Shurm and many other adults seem to think it is suitable for political discourse. I do not think that it is. You seem to enjoy it. I think it makes poor use of the language, the election process, I think it does not encourage healthy dialog, and I think it keeps people from volunteering in droves. Name calling is not accepted in most work places,nor in most homes. It should not be accepted as a political modality.

[frazzled]

31. No, but it seems you do.

What does OFA have to do with any of this?

The poster was on some sort of rant about OFA. I questioned his/her linking of the Shrum article to that grassroots organization of ordinary citizen volunteers. There is no link. And now I get some unintelligible, frankly bullying, response.

I'm not supporting Shrum or making any comment on it. This whole thread is deranged.

[Bluenorthwest]

35. Deragned is what you get from starting out with 'cry babies'

sorry if I responded to you harshly. The self declared 'supporters' here do lots of 'snark and remark' crap, and I'm sick of it. The whole name calling and invective thing entered the Party with OFA 2008. I do not like name calling. I do not respect highly paid writers who are so lazy that they employ words like 'cry baby'. I think one side of the Party snarking and name calling at the other is harmful to the Party.
I have to clean my computer, it is sticking and annoying. But anyone who uses 'cry baby' is not starting a discussion, but a fight. That's what bullies do, start fights by calling names.

[bornskeptic]

28. Oh waah! waah! waah! Bob Shrum is a mean old bully!!

Day after day spent bashing the best president since FDR and then whine and whimper like a scared little puppy when those of us who appreciate him respond in kind.

[Bluenorthwest]

36. I criticize the President for his opposition to equal marriage

rights. I do not call him names, nor do I bash him. He sort of bashes my family with the whole 'not sanctified by God' routine, but that's his own failure, not something I have to answer in kind.
You are very out of line with your personal attack on me. It is in fact, just more of the same name calling bully crap. It is that which is done by people who have nothing factual to say, so they have to resort to personal attacks and name calling. It is childish, rude, and worst of all, it is election poison, it is the anti-GOTV.

[Name removed]

50. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DCBob]

54. if you dont like the name then quit crying..

btw, the article wasnt meant to give the crybabies a hardon.

[SwampG8r]

62. aint that the truth?

next they will find some "former" republican running as a spoiler to steal votes from a democrat who won the primaries and openly support him here!
only a complete turd would do that but i bet it will be done! and applauded!

[paulk]

63. OFA is not a political organization

it's a personality cult

[EffieBlack]

13. A-men!

[phantom power]

14. good luck with that, Robert

:eyes:

[Bluenorthwest]

16. Here is a great piece about Shrum and his wife buying home

number 3, Cape Cod waterfront, for just under a million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/greathomesanddestinations/25away.html

I have to admit, they are charming people who clearly have their fingers on the pulse of the everyday American voter.
Manhattan, Los Angeles, Cape Cod. I would not be crying much either.

[ProSense]

20. It's funny

how people who always criticize others for attacking the messenger turn around and do the same thing.

[Bluenorthwest]

25. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

nt

[ProSense]

26. It

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

...isn't Rome. It's the state of hipocrisy!

[Bluenorthwest]

33. Actually Pro, Shurm used fighting words, and that means

no rules for him. Name callers are not engaging in dialog, they are starting a fight. Fights have different rules than discussions. The fact that Shurm, whose Presidential candidates have never won, makes his money by making such comments is valid information. This name calling is his job, and the compensation is so vast that it is only fair to share that context for his use of name calling. He is paid to behave in public in ways that parents do not allow their 5 year olds to behave. He calls names from behind gates and guards and he cashes a check for calling Democrats 'cry babies'. He's a professional centrist, hugely wealthy from 'consulting' and 'commenting'. I've been told here that for liberals, being 'professional' is very bad, the professional left and all of that. So Shurm is a Professional Centrist, far to my right, and paid to type 'cry baby'.
If you walk into a room and start insulting people, you need to be able to take what you serve up. If professional status is an issue, then take a look, Bob is paid to write 'cry baby'.
My keyboard is sticking like mad, so aside from the politics, sorry about the typing. I need to clean. See? Polite is possible, even when others start off with childish words.

[ProSense]

34. .

repeat.

[FredStembottom]

18. Of course.

Obama is weak... so we are "cry-babies".

