Halperin brings us the latest CW on Obama:
With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.
I’d pay cash money for just one quote in that piece. Sadly, you’ll just have to trust Mark Halperin, who has such a good track record. And if these guys would stop doing their horse-race/analysis pieces and do some basic reporting, maybe people would understand that the political opposition has NO PLAN whatsoever. Although I do like his frank admission that DC reporters are little more than gossip girls.
Although, don’t despair. I was informed just the other day at NoQuarter Firedoglake that the midterm elections don’t matter, so it is all good. So we got that going for us.
Some days I wonder why I even worry about politics. I’m single, white, straight, somewhat educated, over the draft age, and I’ll make it. I don’t smoke pot, I don’t want a gay marriage, I’m not a minority, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any pre-existing conditions, I’ll never have an abortion, I’m not going to be discriminated against in the workplace, no one is going to beat me up on the street for who I am, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about the big issues of the day like global warming.
I ought to just not care, and let the teahadists and those on the left who think there is no difference between parties and think the administration and Democrats need to be taught a lesson for not listening to them have their way. Speaker Boehner and President Palin won’t really hurt me. Fuck it.
Ruckus
That’s the way John. Join the slackers. All the straight white boys got to stick together.
Wait you were kidding? Never mind.
Irony Abounds
Well, if you call President Palin bad names, the First Dude will come by your house and beat you up. So you may want to rethink that one.
MobiusKlein
Just remember that by this time in the previous administration, 3000 Americans had been killed after the pres telling the CIA guy he had covered his butt.
And remember that they made sure the deficit would grow by paying off the rich.
And remember they had let OBL escape by this time, from Tora Bora.
If we’re talking about who is over their heads, let’s keep history in mind.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Speaking as someone who checks Yes a lot of places where you check No: Thanks a ton, buddy. Hope you don’t mind if me and mine hide in your basement when the Teatards are roaming the streets.
What a long-winded way of saying Obama is an uppity negro.
Linkmeister
You know, whoever thought up the phrase “Some say” did a great service to political journalism. It’s like an all-day pass to hackdom.
MobiusKlein
Beside, if you stop caring, Mr Cole, I will come kick your ass, and make you watch Raiders games.
Mudge
You’re from WV..that always leads to some form of abuse.
cleek
cue a dozen posts from bloggers (which will generate 10,000 comments) shocked at your selfish drama-queen cluelessness and how you have no idea about how the government works and how someone needs to “talk you down”.
or not.
MattR
Looking forward to being called a firebagger, but I don’t really disagree with that post about the importance of the midterm elections. I have even commented that one could make the argument that losing in 2010 would actually help position Democrats for 2012.
(Off topic PS: Anyone listen to Broken Bells? Have any feedback on them? I am probably gonna pass on a chance to see them tonight in NYC, but am still trying to make up my mind)
Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim)
Oh John…you’re not straight.
BTW, today is Coming Out Day.
mikefromArlington
Speaking of CW.
When do we get flooded on Sunday talk shows with news EVERYONE is dying to know.
When will John McCain announce his run for the 2012 Presidency?
Nick
Clearly, if Obama had used to bully pulpit…
lamh31
So I’m guessing Halperin’s secured his position on Hardball for the rest of the week. He’s already go to guy for Morning Murderer (Morning Joe to you laypeopler)
steviez314
Bob Woodward’s source on his Biden/Hillary bullshit was Mark Penn.
I’ll bet you he was for this one too.
p.a.
J.M. Keynes: “In the long run, we are all dead.”
I’m 51 and was a history major, solid B student, but the US since the last Presidential election has done more to help me understand a society in decline than any book I ever read. It’s almost an out-of-body experience watching the population of the current dominant world power crack fucking up. I too think I’ll be ok, but I sure would like to make it to the series’ conclusion to see what happens. Bet the sequel will suck.
Zandar
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
This right here.
EdTheRed
You should really start smoking weed, John, if only to give yourself a horse in the race, so to speak.
Nick
@MattR:
If there’s a country left by 2012. Besides, we all know whatever failings of the Republican Congress are going to be placed entirely on the shoulders of Obama and “Democratic obstructionists” by our liberal media.
PeakVT
I’m more or less in the same demographic, and I often wonder why I care. I’ve even tried to force myself not to care, to not listen to the news, and to not follow up when I hear something disturbing. But I feel compelled to know what’s going on. It’s annoying, actually.
mikefromArlington
In other words, Halperin is still being a crybaby about not getting any sort of access and he thinks by acting like a spoiled brat, they’ll give in to silence him since so many turn to him for political guidance.
beltane
@MattR: When I was a kid my father used to fancy himself to be something of a Marxist. He would urge me to vote Republican because the “system” would then fall apart paving the way for the Revolution. Sadly, it doesn’t work out that way. The Republicans do make the system fall apart, but everyone just learns to tolerate the escalating levels of suckiness. There is no silver lining to Republican victories. Hoping there will be is like hoping for Peak Wingnut.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@MattR: You’re an eternal optimist, like I am. I hope that when all of these college students’ favorite Congresscritter is voted out of office they’ll realize that you cannot let up in the elections.
We’ll see.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So…. basically the people who brought us Climpeachment, Flordia 2000, the Iraq War, the budget-busting tax cuts and all the assorted joys of the last ten years, and kept telling me Gee Dumbya was a “very popular President” when he was polling lower than Obama’s are now, and who tell me that $200K/yr is “middle class”, that John McCain must be taken seriously, that David Broder is wise and non-partisan, that Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Pamela Gellar represent opinions that I must respect… these people are telling me that Obama is in over his head because he can’t figure out a way to make John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Blanche Lincoln and a bunch of other chuckleheads stop being fucking stupid.
