HillBuzz wrote a very fascinating article about Barack Obama Concern Trolls and Eeyores. I believe it is imperative to expose the "concern trolls" from the 2008 election, before they lay the ground work for 2012.
What I discovered as being absolutely fascinating was how HIllBuzz identified the Barack Obama Concern Troll / Eeyore Brigade in a recent article (click here), and, I can then go back to February of 2008 and find the exact spitting replica of what HillBuzz is talking about (click here to see the article)
Meet Rebecca Traister (I don't want to forget that "s" in her last name) by clicking on this sentence you can read what is abundantly transparently typical concern troll prose that poisoned so many media outlets during the 2008 presidential election.
Rebecca's soliloquy on gosh darn, why she just can't vote for Hillary Clinton, but feels like she kind of maybe, aw shucks, should feel guilty for not voting for her is my nomination for the Control Troll Award of 2008.
Below are some absolutely amazing quotes from the Salon article Rebecca Traister wrote JUST BEFORE A MAJORITY OF ALL STATES WERE TO VOTE IN THEIR DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES AND CAUCUSES DURING THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY 2008.
Rebecca Traister...."I think of how I would love to be part of the wave of enthusiasm for this smart, charismatic man, of how he wipes the floor with Clinton as an orator; I consider that the dashing Obama, and his youthful adherents, have the chance to takeJohn McCain, while Clinton would bring every angry, resentful white guy out of his parents' basement to vote against her".
You mean, the guy with the speech from 2004?
"So as much as I yearn to run wildly into the streets with the jubilant hordes of Obama supporters, if I cast my vote for him, it will be a silent one".
Wow, lets get this writer a deal with Harlequin Romance, you poor tortured creature. You will vote for Barack Obama, but do it with a heavy heart because you won't be allowed to celebrate in public (gosh, I can think of 8% of a certain ethnicity that must have been thinking the same thing regarding Hillary Clinton, why not do a story about their plight in not being able to vote for Hillary Clinton?).
"But a vote for his opponent would be, perhaps, even more private. There is shame in voting for Hillary Clinton, make no mistake -- pulling a lever for someone who voted for Iraq and proposed anti-flag-burning legislation provokes its own brand of self-loathing".
Was there shame when Al Gore came out in support for Barack Obama? It was Al Gore's vote in the early 90's that opened the door to the first Iraq war being funded. Hillary Clinton would have been considered more polarizing if she had voted against the war, thereby putting Clinton in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
If Hillary Clinton votes no, the war is STILL going to happen, only now the Republicans can blame Hillary Clinton for not helping show a united front in the war effort, thereby emboldening the opposition because they knew both political parties are not solidly behind the war. Yes that is the SPIN that would have been used had Hillary Clinton not voted for the war that was going to happen anyways.
"But here is the honest part: Hillary Clinton is a woman. And so am I. And my president doesn't have to look like me, any more than she has to be a person I want to have a beer with, but I can't pretend that it doesn't mean something, something really important, that we've never had one who looked like me before".
Did you say your president is not somebody you would have to have a beer with? Did you really write that? Ironically enough, the women involved in the Crowley Gates case WERE NOT invited to the White House for a beer, but the men were. You go gal, and thanks for admitting this is the only honest part of your article.
"And so as much as I protest about how I'd never vote for someone just because she's a woman, a vote for Hillary would not be a purely intellectual choice, and certainly not a politically enthusiastic one, but an emotional one, and in that, I would be conforming to every assumption about why I vote and how I vote. I don't want to be the girl that all the cool Obama-supporting progressives assume I am, if I happen to feel compelled to choose the woman in this contest, in part because she's a woman. In this, I guess, the shame is not so much about voting for Hillary, but in fulfilling a feminized -- and, relatedly, devalued -- expectation of Democratic womanhood. And in this, it would only be fair to conclude that I, the big feminist, am in my own way hiding from my own gender".
If I were female, I wonder if I would have lost it by now by reading the above paragraph.
"And so I'll spend the next two days waging this internal battle. I understand that while many Super Duper Tuesday voters out there are sure and passionate in their choices -- and I wish I were among you -- I also know that there are many others, male and female, black and white, young and old, who are feeling this same tugging in their bellies and their brains. I'm not the only one who, for the first time in my life, will understand exactly how private (and perhaps profound?) the casting of a ballot can be. All I can say with assuredness is this: Whatever move I make, I bet it's going to hurt".
My gosh, she feels your pain. The only thing missing from this "script", is making a video using the above clap trap as a voice over while the girl wistfully pokes at her baskins robbins ice cream container and sort of looks off into the distance. Tune in tomorrow to see if Rebe does the right thing, or settles for Hillary Clinton instead.
Underneath the Salon article written by Rebecca Traister, there is a story links to a similar story that also has Concern Troll written all over it...
Related Stories
The witch ain't dead, and Chris Matthews is a ding-dong "The glee with which Matthews and other angry male pundits prematurely danced on Hillary's grave made me -- for one night only -- a Clinton supporter".
I have no idea why the date reads Dec. 31, 1969, but does it not appear that Rebecca Traister of Salon magazine has Clinton Concern Troll Disease?
Now, get ready for the additional mouth opening, draw dropping revelation, this Rebecca Traister IS WRITING A BOOK ABOUT THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN! Do you just not want to ___________________ ????
The bio then goes on to state...
"Traister has also written for Elle, the Nation, Vogue, Glamour, New York Magazine, the New York Times, Nerve, and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a book about women and the 2008 elections, tentatively titled Big Girls Don't Cry, to be published by The Free Press in fall 2010".
I'm starting to believe an actual physical timeline exists somewhere in the Barack Obama camp in which certain events have been pre-planned for Barack Obama's 8 year presidential victory tour. Starting with the Grammy Award he recieved, and the Nobel Peace Prize that he was nominated for literally days after he became president on the front end, and the Chicago Olympics on the back end (oops, that didn't happen, did it), to this book scheduled for release by the above writer in the fall of 2010 to get Barack Obama supporters all amped up for the next presidential election, and...
I've already had my fill of Barack Obama's time tablet of fame, and I've certainly had my fill of the concern trolls sprinkled among the media that have probably stolen jobs from more neutral, balanced journalists in the process.
