Poor Frank Rich. After all this time he still doesn’t get it.
WEDNESDAY’S health care rally was one of President Obama’s finest hours. It was so fine it couldn’t be blighted even by his preposterous backdrop, a cohort of white-jacketed medical workers large enough to staff a hospital in one of the daytime soaps that refused to be pre-empted by the White House show.
Obama’s urgent script didn’t need such cheesy theatrics. … There was only one problem. This finest hour arrived hastily and tardily. At 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, who was watching? Of those who did watch or caught up later, how many bought the president’s vow to finish the job “in the next few weeks”? We’ve heard this too many times before. Last May Obama said he would have a bill by late July. In July he said he wanted it “done by the fall.” The White House’s new date for final House action — specified as March 18 by Robert Gibbs, the press secretary — is already in jeopardy. …
Mr. Rich is not only wrong, but in fact Obama’s “urgent script,” after a year of no leadership at all, was not only “cheesy,” to use Rich’s description, but desperate. But these are desperate times for Democrats, who have bungled the last year and counting badly. Though it’s really impossible to take Frank Rich seriously anymore considering he was one of the clueless media mass that applied no objective thinking over the last few years.
Which brings me to a point that needs repeating.
As a political analyst, and not a movement progressive, you will not find any cheerleading from me, except to say that I clap loud, long and hard for liberal ideas and whoever is championing those ideals, that is, whenever the moon is right and some politician loses the elite party ties that bind for a single moment to speak what is worth hearing. I have no intention of propping up weak Democrats who don’t know how to lead or listen to the American people, who, for instance, want a public option, but aren’t being listened to by Pres. Obama or the rest of the Democratic party.
To reiterate, I long ago put away my hyper-partisan spurs, not only because I’m doing different work now that I’m in Washington, but because it no longer interests me, as I find both parties bankrupt, with few politicians in either party worth the effort. The job I do now is simply analyzing the political terrain. Some people are having a hard time adjusting.
The following comment, representative of the inability of some people to understand what I’m now doing, is worth posting as a teaching lesson. From “chazmonk*,” whose righteous indignation is felt by other Democratic choir members who simply cannot accept that the criticism I’m leveling at Pres. Obama and the Democrats is earned.
You go ahead Ms. Marsh, and start voting with the Republicans. You might as well, because ever since your Goddess Queen Hillay Clinton lost the primary, all you do anyway is complain and demonize Obama and the Dems. I often wonder if you would have held her feet to the fire as you do Obama if she was President, though I think we know the ridiculous answer to that, don’t we? Honestly, you used to be one of my 3 favorite blogs; now it’s like getting on some foreign blog I’ve never seen. My only question is this; once you help put in the Romney’s, Palin’s and Ryan’s of the world, will you still bitch and moan so much? Because that’s where we are headed. Jesus, you sound like some talking head like Luntz, who is doing everything he can, through language, to make sure Dems lose out in 2010 and 2012. [...] I know I’ll be burned on the cross over this, but I don’t care anymore. Your seething hatred and anger of HC losing is still with you today, obviously, and it makes you look petty. Gone is the day of Ms. Independent Journalism. Gone, gone, gone.
Ah yes, it’s all because “Goddess Queen Hilla(r)y lost the primary.”
I get it from the unhinged fringe puma on the right, as well as the Obama choir on the left. It simply proves to me I’m doing something right, though that hardly matters, because I’m telling it like I see it. Of course, you’re under no obligation to agree, but to point of motive the tantrums are just absurd. Though the notion that I would ever vote for anyone who doesn’t support women’s self-determination is really one for the books.
The truth is that the current Democratic leadership has not earned the continued support of the people who elected them. It does no good to elect people who are not going to stand by the people who put them in office.
So, if the entire Democratic party is turned out it’s their fault not mine or others who voted for them. You have shown them the way, whether it’s the public option, getting out of Iraq, closing Gitmo, DADT, Wall Street-BigPhrma-Insurance company coziness, you name it. Pres. Obama and the Democratic establishment has ignored you, but now they expect you to save them, because Republicans are worse, thinking that because Democrats have nowhere else to go they’ll come home in the end, as always happens. I’ve said many times that is still likely to happen again, with their no proof whatsoever that anyone can beat Obama right now.
Some voters, including Democratic activists, are just too abused to know better. So they’ll keep rewarding incompetence and ineptitude. They simply can’t help themselves, because they don’t have any stronger spine than the people they’re electing.
However, something new is afoot. There is a political shift happening that bodes ill for both main parties; something that is long overdue.
To quote JoeCHI, who speaks for a lot of people whose emails are hitting my inbox, and to which “mwfolsom” replied “Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Because Republicans are worse? Sorry, but that’s a terrible strategy. A terrible, pathetic, self-loathing, ineffective strategy. In fact, I would argue that the “Vote D because the R’s are so much worse.” is responsible for the mess the Dems are in today. After all, why should they put up a fight or fulfill their promises when you aren’t willing to walk away?
(FOLLOW UP COMMENT) My apologies, that came off a bit harsh. That said, the #1 rule of negotiations is that the only deal you have a chance of winning is the one that you’re willing to walk away from.
Right now Mitt Romney is finally resurfacing after staying quiet in Obama’s first year; while Sarah Palin continues her public tour. I didn’t create the landscape, but I will analyze it and report on it. I find it particularly interesting that when I write about Sarah Palin people get very upset that I can cover her without malice and offer a political analysis that is not filled with sexist slurs or the usual questions of competency. First, I cover what’s hitting, what’s interesting, and Sarah Palin is one of the most impressive political celebrity phenoms to hit American politics in decades. Secondly, as to her competency, George W. Bush was elected twice, so I think that proves the obvious, which is that most voters aren’t activists. They vote on emotion and Sarah Palin arouses it, on both sides, but she also fits the mood right now, though there is no evidence yet that she can clear the presidential nomination bar. However, considering how far she fell in 2008, and how she’s risen, nobody should count her out.
Meanwhile, Pres. Obama has spent the capital he road into office a year ago, now begging the progressives, whom he has betrayed on policy several times in his first year, to save his presidency. As the Democratic party decides whether to appease Rep. Bart Stupak against the majority of the party in order to pass a health care bill that’s not worth it, except to give Obama his desperate win. While establishment Dems advise the current health care bill needs to be passed or it dooms Democrats.
I’ve said numerous times that Dems have convinced themselves they need to pass something, if for no other reason than they can’t rise above Republican talking points. If Dems were smart they’d run on health care in 2010, asking the public to vote on a public option. That would turn the 2010 elections on its head and scare the crap out of Republicans.
The bottom line is that if the Democratic party is going to sell out the voters who put them in office, The People should burn down the party and start over with people who don’t, no matter how long that takes.
When Obama was elected people wondered if conservatism was dead. Ah, those were the days. They didn’t last long and it’s not the fault of the voters. But it will be if they continue to prop up these losers.
* – The spelling of “chazmonk” has been corrected.
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