If God wants me to believe in s/he/it/them, It needs to make idiocy as painful as migraines, shingles and kidney stones.
El Cid
Bill Clinton’s presidency was completely destroyed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Whitewater, and he could never govern again.
Also, the CW is that our financial regulations got just too repressive by the 1980s, so the only logical solution was to blow them all to hell.
Also, the CW is that it’s just impossible to not go to war to blow the Iraqi nation-state to shit.
Ash Can
Halperin sure can fit a lot of people into his imagination.
Martin
Interesting analysis. Congress, business leaders, and working class voters all strive to make the country impossible to govern, and then complain that the guy elected to govern it isn’t up to the task.
Tonight I think I’ll go home and scream in my son’s ear for an hour and then call him a fuck-up because he can’t concentrate and get his homework done. I’ll then feel bask in my own sense of power.
beltane
If I didn’t have children who am responsible for feeding, clothing, and sheltering, I would seriously consider spending a few years living in another country to see if I like it.
Narcissus
It can always get worse. Wait until President Palin outlaws a college education.
Bob L
Well Midterms don’t matter in the sense what ever the election results are it will be a tremendous victory for the GOP and a stinging setback for Obama. The narrative has been set by the media and the election is a mere formality. Just look at how the special elections have been cheery picked to support the it’s “’94: teabaggers on the march” mem.
Zifnab
Which would have gotten you by in the 70s or 80s. But when some corporate entity bank can foreclose on a house you own in full, cops can taser you while they drag you out and torch the place, and the fire department fails to show up because you forgot to mail them a $75
protectionpayment, it becomes the problem of even the whitest, most Christian of males making less than ten million dollars a year.The Republicans and their masters have been fairly equal opportunity in the class warfare game.
I mean, for Christ’s sake, you’ve got Republican Governors in multiple states – all facing massive budget deficits – that are gleefully turning down billions of dollars in health care and transportation spending. Who doesn’t that affect? And why oh why would anyone vote Republican in this election season? It continues to blow my mind.
jacy
@Glenndacious Greenwaldian (formerly tim):
Funny enough, my husband (who doe not read blogs unless they’re about sports logos or TV) used to delineate the blogs I read most often by asking:
“Is that the straight guy with the cat or the gay one with the dogs?”
That was before I stopped talking to him about Sully and only regularly mentioned Balloon Juice. And before Cole was overrun with dogs.
Cacti
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
+1
beltane
@El Cid: Is the conventional wisdom in the USA just stupid or is it the most stupid CW ever? Rome lasted almost 500 years as an empire. Their CW could in no way have been as stupid as ours.
MattR
@beltane: I don’t know. I kinda think that Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008 were partly due to Republican overreach. Giving the public two years to remember what those dickheads do while in power might even give Obama a real mandate in 2012. (Not that I am rooting for this scenario, I just don’t think it is the end of the world that many are projecting)
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): The funny thing is that I would describe myself as a hopeful pessimist. I generally expect and prepare myself for bad things though I am always hopeful that things will turn out better.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cleek:
I heard Jon Stewart, as his morph into the hipster David Broder continues, on NPR saying, essentially, that it’s no big deal if the GOP takes over in November. As with Susan Sarandon, Bill Maher and Michael Moore telling me there was no difference between Gore and Bush, that’s true for him, because he’s rich and privileged. A whole lot of people who aren’t are going to get screwed.
Also, too, the environment (to say nothing of the economic environment) is an issue that effects even rich white people
El Cid
Obama speaks today, someone throws a book at his head, and there’s a naked guy.
This proves the CW and his Preznitzy is over. He needs to resign right now and get the Supreme Court to make Sarah Palin Preznit.
ChrisB
@MobiusKlein: Thank you.
And damn you, John Cole, for linking to Halperin’s track record. I was about to conclude that John McCain had won the week again.
El Cid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s not as if Jon Stewart has had to pay attention to the shit his writers have been pointing out the last few years.
Once I heard him spewing this bullshit, even if it’s more focused on getting people to show up, I didn’t feel the need to book a hotel room any more.
John PM
But if I remember correctly, you are not exactly the most religious person. This will not go over well when President Palin institutes mandatory church/exorcism attendance. Also, President Palin is the beginning of the Apocalypse, so that is a downside for you as well.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
Articles like that used to make me mad, now I just think they’re a joke, with no effect of any kind.
Halperin spent years telling us all how awesome the Bush political operation was. Bush left us office as the most unpopular president in recent American history. Sure, you might argue that was because of “facts on the ground” — the war, the economy, the response to Katrina — but Halperin mixes facts (crappy economy) with Beltway CW in this piece on Obama.
Bottom line: Halperin thought Bush was a great success politically and the Bush presidency ended in disaster politically. Who cares what he thinks anymore?
Tecumseh
Obvious statement about how the CW would be different if unemployment was maybe 4% lower and his approval ratings about 7% higher is obvious (especially if you factor in that unemployment is his biggest problem).
Also, like how Halperin drops in Fox News pundits, as if they’re going to say something completely honest and intelligent about the state of the Obama Presidency. Or that they now represent some sort of special elite that you have to go to gain their opinions.
Nick
@Zifnab:
This isn’t a new thing. Google Eleanor Bumpers
licensed to kill time
BizarroWorld. We iz livin’ in it.
TooManyJens
They should have to specify to whom the elections don’t matter. It sure as hell is going to matter to the people who lose jobs because we can’t push any sane legislation through for two years. They’re not all going to make that lost money and opportunity up, either. A lot of people are going to get permanently behind. But, you know, if that doesn’t count, then I guess the midterms don’t matter.
Mark S.
