He’s Not A Democratic Hobbs, They Haven’t Officially Hired That Guy Yet

28 Responses to “He’s Not A Democratic Hobbs, They Haven’t Officially Hired That Guy Yet”

1. TNOBSERVER writes
   July 9th, 2009 1:20 pm

   Like I said, “Democrats grow a pair….”

2. Roger Abramson writes
   July 9th, 2009 1:22 pm

   No, that wouldn’t be the answer. Most definitely, the answer is to insult the intelligence of a “large number of voters” in the state. That’s political gold right there.

3. MCO writes
   July 9th, 2009 1:40 pm

   One can’t help but be amused at the notion held by zealots of both parties that it is only the people on the other side who “get down in the gutter.”

   Funny people.

4. SayUncle writes
   July 9th, 2009 1:46 pm

   But we’d all like to see Democrats get tougher. Like calling out lies and corruption, even if it’s in the Democratic Party.

   Based on recent events, if they weren’t calling each other out on corruption (which they’re not), there’d be on one to call out.

5. Steve Steffens (LWC) writes
   July 9th, 2009 2:02 pm

   Roger, it’s hard to insult the intelligence of people who have nothing to insult.

6. spaz writes
   July 9th, 2009 2:12 pm

   The only way that the Dems would be “down in the gutter” with Republicans is if they lied about anything.

   Everything else is fair game.

7. The OG Ben writes
   July 9th, 2009 2:12 pm

   From what I’ve read, Mark Brown is the Democratic Hobbs.

8. Louie Jones writes
   July 9th, 2009 2:29 pm

   OG Ben, calling Mark Brown the Democratic Hobbs is an insult to Mark Brown…
   AND to Mark Brown’s hat.

9. thoughtbubbles writes
   July 9th, 2009 2:35 pm

   There is no satisfying the base’s appetite for redmeat…but it remains a base appetite. The benefits of Hobbs’ style of communications are appropriately ‘nasty brutish and short’ for the party, and nonexistent for the state.

   Before we Democrats buy into the fantasy that we can divide and deride “just like the GOP”, let’s examine what kind of leadership it has rewarded in their party. We win as a party of inclusion, compassion, and progress when we take control of defining ourselves.

   Neal gives voice to exactly why we aren’t winning that battle. If we regard the public as ignorant and hateful, they will fulfill our expectations by supporting Hobbs’ style. Let’s not be too smart to be sincere.

10. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 3:39 pm

    Can’t do nuance and make a pithy bumper-sticker at the same time.

    Roger, it might not be political gold, but its the political reality.

11. thoughtbubbles writes
    July 9th, 2009 3:48 pm

    Pithy Bumper Stickers might be satisfying…but they don’t vote.

12. Donna Locke writes
    July 9th, 2009 4:07 pm

    Not getting down into the gutter? That’s where I always know to look for you folks.

13. Roger Abramson writes
    July 9th, 2009 4:37 pm

    Steve and Mack –

    I have little love for environmental denialists or creationists either, but those people do vote, and there are a lot of them. And, to be honest, with the exception of Mack on some occasions, neither of you nor R. Neal come across as the most pleasant people in the world. In fact, none of you really come across as people who particularly like people–at least regular people–very much. Regular people decide elections. If folks like you become the face of the Democratic Party in the state, well, enjoy minority status, because that’s where you guys will be for a long time.

14. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 5:01 pm

    Roger, thats not even remotely fair. I AM regular people. Yes, of course, I consider myself way more engaged and therefore way more informed, but I have the same concerns as most Americans, and I really have little use for entities that exploit hard-working folk. The thing is, when did “regular” come to mean uninformed, and stubbornly so? When did education come to be looked down upon?

    Our countries literacy rate is embarrassing, Roger. People who are not taught to tink critically can be easily led by hucksters, and there is no shortage of those in every political party.

