Trapping The Apostle

[phantom power]

Digby. Everybody should read her every day.

Zakaria's first question was this:

Q: What do you think Obama needs to do make a mark in foreign policy?

Isaacson: I do think it would be great to rise above partisanship and have a non-partisan foreign policy. We all agree on the basic goals.

We do? I think we just went through a presidential campaign in which the Republican candidate said that we should stay in Iraq, be more confrontational with Russia and bomb,bomb,bomb Iran at the least provocation. He endorsed the Bush Doctrine. There is no foreign policy consensus. Sure the basic goals are for everything to "be ok" but I don't think that gets us very far. There is no reason to believe that Republicans are on board with Obama's proposed foreign policy. In fact, at the end of the election, half the voters still thought that the crazed coot McCain would be better on terrorism. Don't think the GOP didn't notice that.

(...)

This is why this bipartisan fetish is so dangerous. It sets up an expectation among the villagers that actual politics can be like a DC cocktail party (or the CNN green room) where everyone has a spirited conversation and then pat each other on the backs agreeing that only reason these things are so contentious is because the silly people out in the country just don't understand how things really work.

(...)

All over television this morning the gasbags seemed convinced that Obama had been elected to stop the left from ruining the country. And when it turns out to actually be his supposedly cooperative new partners in governance --- the right --- that stands in his way, they will blame him for being too far left. It's a trap.

What these people really want is a wizard who can solve all problems without a fight, a leader who gives them tingles down their legs and an historic figure who makes them feel really, really good about themselves for being the agents of America's transformation from country to Nirvana. It's not the left who sees him as an apostle. It's the Village.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/trapping-apostle-by-digby-i-like-ddays.html