My list-servs are blowing up over the report from CNBC correspondent John Harwood that some anonymous source in the White House criticized the blogosphere and said some of us “need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.”
I couldn’t be more bored.
You have the spectacle of a phalanx of left-wing bloggers who are bashing the crap out of the administration on every issue under the Sun. And, then, when asked about it, some frustrated White House adviser pushes back a bit. So what?
I thought the national press corp held the world record for fragile egos until I started hanging around with bloggers.
Stop hanging around them then?
People are criticizing other people on the internet?
Why I am shocked.
That people are criticizing other people on the Internet is no surprise. Just who is criticizing whom for what, and under what circumstances, may at times be worthy of comment, even if it is only to note how predictable it all is.
Robert Parry today voiced similar sentiments to yours (which I certainly agree with!) regarding the reaction on the left to Obama’s Nobel Prize. I think it’s a very interesting piece. Parry states, in effect, that Obama won the Nobel Prize simply for beating Hillary Clinton and John McCain, and thus truly replacing the Bush/Cheney war juggernaut.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/101209.html
Except for the replacing the war juggernaut part. I note that we’re still fighting the oil wars.
Maybe it’s the White House adviser who has the thin skin.
Seems from this post that it’s the White House official who’s got the thin skin.
I accept criticism. In fact, if anyone criticizes me it means someone’s read my blog so it’s a plus.
That’s right folks. That’s what you get for not nominating John Edwards.
Yes, John Edwards, the epitome of honesty and integrity. It’s hard to decide who he treated worse, his wife or his mistress.
I’m hoping that you were being facetious.
the voters, he treated the voters worse. what was he thinking pursuing the nomination?
Ah . . . good point. I’ll have to admit that even though I was working on the Obama campaign from day one, I was ticked at Edwards for continuing to pursue the nomination.
“It’s hard to decide who he treated worse, his wife or his mistress.”
As long as he’d have fought like hell for the best civic interests of the common ordinary citizen, I couldn’t care less which of the two, his wife or his mistress, he treated the worse. I’m not looking for or even interested in a presidential candidate’s marital fidelity being impeccable. That’s a matter for the candidate’s spouse, with whom I have no trouble distinguishing my self and my interests.
For all I know, Stalin might have been a model of marital fidelity. BFD.
Again, “How and why have we gotten into such a f***ing mess?!?!”
Marital infidelity among the governing class?
George W. Bush never did anything “complicated and difficult” in his life and yet he and his White House got through two terms doing pretty much the same things Obama and his “anonymous” staff are doing now.
Change?
If you really think nothing has changed since the Bush Crime Family left office, you’re insane. Not every policy has been reversed, it’s only been nine months, but god if you think it’s the same old same old you are really beyond delusional.
Judge Sotomayer would not have been nominated by McCain. We’d see Scalia Part III. No stimulus bill. No real effort on climate change or health reform or talks with Iran or any other a thousand other initiatives that are slowly but surely moving us forward.
Thank you. I really believe that the people who are complaining the loudest are those who aren’t paying attention to all that has been done in these nine months. The changes in the regulatory agencies alone has been astounding. I also believe that most of the people whining (yes, whining) and complaining are single issue people who feel that their particular issue has not been adequately addressed.
Judge Sotomayor was first nominated to the bench by GHW Bush.
Of all the posts on the internet about this dust-up, this is the first one I even bothered to read.
I cannot measure my indifference to whether someone insulted some bloggers (and I think I’d feel the same if I were a blogger).
Bloggers should, like good news men, not make this about them. They should just do their damn job. That means get the stories out, rally grassroots to phone Congressfolk, raise money for people like Sen. Gillibrand and Patrick Murphy who are trying to overturn DADT, and highlight the bigoted nature of current policies.
Getting into meta spats with Rahm Emmanuel about whether or not bloggers are wearing their pajamas or not is just dumb. Obama is in favor of our causes, we just have to “Make Them Do It”. Wasn’t that the motto earlier this year?
Blogland is in its adolescence (to put it generously), so there is reason to hope it will be growing up soon and getting over the adolescent belief that everything is about its own tender ego. Some of the attacks on Obama from some “left” sites have been childish and extreme. No grownup would be surprised when a volley is returned now and then.
Adolescents are irritating as hell most of the time, yet it’s a sad day when their energy, enthusiasm, and off-the-wall certainty subsumes into the balanced and dull pragmatism of adulthood. This here joint stands almost alone in offering a place tempered by reason and civility while keeping most of the energy, which is why it’s my main place to hang. But let a million flower bloom.
That’s pretty condescending. Especially when the attacks on Obama are at least based on his actions or lack of them, and this anonymous criticism is based on a lie. The Obama method of governing a closely divided country has been adequate at best. How complicated it is it to protect Wall Street firms and Republicans when their only ambition is to destroy you and drive the citizenry into indentured servitude?
Pretty much.
Poutrage fatigue: I haz it.
Poutrage fatigue. In my fatigued state (fighting a cold) I thought at first it was a typo. But I love it. It’s so apropos.
I’m with ya, Boo, very boring. Plus, I can’t help but chuckle when the cocktail weenie circuit gets criticized by bloggers who host an abundance of finger-food mixers at their conferences – by invitation only. The village indeed.
Ah, the memories of Austin are coming back to me… 🙂
sounds like Mr Gilroy, only without the “wake the fuck up” warning.
I so agree!
It’s getting to be a rare relief to read blog posts/diaries whose goal isn’t to ratchet up outrage over the most negative possible spin of an untrustworthy unsourced paraphrase.
I guess I don’t know who the unidentified White House official is mocking.
This sounds like a phony story. I mean, “blogosphere” is kinda general. So is the story that the White House through an unidentified official is telling people to shut up? Or is the White House saying that it’s being immature to criticize the White House?
Or is the story that the “blogosphere” was offended that they were told to shut up by the White House?
If the Bush White House told the “blogosphere” to shut up would that be okay, or would it be okay to take offense by the White House telling people to shut up?
What is the proper response to what an unidentified source says to an undifferentiated group of people?
Yeah, John Aravois at America Blog is just too much. His whole schtick is tiring even though I agree with his views on almost every issue. His analysis is based too much in emotion and he gets his readers all worked up by creating his own outrageous narrative.
John Cole puts some perspective in this same team squabble.
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28093
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28125
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28117
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28129
Thank you, I needed that. After having read some incredibly nasty and divisive and negative and hysterical (but not funny) comments on a couple of other blogs (including Americablog), I was beginning to think I had strayed into some weird teabagger/birther universe.
For some reason I haven’t read John Cole in a while. I put him at the top of my blog list now so that I can get a regular fix of sanity.