Buffenbarger This!

The Hillary Clinton for President campaign in Ohio must be doing a lot of forehead slapping tonight. Just when they really needed the support of a lot of people in Ohio, along comes Thomas Buffenbarger.

Tom Buffenbarger is a powerful man, and a big Clinton supporter. He is not, however, the wisest of speakers. Hillary Clinton’s campaign nonetheless invited Buffenbarger onto the stage at a political rally in Youngstown, Ohio yesterday to speak before Hillary Clinton, as a kind of introduction.

Buffenbarger did not speak so much for Hillary Clinton as he spoke against Barack Obama. For ten long minutes, Buffenbarger barraged the audience with a tirade about how Barack Obama is nothing but a “silver tongued orator” and a “trained thespian” who “cocks his head back, lifts his nose up” and “pretends he floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee” but is really just a “shadow boxer”.

Buffenbarger’s most vicious anger was reserved for Barack Obama’s supporters however, who he accused of being “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies”.

At this nasty attack against Democratic voters, the crowd of Clinton supporters became angry with Buffenbarger. The Baltimore Sun reports that “Buffenbarger’s attack when on so long that the audience tried to boo him off the stage.” CBS News described the crowd as “increasingly hostile” toward Buffenbarger.

It’s no wonder. That group of politically active Democrats no doubt recognized where Thomas Buffenbarger had picked up that like about “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies” – from the same Republican Party dirty tricks operatives who swift boated John Kerry in 2004. Back when Howard Dean appeared to have the nomination in his hands, the Republicans attacked with an ad that told Howard Dean to take his latte sipping, sushi eating, new york times reading liberal values back to Vermont where they belong.

In response, Democrats adopted this clumsy insult on as a badge of honor. Yeah, they said. We’re latte sipping, sushi eating liberals. What the heck is so wrong with that?

It’s typical of Republican right wing narrow mindedness to attack fellow Americans just because they drink coffee or drive a hybrid car, or, heaven-forbid, wear sandals in the summer time.

But to have a Democrat engage in that kind of attack, as Tom Buffenbarger did? That’s even worse. What was Buffenbarger thinking? Was he calculating that Hillary Clinton will win the presidential election with a Joseph Lieberman strategy of ignoring the Democratic Party base and seeking to appeal to Republicans who hate Priuses, and can’t stand the thought of any coffee that has cream or sugar in it?

It’s pushback time. Democrats like Tom Buffenbarger who think that they can bully us around with a bunch of pseudo-macho culture war insults need to be reminded just which side of the aisle they’re supposed to be sitting on. If Mr. Buffenbarger really hates hybrid cars, and wants to install some kind of coffee test of patriotism, then he ought to go work for Mike Huckabee’s campaign.

That’s why I designed this bumper sticker. Yeah, we may drink latte every now and then. Yeah, we may drive hybrid cars. So what? What the heck is wrong with drinking coffee and caring about the environment? We’re Democrats – latte-drinking, Prius-driving Democrats for Obama…

and Thomas Buffenbarger just lost Hillary Clinton our support.