Pro-Hillary blogger Riverdaughter does good

One thing that may shock a few people who have only started visiting Rumproast in the last few months is that one of the most heavily-trafficked posts I’ve written was one supporting Hillary Clinton against what I saw as unfair attacks by Chris Matthews.  I thought the media and Matthews in particular were willfully trying to dictate the outcome of the primaries and I found the piling on unseemly after Clinton suffered just one, albeit shocking, primary loss (Iowa). You couldn’t find one cable news channel that wasn’t declaring that Hillary was toast pre-New Hampshire and trying to yank the will of the people away from the electorate.

We’re now seeing the media pull the same stunt with Obama and their incessant and self-serving obsession with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Once again, they’re manufacturing a controversy and flicking the auto-repeat switch to keep it wedged into as many news cycles as possible.  That beady-eyed butthead Joe Scarborough can’t got three seconds without barking out Wright’s name like a Tourette’s tic and, unfortunately, a majority of MSNBC’s hosts and anchors who follow him are nearly as bad. Many pro-Hillary bloggers have become even worse, cheering about how Wright is “the gift that keeps on giving” and plopping YouTube embed code for anti-Wright videos into every other of their posts.  There used to be a time when liberal blogs defended Democrats against repugnant and relentless intellectually dishonest media attacks, now it seems to be all the rage to not only endorse those attacks but to outdo them. The political blogosphere has become, in many ways, no better than mainstream media, if not worse.

So I’m giving a tip of the hat to pro-Hillary blogger Riverdaughter from The Confluence, who I’ve taken issue with before, for trying to inject a little sanity into the debate.  While she writes a few things in her “Whoa! The wheels are coming off Obama’s campaign” post and her follow-up comments I disagree with, overall she makes some very thoughtful and intelligent points regarding Wright and the media’s manipulation of what she refers to as a “manufactured scandal” that several pro-Hillary bloggers and supporters should take to heart. And if you’re an Obama supporter it may do you well to read her post and her comments and realize that there may be enough wood to build a bridge across the Great Divide regardless of how this fucking mess turns out.

Kevin, what’s your take on the Clintonista argument that the Obama campaign was the first to inject race into the primary season?

Frank, I’ve seen that referenced quite a bit, but I’m not sure exactly what they’re talking about. If it’s the outrage over the “fairy tale” comment by Bill, I think there’s some validity to that argument. I didn’t see that as being racist at all. If any Hillary supporter wants to let me know if it’s something else, I’m all ears.

Kevin, as a fellow Brooklynite (sp?) and a Hillary supporter, thanks for this post and especially for the one taking on Matthews.

I look forward to fighting the good fight with you in November no matter how this turns out.

Now if I could only convince you to stop posting those Hillary YouTube videos.  ;)

Brendan, thanks for stopping by and for the kind words.  May the best man or woman win.

I too thought Riverdaughter put together a wonderful thought-out post.A rational Clintonista, I find that rare among that bunch (although my exposure to the crazy Billary backers is mostly from my time spent in No Quarter, 15 minute max. per visit, so as not to induce lunacy). I also enjoyed most of her posts in the discussion under said post.

I’m in total agreement about the media whipping the Rev. Wright sound bites up into a frenzy.

But then, Rev. Wright went off and whipped up the frenzy purdy well and good yesterday all on his own..
Yikes what a mess…

Obama looked pretty hurt and upset about the whole thing, that being said, he was forceful, and he strongly disavowed the Rev. Wright’s words from yesterday and the past statements he had already discussed… I know the Rev. will be brought up in the future, but I believe Obama did a good job of minimizing the Rev. Wright for now.