@MattR:
Yes, there are some parallels to 1994. Clinton cruised to re-election largely because of Gingrich. However, we have a metric fuckton of more problems now than we did in 1994. I firmly believe that if the GOP had been in power for the last two years, we’d have 30% unemployment right now. 2/3 of the states would be bankrupt. The stimulus was too small and too much of it was worthless tax breaks, but the aid to the states was probably the only thing that kept this from becoming Fallout New Vegas.
I’ll soon find out if my hypothesis is correct: there isn’t going to be any more stimulus no matter what happens in three weeks. Along with this foreclosure mess, I’m as pessimistic as I’ve ever been.
Joseph Nobles
And meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh dog whistles the birthers today by suggesting Obama is a “foreign donation.” It’s exactly the same tactic that 9/11 Truth advocates use when they are in “just asking questions” mode. Hey, that’s just why they need a new investigation!
Davis X. Machina
It’s not that JC doesn’t care — he does. It’d be 100% Tunch all the time if he didn’t care.
It’s that he has every reason to not care, as he says, but doesn’t roll that way.
We need to figure out why he doesn’t roll that way, and mass-produce it.
JCT
I’m with DougJ, when it comes to that nitwit Halperin, “CW” means ” conventional wanking” , nothing more.
Cat
You must be under 50, but age discrimination is just around the corner.
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s a return, not a change.
beltane
@Tecumseh: In 1998 the beltway CW was that Bill Clinton was the most unpopular president ever and that the public was just clamoring for his impeachment and removal. The more they yakked about this, the higher Clinton’s approval numbers went (largely unreported on by the media). Likewise, they (especially Halperin) liked to tout Bush as “the popular President Bush” until very, very late in 2006, despite the fact that his numbers had been tanking since early 2005. With all their money and media advocacy, it’s a wonder the Republicans manage to lose anything.
ppcli
“single, white, straight, somewhat educated, over the draft age, and I’ll make it. I don’t smoke pot, I don’t want a gay marriage, I’m not a minority, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any pre-existing conditions, I’ll never have an abortion, I’m not going to be discriminated against in the workplace, no one is going to beat me up on the street for who I am, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about the big issues of the day like global warming.”
You know, I often say that to myself. Except for the single part, you could have described me. And I would add: “I’m a citizen of the US now, I can retain my native citizenship too (just in case – you know, President Palin), and if the Tea Partiers want to cut taxes on families making over $200,000 a year, that will mean a nice chunk of extra change in my pocket.” Supporting the Democratic party these days is like cheering for Michigan football. Endless grief. Hope comes only to be dashed. So why not look on the bright side and be happy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Let’s put some names to this: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Jake Tapper, Chip Reid, Candy Crowley, Wolf Blitzer, Chuck Todd….
When Jake Tapper is the sharpest tool in a shed, ain’t much work gonna get done.
Cacti
@Mark S.:
Clinton’s presidency was saved by two things…
1. The tech boom
2. Having Bob Dole as an opponent
Bullsmith
@Narcissus:
I don’t think she’ll outlaw college altogether, she’ll just cap it at one year max. Cause she herself is an educated person.
Moses2317
I realize that you are kidding, but don’t forget that, I assume, you enjoy clean air, food and water that is safe to drink, products that don’t explode or contain dangerous chemicals, and the assurance that if you become unemployed you can get unemployment benefits and if you are disabled you will be able to receive SSI. In addition, someday you will benefit from Medicare and Social Security. And, I obviously don’t wish this on you, but someday you could have a pre-existing condition.
In short, I think what is missing in your joking rant is that we all benefit from the progressive Democratic policies that are at stake in this election. When Progressives Vote, Everyone Wins, when progressives don’t vote, we all lose.
Winning Progressive
James E. Powell
Agree with several commenting, above. Halperin is mostly irrelevant. But we have to be concerned at the way in which persons with questionable credibility and motives can influence the larger narrative.
That is, I am not so worried about what Rush Limbaugh says. He has his audience, none of whom will ever vote for a Democrat, so who cares, right?
But there are many people in the Great Out There who believe things that are simply not true (Obama has raised taxes, done nothing, done too much, etc.) and the reason that they believe these things is because lying pieces of shit like Penn say them, then lying pieces of shit like Halperin repeat them as “insider” wisdom that “everyone knows.”
Davis X. Machina
@Martin: Have an internet, my good man.
This election is simply America going home and kicking the dog, because it can’t kick the boss without getting fired, and can’t afford being fired.
America knows it’s wrong, but everyone knows dogs don’t vote.
ppcli
“single, white, straight, somewhat educated, over the draft age, and I’ll make it. I don’t smoke pot, I don’t want a gay marriage, I’m not a minority, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any pre-existing conditions, I’ll never have an abortion, I’m not going to be discriminated against in the workplace, no one is going to beat me up on the street for who I am, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about the big issues of the day like global warming.”
You know, I often say that to myself. Except for the single part, you could have described me. And I would add: “I’m a citizen of the US now, I can retain my native citizenship too (just in case – you know, President Palin), and if the Tea Partiers want to cut taxes on families making over $200,000 a year, that will mean a nice chunk of extra change in my pocket.” Supporting the Democratic party these days is like cheering for Michigan football. Endless grief. Hope comes only to be dashed. So why not look on the bright side and be happy.
Redshirt
I eagerly await the apocalypse – I’m fully hedged. So I often look to Halperin for encouragement.
Bob L
@Tecumseh:
Yes, Halperin certainly shown Obama has lost the far Right for good now. You also have to wonder what kind of access a conservative hack like Halperin gets in Democratic circles. Some how I just don’t see to many Dems to eager to chat over lunch with him. Most likely most of his source material is Fox News Pundits.
