Make Michael Scherer stop:
There is a battle looming in Congress, a contest that will pit many of the most powerful companies in America against each other, potentially reallocate trillions of dollars in spending, and literally impact the future health and well-being of each and every American. No one knows how the conflict will end, just yet, or who the winners and losers will be. But if Thursday’s Health Care Reform summit at the White House is any indication, there is no doubt who will be standing at the middle of the scrum: The nation’s self-anointed Mediator-in-Chief, President Barack Obama.
Was Bush ever referred to as the “self-anointed Commander-in-Chief”?
I guess I should just be happy the article wasn’t titled “Obama’s petty health care strategy“.
The Populist
I will say it one last time, Scherer:
If it’s so bad to have nationalized health care FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT AFFORD IT, why are the Japanese car companies hailed as much as they are by your side of the aisle? They can pay their workers good salaries and let Tokyo pick up the health care costs.
Seems like it makes sense to me!
dwhite10701
Scherer has been exhibiting serious contempt for Obama since the election season. I think he drunk the McCain 08 kool-aid, and it colors his perception of everything Obama does now.
KRK
"Mediator" is the pejorative here because mediation is intended to lead to consensual resolution of disputes. That is, the dispute ends and all sides have to concede, even if grudgingly, that they had a say in the resolution. Scherer, and the media generally, want the health care dispute to continue forever or, if it must be resolved, they want one side to force something on everyone else, who can then be brought forward to air their grievances for the next few decades.
David Hunt
Well, since Scalia was the one that anointed him, that jab wouldn’t actually make much sense…
Cris
No, because the Constitution already anointed him with that title. A more apt comparison would be, "Was Bush ever referred to as the ‘self-anointed Decider?’"
Zifnab
@David Hunt: Beat me to it.
Incertus
So what’s Scherer’s beef? Does he want Obama to just smack the Republicans in the mouth and say "get in line" instead, the way Bush did to the Democrats? Does he want Obama to cave and let the Republicans walk all over him, even though he won a huge victory and has massive majorities in both houses? What’s wrong with the President being a fucking mediator on an issue?
The Populist
Bush called himself "the commander guy" once. He’s also referred to himself as the "decider".
Napoleon
What a flaming dick.
Maybe someone should remind him that Obama won the election for the highest office office in the land and any executive position involves resolving competing claims, and one way to do that is mediate. Maybe Scherer would feel better if Obama just used a dart board to come up with solutions.
matt
Of course not, because The Village approved him.
MattF
To which one may reply: "…and your point is?"
MikeJ
Politics is fun. Governing, or even understanding it enough to write about it, is hard.
Chris Johnson
Actually, wasn’t John Ashcroft literally anointed with oils in creepy religious ceremonies?
What the hell do they figure Obama was anointed with? Watermelons?
4tehlulz
Dear Mr. Scherer:
It’s called leadership. Now DIAF.
Cris
You’re either with us or against us.
Tom Hilton
I’m convinced that Michael Scherer invented Andrew Malcolm just to make himself look more reasonable.
Chris
What a douchebag…
Scherer doesn’t even make sense. Wasn’t Obama elected to hammer out deals on important things like healthcare? Isn’t that part of the job?
I guess he’s suppose to force all of the doctors, insurance providers, policy wonks and patient advocacy groups to sit down and "stop the bullshit."
binzinerator
Sheesh. Why does this asshole try so hard to be so damn stupid?
On the other hand, he’s probably not trying. A meanness of spirit informed by abject stupidity is probably his natural state.
The Moar You Know
Self-evident axiom: a Democratic president is not legitimate by virtue of being a Democrat.
Another axiom: if the people elect a Democrat as president then the true will of the people has been thwarted.
And another: Democrats are not True Americans™.
I think I’ve got it figured out.
Zifnab
@MattF: Obama just thinks he’s so in charge of EVERYTHING! If there was a word to describe him, I think that word would be "uppity". He’s not supposed to be in charge of this stuff.
geg6
Um, what the hell does Michael Scherer expect the president to do in coming up with a policy for universal health care? Just say "this is it" and that’s that? Or let big pharma, the AMA, and Kaiser make the policy with no input or negotiation? Since when isn’t a president expected to mediate among competing ideas and interests?
