Have you ever heard of The Decemberists?
May 21st, 2008 at 07:01pm Pat Cunningham
No, I hadn’t heard of them either — until today, when the right-wing blogosphere fairly exploded with its latest anti-Obama fantasy.
Here’s the way story goes, according to the mouth-breathers:
All the fuss the other day about Barack Obama having drawn a crowd of 75,000 at a rally in Portland, Ore., was a bunch of liberal hooey. What the mainstream media didn’t tell you is that the crowd was attracted not by Obama, but by a free concert by the local rock band The Decemberists.
This fiction was hatched in a PIECE written by some conspiratorialist on the right-wing site called NewsBusters. Within hours, Obama bashers all across the fruited plain were peddling the theory that most of the big crowd was there to hear the band.
One especially rabid fellow I heard on the radio seemed to think that Obama just piggybacked onto this concert like some kind of interloper. Never mind that the event was advertised as an Obama rally, with The Decemberists billed as the warmup act.
The problems with this whole theory that the media deceived us in this matter are as follows:
1) The Decemberists, while popular in Portland, are NOT EXACTLY big stars who can draw huge crowds; ordinarily they play gigs in venues that will hold maybe a few thousand people.
On a recent tour that included 18 shows, the band drew an average audience of less than 1,800. But we’re supposed to believe they drew 42 times as many for the Portland performance, which lasted less than an hour. Please.
On the other hand, it’s not uncommon for Obama to draw tens of thousands of people at his rallies. He routinely fills football stadiums, big indoor arenas and large open spaces.
2) Local news coverage of the Portland rally made MENTION of the band only in passing and concentrated on the excitement over Obama’s appearance.
3) Virtually nobody in the crowd at the rally site or in the adjacent overflow of 15,000 people left when the band concluded its performance (as the photo above will attest). They stayed for what they came to see and hear, Barack Obama making a speech.
If these were mostly just apolitical music fans, you’d think there would have been a rush to avoid traffic jams when the band stopped playing. Didn’t happen.
4) The suggestion that Obama’s popularity in Oregon was overstated by dishonest media coverage of the rally was not borne out by the results of Tuesday’s election, which Obama won by a wide margin.
So, back to the drawing board, Obama haters. Certainly you can do better than this latest feeble effort. Although this one is pretty funny, I’ll admit, as a curious combination of ignorance of politics and ignorance of popular music.
POSTSCRIPT: Here’s an ITEM about how the Portland rally grew from an event planned for indoors to a big outdoor gathering. The Decemberists are mentioned in passing, but the right-wing conspiratorialism is not.
POSTSCRIPT II: This video more than puts the lie to the wacky theory that the Portland throng was a concert crowd and not a political crowd:
Entry Filed under: The Decembrists, Barack Obama
24 Comments Add your own
1. Henry | May 21st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Pat -
It’s called Denial. With a capital D. Slack-jawed righties can’t believe this is happening. They can keep reading redstate.org and similar Gestapo literature but it’s not going to change the inevitable.
2. Mike Carroll | May 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
Henry-If you think Obama’s election is inevitable, you are the one in denial. At this point, all evidence points to about a deadheat in a general election. BTW, all the pundits had Hillary as the “inevitable” nominee of the Democratic party prior to the Iowa caucuses. How did that turn out?
3. equalityrkfd= | May 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Oh, yeah The Decemberists or is it The Denialists?
4. Kaus | May 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Why am I not suprised that Obama would have a Marxist adoring band open up for him. His wife must be a big fan too.
5. Pat Cunningham | May 22nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Well, Kaus is off his meds again and is back to his childish Marxism thing. And what’s your hangup with Obama’s wife, Kaus? As I’ve told you before, Michelle Obama is as much a Marxist as you are a Rhodes scholar, which is to say not at all. You really don’t know anything about Marxism, do you? There’s nothing Marxist about Barack Obama’s platform. Do you think all the generals and admirals and business executives who have endorsed Obama are Marxists? Do you think Warren Buffett is a Marxist? Grow up, Kaus.
6. Kaus | May 22nd, 2008 at 2:47 pm
“Childish Marxism thing”….right. Don’t you think it is interesting that Obama has a marxist loving band play for his speaking engagement in Oregon? It sends a message to me. I know when Karl Marx was born, when he died and what his 10 planks were. I don’t need to be a Rhodes scholar (neither are you, by the way) to know that I get a rise out of you and your friend RedRover when I talk about Marxism…it makes my day. At least admit to your readers that The Decemberists lead singer thinks communism is cool and that Obama’s campaign invited them to play….let your readers interpret the REAL reason why.
7. Pat Cunningham | May 22nd, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Grow up, Kaus. You’re always swatting at peripheral things like the Rev. Wright or The Decemberists. Who gives a damn?
8. Kaus | May 22nd, 2008 at 3:27 pm
It COULD be peripheral, it COULD be childish. But, definitely is poor judgement. Have you noticed that Obama has been wearing a flag pin lately to appease voters…wearing a flag pin and then hanging out with anarchist musicians and professors….doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
9. Pat Cunningham | May 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
By the way, Kaus, your comment No. 8 (above) is the 2,000th this blog has published since we launched in early January. Congratulations. You win the big prize: two tickets to the Ron Paul Presidential Inauguration Ball next January. He’s still running for president, isn’t he?
10. Kaus | May 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Excellent! 2000 comment ? That must also mean the 2000th time you’ve called me an idiot. Yippeee!
