NY-SEN: What primary? The Presidential Primary? No?

The Buffalo News has a front page article about Hillary campaigning in the New York State heartland, and except for a guy in a chicken suit ……. you’d think from this article that there was no primary in New York State. That’s quite a gap in reality from how it appears on DailyKos from all the Tasini dairies and how people are claiming that New Yorkers are looking for an excuse to dump Hillary if just given the chance. But the Buffalo News is right. Essentially, Hillary has no primary. She barely has a general election, honestly, but since her potential Republican opponents are polling at 31% or 35% and Tasini is at 15%, what reason does she have to pay attention to him over the Republicans? Like it or not, progressives have to face reality. You are not getting Hillary’s attention. Try something else.

Now granted, this Buffalo News article is largely about Republicans who have shifted their opinions of Hillary since 2001, and that will probably give the Tasinistas another reason to lump her with Lieberman, but the reason they are doing so is because the primary is essentially over for her. The primary is not news. The only real story is whether she will run for President or not, not whether she’ll win the Senate seat back.

I think what progressives who wish to have an impact need to realize is that when you have a senator with a war chest of $22 million dollars cash on hand and $33 million raised, I think the biggest war chest of any Senator, Republican or Democrat, this ain’t going to cut it…..

Last week all across Central New York, she met adoring crowds and virtually no loud opposition, save for a person in a chicken suit carrying a sign saying that she was too “chicken” to debate Jonathan Tasini, her anti-war opponent in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

This is pathetic.

There is no substantial progressive movement with any real strategy or momentum to either impact Hillary Clinton’s record in any way or give her any sort of a run for her ginormous stacks of money, and anybody who thinks otherwise needs to check in at the front desk of Hotel Reality for a message. This is no way to build a progressive movement. This is how you make an ass of yourself.

“What about the Kiss Float?” you say. “Isn’t that the same kind of tactic?” Not even remotely. When you’re going up against Goliath, you need to aim for the sweet spot on the forehead or the temple, not aim for the shins or the fleshy behind. The Kiss Float was a perfect visual representation of Lieberman’s vulnerability – his smoochy lovey-dovey relationship to Bush, a great big rock to Lieberman’s forehead. Tasini focusing on whether or not Hillary will debate is first of all, standard underdog fare and not even remotely news or of importance to voters.

Tasini is barely a footnote to the 2008 Presidential Primary race, which is largely what the NY Senate race is going to be about. He’s at best a mosquito bite on the behind of Hillary Rodham Clinton. If you want to stop her run for President, Tasini is not your ticket to ride. Try Russ Feingold or something. (Personally, while I like Hillary okay as my Senator, I’m not wild about her for Prez….ahem, Gore, Clark, Edwards…)

Notice, by the way, that Hillary has raised all this money mostly from individuals, not PACs, and that she has gotten almost nothing from Party entities. Tasini has $11,000 cash on hand, raised $120,000 total, $30,000 of which was a candidate loan. Money is a strong indicator of real support for a candidate or a movement, and Tasini just ain’t got it.

So what to do? How do you cause a shift? Well, hate to tell y’all this, but it’s going to take long hard work. You have to elect more progressives to local and state office. You agitate on specific issues and legislation with Hillary, similar to this recent local action that encouraged Chuck Schumer to come out in favor of Net Neutrality. You have to organize for the long term, look for better candidates, raise more money, build more long term support. You have to deal with the reality of those who don’t support you and why, and find other tactics besides temper tantrums and guilt trips to persuade people. There was an actual indiginous progressive movement behind Ned Lamont that was being built for years and found a focus in the Lamont campaign.

None of this is to say that Tasini has no right to run or that people shouldn’t vote for him on Sept 12th. Knock yourself out. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you are having an impact on Hillary with your support for Tasini because you are not. If you are really committed to progressive change, think about focusing more energy on better candidates for 2008, on progressives for state and local office, and on NY candidates like Eric Massa or Kirsten Gillibrand who have a good chance of defeating Republican incumbents this November.

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