    One example: How is it that 3rd generation Walmart employees, with little hope to ever scrape together a retirement nest egg, much less an large estate, rail against the so-called “death tax”? Is it the same reason they tend to buy lottery tickets? Maybe. But I’ve talked to enough of them and most of them think they will have to pay it (the tax) when they die, and they barely have enough to live on as it is. Nevermind that you could combine the savings accounts of every co-worker at that store, and still come nowhere close to qualifying for the Estate Tax. They hear death tax, and stop right there. Its maddening.

15. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 5:03 pm

    BTW, props to R. Neal for saying that we do NOT ever need to resort to any Hobbsian practices. I’d rather lose elections than my soul.

16. Donna Locke writes
    July 9th, 2009 5:08 pm

    It’s strange how this myth has taken on a life of its own. I find y’all blame Hobbs for stuff he had nothing to do with.

17. serr8d writes
    July 9th, 2009 5:19 pm

    Hmmph. ‘Hobbsian practices’, Mack, are just watered-down Alinsky tactics, of which your Organizer in Chief used to get elected. From where I’m sitting, it seems Tennessee is one of the few states what didn’t fall for Obama’s Chicago “send one of theirs to the morgue” political style; and this State actually went in the opposite direction of most of the rest of the now-near-socialist ‘blue’ states.

    I’m thinking Hobbs is the sort of guy we need in the upper echelons of the national Republican party, to better counter the forces of your own dear Ellsworth Tooheys.

18. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 5:38 pm

    I’m thinking Hobbs is the sort of guy we need in the upper echelons of the national Republican party, to better counter the forces of your own dear Ellsworth Tooheys.

    There was a time when they may have groomed Mr. Hobbs to replace Mr. Rove, but I think that window closed. Personally, I say make him the national spokesperson, it will ensure the GOP never gets another Hispanic vote, and precious few black votes.

19. Kat Coble writes
    July 9th, 2009 6:19 pm

    ” How is it that 3rd generation Walmart employees, with little hope to ever scrape together a retirement nest egg, much less an large estate, rail against the so-called “death tax”?”

    Because so many of them are third generation Walmart Employees because they saw what happened to the family nest egg when great grandpa died after selling the farm.

    What so many folks on the left seem to forget is that the Family Farm–so long the wealth of the non-wealthy in America– was taxed into oblivion, creating a permanent underclass of wageslavers.

    I happen to be one of those folks who would be a third generation Wal-Mart employee if my parents hadn’t worked their ways through college. All of the cousins on one side of my family are “third generation Wal-Mart employees” (which I suppose we’re using as a short hand for “wageslavers”). And they’re all in that position because the family farm inheritance was wiped out by the Estate Tax.

20. serr8d writes
    July 9th, 2009 6:35 pm

    Personally, I say make him the national spokesperson, it will ensure the GOP never gets another Hispanic vote, and precious few black votes.

    Such a low value you put to black, hispanic votes, Mack, that they would only be beholden to those who offer them the most purse.

21. serr8d writes
    July 9th, 2009 6:51 pm

    Democrats have used ‘welfare’ hooks as tactics to ensure the black voted for decades now. It’s part of their playbook.
    

    Their article called for “cadres of aggressive organizers” to use “demonstrations to create a climate of militancy.” Intimidated by threats of black violence, politicians would appeal to the federal government for help. Carefully orchestrated media campaigns, carried out by friendly, leftwing journalists, would float the idea of “a federal program of income redistribution,” in the form of a guaranteed living income for all — working and non-working people alike. Local officials would clutch at this idea like drowning men to a lifeline. They would apply pressure on Washington to implement it. With every major city erupting into chaos, Washington would have to act.

    Republicans only offer the hope of equal opportunity to succeed, given a level playing field. But that success would have to be something desired; if one is expecting to have their ‘free gas pumped, bitch!’, there’s always going to be that gap between the two parties.

    We can’t afford to keep printing monies to fund what Democrat’s have already promised, for votes. Not and stay a solvent nation.

    Wait for it. It’s coming; real change. You may not like.

