I see it differently. OpEdNews is a supporter of the Take Back America Conference. But your perspective is not unreasonable, looking at it from the outside. Frankly, I wanted to hear what Hillary had to say and hoped that her being at a progressive even would push her a bit to the left. I give her credit for discussing some issues with a progressive perspective. I was happy to see, for example, that she was very strong on the election integrity issue. When it came to the war, two people out of 1200 booed her. She knew exactly where she fit into everyone's opinion of her at this event, where the people in attendance are more progressive than many of the speakers and what appears to be the profile of the leadership.
Later in the event I had a chance to talk to a number of powerful people, union heads, a governor, several congressmen. The event created a situation where real contact and communication were possible and I made some connections with future potential that made it all worth while. I met John Conyers and Bernie Sanders, heroes for many progressives. I met Ned Lamont, a great candidate taking on Joe Lieberman.
There were a lot of strong progressives there too. I think it's not a bad thing to bring centrists to a progressive meeting. Maybe they'll see the energy and passion. Maybe they'll get something out of it that turns them around.
I congratulate the organizers of the Take Back America Conference for doing a great job. There are always ways to improve on a good thing. They could hold a panel on the relationship of progressives to the DLC. But overall, they're doing great and the progressive cause would be missing something valuable if they did not do the good job they do.