11. Craig Knauss | May 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Obama had a “Marxist” band because if Kaus had ever been to Portland, he’d find out that Neo-Nazi/skinhead bands don’t play well there. Maybe Kaus would like that sort of thing, but most people in the Pacific NW, and almost anywhere else, don’t. Besides, I’d like to find out where Kaus draws his line separating “Marxists” from his group. I suspect it’s somewhere just slightly to the left of fascism. If Kaus fanaticizes that he’s mainstream America, he’s in for a horrendous shock come November. For the record, Kaus would have a hell of a time finding any real Marxists. I didn’t see any when I was working in Russia and I sure didn’t see any when I was working in China. They didn’t like true communism any more than he does. But they didn’t like fascism either.
12. Kaus | May 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 am
Craig…Craig…when “The band’s name refers to an 1825 revolt over the Imperial Russian succession (Decembrist revolt) that Meloy views as an attempted communist revolution” to quote Wikipedia….what does this mean to you? By the way, Neo Nazi doesn’t equate to Marxist, which shows your lack of any intelligence matter in your liberal brain.
13. Craig Knauss | May 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Kaus, Maybe you shouldn’t move your lips when you read. The vibration obviously interferes with your comprehension. Portland is a pretty liberal town. They’re not going to have a Neo-Nazi/skinhead band there for anything. That’s why there was a “Marxist” band, as you describe them. (Although I doubt you have a clue what “Marxist” even means.) And I still don’t know why you believe everybody and everything is Marxist, unless you are ultra- far right, like the Nazis were. And no, a Marxist is not a Nazi. They are exact opposites, something your dead, conservative brain seems incapable of understanding. It doesn’t make a bit of difference how the band got its name, if they are not Nazi-wannbes, you are going to call them Marxist. And I’m not liberal, except by your perverted standards. Maybe you should acquire a little intelligence.
14. Kaus | May 23rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Dude, why don’t you do a search on Meloy and tell me he DOESN”T have a liking to communism. He named his band after a historical event and he thinks communism is cool. Why would Obama put them as the warm up band for his pontificating in Oregon?
I didn’t understand your logic and where Nazis had anything to do with what I was talking about, Were you insinuating that I am a nazi? You seem to throw facism and nazism around like you are a professor from the school Pat went to.
So you went to Russia and China…people there really know the horrors of communism…duh. I am sorry to call you liberal…perhaps you think you are a progressive with a high IQ….but you don’t impress me with your logic on this argument.
15. Pat Cunningham | May 23rd, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Give it up, Kaus. Nobody but you and a few other right-wing nitwits gives a damn about this band. You seem not to recognize how much you sometimes fit a very unflattering stereotype of the beady-eyed conspiratorialist. You’re like the people to whom I refer in this more recent post: http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2008/05/23/obama-fathers-two-headed-gay-terrorist-baby/
16. Kaus | May 23rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
What conspiracy am I bringing up? You guys can NOT answer the basic premise…..Obama’s campaign elected to share the stage with a band that glorifies communism. This wasn’t a coincidence. Would YOU let The Decemberists play at the Democratic Convention this summer Pat?
17. Pat Cunningham | May 23rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Yeah, why not? I like commie music. But seriously, you’re being silly, Kaus. You seem to think that the Obama camp’s choice of an opening act for the Portland rally reveals the candidate’s commie sympathies and that the intent was to somehow subvert the audience or convey some communist message as part of a grand conspiracy. You’re a wacko, pal. You’re like Dale Gribble, the right-wing character on “King of the Hill,” the animated comedy show.
18. Kaus | May 23rd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
By the way…Buffett endorses Obama…..Buffett supports the estate tax…..a marxist principle….no conspiracies here…..income tax, estate tax, capital gains taxes will be increased under Mr. Income Redistribution.
Have a memorable Memorial Day.
My thanks to all veterans, regardless of political persuasion. I salute you all.
19. Henry | May 26th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Kaus -
Are you saying Buffett is a marxist because he supports the estate tax? If so. that’s laughable.
20. Kaus | May 27th, 2008 at 12:15 am
I think the estate tax is a disgrace….it’s funny how these zillionaires like Buffett who make their money in a Capitalist world want everyone else to live by a different standard…kinda like Al Gore burning his CO2 gas flying around the country….
So is Buffett Marxist….no…but he has always been a democrat….and he likes that income redistribution thing….ya know…socialism is merely a bridge to marxism.
21. Henry | May 27th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Are all taxes a disgrace, and if not, which ones do you favor?
22. Henry | May 28th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Thanks for the response. I’ll assume you are against all taxes. If you ever need a cop, call one of your fascist friends, if you have any.
23. Craig Knauss | May 28th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
It’s amazing how all those “Marxist” rock bands, like the Beattles, the Rolling Stones, Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, etc., enjoy making lots of money. Doesn’t sound very Marxist to me. Maybe Kaus should also look up “Marxism” in Wikipedia, since it seems he doesn’t know any more about Marxism than he does about Portland area bands. Rock bands pick names to draw attention to themselves. The more attention, the more money. Sounds pretty damn capitalistic to me.
BTW: Obama also drew 3,500 people in Pendleton. It’s the size of Belvidere and only exists to serve the ranchers and farmers. Not bad attendance for a Democrat in a die-hard Republican small town (without the Decemberists).
24. HW | June 19th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Man, I love the Decemerbists.
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