Tim Kaine and the DNC in denial

In public life whether its politics or those in the media who cover it, or for that matter most other activities in life, the one thing that remains unforgivable is stupidity.
People make mistakes. Things don't always turn out the way its planned ( though for people in positions of high responsibility that should not happen and if it does should not happen again) but stupidity is not something that can be generally acceptable and always leads to disaster.

Tim Kaine, the Democratic National Chairman exhibited what can only be called stupidity the other day when he said about the coming election, "Democratic candidates who distance themselves from the president do so at their own peril". He also said, "If you distance yourself from the president, you can pour cold water on the excitement about what he is doing."

the problem with what Kaine said, is, what in the world is he talking about? What excitement? The only people excited about Obama going into the fall election are Republicans.

As for Kaine's statement that Democrats distancing themselves from Obama do so at their own peril, the only peril facing Democrats seeking election now is Obama himself, and the fact that Democrats, liberals and independents have shown in poll after they poll that they are fed up, angry or disgusted with Obama.

And for good reason. Obama has messed up the best opportunity the Democrats have had in a century to affect real change and so far he's blown it. And it seems, everyone but Kaine, the White House and some media sycophants know it.

Given the biggest congressional majority any president has had in 100 years, Obama wasn't able to produce real healthcare reform ( as Howard Dean pointed out, it wasn't reform at all), was totally bamboozled by Joe Lieberman on healthcare, blew the public option, a program that 57% of the American people wanted and which still could have been passed with reconciliation if Obama had political skill or any conviction, watered down and weakened financial reform, pushed through a stimulus that was half of what most economists said it should be for political reasons and which has done nothing to help unemployment, and Afghanistan is a mess. No wonder Republicans are excited.

It is understandable that as the chairman of the DNC, Kaine has to be a bit of a cheerleader. But its also his job to see what is front of his face as well as seeing to it that as many Democrats get elected or re-elected as possible. And to try and cheerlead for Obama at the expense of getting Democrats elected is just stupid.

It's also stupid if he believes what he says. Because for most Democrats in a close election the only way they will win is, like Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania, show that while they believe and support the principles of the Democratic party they are anything but Obama Democrats. Because Obama represents to most Democrats, liberals and independents, a major failure of accomplishment,a failure of character and a failure of conviction. Obama's problems is not that he was too liberal. It was that he hasn't been liberal enough because of his own political fears and its costing him dearly in his own polls.

Kaine's advice for Democrats not to distance themselves from Obama because of his sinking poll numbers is nonsensical . Kaine doesn't seem to understand is that the reason behind Obama's plummeting approval ratings are all the things cited above. It is Obama's performance and how Democrats and independents feel about it that is driving the low approval ratings based, not on what he's done but what he hasn't done but should have.

The best advice anyone can give a Democrat now running for anything is to ignore Tim Kaine's advice.

Michael Bennett, an incumbent backed by Obama narrowly beat Andrew Romanoff , an insurgent who, like Joe Sestak had been offered a job by the administration not to run.

Romanoff had pubicly complained that the DNC , instead of being neutral in a race between Democrats, provided phone banks and money that has come from outside Colorado to support Bennett. Romanoff had to sell his house to pay for last minute TV commericals.

With all that fire power behind him and a slanted playing field the fact that the Obama backed incumbent candidate narrowly beat the Democratic insurgent challenger isnt exactly a feather in Obama's political cap though the media will play it that way.

But one thing that needs to be remembered is, the last time the DNC interfered with the will of Democratic voters was when they rigged the playing field on behalf of Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries, something that no honest member of the DNC would not say they now regret.