Make Up Your Mind, Joe

Joe Klein, Friday:
If the Democratic Party truly wants to be a party of inclusion, it must reach out to those who are currently excluded from its identity politics. It needs to disband its caucuses.

Joe Klein, Yesterday.

It's possible that this is more a critique of television than it is of Mr. Klein. If he'd been given longer to make his point, perhaps he'd have brought it around to the same place. Clearly he feels the need to preface this point (as he did in print) with a long preamble about how much he supports and approves of everything the caucus-based system has built; as well as a plain expression of support for the members and goals of each of the various caucuses he wants disbanded.

Perhaps you just can't say something that delicate on television.

1 comment:

E Hines said...

Maybe Klein simply was Bookered.

Separately, there is this from the second link: Joe Klein, TIME: "He hates [the race card]. He hates it. He probably should, though. He probably should address it because the bitterness out there is really becoming marked.

If Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama "hates" the race card, then he shouldn't play it so often or so loudly through his surrogates (MSNBC comes ot mind, and this juicy one from no less than Juan Williams (via Michelle Malkin): Constitution. Fox News contributor Juan Williams, who proudly calls himself a “real reporter,” has apparently added real telepathist to his curriculum vitae. Earlier this year, he read the minds of Republicans and conservatives whom he accuses of deep-seated bigotry when they show any public reverence for our founding principles, documents and leaders.

“The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message,” Williams wrote. “References to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the ‘Constitution’ also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.’”.

Eric Hines