Gawd, I’m so sick of these media types who display ignorance at every step and on every possible subject that matters. My latest TIME subscription is about up and they’ve been bombarding me with renewal notices. I know it will mean next to nothing to them, but I’m writing them to tell exacly why I will not be renewing, with prominent mention of Michael Scherer and Mark Helperin as two of my main reasons. SUCK.ON.THAT.
Dork
This 2 minute blurb did more to explain to me WTF is going on with AIG than I’ve learned over the past 4 months on any other blog.
JMM is teh awesum at flushing out the shit in layman’s terms.
sgwhiteinfla
DougJ
Still think Scherer is just faking it for his career?
DougJ
Yes.
Comrade Dread
To all my friends in the media, the Pundits, and the Republican establishment:
Hi, guys.
Look, I know this idea will strike you as absurd and shatter your world view, but bear with me as I kindly explain that: We’re NOT THAT STUPID.
You see, when millions of people went to the polls, including a majority of independent voters, to vote for Barack Obama, we weren’t fooled by a confusing ballot, or guilted by white shame into voting for the black guy, or expecting a Republican-lite leader, no, we all voted for the ‘liberal’ Democrat, knowing his policies, knowing all of the 20 odd years of inane and oft stupid political slurs you’ve reported and conjured about liberals, knowing that much of his domestic policies would be a 180 degree turn from the previous 8 years, and knowing that there might be some items we didn’t agree with him on.
But you know why we voted for him anyway?
Because the Republicans governed this country into a shithole, and we didn’t want more of the same. We wanted a 180 degree turn. We didn’t want compromise. We didn’t want obstruction. We didn’t want a government that was going to sit around on its ass doing nothing.
We VOTED FOR the liberal Democrat.
We appointed him.
And we did it because you suck.
binzinerator
@KRK:
If you may recall, these assholes think a consensual resolution of a dispute is the same as date rape. So naturally ‘mediator’ is going to be a pejorative to them.
smiley
This is just more of the Village meme that the administration is trying to do too much at the same time.
dr. bloor
Scherer seems to have stumbled on a discovery that most of us make at twelve months and get bored with by fourteen months: smearing your shit on the wall will get a rise out of the grownups.
sgwhiteinfla
DougJ
Then that man deserves an Oscar!
TR
Michael Scherer looks like one of the pompous, entitled preppy assholes from the country club in "Trading Places."
Acts like it too.
MikeJ
sgwhite, my guess is that Scherer really isn’t a wingnut. He most likely has no principles whatsoever beyond helping himself. Which makes him a perfect Republican.
That One - Cain
Speaking of assholes, I’d like to shove a shovel up Roger Kimball’ss ass for his wankery. He’s looking for some kind of legal ruling to say that whatever Obama is doing is treason and of course should be impeached. Impeachment is on the table within 5 weeks of being elected.
cain
Mary
Scherer has gotten so bad recently that I suspect he has been given his notice that he is on his way out at Time and is trying to position himself for a position at Politico or the like.
SnarkIntern
Hm, I think SAMIC(tm) is a win. For Obama, and for our side.
Lord knows we needed mediation, and what could be better than having the chief mediator be our guy, a guy who gets surrounded by Republicans asking for his autograph?
I don’t see how this gets any more win for us.
Cat Lady
@Comrade Dread:
Win.
In addition, here’s a link to Larison trying to explain to wingnuts that being treated like an adult is full of win. I say good luck with that. Also.
Napoleon
@Cris:
That is a way to resolve the claims, just assert one is right (I am not saying that is smart, just that it is a way to do it).
binzinerator
@The Moar You Know:
Wait a sec Moar… Isn’t just the first one an axiom?
And because the second one is deduced from the first, wouldn’t it would properly be called a corollary?
I suppose the third could be deduced from the first too, but… ooooh wait a sec! The third one is actually the axiom, and the other two are corollaries, because they can be deduced from the axiom ‘Democrats are not True Americans™’!
Whew. So glad I figured that out.
Oh, and Scherer can go pick out and eat the kernels of corn in my shit.
bobbo
Wow, it will "literally impact" our health? I didn’t realize it was so serious. I guess it’s a lot worse than just plain old "impacting" our health. (And certainly ten times more serious than just "having an impact.") Michael Scherer literally knows what he is talking about.