Montysano
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Beautiful. I now have this mental image of Hannity saying something like “Obama bailed out the banks!1!” (which I just heard him say), and then doubling over in excruciating pain. Indeed, this would get me back to church.
asiangrrlMN
@kommrade reproductive vigor: Triple this. I can check off just about every goddamn point Cole listed. Cole, you better have a big basement to hide us all.
@MattR: Here’s the thing. I don’t disagree that losing in 2010 may help in 2012. I just get so pissed off, discouraged, and saddened by thinking of all the people who are going to be hurt in the meantime. This burning of the country isn’t going to hurt the ones it really needs to hurt, but the ones who can least afford it.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep. That bullshit infuriated me in 2000, and I had to point out to a Nader voter that she wouldn’t be the one most likely affected by W. being president. Cole is joking in his post, but many well-off liberals (mostly white, I would think) actually do feel this to some degree.
cmorenc
If there’s any Democrats in over their head in Washington, they’re sitting in the US Senate and House of Representatives doing absolutely stupidly counterproductive things toward the next election, such as:
=> failing to force a vote on extending tax cuts for people making under 200k per year, to put the GOP on record as opposing this unless tax cuts for the rich are included;
=> failing to force the GOP to, like, actually make a spectacle by filibustering legislation, to highlight what the problem is, instead of simply shrugging and moving on to the next less consequential matter, making the Democratic congress look too disorganized and weak to effectively lead the country through a crisis.
different church-lady
You still hold sanity as a value. That’s why.
Steve
If the Obama administration has no clue how to persuade members of Congress, how did all those bills get passed?
Linda Featheringill
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
You’re planning to have an abortion?
Davis X. Machina
None of this would be happening if we hadn’t sent our already-limited tumbrel-manufacturing capacity offshore.
The revolution will be televised, but it will only be on pay-per-view. High-def, though.
Mumphrey
Every day, I find myself more and more tempted to just pack up, pick up, and move abroad. I know it’s selfish, but we have a 3 year old daughter, and I just don’t know if I want her growing up in a country with so much going for it that seems hellbent on flushing itself down the toilet.
I can’t understand why Democrats aren’t standing in line already to vote. I know Obama isn’t perfect. I know the Democrats are far too often weak-willed and scared of a bunch of sociopathic bullies. But still, if you look at where this country was 2 years ago and where it is now, we’re so much better off. We aren’t doing as well as we should be, and, yes, this bill here or that bill there surely could have been much better. But if you stop and acknowledge what Obama was dealing with when he walked through the door 2 years ago, then, damn, we’ve come a long way.
But at the same time that so many concrete things have gotten better, we’ve seen the attitude in this country drop through the floor. Right-wing nuts are on the edge of violence and firebaggers and PUMAs are harping because Obama won’t tuck them into bed every night or something. Wingnuts are stoked up to vote and too many Democrats just inexplicably don’t seem to care enough to bother to go out and vote.
If the Republicans do take over, I don’t know how much longer I can stand to live here. As I said, I know it’s selfish, but I don’t know how much more I can take of these creeps fucking this country over. I guess it’s time for me to go get drunk now…
Mike in NC
@Tecumseh:
For hacks like Halperin, a shout-out to his buds at FOX is mandatory and is sure to land him an invite to sit down with O’Reilly or Hannity.
Hal
You know, I just don’t get this train of thought. The country didn’t come around after having Repubs in control of the house for a decade, or 8 years George W., why would a couple of years of Christine O’donnell, Rand Paul, and Joe Miller make people wake up?
This is why progressives never succeed. Giving up when we’re just too disappointed to get out of bed and vote, and instead of building on what’s already there, hitting the big reset button in the sky while awaiting the perfect President. Someone who’s a cross between Nader, Greenwald, ELizabeth Warren, Diane Wood, Kucinich, Grayson and of course Dr’s Krugman and Dean, plus maybe a dozen others.
Good luck in 2012…
Citizen Alan
See, Cole, the problem is that while that’s all true for you, you undoubtedly have friends or family members for whom those are concerns. And since you are not a sociopath, you feel compassion for such friends or family members. If you were a sociopath, you’d still be a Republican, since the tipping point for you was the Schiavo mess, and a sociopathic Republican wouldn’t have given too shits about the personal suffering of Schiavo’s family if the incident could have been used suck up to religious right voters and to paint Democrats as being “objectively pro-murder.”
Martin
I don’t see how losing in 2010 helps in 2012. The GOP have momentum because the Democrats in power are blamed for the GOPs intentional efforts to tank the economy. From Jan 2011 to Nov 2012, the only thing a GOP led House will do is issue endless subpoenas and further shut down the government. 2012 will look like 2010 5x over.
Remember, Gingrich didn’t get shit from voters for shutting down the government. He got shit from voters for saying he did it because Clinton made him sit in the back of the plane.
The GOP will be rewarded in 2012 for ‘being the adults in government’ by smothering it with a pillow.
Suffern Ace
Hmmmm. It appears that the last administration was in over its freaking head as well, but no one seemed to notice until large sections of the Gulf were under water. Oh, they managed to convince people in Congress to do their bidding, but that will was just a bunch of shoveling to ensure that when the levee broke, we would be even deeper under water than we needed to be.
Just because the press wanted to pretend that the last president was a great decider and his administration knew up from down and the path of righteousness from the path of destruction, does not mean it actually did.
Those straight white boys who don’t really have to care about things have masculinity issues of the wazoo, so let’s not pretend that ignoring what they do to make themselves feel safe and happy doesn’t lead to freaking out like cowards from real problems.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike in NC: Wasn’t Halperin the one who a couple of years ago was pleading with Hugh Hewitt to stop calling him a liberal? or was that the one who started politico?
Davis X. Machina
@Hal: There’s a substantial wing within the Party, but mostly without it, that considers all power corrupting, and all politicians corrupt and venal hacks.
