August 3, 2005
THE RICH GET BORED WITH THEIR TOYS FASTER THAN CHILDREN (profanity alert):
America Coming Together Comes Apart: The Democrats’ great hope goes away. (Byron York, 8/03/05, National Review)
A few days after the 2004 election, America Coming Together, the giant pro-Democratic voter turnout group that had raised about $200 million from George Soros, Peter Lewis, and a variety of Hollywood moguls, released a list of its accomplishments. Obviously, ACT, as big as it was, had not put John Kerry over the top, but the group had "held conversations at 4.6 million doorsteps about the truth about the Iraq war, about the state of our healthcare system, about the economy." It had registered half-a-million new voters. In the last days of the campaign it had made 23 million phone calls, sent out 16 million pieces of mail, and delivered 11 million fliers. And on top of it all, it had "launched the largest get-out-the-vote effort the Democratic Party has ever seen," turning out "unprecedented levels of voters in the battleground states."It all sounded very, very impressive. And then ACT listed its accomplishments at the polls, and the results seemed far less impressive. ACT had "helped ensure George W. Bush’s defeat in several of the key states and made the race close in others." It had "enabled Democrats to take back the Oregon state legislature for the first time in 10 years." It had helped Missouri Democrat Robin Carnahan win election as Missouri secretary of state. And finally, "In New Hampshire, we saw wins for the presidential race and the governor’s race, as well as a gain of four state senate seats."
And that was it. Soros and all his colleagues had spent $200 million to elect a Democratic secretary of state in Missouri.
The question that hung in the air at the time was whether, after such a defeat, the big donors would continue to support ACT — to get ready for the next big campaign — and help it grow into an even larger turnout machine. And now we have the answer: No.
On Tuesday ACT, which had already downsized dramatically in the months since the election, pink-slipped most of its remaining staff and shut down all its state offices. The money had dried up, the donors were on to other things, and the "largest get-out-the-vote effort the Democratic Party has ever seen" was over.
If you'll pardon our French, just this once, it's hardly surprising that America Coming Together turned into nothing more than one big circle jerk. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 3, 2005 3:19 PM
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Check the campaign donor lists for Soros' name and those of his buddies in the near future. They all still have cash on hand and haven't changed their ideology, but they may have decided that the money works better behind the scenes in groups that don't seem to foam at the mouth in every press release.
By directing their cash elsewhere (for example, the Hillary in '08 campaign) they can let others try to put a smiley face on the Democrats' public image and political positions that won't energize as many people on the other side of the political spectrum to come out and cast ballots against them, which is in part what happened in 2004. That doesn't mean the person(s) they choose to back don't agree with them behind the scenes, only that they have better self-discipline in hiding it than America Coming Together managed.
Posted by: John at August 3, 2005 3:47 PMOJ, you call that profanity?
Posted by: JAB at August 3, 2005 3:58 PMOJ, you call that profanity?
Heres a naked woman falling thru bubbles. OK maybe she's not exactly naked and perhaps those aren't bubbles. Actually I don't know what it is.
Posted by: h-man at August 3, 2005 4:49 PM"What is it?"
"It's a message from Godfather Soros. America Coming Together sleeps with the fishes."
Posted by: Mike Morley at August 3, 2005 5:30 PMGeorge Soros can't have even 1% name recognition.
Posted by: oj at August 3, 2005 5:36 PMThey didn't get bored with their toy. Like any good three year old, they just immediately took it out and played with it and demolished it instead of keeping it inside the original box and protecting its resale value twenty years from now. They stopped playing with it, having moved on to other toys, so Mom is throwing it out. But once they get through college, they'll wish they had taken better care of that cherished toy, and look whistfuly at all the other kids who took better care of theirs and had a more appreciative parent and who got a nice return when selling that toy.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at August 3, 2005 5:37 PMKarl Rove is having a belly laugh. ACT, ACORN, Move.on and the rest spent all that money to hire voter registration workers who managed to get Donald Duck onto the voter rolls. Rove and the Republicans relied on highly committed volunteers who worked their neighborhood and churches. Golly gee, guess which strategy worked better Election Day?
Heh.
Posted by: Steve White at August 3, 2005 9:43 PMIn the past few weeks, several people have called into Rush to complain that George Soros and his groups are running ads to smear John Roberts, right during Rush's show.
When a parody becomes frightening, you know he has moved beyond caricature. He probably wants to get back to his day job (messing with economies like Bunkie Hunt).
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 4, 2005 12:10 AMHe said it first, so I feel better mentioning that I've thought of the left in general as a Vast Left Wing Circle Jerk for some time. From politicians to journalists to cultural types.
Posted by: RC at August 4, 2005 6:21 AMso soros is like the lead stroke in this circle thingy ? or is he more like the coxswain /
Posted by: cjm at August 4, 2005 12:52 PM