March 04, 2010
The White Flag Presidency
With all due respect, when the liberal president of the United States has to essentially beg his fellow liberals to vote for his proposal, it's safe to say we have a weak executive.
President Obama's message to progressives who are dissatisfied with the Senate health care bill is two fold: First: Don't forget about the uninsured. Second: Don't forget what failure to pass this bill would do to the party and my presidency...What Obama doesn’t seem to realize is that his presidency is already damaged, no matter what happens with health care. If he manages to persuade enough Democrats to pass such a profoundly unpopular bill, the Democrats will pay in November. However, if he doesn’t pass it, the Democratic base will regard him as weak. Since those Democrats are basically all that are propping up his approval ratings, it’s hard to figure out which scenario is worse....Obama reminded the assembled Democrats that doing nothing would be politically disastrous. "To maintain a strong presidency we need to pass this bill," the President said, according to Grijalva.
The true measure of how far Obama has fallen, though, is how Democrats regard him. Few seem to be asking him to campaign for them, and his approval ratings aren’t at record lows, but they are likely nowhere near where Obama thought he would be at this point in his presidency.
Of course, Obama has no one but himself to blame for this. He campaigned as a moderate who could bring the country together, but lurched toward hard liberalism almost as soon as he took office, and is now urging Democrats to embrace the very ideology that crushed his approval rating. Obama underestimated how angry voters who believed his campaign rhetoric would get once they realized he was lying to them.
Obama’s approval ratings fell because Americans don’t like being lied to, and for that reason, those ratings are unlikely to improve until the president shows a willingness to respond to popular opinion. Frankly, given how Obama has governed to this point, I am not optimistic. I hope the American people deliver a firm rebuke in November, but more importantly I hope Obama gets the message. If he doesn't, then it may be time to start worrying about his ability to acknowledge political reality.
Cross-posted at The Greenroom
Posted by slublog at 11:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 26, 2010
"A Prayer from the Living World"
Doctor Zero is my favorite Greenroom contributor at Hot Air.
It's a beautiful reminder that depression is not a death sentence, and life is precious.
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February 24, 2010
Olbermann Pre-Empted, Howard Kurtz Hardest Hit
Like DrewM, I enjoy watching the Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, the broadcast rights to those games were given to NBC, whose network coverage has been...less than ideal. Fortunately, NBC has two cable channels that have picked up the slack. Both MSNBC and CNBC have almost proven their worth by covering, with limited inane commentary, some of the best events - curling and hockey.
This evening, Sweden and Great Britain faced off in curling. The epic match was covered on MSNBC, and preempted much of their prime time schedule. The half-dozen Olbermann fans out there were outraged by this programming decision, chief among them totally objective media reporter Howard Kurtz, who wrote the following on Twitter:
Keith Olbermann has been preempted by...curling? Don't they realize there's a health care summit tomorrow??What, exactly, was Kurtz expecting on the health care debate from Keith Olbermann? The man is nothing if not predictably partisan and outrageously outraged by any Republican who dares disagree with The One. No serious media reporter should bemoan the preemption of Olbermann, who is really nothing more than a carnival barker for the left at this point.
Don't feel bad for Kurtz, though. The curling match ended with a Swedish win, and the restoration of outrageous outrage to the airwaves:
Olbermann back in action. Curling ran long on MSNBC. Whoever made this programming decision should be Worst Person in the World.I hope, for Kurtz's sake, that the delay wasn't too stressful.
Howard Kurtz, this long-distance request and dedication is for you, pal. Was the Special Comment good for you? I hope so, because your pining for Olbermann shows your...
Continue reading "Olbermann Pre-Empted, Howard Kurtz Hardest Hit"
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February 09, 2010
Wait...I Have a Blog? Really?
I'm doing most of my blogging over at Ace of Spades HQ or the Greenroom these days. It may be time to pull the plug on this thing eventually.
Earlier, I wrote this. My attempt at an Obama speech.
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January 31, 2010
What Were They Thinking?
Guest-blogging at Hot Air for a couple of days.
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