It’s not that they’ve got no grounds for concern, or no history on their side. But it’s an unthinking reflex, a massively self-defeating reflex, and as a result Obama lost a third of his constituency the day he took the oath, because he took the oath. It’s not that he governs from the right, or from the center. It’s that he’s in government at all.
And Jon Stewart will go there in a New York minute if his writers don’t stop him.
This is not without parallel on the right, interestingly enough.
Linda Featheringill
@p.a.:
Makes it interesting, doesn’t it? Do you waste a lot of time, like I do, wondering which one of these idiotic actions will prove to be the pivotal one?
One word of optimism:
The Administration is making progress on “green” ways to produce electricity. If they can get all their [already paid for] plans up and running in the next two years, then perhaps the oil crunch won’t hit us so terribly hard. And maybe we will have some time to get our shit together.
I’m serious. I say this not just because I am a treehugger [I am] but because I have studied history.
MattR
@asiangrrlMN: So I probably shouldn’t mention that I voted for Nader in 2000? In my defense, Gore did win New York’s electoral votes quite handily without my help.
And I agree that there will be negative repercussions if Republicans win the midterms. If anything we will have gridlock, but that still means that people who need help will be denied (see unemployment benefits)
El Tiburon
I have come to expect this type of juvenile, school-yard antics from the rank and file here, but not from you.
I read the linked article. What exactly do you find inaccurate or erroneous in that opinion piece?
And not to be a complete horse’s ass, but the exact title was “The Midterms Don’t Matter That Much – It’s 2012 We Should Be Worried About.”
Otherwise, IF IF IF the Republicans take the House, in the big scheme of things, so what? As the author duly notes, not much will change. And IF IF IF the Republicans take the House and do launch silly investigation after silly investigation and dare to even begin an impeachment proceeding, then I think it will backfire and help the Democrats.
I often wonder the same exact thing. I earn enough to live comfortably regardless of minor tax hikes or not. Although with 2 kids who will be entering public education in Texas in the next few years, I do fear what they will be taught. And If they will even have a chance at college the way things are going.
ppcli
@different church-lady:
“Some days I wonder why I even worry about politics. I’m single, white, straight, somewhat educated, over the draft age, and I’ll make it. I don’t smoke pot, I don’t want a gay marriage, I’m not a minority, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any pre-existing conditions, I’ll never have an abortion, I’m not going to be discriminated against in the workplace, no one is going to beat me up on the street for who I am, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about the big issues of the day like global warming.”
“You still hold sanity as a value. That’s why.”
Yes, there is that. There’s only so many times that 45% of the country can simply keep doubling down on the lunacy before things become intolerable. So I’m keeping my passport valid. And when I get back I’ll organize a flotilla across Lake Superior for the rest of us.
Yes, there is that.
freelancer
I love this. ABD, and one of the most incisive minds out there today = “somewhat educated”.
By this warped metric, yours truly would be a drooling, paint-chip munching fucktard.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Davis X. Machina:
The most brutally negative comment section I ever faced was the one where I trashed Jon Stewart. Admittedly, I went over the top to provoke a reaction, but I was surprised by how strong that reaction was.
I just don’t think Stewart is that smart or that gutsy. It’s a good show, but that’s mostly because of the correspondents.
Maude
@Cacti:
This.
David Fud
I’m looking forward to Obama’s impeachment so I really can turn it all off and not care. I saw that decade already. I don’t need to see it again and be pissed for *another* decade of my life.
For what it’s worth, I fit John’s demographic. Plus a few more characteristics that would make me seem like a sure-fire Republican. At the end of the day, if Democrats cannot get their PR game together and make the case to values voters to vote with their pocketbooks instead their preachers, then I guess need to start laughing all the way to the bank and stop grumbling about how stupid the leaders of the party are.
Because really, how much angst is it worth to watch a slow motion disaster in the Congress? I have done it for more than a decade and I’m simply done wasting time/life/energy with this boondoggle of bullshit. These days, I’m working a lot harder on activities that benefit people without requiring me to convince tea-baggers, politicians, or fellow citizens of of anything political at all.
El Cid
@Bullsmith: I thought she’d only want “universities” like Bob Jones and Regents and Liberty to get accredited.
Nick
@cmorenc:
What was that about people still believing false things even when repeatedly told the truth?
taylormattd
@El Cid: You realize, don’t you, that the Lewinsky story didn’t break until January 1998?
Bob Loblaw
@Moses2317:
Winning Progressive guy, can you stop spamming 37 different websites every day? If we wanted the newest OFA mailer, we’d open our inboxes.
This isn’t even productive strategy on your part. Nobody who posts on a political messageboard is unaware of your message, or likely to find it a sudden epiphany. It’s just white noise.
John Cole
@El Tiburon: They do matter that much and more. If there is a huge tidal wave of Republicans, it will be viewed as a judgment on Obama and Democrats, there will be no meaningful legislation the next two years and all those people out of work will get no relief, the Republicans have already shown they are nihilists and anyone fooling themselves into thinking “now they will work with us because they can be blamed” needs their head examined, and this election is extremely important for reasons of redistricting at the state and local level. And who knows what will happen with Court seats?
I know you carry the firebagger torch with pride, but there is nothing juvenile about mocking people who say the midterms dont matter much. You fucking idiots need to get a clue. Every fucking election matters. That is why the Republicans and their allies are spending a half a billion on them.
Idiot.
TooManyJens
@El Tiburon:
That right there is the problem. Any semblance of sanity — any measures for economic stability, helping out the states, extending unemployment benefits, transitioning to sustainable energy — will be 100% out the window if the Republicans control either house. The only way to say that not much will change is to claim that the things the Democrats have managed to get passed over the last two years don’t really matter. Which comes back to the question, “don’t really matter to whom?”
