NYC Letter: Owning OWS -- Democrats All In

Day 1,036 of CHOPE

In 2008 the Democrats swept into office promising change. There was change aplenty, yet going into 2012 the Democrats have nothing to brag on. Mr. Obama pleads he needs eight years to finish his four-year term. Bereft of popular accomplishments, Mr. Obama talks vision just the other side of December 2012. But Mr. Obama's tomorrow-morrowland sounds like more of the CHOPE he has already wrought.

It's all looking pretty desperate. What the Democrats need is a national distraction. [Dramatic soap opera organ chord.] Enter Occupy Wall Street.

God bless them for their spontaneity. It's independent ... it's young, it's spontaneous, and it's focused. And it's going to be effective.

Nancy "Speaker No More" Pelosi (D-CA, 8th),
characterizing the Occupy Someplace movement
WASHINGTON October 6, 2011 (TWS)

Democrats of all stripes were early nuzzlers of OWS. Where the OWS mob was incoherent with no clear purpose, the Democrats helpfully shaped a message of the little guy against big financial interests, which the MSM cheerfully parrots. Alas, OWS is no respecter of the little guy -- or of the OWSers themselves. The OWS is a rolling horror show. It is a mob that trashes everything in its path.

To which the Democrats shrug and say, "Double-down perfect!"

DESPITE ATTACKS,
DEMS STANDING BY OCCUPY WALL STREET

November 22, 2011 (WaPo) - For weeks now, Republicans have attacked Democrats for voicing support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, in particular faulting the DCCC for standing up for them. And the incidents of violence and excess have led some neutral commentators to predict that Dems will pay a political price if they align themselves with the movement.

So it’s interesting to see that the DCCC is sticking by Occupy Wall Street. Indeed, the DCCC is now raising money off that recent report of a GOP-connected corporate lobbying firm’s proposed smear campaign against the movement. Nancy Pelosi has authored a DCCC fundraising email that presents this as proof that Republicans are on the side of Wall Street and against Dems and the protesters.

Nancy Pelosi, you may recall, was certain -- if you believed her -- the Democrats, against all forecast odds, would retain their House majority in the 112th Congress -- right up to the catastrophic bitter end.

And Mr. Obama, abandoning his trademark re-interpretable obliquity, is now all-in with OWS, too.

A few minutes later, Obama acknowledged the Occupy protest movement again, saying:

You are the reason I ran for office.

The Democrats can't control OWS but think they can control the OWS narrative in collaboration with a sympathetic press. The OWS has already made it plain they won't play to script. [Pause.] We eagerly look forward to next year's Occupy Charlotte. "God bless them."

CHOPE.

All in.