Ocelopotamus

From a story in the Washington Post on the Yearly Kos convention taking place in Chicago this weekend…

I can’t believe Hillary actually said this out loud.

Clinton came under attack for declining to join former senator John Edwards (N.C.), who is quite popular with bloggers, and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in pledging not to take campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists.

“I think my party, the Democratic Party, the party of the people, ought to say from this day forward we will never take a dime from a Washington lobbyist,” Edwards said to rising applause from the audience of more than 1,000.

Asked whether she would agree with that, Clinton said, “I don’t think, based on my 35 years of fighting for what I believe in, anybody seriously believes I’m going to be influenced by a lobbyist or a particular interest.”

How gullible does she think we are?

Pretty gullible, apparently.

Hey, Hillary — I’m right over here. And yes, I seriously believe that you are going to be not only influenced but flat-out owned by the interests that give you money. Because you simply have not demonstrated the ability to stand up to those interests and win.

And you aren’t willing to take the pledge. It’s a little harder to believe that Edwards and Obama will be bought by lobbyists, given that they’re refusing to take their money.

Just so we’re clear on that.

But wait, to really drive it home, watch the video and listen to the Yearly Kos audience’s reaction when she starts talking that stuff.

 
Hillary does have a little follow-up in the video that almost saves her — where she says that some of the lobbyists represent not-evil people like nurses and so forth — but that’s kind of a red herring, because the amount of money that nurses’ organizations kick in pales in comparison to what say, big pharma lobbyists can pony up.

And the audience knows it. And now Hillary knows that they know it.

Here’s a quick video of Edwards’ follow-up session at Yearly Kos.

 
He’s really doing such a great job of delivering the populist message — it seems to me pretty clear that he’s read What’s the Matter with Kansas? and understands how vital it is for the Democrats to restore their place as the party of the people in the minds of American voters. It shouldn’t be necessary, but unfortunately the Republican media machine has effectively managed to switch the parties’ hats for a lot of regular-type Americans, who’ve been bombarded for too many years with Faux News propaganda about “liberal elitists” (who are apparently the only people in the whole country who like the taste of wine and/or cheese. Imagine that! All those wine shops, all those cheese departments in grocery stores across our great land, and apparently liberals are the only ones who ever visit them!)

It’s pretty obvious that the Democratic blogosphere is in love with Edwards. I just hope the not-so-Internetty Democratic voters start waking up to how brilliant he’s being, and that of all the candidates he has the best chance of defeating all Republicans and actually restoring a spine to the Democratic party.

See also this diary by David Sirota at DKos, where I found these videos.