Daddy Can’t Make Us Do It
by digby
One thing I know about Barack Obama. He’s a smart, careful politician. He and Gibbs and Biden aren’t admonishing the base by accident. It’s a strategy. And that means they assume that the base is already going to vote and they are trying to attract independent voters by making them see themselves as common sense adults in comparison to the self-indulgent and petulant liberals. Because unless they really believe that hectoring people into feeling guilty for not recognizing how great the administration has been (which seems remarkably undisciplined and immature for Obama) nothing else makes sense.
I’ve said this before: you simply cannot browbeat people into loving you. And until voting becomes mandatory, you can’t make them vote either. Getting out he vote requires that you either inspire them into loving you or scare them into fearing the other guy. Appeals to duty and guilt are for mommies and right wing preachers, not politicians.
*Oh, and yes, they can blame the base for their losses in November, but that won’t fly either. It’s results that matter and people don’t blame voters for not voting — they blame the politicians for failing to get them to vote. Winners get credit and losers get blame. It’s just how it works.
Update: Michael Moore. Just read it.
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