Yes, the Democrats should by all rights have been able to do more. But there are still 3 million people who are probably pretty glad that they’re not out of work. It matters to them. It matters to people who will be able to get health insurance for their kids with pre-existing conditions. It matters to a whole lot of people, and to say it doesn’t matter is to erase those people. I expect that from the right, but not from the left.
BR
@Hal:
This x 20.
TooManyJens
@Bob Loblaw: I like his messages. They help us remember why the elections fucking well matter.
Eric U.
I’m sure there are some great comments above this, but I don’t have time to read them right now. The only problem I have with ignoring politics is that given the republican’s capability to ignore the problems staring them their face, things could get really bad under their stewardship. Mass migration, starvation, nuclear war, people in tents in my back yard – that sort of thing. I figured if Bush and Cheney got their way in Iran, I was going to be over there fighting with a sharpened stick.
tatere
Shorter Halperin: “Everybody thinks Obama is a doody head, except for people who don’t. And who cares about them?”
He gets paid the big bucks for this. Amazing.
Snayke
Thanks for posting the Halperin nugget. For some reason, it makes me feel better when this blog makes fun of him.
Davis X. Machina
@David Fud:
People have sacrificed, do sacrifice, will sacrifice their comfort, sure, but also their jobs, their homes, their food, their lives, before they’ll give up their worldview.
The Democrats could have the PR skills of St. Paul, or Luther, or Ignatius or John Calvin, and not even make a dent in that demographic. What works — and only sometimes — isn’t permissible in a democracy. Five hundred years ago it involved a stake, a pile of brushwood, and a late-medieval box of late-medieval kitchen matches.
Steve
@John Cole:
Hmm. Kinda hard to argue with this.
AhabTRuler
@MattR: Broken Bells: Like. I would go.
Tecumseh
@James E. Powell: The problem with Halperin and those like him is that what he says is complete and total BS, with absolutely no basis in fact, but it’s treated as the truth so it becomes the frame by which the administration will be described up until probably sometime into the second year of his second term. Expect to hear “over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless” as the new meme whenever you watch CNN or MSNBC or more than half the blogs out there. And it’s not a good meme to have hang over you a month before an election.
@Steve: I think the bigger question is how does ANY bill get passed these days.
MikeBoyScout
Being sane in an insane political system causes discouragement. Hang in there JC.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
There’s a campaign commercial right there: “Yo, Dumbfuck! Big Bidness isn’t spending half a billion dollars on TeeVee ads because they care about you”. Maybe the script needs work.
slag
I ask this same question of myself on a regular basis. But since I’ve got a slightly different profile, my reasoning is usually along the lines of: I have a relatively diverse skill-set, a passport, and no intention whatsoever of having kids; what the hell is my problem?
Freedom’s just another word for “fuck you”, and some of us are better than others at saying that. I, for one, still need some more practice before I can be free of politics.
David Fud
@Davis X. Machina: Fair enough. Make it independents instead of “values voters” and it still is correct.
Democrats don’t make an effective case to anyone, so I don’t know that changing from one set of voters to another matters.
And, as I’m sure you know, we/Democrats aren’t going to be the beneficiaries of the next blood-bath, so I think we might want to leave that off of the table.
Rosalita
what about your Mojito addiction?
BR
@Steve:
Yeah, that kind of sums it all up, doesn’t it…
TooManyJens
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I like it! Just right for YouTube.
jl
This John Cole fellow whistles past the graveyard with such swagger.
I noticed that Cole did not claim to be rich.
You are not rich, Cole. They will get you, when your sacrifice is needed. That is one thing you do not have to worry about.
I would think that being owned by Tunch would make Cole more self aware. Think of a superbig, hungry Tunch, and you are the most meatable thing around, and also move rather slowly. That is how it will work.
gene108
Historically, the first mid-term election in a President’s first term, does not define his Presidency or what he can accomplish.
The Republicans took a bath in the House, in 1982, yet Reagan, who was less popular than Obama is now, won handily in 1984. By 1986, the Democrats had regained control of the Senate, yet no one claims Reagan failed because Republicans did not maintain or increase their presence in the legislature.
Clinton lost control of Congress more dramatically than Reagan, but he still won handily in 1996.
The only time a President’s Party picked up seats, in a mid-term was 2002, and Bush, Jr. eked out a win in 2004.
The real issue is can a Democratic President really win out against an indifferent MSM and a very noisy right-wing media, which will drive the narrative and blow off all rational arguments, to set his agenda before the American people.
slag
@Moses2317: You should definitely ignore Bob Loblaw. His name makes that obvious.
I, for one, value your comments.
Moses2317
@TooManyJens: Thanks!
@Bob Loblaw – What do you suggest would be a more effective strategy? Given that the firebaggers and others seem to think that President Obama has failed us or that the midterm elections don’t matter, I think it is important to explain exactly what the Administration has achieved on various issues that matter to progressives. And, even for folks who do already agree, I would hope that some of my posts would help educate folks and give them good talking points in the battle that is this upcoming election.
Michael
@MattR:
You know, every one of those Nader votes would have helped extend Gore’s popular vote lead, and would have added some weight to his case. Had SCOTUS felt a little spooked, it would have been less prone to go against the manifest desire of the electorate.
Basically, your votes helped weaken Gore’s case.
Davis X. Machina
@gene108:
Crippled him domestically, though. ‘Government’ ≠ ‘White House’.
zattarra
I love how he sneaks in that TARP was an Obama program that needed defending also. Nice hit job by Mr. Halperin, good thing 99.9% of Americans will never actually read his work and 99.99% of Americans have no clue who he is.
Bob Loblaw
Is it, or are you just prejudiced on the topic? I actually don’t see a ton in that statement to quibble with in Halperin’s quote there.
