Pundit Press is proud to present its 20th interview in our ongoing series. Today we are interviewing Kevin DuJan, the founder and editor of the site HillBuzz. Hillbuzz originally supported Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries then switched support to Senator John McCain and Sarah Palin for the general election. We are very pleased to be able to bring you this article.
Kevin DuJan |
1. When and why was HillBuzz created?
In February 2008, during the Democrats' primary campaign between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it became clear the mainstream Media (personified in the trio of Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, and Keith Olbermann in particular) was doing everything it could to destroy Hillary's campaign and push Obama towards the White House. Russert, more than anyone, daily called for Hillary to "just quit already" and drop out of the race. They employed vicious, stomach-turning sexism and misogyny to brutalize Hillary. The Media engaged in a concerted effort to demoralize Hillary's supporters, cause her volunteers to abandon her, and her fundraising to dry up. Working for Hillary's campaign in Chicago, I organized volunteer phone banking, canvassing, and small dollar fundraising efforts and was bombarded with hundreds of emails a day from our volunteer lists asking some variation of "Is it true what Tim Russert said? I heard Chris Matthews say Hillary should just give up, is that true? I don't know what to make of what Keith Olbermann said yesterday, can you explain it?".
I call these people "Eeyores" because, like Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh books, they carried little rain clouds over them, which Russert and the others filled with dirty water steamed over the airwaves. The "Eeyores" abandoned all hope and shut down because that's what the TV told them to do, and in doing so, Hillary lost close races that would have been won if only her team didn't "just quit" the way the Media told them to. The initial push behind what became HillBuzz was to serve as an umbrella to keep these Eeyores from not only giving up, but convincing others to give up as well.
Answering all of the Eeyore emails took an enormous amount of time, and since people essentially asked the same things, I started writing stock responses to go out every morning after watching what MSNBC did to push Obama the night before. At first, I sent these "Media Roundups" out as an email blast but a friend of mine told me I should start a website and counter the Media's attacks on Hillary directly, in real time, and invite our volunteer list to just check the site regularly for updates. On February 17th, 2008, while a group of my friends and I were creating YouTube videos and phone banking to support Hillary Clinton in the upcoming Ohio and Texas primaries, we launched the original version of HillBuzz on Blogspot.com. It was just myself, and a small handful of friends who supported me with research and writing behind the scenes. The first day of its existence, the site had 300 hits, but our links were forwarded throughout the Team Hillary network quickly and by the end of that first week, HillBuzz was getting 3,000 hits a day. During the course of the campaign, my articles and essays were picked up by the national media and HillBuzz.org was featured on The Rush Limbaugh Radio Show, scoring what remains our all-time high of 250,000 hits in a single day. Hillbuzz.org will surpass 15 million hits in February, 2011.
When Hillary Clinton suspended her presidential campaign on June 7th, 2008, we decided to continue the site by promoting Democrats for McCain efforts because we knew exactly what sort of president Obama would be, what he would do to the country, and the sort of people he would bring to Washington from Chicago with him. The Democrat Party took a sharp turn Left in 2008, decidedly so, which alienated the "bitter, clinging, Midwesterners" and those like us who were formerly longtime Democrat loyalists. These are the Jacksonian Democrats, the Reagan Democrats, the Hillary Democrats who now no longer have a place in the Democrat Party. As former conservative to moderate Democrats, the far-Left and Alinsky Methods-based entity the Democrat Party has become is totally alien to us.
It was a transformation completely documented on HillBuzz.org, so reading our archives from the beginning through everything that's happened since is an interesting story of how Obama and the Left turned party-loyal, dyed-in-the-wool Clinton Democrats into confirmed and committed conservative, Palin-backing, gung-ho Republicans.
2. At what point did it become clear that the site could not endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 general election?
2. At what point did it become clear that the site could not endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 general election?
HillBuzz.org is based in Chicago and is still written from the gay Boystown neighborhood here. As a state senator and then a US Senator, Obama never did a damn bit of good for any of his constituents. Though the Media refused to properly vet this man and report on his Chicago dirty dealings, living in this city and being politically active in Democrat circles I knew very well just how much influence Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Frank Marshall Davis, and Louis Farrakhan all had on Obama...and what that would mean for his presidency. So, I have never supported this man for elected office. On top of that, during the 2008 campaign the Obama supporters were brutal and vicious toward Hillary supporters. They aimed the full Alinsky Death Star at us, going so far as to attack Hillary supporters on an individual basis, calling anyone who backed her a racist for not supporting Obama instead.
