During the 2008 Democratic Primary, Hillary Clinton supporter Tom Buffenbarger, the international president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, gave a speech really critical of Obama that Dave Weigel resurrected to the delight of many of Obama's critics on the left:
Hope? Change? Yes We Can? Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter.
Brian Beutler notes that Buffenbarger is now enjoying some renewed attention for his prescience. Apparently, it doesn't actually matter that on the substance of the claim, Buffenbarger was actually wrong, since Obama went on to run up the scoreboard on the Republican attack machine to the tune of about 10 million votes. Unless, of course, the ability to secure a decisive victory in the general election, the context in which this remark was made, doesn't actually count as a "round."
