In response to Obama’s impressive $52 million haul, Matt Stoller makes this point:
At any rate, the whining from DC pundits about how the left was undermining Obama’s chances at winning was absolutely wrong. His small dollar donor army wants him in that White House, and they are going to pay to put him there. While it’s often impossible for consultants in DC to keep multiple thoughts in their head, it is possible for most of us normal bluggers and blug readers to get that we don’t like his vote on FISA but we want him to win the White House desperately anyway.
Right. Exactly. Democratic politics (I mean that in the small-d sense) is a constant struggle between pragmatism and politics, the possible and the ideal. Most folks on the left are sophisticated to understand that it’s not either/or, but both/and.