Yesterday I noted that Barack Obama stepped in the proverbial macaca when his campaign headlined a southern concert tour with gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, a gentleman who speaks optimistically about “curing” homosexuals. At least you can’t call McClurkin a hypocrite; he proudly boasts of curing himself of his own homosexuality through faith and prayer. The dust-up over McClurkin’s presence on the Obama campaign bus began last week. Since that time, Obama has refused to distance himself from McClurkin, and instead tried to reassure the gay community that McClurkin had no designs on “curing” gays who are happy with their status. Predictably, the progressive blogosphere has turned on Obama like a pack of rabid Chihuahuas. Influential lefty Chris Bowers even went so far as to title a post, “Obama Campaign Post Mortem.” Bowers went to some length to prove his point, carrying on for 3,824 words–that’s over 15 double-spaced pages to you and me. Bowers’ co-blogger at Open Left, the somewhat-less-influential Matt Stoller, opted in his post-game analysis for the lefty blogger’s default reaction to any situation–self-congratulation. Stoller titled his piece “We Reacted Like a Movement Should to Obama,” while also managing to point out that he was smarter than the average blogger when it came to judging the Democrats’ erstwhile savior. “I’ve been criticizing Obama for years now,” Stoller wrote. “I never really thought he was teh awesome.” Predictably, the king of the progressive blogosphere, Markos Moulitsas, has seized upon the occasion to show that he remains the master of risible self-importance. In more halcyon days, Moulitsas was lauding Obama for starting a “movement” and acknowledging the young senator’s inevitability. Now that Obama has stumbled, the Democrats will need a new savior. And Moulitsas has an idea who that savior will be. “Obama isn’t the be-all savior for what ails our country,” Moulitsas wrote. “No one is. If there’s a message I thought we were successfully delivering in the netroots is that it was up to US to move this country in the right direction since we couldn’t depend on our so-called ‘leaders’.” You’ll note that the leader of the “US” in the above equation is one Markos Moulitsas. Meanwhile, the countdown to Hillary Clinton’s inevitable “Sistah Soljah” speech at the Netroots’ expense continues apace.
