'StopHerNow' Crowd Switches Focus to Obama

Last year I wrote a piece about “Hillary Haters,” a prime specimen of which was a group called StopHerNow.

So it was interesting to see an advertisement across the top of the Drudge Report today for StopHimNow, a Web site, from the same people, dedicated to portraying Barack Obama as naïve and unintelligent.

An example: A cartoon depicts an imagined meeting in the Oval Office between Obama and his "spiritual adviser," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

"Is love black and white?" Obama asks.

"No, it is black," Wright screams.

"Really?" asks Obama.

"God damned right it is," screams Wright.

"That's what I'd thought you'd say," answers Obama, assured.

It’s an indication that what Clinton once called the "vast right-wing conspiracy" has already begun to shift its energies to Obama. (The fact that the URL is still stophernow seems to show just how much Obama's likely nomination caught them by surprise.)

The main man behind the Web site is Dick Collins, who I spent some time with in Texas and who was certain then, as most everyone was, that Clinton was going to be the nominee. When I had asked him at lunch why he was concentrating on Clinton, he said, "Because she is going to be the leader."

Collins considered the Web site different from most political independent expenditure efforts, because he imagined it would be funded through grass-roots contributors. Last summer he told me the goal was to raise $4 million by the general.

"Most independent expenditure efforts is when you get a bunch of rich guys; all of us know who some of the leading people are here in Texas, these are rich guys that get together and raise money to pound the other opponent," he said.

His group, he said, could get by on far less: “Funding it is not going to be an issue."

The original idea for the Web site came from Republican consultant Arthur Finkelstein, who by last summer had officially separated himself from the project, but continued to advise Collins.

It will be interesting to see who is funding the site now.