More bashing of liberal Bill White from liberals...

Bob Moser is not happy that Bill White is running from his liberal record and beliefs (link). Excerpt follows...

...what in the name of Rush Limbaugh was White thinking last week, when he reacted to Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Texas by taking a page straight out of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin's playbook?

[SNIP]

But wait, you say: Perhaps White is wise to avoid giving the Perry campaign the gift of a photo of the candidate grinning next to the Socialist Satan of the Potomac. There might be something to that—if, that is, White's people hadn't already given them that gift by running an ad in the Houston Defender around Juneteenth 2009, photoshopping White in between images of Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama (caption: "The Dream, The Hope, The Change"). If you haven't seen it, you will—again and again and again, with messages approved by Rick Perry.

What this whole sad episode of Obamaphobia seems to have revealed about White, as much as anything else, is his wrong-headed notion of what it's going to take for a Democrat to win statewide in Texas.

"It seems to me that White is using an outdated playbook on this one," says Ari Berman, political writer for The Nation and author of the forthcoming book, Herding Donkeys, which details the rise of grassroots politics in the Democratic Party—and the struggles of old-school Democrats to squash that effort.

"Perry is going to tie him to Obama anyway, so White might as well use Obama to try to take advantage of the changing demographics of the state," Berman adds. "It's true that White can't win without getting a substantial share of the swing white vote—independents, moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans—but he also can't win without a big Hispanic and black turnout and I'm assuming the president still has some juice left with those constituencies."

He does indeed. And the way Democrats have made breakthroughs in conservative "red" states like Texas in recent election cycles is to set aside the old "Republican Lite" strategy of Bill Clinton (and the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen)—"I'm just like a Republican, but slightly less extreme"—and work like the dickens to expand the turnout of Latino, African-American and working-class voters who've been sitting home on Election Day.

Bob Moser is not alone... a lot of liberals are expressing anguish and disappointment with Bill White's attempt to distance himself from Obama and pretend he is not in fact a Democrat with a long liberal record...

Bob Moser seems to believe that firing up the base is the way to win elections... which is possibly a good point... it worked for Republicans in 2002 and 2004... and worked for Democrats in 2006 and 2008... so it has to work in 2010 right?

I don't know... I think that thinking for liberals was valid in 2006 and 2008... but peeps are tired of the over reach by the liberals on basically every facet of life in America...

Republicans stayed home in 2006 and 2008 disgusted by scandals and over spending... all while Democrats were as fired up as they have been in a generation because of middle eastern wars...

I don't think you can juice that hype three elections in a row. Republicans are due for big wins, especially in tea party centric places like Texas. There is really no path to victory for Bill White, but if I were him I would be going to donors and pretending a win is possible... moreover I would be telling the skeptics that I will have the biggest bullhorn platform bully pulpit that anyone will have for a long time... and the media will run with anything I put out on him and amplify it... so give me money and I will bash Rick and weaken him for the 2011 Texas legislative session (and redistricting and everything that goes along with that) and any possible future plans he may have for national office...

Bill White and his peeps have a lot of money to spend, and while no matter what they put out, it will be pointless in the end... they need to keep their jobs... their very purpose in life over the next 3 months... and reporters will pretend it is some kind of horse race to sell newspapers and get ratings so they don't get laid off as their companies fold all around them...