1 Boring Old Man

I woke up with a thought this morning and sat down at the computer to pursue it. Then thump! thump! thud! The power went out. Up here in the North Georgia Mountains, it rained all night and I guess it loosened up some thirsty trees that went powerline diving. Our wilderness experience in this little cabin has been greatly enhanced by Satellite T.V., Tivo, and a fast DSL hookup. So I sat on the porch watching the filtered sunlight try to claw its way through the clouds at daybreak. There was a distant hum from better prepared neighbor’s generators coming on. Sulking about power failures is no way to start a day, so we visited more fortunate friends down the road whose power was back on and who had coffee made [other people’s coffee is never perfect – no chickory].

My morning thought was about the blogger’s meeting in New York with President Clinton. Many of the luminaries were there: Talk Left,  AmericaBlog, MyDD, DailyKos, Firedoglake, Atrios, Liberal Oasis, SeeingtheForest, The Carpetbagger Report, Feministing, Mahablog, and Crooks and Liars.

I had two reactions. First, it was incredibly neat for these people who have kept the flame alive [or rekindled it] through these dark years when the traditional media and the Democratic Party has been asleep to be recognized for what they’ve done. My second thought was that they sounded "Star-Struck." Nothing wrong with that. Bill Clinton is a Star, flaws and all. A great man. But not many months ago, these same bloggers were questioning the Democratic Party, Where the hell was it! Of course most of us are Democratic voters. Where’s the choice? Of course, most of the people there think of themselves as Democrats. Who wouldn’t. But they had the "Star-Struck" thing a little backwards. They are the Stars.

If I were the Democratic Party, and I wanted to bring these popular and powerful liberal bloggers into the fold, who would I send as my emissary? Mr. Charisma, Bill Clinton. So my thought on awakening was that the downside of this visit might be the co-opting of the independence of the bloggers. Support all the Democrats you can find, as long as they are hard workers who are dedicated to doing the right thing. If a do_the_right_thing Republican crawls out of the muck, support him_or_her too – or a Libertarian, or an Independent, or whomever. You guys are in a buyer’s market, not a seller’s market. Progressive bloggers support progressive politicians, no matter from whence they come.

Never forget that the Democrats let us down – way down. Even Bill Clinton let us down. We all know what we’re fighting for, and what we’re fighting against. It ain’t time for a Bob Dylan to pick up an electric guitar. That day may come like it did for him, but it’s not on September 12th, 2006.