Monday, June 30, 2008

Obama Criticizes MoveOn in Patriotism Speech


Ahem, would anyone like to venture a guess as to why Barack Obama saved his criticism of Move On until after the Democratic primary? And how many millions did Move On raise and spend on Barack Obama's behalf anyway? Some might say that Move On failed to read the tea leaves.

The Hill: Obama criticizes MoveOn.org in patriotism speech
: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday, in a major speech on patriotism, criticized MoveOn.org for referring to Gen. David Petraeus as General Betray Us last year.

UPDATE - Matt Stoller observes that this is all part of Obama's master plan to Be the Power or "eliminate all vulnerable competing power centers, and this includes Moveon and Clark:" I wouldn't be surprised to see Moveon take a hit in donations and activism for this, but then, it's possible that the membership is frustrated over FISA and the opposite will occur. He can undermine Clark by damaging his reputation, taking Clark's comments out of context and then using a straw man to pretend like Clark had attacked McCain's service. Media Matters documents that this is not what Clark said, but Obama's imperative is not to the truth but to increase his own range of action within the party.

Obama has done so, hurting one of the top Democratic PACs and outside groups, and one of the top Democratic surrogates. He has also reduced his own range of actions in the general election and shouldered more of the burden on to his own campaign. UPDATE: Meanwhile, the
Please Vote Against FISA group on MyBarackObama is up to 4700 members, in only four days.

Finally, here's a comment seen at Crooks and Liars: Can we draft Hillary at the Convention?