Campaigning for Hillary in Iowa, I witnessed pervasive voter fraud committed by the Obama campaign, where Obama supporters from Illinois drove into Iowa to vote in the Caucus at Caucus centers run by the Obama team (who allowed these non-Iowa residents to game the Caucus). These are Chicago voter fraud tricks, and Obama used them in every state during the primaries, with the Media refusing to report on it because it would make Obama look bad and counter the narrative they were forcing that he was some sort of light-bringing god-with-a-small-g. And then, not long before the South Carolina primary, Obama used his surrogates to drop the race-bomb on the Clintons, calling Bill and Hillary Clinton racists. Simultaneously, Obama promised black voters in the South "Obama money" to the tune of $50,000 a piece if they'd support him, with the money a quid pro quo once he was elected president. Watch Andrew Breitbart's "Big Government" site as he continues to expose this scandal, commonly referred to as "Pigford", because the national Media has an embargo on this as well. The two buzz words Obama used ubiquitously in 2008 were "Hope" and "Change" but his campaign, and the man himself, can better be summed up as "Fraud" and "Corruption".
3. Do you see Sarah Palin as a realistic contender for 2012?
3. Do you see Sarah Palin as a realistic contender for 2012?
Sarah Palin will be the 45th President of the United States. She is running a brilliant presidential campaign already, taking full advantage of media opportunities of her own design (such as her books, her speaking tour, her TV show, and even her daughter's appearance on Dancing with the Stars) to establish a personal connection with voters that show she is truly one of us. The Cocktail Party GOP establishment is invested in running Mittens Romney as the "it's his turn" candidate in 2012, largely because so many GOP consultants and staffers have entrenched themselves around Romney and they all want to have big, important jobs on the 2012 campaign...which will not happen when Governor Palin secures the nomination, since she detests these Cocktail Party establishment types. The Media, the Left, and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment have formed an axis bent on destroying the Governor and nominating in her place a milquetoast, squishy, cucumber-and-mayonnaise- sandwich stale white male to lose to Obama in 2012. This is similar to the Media, the Left, and the DNC joining forces to push Hillary Clinton out of the 2008 race and give the nomination and presidency to Obama. So, for those of us who are veterans of Hillary's campaign, there's a lot of deja vu all over again watching a female presidential candidate taking enormous fire from the Media, the Left, and the party establishment all in service to promoting Obama's personal interests.
4. What is the best part of running your site?
4. What is the best part of running your site?
The best part of running HillBuzz.org are the Ground Reports people send in reporting on what's happening in their part of the country, especially those where people relate stories about how they took action and became involved in the political process like never before. The number one goal of HillBuzz.org is to give people ideas for how they can get up off the couch, put down the Pepsi, stop complaining, and start DOING something about the things that upset them in terms of what's happening in Washington. HillBuzz.org started off as a little Hillary Clinton campaign site out of Chicago, but we've transitioned to being a source of news and action items covering Capitol Hill and American politics in general. What sets us apart is the simple fact that people don't just come to HB to read articles, but instead come to get and give ideas for creative but simple things we can all do to throw both the Left and the Cocktail Party establishment off their games. There is no greater thrill in life than when something that originated as an idea or Action Item on HillBuzz.org takes off on a national level and gets people off their couches, onto the phones, or out in their communities to actually DO SOMETHING about the things that upset them.
