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I think this, plus the fact that he got his ass kicked so badly by Bobby Rush so early on in his political career, explains a lot about why a plausibly progressive candidate like Barack Obama lines up with the local machine every time. The Democratic party found itself in a bit of a fix, despite eight years of reasonable peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton (and might still be in a fix if it weren’t for eight years of staggering Republican incompetence), and it’s been suggested that part of the explanation is that neither Clinton nor anyone else did a particularly good job setting up an effective, long-term ground game. They thought competence would win the day! Really.*
*Yes, Karl Rove’s trademark 50+1 strategy failed even worse, but he screwed up by totally disregarding competence. If the Republican White House and Congress hadn’t managed to completely botch everything as badly as possible, it probably wouldn’t have totally blown up in his face.
