Daniel A. Boehmer is an idiot
I know that's a rather rude call out, but given the circumstances, it's tough to draw any other conclusion. Exhibit A is a letter Mr. Boehmer, who describes himself as a "member of the George Washington College Democrats," wrote to the GW College Republicans expressing his support for Senator McCain, after Obama defeated his preferred candidate Sen. Clinton. I'm a tad confused because many blogs are attributing to Mr. Boehmer the title of "Chairman" of the GW College Dems, but this appears to be a mistake. He describes himself only as a "member" without any apparent authority to speak for the group. Furthermore, he isn't listed on their website as being amember of the exec board in any capacity.
The funny part was that this got picked up on some blogs, and Marc Ambinder posted the letter in its entirety on June 5th. Breaking News: George Washington University student doesn't know what he's talking about!
Now, Daniel Boehmer is perfectly entitled to support whichever candidate he wants to, and is also entitled to speak out on behalf of said candidate. But that doesn't mean that I won't mock him for spending $50,000 a year to attend college in Washington DC without any apparent respect or grasp of the ideological gulf between Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain.
Boehmer is not alone as a former supporter of Sen. Clinton who now supports McCain (though by all accounts those numbers are quite small, and shrinking), but he did decide to make himself a public face of this petulant movement. He writes:
A long time supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton these past 16 months of her campaign, the selection of Sen. Obama has placed me, like many other Democrats, in an odd position. For me however, the debate between 'loyalty' to my party and voting based on my conscience was quickly settled. I determined that my support would, in lieu of Sen. Clinton's nomination to the Democratic Party, be given to Sen. John McCain.This betrays a fundamental immaturity and ignorance about our political system. I'm a partisan Democrat, but I don't support the party out of loyalty, I support the party because it advances policies and positions that I support. If the parties switched platforms tomorrow, I wouldn't find myself torn by loyalty, I'd find myself voting Republican!
Boehmer is either ignorant of or confused by policies and platforms, because anybody who would support Sen. Clinton's candidacy would find an ideological ally in Sen. Obama. Whatever is affecting his "conscience," it certainly wasn't an understanding of how our government works or what is at stake in this election. I for one hope that George Washington Univeristy is proud of the fine education this young man has received.
Doesn't this story set the bar for notability impossibly low? Can any college student now claim to be a member of the College Dems and start issuing press releases and public letters announcing support for, say the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan, and get coverage?
