Why I Was So Angry (With Thoughts On Patty Murray's Letter)

[jsmirman]

I've been feeling like I need to get this off my chest. Some of you may not want to read this, some of you may react in a hostile manner to this post, but I feel the need to break it down.

Two things I ask you to keep in mind, as you read this - 1) for contributions I've made this election cycle that I could find receipts for in my email inbox, I've given almost $1700, spread out over 16 different candidates/general democratic efforts (I am going to take the unusual step of posting a breakdown of the totals, because they are relevant) 2) the Patty Murray letter I received post debate, which I just want people to keep in their minds, as I'll return to it at the end of this post.

Here was the Patty Murray letter:

Since last night’s debate, Romney is collecting money from his millionaire donors hand over fist.

The scary part? This race could turn around on President Obama in the next 24 hours. Polls now show Romney is within one point in Florida (47-46) and two in Virginia (48-46).

The only way to prevent a Republican turnaround is with a massive display of grassroots donations. Can you give $25 immediately? We have just 24 hours, and need to bring in 10,000 more donations, or we’ll lose President Obama and a Democratic Senate.

Don’t let 90 minutes change the course of this election. Stop Mitt’s momentum immediately—24 hours left >> http://dscc.org/stop-mitt

Thank you,
Patty

Okay, so why am I so angry:

REASON #1: I'm generally an unusually angry person. Moving on.

REASON #2: Throughout June and July, and so on, the Obama campaign has communicated a clear strategy to donors: the most important money is the money you can give us NOW so that we can build up an early lead, this election will be won by what we do in these months, it will be too late if you decide to give money later, our plan is to build a lead and steadily pull away.

You're going to make that pitch, you're going to press on donors again and again and again to be giving earlier than ever, and arguing that the money spent earlier is going to have a better than 1-1 effect, as it is portrayed as particularly useful money, well, then that's your pitch, and that's your promise. That's your strategy. None of this bullshit about 436 dimensional chess and dopey ropey dopey - the plan all along was to build a lead and work from there. And so I gave. Early. With money that actually means something to me.

And this strategy was working like a charm. Why was it working like a charm? Because by all appearances, the campaign seemed to be spending money wisely, the ads were sharp and had their intended effect, and, oh yeah, that's right, the other candidate was so fucking impossibly bad at this and kept throwing himself face first into gravel pits to the extent that the other base was so demoralized that their enormous corporate and big business base couldn't respect themselves if they didn't write the guy off as a bad investment.

If, indeed, we are back closer to square one, and you've managed to elevate their candidate from stooge to passable candidate (more on this later), and if we are going to hear any stuff about needing to dig deep again because we're neck and neck, well, that makes me terrifically angry. And I have to tell you, if I'm going to give to the point of it being a very measurable hit to my resources, among my minimal expectations are that you will fight like you actually appreciate what we're trying to do for you here, and will stand up for the most basic things that we as Democrats believe in. If you knew you weren't up for standing up for us, you should have included that disclaimer in all of those solicitations. I'm sure Obama gets this, and will do better from here, but to squander what has been built to a great extent on bleeding us small donors repeatedly, that's not okay.

REASON #3: I truly believe this has the potential to hurt our other candidates.

I'm going to post the list of candidates I've donated to in a second, which may help explain where I'm coming from.

But with candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Baldwin, who I really, really want to see win, it was extremely helpful that their opponents needed to avoid Romney like the plague, particularly in the case of the former. Romney's campaign has been so embarrassing that for a Scott Brown, the fact that he has ties to Romney is toxic, and potentially fatal. In 90 minutes, our guy managed to elevate their stooge from joke to legitimate candidate.

I made many of these "investments" with the belief that we had a real chance to see a rising tide lift many boats. I don't expect to win all of them, and a few of them may be a bit quixotic, but I had good reason to think my scorecard could look pretty good on election night, and I'm afraid that now it may get drenched in red. An Obama rout was the best bet for the close bets and definitely the longshots to have a real chance at bringing these elections home. If that's been compromised because of pitiful planning and competitive awareness (more on that in a second), yes, I'm going to be a little enraged.

Here are the candidates I've supported:

Obama For America $220.12
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $220.00
Elizabeth Warren $205.00
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee $155.00
Tammy Duckworth $110.00
Tammy Baldwin $105.00
Sherrod Brown $100.00
Jennifer Roberts $95.00
Wayne Powell $90.00
Patrick Murphy $85.00
Jim Graves $65.00
Shelli Yoder $60.00
Move On $60.00
Alan Grayson $50.00
Shelley Berkley $25.00

There's one other past effort I don't want to mention because it's bad juju.

