I think Matt Stoller asked excellent questions and was really well prepared. I think Gen. Wesley Clark explained very concisely why Stoller’s view of the MoveOn situation is ultimately wrong. There are some things I could quibble about in Clark’s answers and there are some points that Matt makes with which I agree.
But, at the end of the day, MoveOn.org’s advertisement did not succeed in its mission. And I think it is wrong to hand the Democratic caucus a lit stick of dynamite and then freak out when they throw it back at you.
I know that there are a lot of people that are angry that the party did not have MoveOn’s back. MoveOn made a tactical mistake. Their facts were basically correct (although not entirely). The analogy I made was:
1. Let’s say that you are designing an advertisement for a new Cadillac. And for some reason you decide to put a giant banana on the top of the car.
2. Let’s say that you test market the ad and discover that viewers remember the banana, but not the make and model of the car.
In that case, the giant banana has detracted from the message the ad was supposed to convey. Well…the BETRAY US message was the giant banana.
The rest of the ad might have accurately conveyed the gas mileage and safety rating of the Cadillac, but no one cares. They didn’t even retain that information. All they saw was a great big banana.
Now, the argument I keep hearing is that the Republicans would have found a different giant banana if MoveOn hadn’t provided one for them. That might be true. But it wouldn’t have been harmful to MoveOn…it wouldn’t have been so easily exploitable.
The other thing I keep hearing people say is that the Dems were cowardly or disloyal for not backing MoveOn up. I can agree with that and at the same time assert that they didn’t ask for this hand grenade. Don’t pull the pin and hand them a hand grenade and then act all hurt when they don’t fall on it for your sake.
MoveOn took a big hit today. What I would have liked to see is the entire Democratic caucus simply abstain from the vote using Barack Obama’s rationale. That would have been a good way to show contempt for gotcha politics.
Hopefully, MoveOn will learn from this experience. I don’t think they really understood how much respect General Petraeus has on the Hill. And they certainly didn’t understand how much of a taboo they were violating when they accused our lead general in Iraq of betrayal.
They weren’t wrong and it was an innocent mistake. I’m not angry with MoveOn. I just hope they make better decisions in the future because I fully support what they do.
