Legacy Worries

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge The Clintons, if anything, are complicated. Very complicated - sometimes seeming compassionate and sometimes appearing aloof and disconnected. I do think however the Clintons do care about the safety and well-being of America. Regardless of all the bullshit and punditry, they are advocates of America. I am not one of those who keep chanting "9-11 changed everything." It didn't change everything, George W. Bush changed everything. 9-11 could have been prevented but in Bush's fever to erase all things Clinton from the White House, he sat on all the Al Qaeda intel and actions Clinton/Gore put into place. Bush changed everything. Sadly, I think the Clintons have not. I rewatched the documentary War Room this past week and I see the same playbook being used today on the campaign trail. What worked in the 80's in Arkansas and in New Hampshire in 1992 is now outdated and shoeworn. We uppity progressives and liberals took up citizen journalism in the tradition of Thomas Paine. Only now, instead of pamphlets, we have Wordpress and Scoop, diaries, Google, social networking, YouTube and Adobe Software. We can track down damn near every lead, every fact, every nuance and collectively pound out a million words within an hour on any hot topic. Howard Dean was the first politician to get a clue. He knew the power of people-powered politics, blogs and citizen journalists while Jame Carville was still working the old media Crossfire gig. One would change the world and the other would die. I think that is the root of Hillary Clinton's problem, it is her inability to embrace change. I am not speaking of the overused campaign meme of a change in government, but change in terms with what has happened to the Democratic party. Democrats and progressives in general have turned their back on the DLC. When Carville demanded Howard Dean's resignation after Dean's 50 state strategy paid off in spades is a another sign of being shoeworn. Those days have passed. Obama is barely 18 months older than I am - I blog, use social network tools and am a slave to Adobe. His and mine, was the first generation to grow up with software in the home - Apple, Atari and Commodore's were everywhere. I am not saying he was geeked out with an Apple ][ in his basement, I am saying he is more aware of what those tools can do to democracy. My Mom is near Hillary's age and she has problems with mastering AOL. She is a user, not a groker. Obama groks it, he is AJAX. Bill and Hillary are legacy apps.