Frank Rich: They Sure Showed Obama, Didn't They

[Doctor_J]

But we do know this much. Just as in the presidential campaign, Obama has once again outwitted the punditocracy and the opposition. The same crowd that said he was a wimpy hope-monger who could never beat Hillary or get white votes was played for fools again.

On Wednesday, as a stimulus deal became a certainty on Capitol Hill, I asked David Axelrod for his take on this Groundhog Day relationship between Obama and the political culture.

“It’s why our campaign was not based in Washington but in Chicago,” he said. “We were somewhat insulated from the echo chamber. In the summer of ’07, the conventional wisdom was that Obama was a shooting star; his campaign was irretrievably lost; it was a ludicrous strategy to focus on Iowa; and we were falling further and further behind in the national polls.” But even after the Iowa victory, this same syndrome kept repeating itself. When Obama came out against the gas-tax holiday supported by both McCain and Clinton last spring, Axelrod recalled, “everyone in D.C. thought we were committing suicide.”

The stimulus battle was more of the same. “This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking,” he says. Once the frenzy got going, it didn’t matter that most polls showed support for Obama and his economic package: “If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

Go, Frank!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/opinion/15rich.html?_r=1

[Doctor_J]

1. I would also add that the onslaught from David Sirota and the

left hasn't hurt O's approval either.

[TheWraith]

3. True. In some ways the extreme partisanship in Washington helps Obama.

Being attacked from the left for reaching out, and being snubbed from the right, he looks all the more like an independent leader.

[crimsonblue]

4. Obama's not being attacked from the left for reaching out...

he's being attacked from the left for embracing Bush policies, such as the use of state secrets, warrantless wiretapping, and filling the DoD with Bushies. It is legitimate to be critical of Obama, because only with vocal Dem support can we enact true progressive legislation.

[TheWraith]

6. And case in point.

Your attacks aren't based on actual facts, but on the perception that Obama's not being far enough left for you.

[crimsonblue]

7. Not based on facts? WTF are you smoking?

Obama specifically embraced the Bush policy on state secrets and wiretapping. Cheerleading for ANY political leader is stupid and dangerous.

[TheWraith]

8. No, he didn't.

As you should know. They declined to make any alterations to state secrets policy pending a full review, and are looking to return wiretapping to the rules used in the 90s, both of which are light-years away from "embracing the Bush policy."

[crimsonblue]

9. Then why did they allow a case to proceed in which the DOJ is proclaiming

Full state secrets rights to dismiss the case? If it were pending review, then the Gov should have asked for an extension (which both the defense and judge expected and welcomed)?

[Tansy_Gold]

5. He's being attacked for wimping out, not for being "independent"

He's being attacked for hiring a bunch of right-wing, supply-side, "free"-market has beens.

He's being attacked for giving in to the pukes.

He's being attacked for being a nice guy when we all know nice guys finish dead fucking last.

If he were truly independent, he wouldn't have a cabinet full of oh too painfully familiar names.

Didn't he learn anything from his (admittedly few) years in the Senate? Pukes don't play nice. They don't care about people. They defend their own turf with rabid ferocity. They do not believe in bipartisanship. It's against their religion.

While everyone is crowing about his "victory" in getting this so-called stimulus bill passed, is anyone examining whether it's going to prove better for "us". . . . or better for them who didn't even vote for it?


Tansy Gold

[Triana]

2. “This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories..."

“This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking,”

And the lame$tream media repeats those theories ad-nauseum to the rest of America. Those who are sheeple swallow it whole. The rest of us - don't. During the election and now, America doesn't seem so much to be swallowing the jizz that DC and the corprat-pwned media is spewing all over the nation. They know what they think and it doesn't agree with the propaganda being flung to all corners by Wall Street, Washington, and the lame$tream media.

I just hope people are FINALLY figuring out (enough of them to make a difference) that Washington, Wall Street and the lame$tream media have their OWN agendas that have little to do with the rest of America (except of course to get our money from us for their own selfish ends when/wherever possible).