For a striking number of Democrats May 31 2008 is a day that lives in infamy.
It marked the moment that the national partys rules committee dealt a deathblow to Hillary Clintons bid to win the presidential nomination over Barack Obama.
The committee weighted with Obama loyalists issued a unanimous decision amid whispered back-door deals.
The date will not be forgotten" according to Gayle Allegro a Democrat from Pine Island Fla. which is why Allegro was frosted by last weeks announcement that Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the Democrats national convention next month.
If Obama and his crew think that having Bill Clinton give a speech is going to sway all the Democrats that left the party in 2010 or just slipped into the shadows they are mistaken" she said.
Do they really think we are that stupid that we dont see what is going on?"
Allegro 60 is one of those women who break glass ceilings. She has lived in Europe North Africa and Israel and she was one of the first women to work as a laborer on the Alaska oil pipeline while earning a masters degree in economic geology.
In 2008 most Democrats sucked up their sense of personal loss regarding Hillary and voted for Obama because the idea of handing Republicans another four years in the White House was just too awful to bear said Lara Brown an electoral-college expert at Villanova University.
Nevertheless they had reservations about Obamas leadership skills and experience Brown said.
By 2010 that allegiance waned and Clinton Democrats were the deciding factor that removed Democrats from power in the U.S. House closed the margin in the U.S. Senate and flipped state legislatures and governors mansions to Republicans across the country.
Now on the threshold of the 2012 election many are still angry with their party anger that mirrors how conservatives felt in the 2006 Bush midterm election and the 2008 general election. It is anger enough to not vote or to vote for the opposing team.
To understand why you must understand their roots.
In 2004 Bill Clinton loyalists distraught over Democrat John Kerrys defeat hunkered down and planned for the next presidential election.
They fortified themselves with a few thoughts: Hillary would be the nominee in 2008 and Barack Obamas 2004 convention speech proved the party had a bright centrist future because both Hillary and Obama were pragmatists.
They didnt plan on Howard Dean supporters (including the Netroots and ideological progressives) believing that Kerry lost because he wasnt liberal enough.
They also didnt plan on this faction starting a revolution in the party.
With Dean in charge of the Democratic National Committee progressives worked to convince rank-and-file Democrats that victory required pursuing a 50-state strategy and dismissing people in fly-over states as not knowing what was good for them.
They believed that government led by coastal (elitist) Democrats would be a force for good for those people; they would educate them on environmental issues and help the guns- and God-clinging crowd to vote on economic self-interest not on cultural issues.
Moderates always have been skeptical of such arguments Brown said. They believed in trying to bridge cultural differences between the coastal and the interior Democrats."
Angry Clinton Democrats not only lost the 2008 nomination but Obama did not become the president they had expected based on his 2004 convention speech. They felt their party betrayed them by installing the progressive wing and kicking out the centrists.
These voters sometimes called Reagan Democrats hold traditional values. Based on job (blue-collar) religion (Catholic) location (rural) or region (Appalachia and Midwest) they prefer moderate government regulation of the economy.
In 2008 they supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. They also gave Obama the most liberal U.S. senator the benefit of the doubt and chose him over Republican John McCain.
Today Floridian Gayle Allegro has no more benefit-of-doubt to give Obama.
Nor does Jo Ann Nardelli the Democrats former vice-chairman in Pennsylvania … or Richard Furillo and his son Matthew two Youngstown Democrats.
Theirs are the voices that usually remain unheard the views that typically are not considered in much national political analysis.
Yet they all insist that they are not alone.
Salena Zito is a political analyst reporter and columnist.
For a striking number of Democrats May 31 2008 is a day that lives in infamy.
It marked the moment that the national partys rules committee dealt a deathblow to Hillary Clintons bid to win the presidential nomination over Barack Obama.
The committee weighted with Obama loyalists issued a unanimous decision amid whispered back-door deals.
The date will not be forgotten" according to Gayle Allegro a Democrat from Pine Island Fla. which is why Allegro was frosted by last weeks announcement that Bill Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the Democrats national convention next month.
If Obama and his crew think that having Bill Clinton give a speech is going to sway all the Democrats that left the party in 2010 or just slipped into the shadows they are mistaken" she said.
Do they really think we are that stupid that we dont see what is going on?"
Allegro 60 is one of those women who break glass ceilings. She has lived in Europe North Africa and Israel and she was one of the first women to work as a laborer on the Alaska oil pipeline while earning a masters degree in economic geology.
In 2008 most Democrats sucked up their sense of personal loss regarding Hillary and voted for Obama because the idea of handing Republicans another four years in the White House was just too awful to bear said Lara Brown an electoral-college expert at Villanova University.
Nevertheless they had reservations about Obamas leadership skills and experience Brown said.
By 2010 that allegiance waned and Clinton Democrats were the deciding factor that removed Democrats from power in the U.S. House closed the margin in the U.S. Senate and flipped state legislatures and governors mansions to Republicans across the country.
Now on the threshold of the 2012 election many are still angry with their party anger that mirrors how conservatives felt in the 2006 Bush midterm election and the 2008 general election. It is anger enough to not vote or to vote for the opposing team.
To understand why you must understand their roots.
In 2004 Bill Clinton loyalists distraught over Democrat John Kerrys defeat hunkered down and planned for the next presidential election.
They fortified themselves with a few thoughts: Hillary would be the nominee in 2008 and Barack Obamas 2004 convention speech proved the party had a bright centrist future because both Hillary and Obama were pragmatists.
They didnt plan on Howard Dean supporters (including the Netroots and ideological progressives) believing that Kerry lost because he wasnt liberal enough.
They also didnt plan on this faction starting a revolution in the party.
With Dean in charge of the Democratic National Committee progressives worked to convince rank-and-file Democrats that victory required pursuing a 50-state strategy and dismissing people in fly-over states as not knowing what was good for them.
They believed that government led by coastal (elitist) Democrats would be a force for good for those people; they would educate them on environmental issues and help the guns- and God-clinging crowd to vote on economic self-interest not on cultural issues.
Moderates always have been skeptical of such arguments Brown said. They believed in trying to bridge cultural differences between the coastal and the interior Democrats."
Angry Clinton Democrats not only lost the 2008 nomination but Obama did not become the president they had expected based on his 2004 convention speech. They felt their party betrayed them by installing the progressive wing and kicking out the centrists.
These voters sometimes called Reagan Democrats hold traditional values. Based on job (blue-collar) religion (Catholic) location (rural) or region (Appalachia and Midwest) they prefer moderate government regulation of the economy.
In 2008 they supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries. They also gave Obama the most liberal U.S. senator the benefit of the doubt and chose him over Republican John McCain.
Today Floridian Gayle Allegro has no more benefit-of-doubt to give Obama.
Nor does Jo Ann Nardelli the Democrats former vice-chairman in Pennsylvania … or Richard Furillo and his son Matthew two Youngstown Democrats.
Theirs are the voices that usually remain unheard the views that typically are not considered in much national political analysis.
Yet they all insist that they are not alone.
Salena Zito is a political analyst reporter and columnist.
