Iowa caucus results: Angry Newt Gingrich bolts after bad finish

[JHB]

57. Horseshit!

You've heard a bunch on quasi-anonymous posters on an internet message board froth and foam about the need to teach the administration a lesson. So what? What kind of numbers do thay have?

If it's just a fringe that can't make any difference, then let them "teach". But if you have even the smallest concern that enough people might agree with that view to make a difference, then maybe something should be done to change that. I won't even get into whether "the Left" (or more accurately, "the lefts", since it's hardly monolithic) is the "base of the party", but either it is a consitituency needed for victory or it's not. If they are not, who cares what they think. But if they are, who cares what you think? Shore up the goddamn flank and get them on board.

If you believe horseshit about a "Left/Right alliance" then congratulations, you have become Ralph Nader, complete with that blurred Ralphievision that can see broad superficial similarities but can't distinguish important details.

You've read (over and over, in your words) that people feel the need to teach Obama a lesson. WHY? Why do they feel that way?!? Not each and every individual complaint, but the sum total...what's the pattern you see there? Do you see people in some ideological fantasy fog? or people who are damn tired of having pretty words blown in their direction every four years and given the bum's rush the rest of the time, especially when outfits on the other side have repeatedly shown that credible threats of electoral pain gets results.

And reaching for "lost elections in the past" is exactly the sort of political-consultant spun crap I'm talking about. Unless you can explain to me why anyone who mentions "Ted Kennedy 1980" magically forgets the words "Iranian Hostage Crisis" and "Desert One Fiasco", or "Nader 2000" without asking why anyone believed his myopic "no difference" line. What were they thinking of that made that sound anything but loopy? What let that get any traction at all?

Can you answer those questions? Do you know those details? Or do you think "the Left" just exists in this weird ideological fog? If the last, then be careful about ranting about a "Left/Right alliance", because there is another group that thinks liberals live in a weird ideological fog...they're called conservatives.

In truth, "The Left" is actually a pretty cheap date...give them some hope and you'll leave the actual radical parts high and dry. But if you don't want to pay that smaller-than-you-think price, you get what you pay for.