Rachel Maddow and Mudcat Saunders

I saw Mudcat Saunders, a former senior adviser to John Edwards, on Rachel Maddow's show Friday night. The context is the mud slinging of McCain's campaign, especially his race-baiting direct mail and "hate calls" about Obama.

Here's the interview clip:



Mucat says robo calls are literally " cheap "(meaning inexpensive) which is why they are used, and to start a whisper campaign of some misinformation.

Love that Mudcat--and Rachel, the new star pundit!

(h/t Liberty Air)

Mixed Reactions to the Obama 's Comments (update)

I have mixed reactions to what Barack Obama said about rust belt citizens in rural America. In some ways, I think people are bitter about what has happened to their jobs and their lives. But I'm not certain that is the reason they cling to guns and religion either.

I'm linking to Talking Points Memo's Election Central which has the reactions and responses of both Clinton and Obama, and you can decide. I think both are right, and both are a little wrong. Clinton is correct in what she is hearing; Obama is correct that people are angry and feel ignored.

Obama though made a mistake, no question about it, as McSame saw it as an opportunity to call him on it. Why? Because the offhand comment was made at a California high dollar fund raiser.

To see opposing views about this latest gotcha, go to this diary and this diary at MyDD. Identity politics at work. The second diary concluded with this paragraph:

... I hope this supposed controversy continues to rage right up to the next debate in Philly on Wednesday, April 16th. Let Clinton try to defend her GOP-lite position in front of an audience of Democrats and let Obama take his position from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party and let's see how the audience responds.

In half-truthed snark, I penned a response:

The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party has left the room for now. It resides at the Center for American Progress.

However, I'm hoping the Democratic Wing in the form of a very progressive platform will return in August at the DNCC.

Update: Mudcat Saunders, whom I thought was working for Obama, made this comment to CNN:

“I’m a southern boy myself,” Saunders told CNN by phone. “I don’t have a gun because I’m bitter, it’s because I’ve always had one. I don’t pray to God because I’m bitter. I pray to God because it makes my life better.”

Saunders was an adviser to former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, and he wrote on The Huffington Post in January that Edwards was the only Democrat with the potential to defeat McCain in a general election match-up.

The consultant is also credited with helping former Virginia governor Mark Warner win election in 2001 by moving socially-conservative voters into the Democratic fold. Warner sponsored a vehicle in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series during that campaign, a move attributed to Saunders.

Obama’s advisers, including the state’s current Gov. Tim Kaine, see Virginia as a state Obama can win this fall. Although Obama won the state’s primary on Feb. 12 overwhelmingly, he lost the 9th congressional district in rural southwestern Virginia to Hillary Clinton.

Saunders said “rural America will be crucial in this election.”

“The one thing that I preached during this whole deal is we can’t be stereotyping anybody,” he said. “Well, Barack Obama just stereotyped my people out in rural America.”

“Here’s a guy who says he shouldn’t be stereotyped, but yet he stereotyped us.”

Well, if he was working for Obama, I bet he's not anymore.

Mudcat Saunders: Fishing Off the Right Dock

There's nothing better than a bit of Southern expression about politics to stir up some discussion. Dave "Mudcat" Saunders may not try to play the part of Mark Twain as a satirist, but his Will Rogers style speaks to me as though I'm sitting on a dock near Lake Ruralsville, reaching for a can of Diet Coke in the cooler; he's handing me some peanuts he picked up at the fishin' store, and we are playing "Go Fish", a simple card game while we take a break.

Yesterday at the Huffington Post, Mudcat had a good hook to talk about the recent local and state elections in by using a song that the Clintons had for their campaign song, 'Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow' in bringing our Reagan Democrats back to the cabin. He observed:

I think yesterday answered one huge question concerning red state politics. Will the Reagan Democrats who left our party in the eighties continue their return? When a Democratic candidate can get through the red state culture as Steve Beshear did in Kentucky, the answer is a resounding yes. However, if a Democratic Presidential candidate can't get through the culture, or worse, hits the cultural wall head-on, a Democrat can't win. The science is literally everywhere.

You can guess what this is leading to, so I'll post a little more:

I know people say "trust me", and then you think they must be lying. But as a red state Democrat who has been fighting these Republicans for a long time, just trust me this one time when I tell you that John Edwards is the only Democrat who understands and can get through the red state culture and psyche.

I actually know a Central Illinois Dem who would say the same thing about JRE. Mudcat continues to deal the cards here:

That is one of two reasons I am with John. He can head to a red state, connect with the people, and look like he was born on that stump. The absolute truth is with the eminent coming of the Republican onslaught in '08, John is the only electable Democrat. And believe it or not, the Republicans are coming with the fury of Hell. For those who think the Republicans are done for, we must never, never, never forget they are like a cornered animal and will do anything next year. A snake can still bite you until you cut off its head.

But as he picks up another card and discards one, he makes his strongest point about why we should be in John's corner:

Money has now completely taken over our electoral process and government. It's nuts. Somebody has got to do something and now. We need somebody who is mean enough and not afraid to fight the incredible money and power of the huge corporations and special interests. John is perfectly suited for the tough job that lies ahead, and I promise you, there will be a fight to get our government back.

Mudcat concludes with a heartfelt comment as he lays down the winning hand:

John will fight them. Of that, I am sure.

Now I have to have to shuffle the cards again. And we will go invite more to come back to the cabin, and give those rural Dems toothpicks and cards or dominoes as they sit in coffee shops, hoping the government will work for them and not for those rich folk.