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

[CakeGrrl]

32. He's out there doing what he needs to do and the pissing and moaning STILL continues

If it's not the tired old "weak" bullshit, then it's 'He should have done this sooner'.

The CONSTANT complainers are becoming more of a liability and a drag on momentum every day as the GOP insanity rolls on.

And then some demand kid glove treatment or else...what? They'll enable the GOP with their inaction.

If that isn't self-defeat, I don't know what is.

[FredStembottom]

40. These dis-spiriting results are owned by the Obama admin.

People who merely notice what this admin. is like are guilty of nothing.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. More Americans are living in poverty than at any time since

the Census Bureau started tracking the metrics.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the liability and drag on party momentum.

And Obama is concerned about cutting the deficit?

WTF???

[Bobbie Jo]

60. +1000

Nailed it.

[blkmusclmachine]

22. Have a morning pastry:

:donut:

[chill_wind]

30. Wealthy Washington Elite Beltway strategists strutting and carping at each other.

Always entertaining.

[tledford]

38. Agreed, and they're now so out of touch that they might as well be extraterrestrials. eom

[Phx_Dem]

37. The House Dems are a feckless bunch of boobs who are not in a position

to get a fucking thing done. Still they want to stand in the way of any cohesive effort to support Obama's jobs bill -- which, by the way, they have been bitching about not having for months (Maxine Waters just to name one)! They bitch because the President won't do their job for them. Then hen he does, they bitch anyway.

Fuck them. They keep this shit up, and I'm not voting for a single HOuse Democrat. They're all worthless crybabies.

[flpoljunkie]

39. It's mostly Senators whining. Dems need to hang together--or we will hang separately.

Take Ben Franklin's advice.

[coalition_unwilling]

52. My rep (Karen Bass from CA 33rd) is pretty cool - n/t

[Hawkowl]

41. Shrum: Never met a campaign he couldn't fuck up

This guy is the biggest fucking loser advisor the dems have ever had. He has lost every campaign he ever has been associated with and yet he has earned millions for it!

:wtf: Cry baby my ass.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

42. A-fucking-men -- only in GD: P would Bob Shrum be defended. (n/t)

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

49. Second only to Susan Estrich as the biggest election loser in Democratic Party history

I'm surprised he hasn't been hired by FOX.

[Union Scribe]

44. Keep it classy, GDP

"Obama 2012: Unity Through Insults and Threats"

I'm glad the candidate is smarter than his followers.

[CakeGrrl]

53. Because

terms like "fucking quisling" and "Caver-in-Chief" are such shining examples of class, unity and constructive criticism, right?

But don't call anyone out for saying it! That's BAAAAAAD and mean.

Give me a break.

:eyes:

[madamesilverspurs]

46. Whence Rev. Al came up with the Crybaby Caucus.

Promises to use a hanky to connote crybaby status. Could be entertaining.

[flpoljunkie]

55. Good for him!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

48. First Carville, now Shrum - The DLCers are out in full force for attention

guess we can expect a column from Lani Davis next

How about we take advice instead from a strategist who has actually won some elections - someone like Howard Dean, maybe?

[flpoljunkie]

56. Apparently, Shrumy has really hit a nerve here. And, he's not now or ever been DLC.

Do you support these whiny Dems? As Ben Franklin once said, 'We must all hang together or we will surely hang separately.'P

[boston bean]

59. Really? Bob Shrum has not now or ever been DLC? nt

[SidDithers]

57. Kick and Fucking Rec!!...

Crybaby Chorus is perfect.

:thumbsup:

Sid

[SwampG8r]

61. helpful this is not

[COLGATE4]

65. Bob Shrum - the Democratic 'strategist' who hasn't managed to

elect a Democrat in the last 4 Presidential elections.

[annabanana]

66. Whenever the President sounds like a Democrat to me... The Media

seems to forget he exists.

[hulka38]

67. Bob Shrum is a fuckhead

[flpoljunkie]

69. Hit a nerve, did we? Shrum's dead on here.

[hulka38]

71. Just calmly stating a fact.

[flpoljunkie]

73. No, an opinion--that's dead wrong.

[Faygo Kid]

70. +1

"Obama is a fourth quarter player." Excuse me, we needed him the entire game.

[hulka38]

72. The game is close because our star player never showed.