I name David Gergen my Wanker of the Day based on the totality of his ridiculous column, but one part of it stood out and made me laugh out loud. He was discussing the tendency of political parties to over-interpret their victories, but he overreached with his analysis. Watch.
What we are seeing, I regret to say, looks very much like a movie we have seen before: The side that wins an election thinks the public has given them permission to steamroll the other side, pushing through their favorite ideas willy-nilly. Sometimes, they partially succeed, but before long, there is a backlash, and Washington comes to another grinding halt.
We saw that back in the early ’90s, when first the Clinton White House overreached, going too far left, and then after winning the midterms, the Gingrich Republicans overreached to the right. In the second Clinton term, they learned how to get along better and accomplished big things for the country.
If you say that the Republicans and the Clinton administration learned to get along during his second term, you deserve to be flogged in a public square.
The Republicans impeached Bill Clinton in 1998 (in his second term)…over a blow job.
Better yet .. what did Gergen think was too far left in Clinton’s first term? Does he really think HillaryCare was far left?
For Gergen, he went to far left when he took the oath of office.
gun control, gay rights and Waco. And losing on health care.
The same gun control that Shrub extended once? How did Ross “Chunky Bobo” Douthat become smarter than Gergen?
Just have to love Gergen’s double standard. When Bush won for the first time (in 2004), Gergen wrote, “Give the man his due: George W. Bush is emerging as one of the boldest, most audacious presidents in modern history.” He went on to warn him not to go too far, but the framing was very different. That which is audacious for Republicans is arrogant for Democrats in Gergenworld.
It could have been worse; he could have complained about President Obama being uppity….
(I’m impressed with the invincible ignorance of Gergen’s ending line: Obama “…will be more successful in his second term if he takes guidance from how presidents like LBJ, Reagan and Clinton negotiated with congressional opponents — and takes a night off to see “Lincoln.””
Right.
Because the winner of the bloodiest war in U.S. history was well known for his willingness to compromise with his political opponents.
And because LBJ did such a great job negotiating with Republicans when he had 2/3 Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.
And the two government shutdowns under Clinton are proof positive of how he could reach compromises under any situation.
Yeah, but….bipartisanship!!!!11!!!
Gergen speaks longingly of the era of “triangulation” where repugs in congress told Clinton to jump and, basically, he asked how high. Dick Morris was one of his closest advisors. Congress passed welfare “reform” and Clinton signed it. You know– the good old days.
Wow. Imagine the things that would have happened then without all that good bipartisanship.
Whoa, boy … you went back in time too far! He seems to have completely forgotten Shrub and the mandate to “rescue” SS. That turned out well.
Bush and his political capital speech that really stands out in my mind. lol! Moving to the center by Obama does not. He needs to play the good poker hands hes been dealt in two elections. Obama is not over playing his hand he never does.
Actually, it was over perjury.
Of which he was guilty.
For which he was disbarred.
And for which he should have resigned, allowing Al Gore to finish the term and depriving the GOP of their opportunity to so easily ruin the term.
And maybe you are willing to claim your president getting hoist in public for getting a blow job from an intern (sexual harassment for other federal employees, but not for him) was not an embarrassment to you, and that you did not and do not think it a disgrace for him and for the office.
Others among us are not partisan to quite that point.
We are not quite ready to pretend to not mind Caligula being Caligula because we approve his agenda.