This is a really good diary about how Obama supporters should approach Clinton supporters who may be hesitant about supporting Obama.
If you look at the list of grievances against Obama by Clinton supporters, one of the things near the top if not at the top of the list is the shit they got from Obama’s supporters. That shit is the reason why I left Daily Kos for the time being, even though I basically don’t care who wins. If it was getting too much for me, someone who had no horse, think about how bad it was for people who have invested time, money, and their own personal hopes and dreams into the Clinton campaign.
Also, I should remind Obama’s people that Obama was the one who fired the first salvo in the primaries, mainly because the media urged him to since he wasn’t gaining on Clinton in the polls. And when Clinton fired back, Obama’s supporters went ballistic that Clinton would dare attack The Chosen One and thus the blog wars began. Yes, Obama was the one who started it, not Clinton.
Not that it’s surprising since he was the underdog trying to catch up at the time, but there seems to be a sense among Obama’s supporters that everything was going swell until Clinton and her supporters got all nasty. In reality, it was the other way around.
On top of this, as the diarist notes, there is a sense that Obama’s supporters have a feeling that Clinton’s supporters “don’t get it” as far as not realizing how historic and amazing Obama’s campaign is, since he’s black and is all for “hope” and “change” while pooh-poohing the historic nature of Clinton’s run as the first woman trying to win back the White House. That pooh-poohing also doesn’t help persuade anyone to come to your side either, and has been responded in kind by similar accusations from some of Clinton’s more hard-core supporters (and ultimately evolved into this silly “you must be a racist if you don’t like Obama”/”you must be sexist if you don’t like Clinton” crap).
I would probably add to the diary that, if someone runs into a democrat who just absolutely will not vote for Obama ever, ever, ever, then at least persuade them to not vote for McCain. It’s better to lose a 1 net vote instead of losing 2 net votes.
I think, by the end of the next 5 months, a vast majority of the Clinton people will be on board with Obama since the contrast will all be about Obama vs. McCain and how much McCain sucks. And for those who complain that Obama is an empty suit, he’ll be forced to lay out concrete positions on issues. Or at least I think he better – McCain will try to force him to anyway. If he doesn’t, he may very well lose, because while “hope” may win a democratic primary, it probably won’t win the general election on it’s own.