REASON #4: The idea that you didn't see Mitt's Brand New Bag coming from a mile away is ludicrous.

Here's why it's most ludicrous - for Mitt Romney to have presented his same tired, crappy, failed non-positions to the American people would have been fatal, particularly on the back of 47% and his other stumbles, and not even that campaign is dumb enough to play for a loss.

I also find it ludicrous because I swear on all that is good and holy that the entire week before the debate all I could think about was "what is the best way to skewer Mitt when he presents an entirely new set of positions that don't match anything he's said the last year?" There was no "if." Only "what is the best way to respond."

As I've posted repeatedly, one of the better ones I had come up with was, "my opponent stands for nothing. He's telling you this tonight, but that's not what he said last week, and it's not what he said at any of the 200 Republican debates. And if you can't trust what he's saying tonight or what he said last week or last month, how can you trust him about anything? Now, I don't want to waste more time on that, because I'd like to present you my clearly held position on this topic, but go to www.barackobama.com right after the debate, and we'll have clips up to show that my opponent is stunningly dishonest."

That would represent being prepared for the debate. And to fail to be prepared for the debate, to ask me and so many others to give until it hurts so that you could position the campaign so well as of October 3rd and so you could run effective ads and campaigns on our dime, but then to fail to take advantage of the one thing that didn't cost me or anyone else a dime - the chance to reach 60 million potential voters FOR FREE - to turn that free time to communicate with the American people into such a negative, well, that is inexcusable.

REASON #5: Re-read Patty Murray's letter (this is the last one, I promise).

Have a look at what she's saying: "Since last night’s debate, Romney is collecting money from his millionaire donors hand over fist."

Well, how the hell do you think that happened, and what is that essentially saying? Obama screwed up, and now Romney is rolling in riches from people who can give and give and will never feel a thing.

And what was her solution? "The only way to prevent a Republican turnaround is with a massive display of grassroots donations. Can you give $25 immediately? We have just 24 hours, and need to bring in 10,000 more donations, or we’ll lose President Obama and a Democratic Senate."

Oh, I see. The solution to fighting the millionaires and billionaires is to bleed the grassroots even more deeply. That's nice. Wonderful. It's on us. We will lose President Obama and the Senate if we don't dig in again. When? Immediately.

This is abusing your donors.

Does it occur to you, Senator Murray, that some of us have seen this as a last stand against Citizens United, and so we've gone as close to all in as we can afford to go to try to turn back that flood? But now because the candidate stepped on his own dick, it's up to us to suddenly make ourselves into the equal of the Koch Brothers and the limitless corporate cash he just unleashed?

Do you understand the difference between us and them, Senator Murray? We feel every dollar we shell out. And we give not on the basis of some cold business calculation, and not because it's as meaningless as a drop in the bucket, as it is for the corporate interests we're up against, but because we believe it's important for this country and for this world, and because we are placing our trust in you.

As I've said before, it's gone on for months now. My email inbox is not my own. My cell phone is not my own. Do you know how many calls I get every day? Do you know how annoying it is? And they're never about my vote. I have to live with my vote being worth shit because I don't live in a swing state. They're always about one thing: money money money. Give us Give us Give us. More More More.

And the emails. Fifty a day? Maybe? We have to make the September 30th deadline! Donate before this crucial October 2nd deadline! If we don't give by October 6th, the world will end! Donate because Barack just burped after breakfast! Donate because Michelle just finished a workout! Donate to celebrate Obama vetoing a dinner menu! Donate for a chance to donate another $3. Or at least $75. They are endless. And they are about more more more, and always, NOW! IMMEDIATELY! HAS TO BE TODAY!

I was already weary of it all and reaching the outside of my available resources.

But most of all, if you're going to make so much of this campaign about the IMPORTANCE OF NOW!!!!!! then how dare you come unprepared and unready to kick some ass to something as important as 90 minutes in front of 60 million people.

And I don't want to hear the stuff about how incumbents always lose that debate. It was a sample size of six, Bill managed to win his first debate, and every debate is its own animal, anyway. And that debate provided opportunity after opportunity to drive a truck through, and Obama just sat there with his lips pursed and his head down, feeding into every ounce of right-wing bullshit that those assholes actually believe enough to be crowing today that they've been right all along.

I'm going to single out one thread, and I apologize to the poster. You're just the easiest example, but it's nothing personal against you.

But Nye Bevan asked of the first debate: "Was Obama Just Bored?"

Can you imagine how enraged that question made me? Bored? Are you fucking kidding me? Bored of what? Spending my money?

