The Method To Their Madness

[Emit]

~snip~

Yesterday the President heard from one of those non-professional left members of the base in person and this is what she said:

Velma Hart: Thank you very much. And good afternoon, President Obama. I’m deeply honored to be in this forum and so grateful for CNBC for making the forum available so you can speak to American citizens just like myself. I’m a chief financial officer for a veterans service organization and that’s here in Washington. I’m also a mother, I’m a wife, I’m an American veteran, and I’m one of your middle-class Americans. Quite frankly, I’m exhausted. (...)

I think that says pretty clearly what has rank and file Democrats tuning out. It's the economy, stupid.

But there's another element in what she says that's also very important and it's one I hadn't taken into consideration, although I should have since I'm very familiar with the phenomenon:

Quite frankly, I’m exhausted. Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the man for change I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.

~snip~

... And in an appearance today on Hardball she articulated what she was worried about:

I'm worried. I know I shouldn't be, somehow I know I shouldn't be. I should have confidence in our leaders to get us through these trying times, but I'm getting a little anxious. And quite frankly, the other thing that I'm concerned about is that other people are getting anxious and anxious people do desperate things and I'd like to avoid that."

And that brings me to the exhaustion part of her statement yesterday. Those of you who went through the 90s will recognize this phenomenon. It's when the right's ferocious attacks are so vicious and relentless that they eventually wear down average, common sense people with normal lives to lead --- and even scare them a little.

In Clinton's case it was defending him from the non-stop personal attacks that was so wearying. It took a brave soul with a taste for political combat to keep fighting in the face of that onslaught. (...)

~snip~

So there is a method to this madness. It's the same method that all bullies use. And it's very effective.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/method-to-their-madness-how-freakshow.html

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[bindelh]

2. Replacing Boehner the Republican general in 2010

Justin Coussoule Democrat

Justin Coussoule is running against John Boehner for the 8th district House seat in Ohio.

Please go to Justin's site and contribute what you can for his campaign to replace this insensitive golf playing let them eat cake RepugnaNoUCan't NAY Sayer.

It is time this Republican General is retired.

What will it take to get the President and the rest of the Democratic hierarchy to acknowledge with 'spoken word' that the people of the Ohio 8th District need to defeat the general of the House Republicans and that Justin Coussoule is the Democratic candidate who will do just that. Step up and actually speak his name on the News and in the media pundit's moments.

Justin Coussoule Support Blog

[bindelh]

3. From the land of "Bring a chicken to the Dr."

John Boehner wants to raise the retirement age to 70.

I wonder why?

Sharron Angle, Nevada Senate Candidate wants to "Personalize aka Privatize Social Security".

I wonder why?

I'm wondering why the good people of Ohio want to keep this guy as their Representative and why the people of Nevada would want to replace the Senate Majority Leader with an individual that believes that if a female is raped or the victim of incest, it is God's plan.

We need to defeat John Boehner and keep Harry Reid in the Senate by defeating Sharron Angle also.
Posted by Concerned American at 8:25 PM


Justin Coussoule Support Blog

[Cowpunk]

4. Highly Recommended. A great analysis.

I'll bet Paul Krugman writes about this. He's been amplifying digby's better ideas recently.

[laughingliberal]

5. Goddess knows I fought til I was bloody (metaphorically) defending Clinton.

The difference was a lot of us were doing pretty well under Clinton. He raised taxes on the rich and the working classes got a little shot in the arm they hadn't had in a while.

Now, we're struggling to eat and put gas in our cars and facing relentless attacks on a Democratic president who has done a lot to help the people who put us here. It has not energized me for a big fight.

[Emit]

6. GOP=Bullies