This administration is insular, in love with itself, self-righteous and arrogant. So was its predecessor, and the one before that, and the one before that. Those character flaws are pretty much endemic to the institution. Halperin’s vapid and non-instructive, but that’s different from being completely wrong.
goblue72
As much as I think Halperin is a completel tool and out to lunch, there *is* a small nugget of truth there. Granted, President Obama has been subjected to a level of vitriol and political nihilistic opposition unseen since the attempted coup against FDR by a bunch of corporatist American fascists.
However, he does appear to be suffering from having been a U.S. Senator for a very short period of time (most of which was spent campaiging) and having no executive experience. The wheels do appear to be coming off. Healthcare reform took waaaaay too long. And it was followed up very little – a weak sauce financial “reform” that the average voter could care little about; a weak sauce reduction of troops in Iraq that does little to make it appear we are getting out as promised; meandering in Afghanistan when the average Joe at this point probably would prefer it all just to be over; and didly on the jobs front.
The last is critical – we were promised after HCR was done that we’d get a laser focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. They had nearly a full year to do something on the economy. He couldn’t even get a small business tax credit proposal wrapped up.
I think the administration suffered from over-reach – thinking when they came into office they could do it all – economy, healthcare, climate change, immigration, financial reform, education, alternative energy, Iraq, Afghanistan, and unicorns.
El Cid
@taylormattd: I was being silly.
JPL
Under a Palin Presidency and the Roberts court, bigoted business owners will be able to use voter rolls to determine who to hire. Vote Dem and forget it. They want their tax cuts.
marcopolo
Gah. All I can say is to a great extent the beltway media along with, it seems, much of our political/governing apparatus is still in high school. Too bad the stakes are so much higher.
Went out to dinner with friends last night, one of whom was talking about how it was too bad that independents can’t get enough support to win. I had to straighten him out by mentioning I had been listening last Friday when our local public radio had on two candidates each from the Libertarian and Constitutional parties and that all four were maleducated when it came to American history and misinformed/ignorant about current issues and politics. I wouldn’t have wanted any of them for a position above the level of dog catcher, and maybe not even for that. He then brought up the “McDonald’s about to end employee health insurance due to HCR” crap, and thanks to ED’s post last week I set him straight on that as well. In general, this guy and the other folks I was out with are intelligent moderate to liberal folks but their lack of accurate knowledge (or co-option by the mainstream talking points) as to what is really going on in regards to politics and governing in this country was distressing. About the only positive I took away was that they still remember it was the Bush & the Republicans that got the U.S. to where it is now as opposed to having Obama and the Democrats in office for 20 months.
Let me just end this by saying GAH once again.
LM
If some of the rest of us join you in retreating in disgust, can we please call it “going Cole”?
slag
…coming from Bob Loblaw.
Heh.
...now I try to be amused
@Linkmeister:
“Some say he’s wanted by the CIA, and that he sleeps upside down like a bat… all we know is, he’s called The Stig.”
Oops, wrong show.
TooManyJens
@Bob Loblaw:
The fact that he doesn’t name names or substantiate it in any way doesn’t bother you at all?
Linda Featheringill
@Bob Loblaw:
I don’t know. I kind of enjoy the Winning Progressive blog.
Also, who died and left you the bouncer for this blog?
Southern Beale
Stop the presses! FOX NEWS PUNDITS said something negative about the Democratic president!
Mark “this-scoop’s-so-hot-I-gotta-wear-gloves” Halperin is really onto something! Someone notify the Pullitzer committee!
/sarcasm
Paris
Are there any of these left?
Mr Furious
All of the above. Except now I have kids. That alone jerks me back to reality, and feeling the responsibility to fight the fight for another cycle.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@goblue72: just about every issue you mention traces back to Congress, Blue Dogs and the GOP filibuster lock. How would “executive experience”, Obama’s or someone else’s, have changed anything?
WaterGirl
@Bob Loblaw: Interesting to hear your perspective. I don’t know how others feel, but my take has been different: I kind of appreciate that he is out there, patiently trying to do his part, using facts to contradict the lies that sometimes seem to be everywhere. It seems to me that it is admirable to try to do that, day after day, with comments and his website.
Davis X. Machina
@…now I try to be amused:
I blame the Roman historian Titus Livy. A friend of mine wrote a scholarly paper on his use of the phrase ‘Sunt qui…’ (There are those who…) whenever he wanted to insert something unsubstantiated.
Chyron HR
@Bob Loblaw:
And you must know what you’re talking about, because you’ve been saying it for over two years.
Midnight Marauder
@El Tiburon:
Well, for starters, this is outright bullshit:
So, according to Jim Moss, Republicans would not have their sights set on repealing the Affordable Care Act, wouldn’t be pursuing completely vacuous impeachment charges against President Obama, wouldn’t try to privatize Social Security, and wouldn’t have Darrell Issa launching investigation after investigation into the Obama Administration as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
It’s not like Republicans have confessed to all of the goals openly, loudly, and repeatedly. It’s not like people like Darrell Issa “has told Republican leadership that if he becomes chairman, he wants to roughly double his staff from 40 to between 70 and 80.” It certainly isn’t like he gave a speech to Pennsylvania Republicans that proclaimed the following about when he gets subpoena power:
Nope, because Jim Moss “doesn’t see it,” that means these well-documented blockades to constructive and productive governing won’t occur, right?
I mean, hey, who wouldn’t be jazzed up about a prediction that lays out the following standard for how things will work for the next two years:
Just like it’s been for the past two years! You know, when that “Democratic president with corporatist leanings and an unexplainable bipartisan fetish” (Jim Moss’ words, obviously) passed the foundation of universal health care in this country, passed historical financial regulation, the good (but not good enough, unless you consider that it wouldn’t even exist if Republicans had the majority) stimulus, student loan reform, and the biggest green technology investments via the stimulus that this country has seen in quite some time without major Republican support.