You see, for an administration that I am supporting to the fullest - despite the fact that they have been horseshit for animals - to squander what I've given them, that's tough to take. Sixty dollars here? It represents an animal I could have saved. $100 here? An abused dog that needed surgery. $200 here? I could post the picture of the sweet, never did anything to hurt anyone pit mix who got stabbed in the side by a dickhead owner and just got gassed the other day because she wasn't easy enough to handle. But I don't want you to cry like I did the other night over that. Perhaps $200 would have been a really good start to saving her. So don't think for a fucking second that this money doesn't mean something to me. Every last dollar of it hurts because it could have gone to something else important.

If you're going to lean on the grassroots, well, you have a responsibility to all of us.

Alright, I'm done. I can't imagine anyone read all that shit, but I had to vent. That's the last "bedwetting" I'll do, I think it's probably the last time I'll need to bitch about something that is over and that we can only move on from, but I'm still going to call you stupid when you prattle on about chess and dopery and this being some grand strategy, when all the people in the real world - and not just the talking heads - admit that was an unnecessary disaster. And it's the unnecessary nature of the thing that is so frustrating. But I'm done. I'll try to be. But it's not as easy as just digging in once again. I can only afford to donate so much.

Maybe some of you can step up and step in. I'm sure I'll do more, but it also feels like I've certainly done my part. I am not an inexhaustible resource. We are up against basically inexhaustible resources. Every second of this campaign needs to be fought with an awareness of that imbalance. Anything less is unacceptable.

[Drunken Irishman]

1. tl;dr

[graham4anything]

2. Thanks for vetting, however, you do realize that

in fundraising, it goes on forever thanks to the amount of money needed.

Obama collected over 150 million in September I read, money still available.(not squandered)

What was squandered???
Nothing.

Of course fundraisers are going to emphasize how much more is needed, and how urgent

(regardless of the days events)

Do you expect to get a message stating- Obama won the debate, we don't need any money anymore???

c'mon. Your not naive as to fundraisers

You remember the children on the Jerry Lewis telethon in its heydays in between all the great entertainment? That is called hard sell

and it is a long-term 9 step ahead chessmatch.

The greatest modern day president of the last 50 years knew he would temporarily lose the south when he signed the voting rights/civil rights acts.
Should he have not done that and in effect, President Obama would not have even been able to vote for President let alone run for president???
With the demographic change (and minority vote) coming, the south will shortly be blue.

everything is for long term 9 step ahead chess.

FORWARD
(like d'uh)

and the important number is 7.8

If Mitt picked up so much, why are the republicanlibertarianteaparty whining even louder than ever? Think about it. Their supposed macho gain is a net loss on 11/6/2012.

real men don't fight against a school yard bully.(or against someone with a gun from the NRA)
they walk away and live to fight another day and on that day (11/6/2012 we will/have won.)

[OldDem2012]

12. +1000. Thank you. nt.

[jsmirman]

15. We can't wait for the South to be blue

for the simplest example - and I intend to live to be a crusty old fuck - if we lose this election, there's a strong likelihood that I will never live in a time when the Supreme Court doesn't suck.

We lose Breyer and Ginsburg and les jeux sont faits.

[coldwaterintheface]

18. In reality the South is not needed to win the WH

By South I mean the Confederacy and by winning, I mean Electoral College, crunch the Electoral College numbers with and without the South. Democrats can win the WH without taking a single southern state.

I am taking in general and not a specific election cycle, but mathematically the South is not needed for a Dem to win a national election.

[jsmirman]

19. I know what you are saying and mean

I was just responding to the other poster, and explaining that any "long game" in the present will have devastating consequences.

[coldwaterintheface]

20. Today Gerrymandering is what keeps the Southern AWGs in power at the state level

Once the AWGs can no longer pervert the election boundaries they will lose all power and we are almost at that point today.

[gateley]

3. Righteous rant!

[jsmirman]

16. Thanks, gateley

I guess it probably could be summarized by my conclusion:

I am not an inexhaustible resource. We are up against basically inexhaustible resources. Every second of this campaign needs to be fought with an awareness of that imbalance. Anything less is unacceptable.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Thank You For Your Donations To Democratic Candidates

I know you don't want to hear this and it might sound cliched but even presidents have bad nights.

[jsmirman]

17. I know it

just a bad time to have one of those.

Still, work to be done now, just wish the pressure hadn't been ratcheted up so much.

[roody]

5. I read most of your post.

Don't give anymore if you don't want to. Obama won the first time without a penny from me.