Cat Lady
Tap tap tap – is this on?
rel="external">www.amconmag.com/larison/2009/03/05/demagogues-and-wonks/
Martin
This is clearly all Obama’s fault.
h/t
Napoleon
@DougJ:
You may be right, but my personal politics aside, if I was a cynic, and was going to fake it, I think I would be on the opposite side of thinks. He is like a Russian defending Csar Nicholas II in December of 1916.
KG
@7: there is a decent (though covered in a few decades worth of dust) argument that the president shouldn’t be mediating Congress in drafting legislation, since it is the legislature’s job to actually write the damn laws in the first place. It’s that quaint idea of separation of powers.
It’s one thing for the president to transmit suggested bills to the Congress (which he has the constitutional authority to do) and a whole other thing to be involved in the actual negotiation and drafting of legislation.
Napoleon
On further thought he is more like someone defending Csar Nicholas in April of 1917.
kay
@That One – Cain:
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
There it is. The first stirring. I’m so glad. I was waiting for it. They never, ever disappoint.
When they lose an election, they immediately set to work on removing the President. That’s how it’s done, right?
1. lose
2. focus on impeaching winner
They’re completely undemocratic. They fundamentally don’t buy the premise of elections. You know that, right?
comrade scott's agenda of rage
This is Republicans we’re talking about, right?
Then I assume that was a rhetorical question.
kay
It’s going to get ugly. One way to put it in perspective is to read the hyperventilating on the Right when faced with Clinton’s first budget, in 1993. Clinton raised taxes across the board. Bill Richardson (hah!) had to round up votes in the House, and he still lost 38 Democratic votes over that budget.
Civilization was we know it was over that time too, because of Clinton’s socialist tax agenda.
scarshapedstar
I never heard of a President before. You guys ever hear of a President before?
Didn’t think so.
Xanthippas
Oh God…I laughed out loud here at work, but I don’t know how to explain what I’m laughing at.
sarah
@DougJ: Hasn’t Brooks admitted outside of his column that he doesn’t necessarily agree with what he writes? Specifically on Sarah Palin who e really disliked for realzies but in the NYT not so much.
Even Kristol will sing a different tune depending on who he’s talking to and what the current CW is.
Columnists who are hired to be "that guy" never seem to have that much intellectual integrity. Not sure what Scherer’s excuse is.
Blue Raven
@Chris Johnson:
Self-anointed with Crisco before being sworn in. Hubris, let me show you it.
Singularity
I’ve been trying to avoid being petty about this. I mean I wouldn’t want to seem hyper-partisan or mean-spirited or anything. But is Michael Scherer fucking retarded or something?
Cal Gal
While I was watching the Big O at the health care summit, I thought, "This is what we get when we elect a community organizer. He organizes."
Thank GOD.
DougJ
@Sarah
That depends on what you mean by “admitted”. He often contradicts what he writes, but he doesn’t admit that he has done so.
les
The stupid in our political discourse is getting too fucking frightening for me. And I made it through Nixon; admittedly,drugs were better (or at least more available). Fucksticks like this in Time, US Senators citing Ayn Fucking Rand, blatant full on lies and full time idiocies from Congress, national media (not even counting talk radio), you name it. I begin to fear that there simply isn’t a group of people competent to run the country, much less fix the mess we have.
AhabTExpropriator
ORLY?
Just Some Fuckhead
Michael Scherer’s comments seem to indicate a certain derision for the bipartisanship Obama has proposed. Are the villagers who have a fetish for bipartisanship swooning in horror?
Mnemosyne
@Singularity:
Hey, that’s insulting to the retarded. Most of them are way smarter than Scherer.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne
It’s a natural mistake, given the evidence, but I think you’re correct.
I know we’re in a big pile of shit right now and no one knows where the keys are to the bigass tractor are or even how big that bigass tractor needs to be to move the pile, at least we are starting to have fun with the losers (or at least at their expense).
les
@AhabTExpropriator:
Yeah, definitely. No doubt in part due to being a dirty fucking hippy, well immersed in the (counter) culture. But variety was good, there was little profit motivated trade, the War on (Some People who use Some) Drugs was limited to the Kansas Atty. General trying to bust people drinking in airplanes flying over (dry) Kansas. Quality was self-policed, and times were swell. Not so much for a 60 year old lawyer. What was that about drugs will ruin your life?