22. serr8d writes
    July 9th, 2009 6:51 pm

    Democrats have used ‘welfare’ hooks as tactics to ensure the black voted for decades now. It’s part of their playbook.
    

    Their article called for “cadres of aggressive organizers” to use “demonstrations to create a climate of militancy.” Intimidated by threats of black violence, politicians would appeal to the federal government for help. Carefully orchestrated media campaigns, carried out by friendly, leftwing journalists, would float the idea of “a federal program of income redistribution,” in the form of a guaranteed living income for all — working and non-working people alike. Local officials would clutch at this idea like drowning men to a lifeline. They would apply pressure on Washington to implement it. With every major city erupting into chaos, Washington would have to act.

    Republicans only offer the hope of equal opportunity to succeed, given a level playing field. But that success would have to be something desired; if one is expecting to have their ‘free gas pumped, bitch!’, there’s always going to be that gap between the two parties.

    We can’t afford to keep printing monies to fund what Democrat’s have already promised, for votes. Not and stay a solvent nation.

    Wait for it. It’s coming; real change. You may not like.

23. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 8:09 pm

    Even Carnegie family understood the value of taxing large estates. This tax was enactedm IIRC, around 1916, and largely because of the support of wealth families.

    How many farms are worth 10 million?

    Please cite your argument that family farms have been taxed out of existence. I thought we pretty much debunked that a decade ago.

    Nice try, Serr8ed…it has nothing to do with riches. It as to do with the barely concealed disdain the GOP has shown minorities, and, while we are at it, the poor.

24. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 8:11 pm

    Lastly, do you really think that today’s working poor think they are there due to the Estate Tax?!!!

    And supposedly, I’m the one that doesn’t get ordinary folk.

    Good Lord.

25. serr8d writes
    July 9th, 2009 8:25 pm

    Wrong again, Mack. Republicans pushed through the Civil Rights act in the ’60’s, much to the chagrin of Southern Democrats.

    And I think it’s better to offer all people a hope of a better life; that offer open and available to anyone who desires that better life, and exhibits a nominal desire to reach for it. Such is the offer of equal opportunity. Instead of promising a life of bare minimalism for generation after succeeding generation, being beholden to a promise-the-easy-life party’s ever-growing teat. Which is, incidentally, getting ever-closer to drying up.

    Which path leads to slavery? A cradle-to-grave promise of a socialist ‘nirvana’, or a capitalism-driven path to success (with all the society-improving technological feats that have accompanied capitalism), available if you just get out and want it bad enough?

26. Mack writes
    July 9th, 2009 8:49 pm

    Civil Rights? Are you kidding me? You really think that today’s minorities are aware of that fact? The Repub Party today, is the Southern Dem Party of the 50s and 60s….but it doesn’t matter. We are talking about tone and messaging, and, well, I think Hobbs and his kind are detrimental to your party if you are seeking anyone other than the Protectors of Privilege.

27. Bill Hobbs writes
    July 10th, 2009 2:07 am

    Me? Rove? Y’all are nuts. I was not ever aiming for a national role, nor do I consider myself in the same league as Rove.

    Rove is a brilliant political strategist. I just handled communications through the print, broadcast and online media - both the for-profit and the pajama-clad.

    And yes, I said “through” the media, not “with” the media. I should also add “around” the professional media, as we did that when necessary and possible as well, because the purpose of a party communications apparatus as I see it is to communicate with voters and donors, not with the media.

    Of course, the new TNDP comm director may have a different view. That’s to be expected, as the media, especially the traditional for-profit media, is largely friendly to the Democrat Party, whereas it was and remains largely cool to the GOP.

28. B-Ho is a douche writes
    July 10th, 2009 5:41 am

    Sounds like B-Ho still has a burr in his saddle because all the MSM reporters think he is an arrogant amateur.

    Face it, folks, B-Ho and Robin had about as little to do with GOP victories in Tennessee as a political party can. They got lucky.

    TNGOP was smart to show them the door.