[jsmirman]

13. Thanks for reading most of it

It's certainly way too long.

I will give again, and I gave to Move On post-debate instead, as I decided to trust them with some dollars for their attempt at truth dissemination and I'm sure I've got at least one last donating cycle in me this go round, it's just the taking us for granted thing that gets to me. You know who the last guy was who made me feel completely exploited? Terry McAuliffe, and it was always my opinion that he was truly a shitbag DNC chair. He definitely had an active role in decreasing what I gave when he was the chair.

You have as good a sig line as there is here, btw. SPAY AND NEUTER, indeed.

[LiberalAndProud]

6. I have to agree that it's an offensive call to arms.

'We fucked up so we need more money' doesn't inspire me to reach for my wallet. Keep in mind they will spin any event to ask for another dollar. It's only politics as usual.

You have done your part, but they won't stop asking. We don't have the resources to match their dollars, so we have to find a way to change the game.

Bless you, jsmirman, for what you've done. You've earned your righteous anger.

[jsmirman]

8. Thank you - I'm humbled that people here read all that

and glad that some people can understand where I'm coming from.

[renate]

21. I heard a woman on Ed Schultz's show saying she felt personally insulted by Obama's performance

She's been knocking on doors in her conservative Republican neighborhood, etc, and then he shows up at the debate that really should have ended Romney's candidacy for good and seems to not even be interested in the proceedings.

I see her point. In retrospect, it looks like Obama's decision to not bring up the 47% comment was absolute genius, because Romney must have been practicing his mea culpa in the mirror for weeks and didn't get to deliver it in front of a national audience. But letting so many other non-hot-button-but-purely-factual-things slide was not really wise, IMHO. And like you, "sorry, my bad" does not inspire me, either.

I really do hope/think that the President has gotten enough bad press from that debate that he will not let anything like that happen again--he's not a guy who is comfortable with the concept of failure. Now that he knows Romney's tactic of bald-faced "Who, me?" lying, he will call him on every piece of BS that drips out of his mouth.

[jsmirman]

23. I'm pretty confident it won't happen again, too

but it's sure hard to deal with the waiting in between debates, and then there's the hoping that an equal audience will tune in for subsequent debates.

Interesting interview you mention. I really think the more skin in the game you have, the more upsetting a performance that lukewarm was.

I know the President is pissed at himself, which is good. I just want to see him execute at debate #2 and shove the right-wing's "Obama is stupid and lazy/Obama is an affirmative action president" memes straight up their rear ends. He's way too smart to allow this nonsense to get promulgated and then "reinforced."

I'll have to check out that interview.

[jsmirman]

32. I wish there were some way to find that video - I looked online

at msnbc's site and the ed show site and couldn't seem to find it.

If you have any idea where it is, I'd love to see it.

[regnaD kciN]

7. THAT'S RIGHT!!! DAMN THAT OBAMA! HE LET US ALL DOWN!!!

WHY IS THE PRESIDENT LESS INTELLIGENT THAN EVERY ONE OF US HERE???

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. We Need To Give The Devil (RobMe) His Due

As a recovering salesperson my raison d'etre was making the sale and I would say whatever was needed at the moment to achieve that goal. The difference was I was selling advertising space to people who could presumably afford it. I wasn't trying to transfer money from the working and middle class to the rich.

[Cha]

10. That's Right, "Game Over, Man"!

[jsmirman]

11. Smart people do stupid things

see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021487277#post7

[ibegurpard]

14. can't really argue with that

and even if someone disagrees with assessment that Obama lost the debate, that's the pervailing perception and perception is reality in politics unfortunately.
The one good thing to come of this perhaps is it will stop the stupid "we got this in the bag" bullshit.

[gateley]

22. +1

[jsmirman]

24. Indeed, we need to keep pushing

just wish the man had fought for all of us who are fighting for him.

I'm sure he will next time. Still an unforgivable thing to allow, but now we move forward, and I believe things will be different.

[leftstreet]

25. The GOP was dead by 2008. The Dems needed to revive them

It's still happening, and that's what you're seeing

Reaganomics failed, the religious right failed, the GOP lost its fiscally conservative majority base

The Republican party didn't start leaning left, to compensate for the Democrats going right, so they all have to do something to maintain the appearance of a horse race.

[rusty fender]

26. Super excellent post!

I was rivited by every word. So very eloquent and heart felt. I and a hundred times over.

[jsmirman]

27. Wow, thank you

I didn't even know if anyone could make it through all that!

Much appreciated...

