Pick Up the Pieces, Sen. Clinton

While I am thoroughly displeased with the lack of leadership from each of the last three major Democratic candidates in the Presidential race, one thing that keeps me coming back is my disdain for the Clinton campaign tactics in the current primary and my even greater disdain for the willful ignorance of the so-called progressive blogosphere and the mainstream press to these tactics.

Much have been made of the Andrew Cuomo "shuck and jive" comments, the Shaheen "drug use/dealer" comments, Bob 'Booty-Shake' Johnson's "he was doing SOMETHING in the neighborhood" comments, etc. That was one thing, in fact, it is their entire primary strategy and among whites, it works.

It's something else to hear people either say it's Obama's fault for having to defend his race against slander, or that it's okay because it's politics.

Not only is that something Democrats were supposed to be against (weren't we against this when Harold Ford Jr. ran for Senate?) but it's a desperate attack line that cuts against Democratic theme and populist message. Instead of empowering the lower economic classes and the dispossessed of America, we're demeaning some of that group and dividing them politically.

As Democrats, we need a large coalition of voters, and to slander part of the base so nastily and repeatedly is politically and morally disheartening. When the Clintons get some sense and realize this race is less about them winning some game and more about empowering the American people to make a choice about their future, then maybe they'll earn these lost voters back.

I implore the Democratic Party leadership (if there be such an entity) to do what it can to head off this madness lest they hurt themselves down ticket and let the Republican agenda they hate rule the land again.