5. Do you see a primary challenge for President Obama?
5. Do you see a primary challenge for President Obama?
There will be no primary challenge for Obama because anyone who would challenge him would be called a racist for doing so. The Media would, in particular, exsanguinate Hillary Clinton if she would challenge Obama -- so for all of you who continue to fantasize about HRC doing this, you need to stop because the race card will not allow it to happen. Obama so poisoned the 2008 campaign by racializing it that for the first two years of his presidency even the slightest criticism of this man and his administration was called racist by both the media and the Race Industry headed up by the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Henry Gates, James Clyburn, John Lewis, and others. It's preposterous to think anyone on the Democrat side would want to endure being called a racist 24 hours a day by this bunch, because that person "tried to take the nomination away from the historic and unprecedented first black president". That's the sort of garbage that was aimed at Hillary Clinton in 2008 because she would not roll over and allow Obama to take the nomination without a fight to the end. She was called a racist for "standing in the way of the first black president" and whomever would challenge Obama in 2012 would have the same accusation leveled against her or him. Doomsday scenario would be, after all the mud-slinging and race-baiting the Obama campaign would engage in to keep the nomination, if he was beaten it's guaranteed the black community would sit home on election day 2012, since Obama was not on the ballot and "he had the nomination taken from him". Because Democrats depend so heavily on their identity bloc coalition, if blacks sit home en masse next year, the Democrats lose not just the White House, but scores of Senate and House races as well. There is just no way on Earth Obama is primary challenged next year, as a result of this race-baiting and extortion the Democrat Party engages in to keep its identity blocs in line.
6. Are you likely to support a GOP candidate in 2012? Are there any that are in the forefront for you?
6. Are you likely to support a GOP candidate in 2012? Are there any that are in the forefront for you?
I am supporting Governor Sarah Palin for president in 2012 with Allen West as her Vice President. Palin/West would be an unstoppable combination with enough punch to really hammer this White House's record hard. I do not trust any of the squishy, cucumber-and-mayonnaise stale sandwich, wimpy men the Cocktail Party GOP establishment and national Media continue to push for the Republican nomination. Please pay attention to something that's incredibly important but that conservatives are shockingly blind to: the Media selects the Republican it wants Democrats to run against by giving that man nonstop positive press coverage...until the day after he secures the nomination and the general election begins. John McCain is a classic example of this, where I heard many foolish conservatives say "Oh, but at least the Media loves McCain so he won't get any negative press". Do you remember the 2008 campaign? As soon as McCain beat Romney and the rest for the nomination, the Media turned on McCain and painted him as too old, too excitable, and too out of touch to be president. And this was the man the Media carried on a love affair with for a whole decade. The same thing is currently happening with Mittens Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman, John Thune, and other Cocktail Party establishment favorites the Media is pushing for the GOP nomination instead of Governor Palin. Look for the word "polarizing" in anything written by the Media. It's a word they always use against female politicians to claim they are unelectable. As in, "Sarah Palin is so polarizing and has such negative press coverage that she can't win, so we should go with Mittens Romney because the press loves him". There is a reason Republicans are called "The Party of Stupid", and it's because they keep falling for this garbage. Governor Palin has shown she can withstand any attack thrown against her. Attacking her, in fact, makes her stronger. There is just no man in the entire Republican Party who can hold a candle to her. She's not "Reagan in a skirt"...rather, Reagan is "Palin in a suit". You betcha!
7. Tell us about the plan to build a new HillBuzz site.
I am very excited to be launching the new HillBuzz.org site later this month, a dream two years in the making. It's a huge expense to move the site from its current home to a dedicated server supported by a developer team geared towards making it a premier political resource going forward. The new site is built around a mission of "Choose Your Own Adventure", where every day we feature Action Items for readers to engage in, however they choose. This drives our focus on "Political Analysis, Action, and Adventure". As much as I love reading the essays and commentary on other conservative sites, I don't see many of them giving readers ideas for how they can get involved, get off the couch, put down the Pepsi, and DO SOMETHING. Remember, the Left has hired thugs in ACORN, the SEIU, the Black Panthers, and Organizing for America to do its bidding. Conservatives don't have paid minions to do things. The Left is just 20% of the country but controls our federal government because conservatives don't do the little things, on a volunteer basis, the Left gets done through the unions and other paid thugs. The excuse I hear too often is "conservatives have jobs and don't have time to be involved". So, on HillBuzz.org, our Action Items are designed to be things that are incredibly simple to do, take less than fifteen minutes to half an hour maximum, and cost very little money. Some days, we might ask readers coast to coast to send postcards to an elected official telling that person how terrible of a job he or she is doing. Postcards are the most powerful tool in the