[bluestate10]

28. I have giver around $8,000 this cycle.

I still get the "urgent" emails and they all mention Carl Rove and his fund raising. I would be lying if I said that I am not irritated by the messages. I want to see democrats developing a clear message and driving that home with direct contact with voters, march in parades, go door to door, respond to voter email good and bad. The issue that I have is democrats seemed convinced that they must match republicans or stay close on fund raising, nothing can be more wrong. Voters want to see and talk to people that they think have principals, even when they don't agree with that person. Let Carl Rove spend money on ads, democrats must respond by going back to old fashioned networking, talking to true democrats, getting lists of other democrats and going into those people's homes and communities to talk to them and enlist them as foot soldiers that will talk to their neighbors, family and friends.

Another issue that democrats must avoid is running candidates that have ethical questions swirling around them, I am so afraid that my deep blue state may end up with one republican in our House delegation because the democrat has ethical questions swirling around him. All I can say about that democrat is that if he was not involved in the crime that took place, he was at the least fucking stupid and clueless. I would have like to have seen that democrat resign, or failing that, the democratic primary voters in his district select someone else, but as things are, we're stuck with a man with an ethical stench around him. The only good item in the whole mess is that the republican is a fucking loony teabagger. The situation, from the democratic side shows the danger of far left of center voters dominating primaries, we end up with a fucking fool running o our side. Fortunate for our side, republican primary voters were as fucking stupid.

[jsmirman]

31. They're still a political party, and we have to accept that

I have come to hate the two-party system, but with the options in front of us, I'm all in for the Dems.

It sucks that a power structure can produce such an irrational result like running the candidate you mention. That happened because somewhere in the power structure, they decided that candidate was the guy. It's maddening, but as you see, both parties do it.

Two parties along with redistricting has led to too much calcification and a level of outrageous confidence in foisting utter shitbirds on the public. It's rough. It's wrong.

But, of course, the choice between anything we put up and that other party that wants to kill the earth, exploit the people, and play fast and loose with the world's equilibrium, is a crystal clear choice.

I do think, generally (and you've been far more generous than I have been - we all owe you a tremendous amount of thanks), they've been spending our money well. They've been great about developing campaign office after campaign office in the crucial swing states, they use their ad dollars very effectively, they have tons of volunteers and paid staff spread out in overwhelming fashion in the swing states, and they seem to have done an excellent job again in pushing voter registrations.

But like I said, the other night was FREE - and was a free chance to reach 60 million plus. Unfortunately, you *can* undo a lot of good in 90 minutes. So it was very unfortunate.

The response so far has been positive in the aftermath, and we'll have to see what's next.

Thanks for your post and all the support you've given our candidates.

[ismnotwasm]

29. I get fundraising emails everyday

For a variety of Democratic candidates. while i understand your frustration, Those emails are simply generated. I've donated, if the email has good info i'll read it, Then delete it. I can only give what I can. I delete around 10 or so a day

You must be a generous person

I like Patty Murray--enough to donate to her, but I've learned to tune out the hysterical tone of political fundraising emails.

Contact her and tell her office--she needs to hear this. I've gotten good response from them in the past on other issues.

[jsmirman]

30. Sounds like a very good suggestion

As much as they are just generated, I saw a real difference between a DNC that was completely out of touch with their donor base under McAuliffe and a DNC that knew how to communicate and how not to under Dean.

I think it's worth the step you mention.

[jsmirman]

33. Kicking this - I personally think the polls will begin to reflect more strength for Obama

on Wednesday and Thursday, and Biden needs to do his job, and we'll be in reasonably good shape, but this notion that resuscitating the corpse that was Romney's campaign was part of any successful strategy - bullshit. Plain and simple, bullshit.

[nolabear]

34. I sympathize but this is a little war and war needs $.

I get those emails too. I've donated too. They are simply saying what they think will work on the emotions of the moment.

How could Obama possibly have been bored? I mean, really. So I'd let that one roll off. He screwed up, in my opinion by thinking Romney intended to actually debate. Obama's Achilles heel seems to be his naturally high opinion of others as ethical and deserving of respect. His strength is his intelligence, so I expect him to have learned.

But to you, I'd say hang back and work down ticket til you see what happens next. Let those emails go unopened for a few days, even if you give money anyway. I don't think they're wasting your deduction but not all battles are won. War is hell.

Hang in there.

[Xyzse]

35. I've already donated quite a bit...

Nowhere near the magnitude that you have spent.
Stating that, I have added to my busy schedule a little bit of volunteering instead, such as joining a group that has a list for people to call.

There are other ways to contribute other than spending. Besides, I think my time is worth far more.