It’s now clear that Barack Obama has a secret weapon in his war for the Democratic nomination for president. He intends to remain calmly and cooly above the fray of his opponent’s daily attacks on his past, his resume, his readiness, and his plans. But he uses surrogates — some are third parties completely unrelated to his official campaign — to amp up the vitriol, hatred, viciousness, ferocity, lies, and distortion against his Democratic rival. Of course, I’m thinking about the now unreadable though ever popular blog of Andrew Sullivan, a self-styled Obamaniac who has shamefully allowed his blog to morph from The Daily Dish to ObamaCentral to Hillary Haters R Us (as noted here and here).

I don’t know what Obama is to do with supporters like these who personify “polarizing” even while decrying the polarizing politics of the past. They are seemingly beyond rational persuasion or repentance. I only hope that their influence on real voters is very small and they won’t make a difference. Because it seems to me they are much more likely to ramp up Democratic resistance and anger towards Obama (already heightened by the widespread fear of “cultism” among his supporters) rather than sway any truly reasonable independents. The conservative Sullivan and his ilk count themselves as Obama’s friends, but if they don’t change their tone (at least during the Democratic nomination process), I’m afraid they could help to sink him.

Obama’s already accepted the resignation of one surrogate who called Hillary a “monster”. Would it be too much to ask for Obama to have a Sister Soljah moment where he asks his Sullivanesque supporters in the media and blogosphere (who virtually every day call the Clintons much worse than ‘monsters’) to rise above the politics of the past?

At this point in time, Obama needs greater appeal to Hillary-loving Democrats than independents and Republicans. Rebuking the loud mouth Hillary haters who beat their drums for him could send just the signal Democrats need to hear to realize that he really is one of us. It would tell Democrats that he won't let conservatives and Republicans hijack his campaign to defeat a much respected Democratic leader (the "most admired woman in America" no less). And it would help to bring him back to his core message of moving beyond the politics of the past. Let’s hope so.

cross-posted on Until