The dog days of summer are here. The Senate is recessed until September 13th (may there be substantial recess appointments) and the House is out, too (although they’ll be trotting back to the Capitol tomorrow to vote on a bill to give money to the states union members and the indigent). People are on vacation and the political news cycle gets very, very slow. Traditionally, this is when the blogosphere goes meta in order to keep the interest up.
I woke up this morning still smarting from the unexpected loss of a cherished family pet, so I’m definitely not in a sunny mood. One of the first things I read was from an unexpected source. Famed New York Daily News sportswriter Mike Lupica turns his sights from the Jets’ preseason to talk politics with Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina, who was recently tea-bagged out of Congress for insufficient wingnuttiness. Here’s something important that Inglis had to say that we often say ourselves:
“What we are seeing these days is so much misleading. They say one outlandish thing after another about the President and that gives license to others to say even worse things.
“When you have one of our so-called leaders saying that Obama is a socialist, then others feel empowered to dial up the rhetoric and call him a Marxist. Or a Communist. Then you have something worse than words, you have the dehumanizing and demonizing of the President of the United States. And when that happens across history, scary things can happen.”
Of course, that quote is pregnant with meaning no one wants to plainly articulate. The next article I read provided me with a troubling sequitur.
Texas has mainly provided a thorn in Barack Obama’s side. The governor taunts him. The senators defy him. He lost the state by nearly 1 million votes in 2008.
When the president lands today to raise campaign cash in Austin and Dallas, even the Democratic nominee for governor will make himself scarce.
One can only hope that the same cannot be said for the Secret Service. It’s bad mojo all around. Consider the context of the times:
NRA, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin Plan Rally at Lincoln Memorial on Day of King March
The National Rifle Association, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are using the anniversary and site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington for what they are calling a “Restoring Honor Rally.”
Calling the date of this rally “divine providence,” Beck, the talk show host, has partnered with the NRA and Palin to help him generate interest in the August 28 event.
Yes, the National Rifle Association is sponsoring an event on the same day that Martin Luther King Jr. (allegedly killed with a Remington 30-06 rifle) gave his most memorable speech at the memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln (killed with a .41-caliber pistol).
Yeah, none of this puts me in a good mood. And some people wonder why I am not too interested in focusing on the left’s shortcomings at the moment.
Boo – first my commiseration on your loss. I remember when my wife’s dog passed – she still tears up about it now, 10 years later.
I wholeheartedly agree with you re the prevailing mood that appears to be the norm within the US. I met recently a US colleague from NY who said he had voted democratic all his life but could not bring himself to vote for Obama because he didn’t believe that Obama loved his country. This wasn’t some uneducated yahoo but a senior lawyer in a big wall street firm.
The media gleefully projects and builds on the Obama as other meme without in any considering more than their short term readership/viewership figures. Things that were taken as granted as entitlements and burdens of the Presidency are now being seen as literally treacherous to the republic. Where this leads to I don’t know and almost don’t want to think about. What I do know that in this atmosphere I have very little time for people complaining about the lack of a public option, or the nomination of dawn johnsen, or the countless other trivial (and less trivial) things that are dissected from every angle. The fact is there is a war for the soul of the US – the side of the angels struck an enormous blow in November 2008 but mistakenly saw that as victory and retreated. Now they are too busy fighting amongst themselves and have let the other side come in and pillage what ever is left. Instead of putting on their metaphorical armour and aiming at the other side, all weapons are now pointed in Obama’s direction.
Do you forget history? This stuff, sadly, happens when unemployment is high and the economy isn’t doing well. And what do you expect from the left when it feels the president isn’t listening to them? And no, not everything is trivial. Take HAMP for existence. Is that trivial? That has become one of Atrios’ hobby horses(besides SUPERTRAINS). Why? Because the program was designed to please the banksters, not to help people keep their homes. Do you think Christina Romer would have resigned right now if she was being listened to?
You said it: what do you expect from the left when it feels the president isn’t listening to them?
Well, first I expect the “left” not to be such whiny cry babies that it has to feel “listened to” in order to be validated. Second, I expect that the “left” consider what has been achieved already (and it is inarguably significant) and then re-consider whether it has, in fact, been “listened to”. Third, I expect that considerations of whether someone has been “listened to” to be placed lower on the list of priorities than the ruination of the country.
Finally, I am not saying that everything that Obama has done has been brilliant. I’m not defending the HAMP program, for example, although I see that – in hindsight mind you – as more misguided rather than the deliberate attempt to put money into the bankers’ hands that so many people think. What I am saying is that while criticising legitimately, take into consideration what has been achieved – for example the reform of student lending and the minimising of sentencing disparities between cocaine and crack are at least the equal of the failure of HAMP.
No President and no administration is perfect. Just like any sports team there will be games where they don’t play up to standard and there will be players that go through a dry patch. What matters is the overall score at the end of the game and so far – in my view – the President and the Obama administration has so many more plus points than negative points that it’s barely a contest.
As for Christy Romer, it seems that you think it would be irresponsible not to speculate about her departure. As for me, stories about disagreements within the WH leave me cold in that they are always reported from the prism of the media trying to gin up confrontation qua story. All of use, however, have personal experiences with colleagues with whom we may have had some harsh words but whom we respect and value as colleagues? Romer herself said she was leaving because of her son but does that carry any weight with you?
Romer herself said she was leaving because of her son but does that carry any weight with you?
And when was the last time a politician(whether elected or appointed) didn’t say they were quitting to spend time with their family? Because that’s the standard excuse.
How come the media doesn’t report Byron Williams’ divine drive to SF to shoot up the Tides Foundation?
Booman, in the “better to light one candle than curse the darkness” category is James Vega’s post yesterday on how Democrats searching for “message discipline” (or even just “message”!) this fall could do no better than President Obama in his recent speeches.
Vega says, “A serious political message campaign has to have at least four key elements – a narrative, a metaphor, a “case” and a rallying cry.” Obama has all of them; check it out.
(If I knew how to do links I would. It’s at http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org.)
Too late. The narrative arc has been struck, and it has bipartisan support. Obama Fail.
It is now easier to change the reality than it is to change the story.
You are right, but you don’t also highlight the problem. Why does Obama support Landrieu and Ben Nelson when they torpedo(or badmouth) a lot of what he is trying to do? Those aren’t the only ones, obviously. But that is just one example. You can’t have message discipline when those clowns won’t play ball .. so to speak
Not to speak for Obama, but I imagine he supports Landrieu, Nelson, Lieberman et al because Obama is the de facto party leader—and that’s what party leaders do.
Besides, message discipline for the Democrats this fall is largely the responsibility of the candidates. There’s only so much Obama can do to help (or Nelson can do to hurt).
I’m very sorry to hear of your loss, Booman. I’ve been struggling with the same situation for the last few days even though it was a neighbor’s loss.