illusionofjoy | "Operation Turndown"

Those who think there won't be a backlash are wrong. Various webloggers in exile from the majors like DailyKOS and The Huffington Post have been grumbling about how they will rebel against Barack Obama if he is the Democratic nominee. Donna Darko has a collection of links to female webloggers outraged by the misogyny surrounding the Obama campaign - some of these women are even forming a nascent movement against he who has been erroneously referred to as "the presumptive Democratic nominee" (really should be "assumptive," for the "ass" joke which follows).

However, now a member of a major media market has decided to log a protest against Obama. Radio host Steve Corbett of talk station WILK-FM has this to say:

"Operation Turndown" has deep roots in my own personal radical politics.
If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president, I will not vote for him.

I will turn him down.

Judging from callers to "Corbett" yesterday, so will many other Democrats.

{snip}

Hillary is the strongest, best candidate. Hillary can beat John McCain. Hillary is my Democrat.

Even if party bosses tell me that we must get behind the nominee and that the nominee will be Obama, I have a choice. Even if family, friends and colleagues tell me I’m wrong, I have a choice. Even if you hate my decision, I have a choice.

And I will use it. To do otherwise would violate the principles I work hard to uphold. I’ve made a decision – a well-thought out, reasoned and rational decision.

The problem with Barack Obama is that he is effectively alienating a huge chunk of people who could bring about a Democratic victory in November. Upon his trouncing in West Virginia, the Obama camp claimed the the state was not part of their plan for general election victory, a stance that flies in the face of nearly half a century of electoral trends. Furthermore, there were claims that his loss in the state was due to simple racism - a canard which has been trotted out time and time again to smear Hillary Clinton's supporters. I seriously doubt that racism has a great deal to do with Obama's crushing losses in the state; I think the main reason that Obama lost in West Virginia is because he snubbed the voters there. He arrogantly assumed the mantle of inevitability and did not do any campaigning in the state, save for a token appearance right before the primary and the purchasing of television advertising. By contrast, Hillary Clinton was on the ground and engaging voters one-on-one constantly. Net result: Obama did not get a majority vote in a single West Virginian county. When you snub people, they tend to snub you right back.

Superdelegate loudmouth Donna Brazile has claimed that there is a new Democratic Party being created where voters are more urban and younger. The problem, of course, is that these two groups don't make up a large enough coalition by any stretch of the imagination to ensure an Obama win in the general election. With the alienation of the working class, women, Hispanics, Asians, older voters and yes, even the homosexual community, an Obama nomination seems the perfect way to set up huge wins for John McCain in November - either through protest votes for Hillary Clinton or a third party, spite votes for John McCain or "values" votes for McCain (each alienated group will have a different reason and a different reaction).

So, the obvious solution is to nominate Hillary Clinton - the trend currently is that she will finish the primary and have retained her lead in the popular vote. It will be up to the superdelgates to decide who the nominee is in August. If they give the nod Obama, not only will he face the challenge of the republican attack machine, but he will have to figure out how to win back all of the Democrats he has lost at the same time - an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions.