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Oh, c'mon. I can't begrudge Joan Walsh for having her candidate and doing what she can to support her, just as I can't begrudge Salon as a whole for being so absurdly in the tank for Clinton (although, frankly, I expected better.) Still, it's extraordinarily dismaying to see Walsh, Clinton, and other members of their generation play the "words are false hope" card over and over again. The generation gap between Clinton and Obama voters is still real, and it just breaks my heart. This is the same generation who recoiled from the tested, experienced establishment candidate in 1960, despite his considerable national security credentials, and flocked to the young, hopeful standard of Camelot. This is the same generation who, buoyed by the words of Dr. King, swelled the ranks of the civil rights movement, and who -- disgusted by the continuance of a badly thought-out war overseas -- was inspired by the moving oratory and surprising crossover appeal of Robert Kennedy. Words mattered then, but now -- in typical Boomer fashion -- they want to foist their crushed hopes on we younger generations.
People -- particularly young people -- are looking for more from a progressive candidate than the type of poll-driven, over-triangulated brand of GOP-lite policy wonk Clinton has always represented. I don't think I'm in a minority believing that many of Clinton's high-level corporate donors have more to answer for about the current state of the world than Grand Theft Auto. Put aside the V-Chips and school uniforms: We are looking to dream big again.
By the way, while Senator Clinton was showing her softer side this morning (It looked like a fake campaign move to me, and I can guess its provenance -- Clinton's "White Boys" are taking over for the justifably disgraced Mark Penn), she was also distributing leaflets lying about Obama's abortion record and invoking Willie Horton-esque drug hysteria about Obama's position on mandatory minimums. There's right and there's wrong, Senator Clinton, and those were wrong.