political arsenal, because they cannot be ignored the way email or voicemails can be. They are not in envelopes, so an elected official cannot have them sent away for "testing" because that person claims they could have something hazardous inside (which has been happening since 2001 to anyone who wrote an actual letter to an official). Nope. Postcards get through to the intended recipient, and along the way they are read by everyone in the office who comes in contact with them. I encourage people to send postcards with images of their hometown so, visually, when heaps of these things arrive, it looks like the entire country from Seattle to Miami and all points in between is upset with whomever's being written to. Postcards also encourage brevity, since space is limited, and can get a simple message across like "STOP SPENDING SO MUCH TAX MONEY!" that Congressional or gubernatorial staff can't ignore. I've heard repeatedly that conservative WANT to get involved, WANT to do something, and WANT to send the Cocktail Party establishment a message that they are not going to accept the status quo any longer...but that conservatives were never taught how to mobilize and become active. On top of that, there's the "conservatives have jobs and better things to do" attitude that permeates too many conservative sites (where people claim they don't have time to make phone calls or write postcards, but yet seemingly have more than enough time to read countless essays on those sites). The new HillBuzz.org site is designed to make getting involved as easy as possible, with several ideas every day so that people can choose what political adventure they want to go on. All of these are things people can do as a family, especially the creative Action Items that involve making posters, designing tee shirts, doing photoshops, and all the other things the Left has legions of paid staff to do, which conservatives must do on an ad hoc volunteer basis. My most sincere hope is that the "Choose Your Own Political Adventure" spirit of the new HillBuzz.org site will be copied across the conservative blogosphere and incorporated into Governor Palin's 2012 presidential campaign because if we ever get that 80% of the country that opposes the Left off the couch and on its feet, the Left won't hold very many elected offices in the future and will need another generation or three to regroup and come as close to destroying this country as it has during the Obama presidency.
8. Anything else you'd like to add?
8. Anything else you'd like to add?
I hope anyone reading this appreciates the fact that Americans are not up against just the Left in 2012, but that there indeed is a real and determined axis of the Left, the Media, and the Cocktail Party GOP establishment that very much wants Obama to get a second term. That last one might be hard for a lot of you to accept, but the Republican Party is currently controlled by a group of people who do not really want to win elections. These are the Washington Generals of politics, who enjoy the perks and cocktail party amenities of being the out-of-power party, but don't want to do the work that's involved when Democrats are defeated. So, these guys put on their best blazers, the women slap on their pearls, and they make half-baked attempts at running very winnable races...if only the Cocktail Party wanted to actually win them. On top of all of this there is also the GOP consultants who consistently run the "it's his turn" candidates like Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mittens Romney...because these consultants specialize in running these bland, white, male, generic candidates the Media loves (right up until the general election begins). Conservatives need to accept the unfair and harsh reality that the Media will never love them. No matter how much the Media promises to show that love for whatever "moderate" they are pushing for the nomination, you need to understand that once it's general election time, the Media intends to destroy whomever has an (R) after his or her name. The only exceptions are those Republicans the Media has tons of dirt on, because then the Media just blackmails those RINOs to do whatever the Left wants, so those people might as well just be Democrats. In fact, they really are people who were not talented or competitive enough to run as actual Democrats, and saw becoming a Republican to be the path of least resistance to get them to the cushy cocktail party lifestyle they wanted. We need more Republicans like Sarah Palin, Allen West, Jan Brewer, Michele Bachmann, and company...and less like Mark Kirk, Lindsey Graham, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, etc. It's time to stop running the candidate the Media wants Republicans to run. I hope someone out there can find a way to convince conservatives to end that ridiculous cycle...the one that's set to push Mittens Romney to the nomination if we don't stop it.
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Nice interview.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. This is really good.
ReplyDeleteSay, is Kevin a political guy? I mean does he work in politics for a living? Where does the money come from for his site? If he's not getting paid, he ought to be.
ReplyDeleteYou've been had !!
ReplyDeletePlease, go visit the site. He is a wonderful writer.
ReplyDeleteWonderful breath of fresh air to read this candid interview of the truth!
ReplyDeleteI have been following him for about 2 years these people are really up on everything. I just love them!
ReplyDeleteDee
Mesa, aZ
Sarah Palin 4 President!
ReplyDeleteRestore America the Beautiful!
Kevin and Hillbuzz are great and inspiring!!! I am a conservative and tired of the establishment Republicans...especially in Illinois. I look forward to Hillbuzz's action items!!
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
Sugar Grove, IL
Great interview! I just love Hillbuzz, too! Kevin and the Boyz, keep it up, you're doing a terrific job!
ReplyDelete