Joe Klein missing the point again...

[carpe diem]

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1109292,00.html

...Joe talks as if he gives a sh*t about Democrats and the Democratic Party but he and other purveyors of DC conventional wisdon are the biggest problem this party has. The party leadership has spent too much time listening to these 'elites' and not enough to the "people" and their own base...and we are suffering the consequences.

Harry Belafonte wasn't just talking about the current Katrina crisis, and it was obvious to any who listened that his remarks were much broader in relation to the conduct of the Democratic party and their complicity in what the Republiccans are doing to this country and to the world. Our party ignores at its peril, the anger (righteous, self-righteous and other-wise) of the Belafontes' and the rest of us who are so frustrated and dissapointed with their not only having abandoned us (the base of their own party), but in a sense abandoning the country. (http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mamet16sep16,0,4469455.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions)

Klein uses the tme worn tactic of picking a smaller point and making an argument (poverty statistics) when Belafonte was making a much larger argument about the actions not matching the rhetoric of many of our party leaders. He took the opportunity to read the riot act to Hilliary and Barack because they are the future of the party and if it is going to change, they have to be the one's to do it. And we have to make them.

[Mass]

1. He is not missing the point,, he is protecting his power.

These people (big editorialists, columnists, and pundits) think they are powerbrokers and that they should be listened to. Some have never been outside of the Beltway and ignore the real world even more than politicians who at least have to go and campaign in their states once in a while.

So dont be surprised they dont get it.

I agree with you that pols have spent too much time listening to the "elites", but unfortunately, as far as I can see, it is not going to change anytime soon.