Had a temperature-check conversation with a Movement leader. He’s close to someone frequently mentioned as a 2012 presidential candidate.
We Non-Rightists are dismayed at Obama Premature Flinch Syndrome metastasize. He and colleagues in the professional Movement elite’s are terrified. Of their inability to control the forces they conjured. The Usual Suspect blogs and cable casts don’t get that.
We all see the obvious signs: (a) tea partiers denouncing corrupt Republicans freely in trad media; and (b) Values Voter tent pole personalities pulling out of CPAC or threatening to do so. What makes things different is the chaos is not limited to ‘Republican establishment’ figures. Professional Movement leaders now perceive themselves at risk, holding a wolf by the ears. Damned holding on, damned letting go. These Movement professionals ironically are accepting the Stiftung’s long-standing diagnosis of the Movement parasite outgrowing the Republican depleted host. Put another way, the Movement refused to be on the leash of the Ken Duberstein or James Bakers. Now, to their dismay they realize their leash is unwelcome, too.
We smiled as Movement professionals dismissed the recent RNC Chairman candidates’ forum as an irrelevancy – as the Stiftung long counseled. How funny and rich to hear Movement professionals express alarm at Citizens United — why, these groups are potentially ‘uncontrollable.’ Comical perhaps. The fear of the unpredictable future unknown real.
Internal, unreported political cannibalism beyond the public reports is always captivating. Plus, it’s odd to see the general sense that Obama ‘won’ the Lame Duck, gaining stature and ‘Big Mo’ in sober conversation among professional colleagues. This was not posturing for the camera.
True, non-RIghtists have reason to look askance at Obama’s 2.0 makeover. More subservience to the financial plutocrats? Check. More pull back on regulation? Check? Premature caving to Movement factions seeking to destroy the American social safety net? Check. And so on. Just remember, though, this time he is ‘just itching to fight.’ Ask him. One nonetheless would be surprised at how many thoughtful Movement professionals as of today predict an Obama victory in 2012 – and no easy way to let go the wolf of their own making.