The MoveOn.org Mess by Tom Bevan

The MoveOn.org Mess

Tom Bevan

Some notes on the MoveOn.org mess:

How big of a political blunder was MoveOn's ad? Even Frank Rich of the New York Times thinks the group went too far and - more importantly - that Hillary and Barack were stupid not to smack them down:

Americans are looking for leadership, somewhere, anywhere. At least one of the Democratic presidential contenders might have shown the guts to soundly slap the "General Betray-Us" headline on the ad placed by MoveOn.org in The Times, if only to deflate a counterproductive distraction.

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Chuck Todd described MoveOn.org this way:

MoveOn is sort of like this old friend of the Democratic Party. It's as if it's, you know, your, your teen - your - a friend of yours from high school, and you don't mind hanging out with them back in high school, and then they keep showing up at your parties, and they get a little drunk and obnoxious, but you'll still - you're afraid to criticize them because they know too much about you or something.

Meanwhile, John McCain made a bit of news by calling for MoveOn.org to be "thrown out of the country" (his campaign later qualified the Senator's comment saying he "expressed his outrage in words that did not convey his intended meaning.") Here is the video:

Finally, I was on Bruce DuMont's nationally-syndicated radio show, Beyond the Beltway, last night along with Dan Johnson-Weinberger, a "progressive" lobbyist who also happens to be a member of MoveOn.org. Dan started the show by defending the ad as "cute" and saying that he had no knowledge of General Petraeus' personal integrity and thought the General had exhibited "hack-like behavior" by "collaborating" with the hacks in the Bush administration. (view the first hour of the program here)

Later Dan said he thought it was "healthy" and "good" that Democrats were challenging General Petraeus and his report, and that it would be a display of "bad judgment" for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to denounce or distance themselves from the MoveOn ad.

I relate all of this because it shows what an overinflated sense of confidence MoveOn and its members have about the current state of affairs. They see public opinion polls showing an unpopular president and frustration with the war and naturally assume those numbers mean a majority of the country shares their utter contempt for Bush and their willingness to use any tactic necessary - including disparaging a distinguished member of the military - as a means to end the war.

It's been a textbook case of political tone deafness, a gift to Republican presidential candidates, and an issue that will almost certainly come back to be a thorn in the side of Democratic nominee in the general election next year.

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