But hey, if you listen to the eternal optimist Jim Moss:
Yep. Republicans definitely won’t be able to launch pointless investigation after pointless investigation with President Obama’s mighty veto power. That will certainly slow them down, right?
Jim Moss is a fucking clown.
John O
Count me among those searching for reasons to give a crap.
Same demographic.
I cut off virtually all corporate media at least a year ago, and I don’t feel at ALL the lesser for it. I’m fighting with ATT about my bills and considering a big FU to them, too. I made it 45 years without a damn cell phone or high-definition so you’d think I’d be all right without them again.
The country is just too retarded to care for it, and the only thing that is going to change it is a large portion of our current crop of Villagers dying, or at least getting their houses burned down, because the only hopeful sign out there is the attitudes of the young, at least on the social issues.
Shorter: I don’t blame anyone for going Galt. It’s a rational response to an irrational electorate.
Moses2317
@slag: And thanks, Slag, Linda Featheringill, and WaterGirl. I appreciate the kind words.
I was serious, however, about my response to Bob Loblaw – I hope my blog and comments are valuable to others, but if people think it is not or have recommendations on how to improve it, I’m happy to take constructive criticism.
Paula
@Bob Loblaw:
Well, it ain’t spamming if he’s directing whatever attention he gets to something positive.
Asshole.
somethingblue
@Narcissus: On the contrary, she’s a big fan of college. Didn’t she go to, like, five of them?
Davis X. Machina
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Draw curves first, then plot data. Lab reports look neater, and get better grades, if this procedure is scrupulously adhered to.
goblue72
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Its not like the Blue Dogs materialized out of thin air. We’ve had conservative pro-business/pro-military adventurism Democrats around for quite a while. Before that, they called themselves the Boll Weevils. Before that the Conservative Coalition.
They’ve been in our hair for decades upon decades. Dealing with them and getting legislation passed is part of the job description.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
Halperin is probably right, most politically engaged elites likely feel this way. Of course, they felt that way about Bush after the 9/11-Iraq honeymoon wore off, and they felt that way about Clinton up to the point where only his sex life mattered anymore. You see this as a swipe at Obama, I see it as more of a statement about how our engaged elites look down on the rest of humanity.
MattR
@AhabTRuler:
The me of ten years ago would really like to kick the current me’s ass. The fact that I have a free ticket plus backstage access since my brother in law’s band is opening but the drvie into NYC is the only thing deterring me from going is rather pathetic
srv
Losing the House means Dems won’t face the “they control Congress” schtick in 2012. This crowd is way more batshit that Newt & crew back in 1994, and they will crash and burn in their hubris just as quickly.
But it is all about the economy, stupid. And as Obama doesn’t have a plan with or w/o a majority, we are all pretty much doomed. As Krugman said the other day “We’re going to look back at Japan’s Lost Decade as a success story compared to ours.”
Paula
“Democrats and their supporters appear convinced that tying Republican outside groups to shadowy foreign donors is a successful strategy for rallying their base in the midterm elections. The repeated attacks come despite the fact that Democrats do not have solid proof to back up the allegations.”
I love how news organizations suddenly feel the need to be “cautious” when discussing partisan attacks from Democrats.
slag
@Moses2317: Dude’s an ass. Seriously. You keep doing useful work and he’ll keep being an ass. People like Bob Loblaw are nature’s way of reminding you that not everything in life deserves serious attention.
Onkel Bob
Not the greatest version of the the songs but…
Voices inside my head…
Tom Q
1) This exact same Halperin post could have been (and in fact was) written in 1994, with the obvious subsititution of Bill Clinton for Obama. You know, Bill Clinton: the world class statesman they all WISH were president now.
2) This whole “it’ll be good for Obama for the GOP to take Congress” is hogwash. The reason Clinton (and Reagan) won re-election was not their contrasting themselves with the newly resurgent opposition party. It was that their economies revived loudly. A GOP majority in either house would work night and day to assure that didn’t happen, nor that any other positive development for the populace was allowed to take place. And THAT would be the verdict on the Obama administration. Alot of people here really don’t understand how presidential elections work. (Hint: the trivia on which the press tells you things are decided aren’t really the decisive elements)
I still view Obama as a long-term success — he has the characteristics of a winner, whatever the Firebaggers, tea-baggers or media say. But he’ll need to startle their conventional wisdom to turn his coverage around. Doing better than expected three weeks from now would be the strongest card he could play. So let’s help him at it, yes?
MattR
@Paula: Did you see Karl Rove’s response? I can think of no clearer example of the pot and the kettle.
Joe Beese
@John Cole:
It’s not about us teaching them a lesson, Mr. Cole. It’s about the lesson they’ve taught us.
That lesson is “We will glady lie to your faces to get elected and then tell you to fuck off.”
At least the Republicans don’t ask me to give them money for doing it.
Rick Taylor
I wouldn’t be so sure. Under Bush’s two terms we got in two wars seemingly without end, plus helped to bring down the world’s economy. With that sort of leadership over 20 years or so, the effects might trickle up to include all of us.
Bob Loblaw
@Moses2317:
And do you have evidence that this is working, or is it all just masturbation?
I’ve never understood this inside-blog style of campaigning to begin with. You’re not coordinating any particular GOTV strategy, you’re just running around with a list of talking points. Which is pretty much what everybody does online to begin with. It just seems like white noise to me, but if you think it works, do what makes you happy.
Earl Butz
Football analogy here: I’ve been voting Democratic – straight ticket Democratic – since Mondale. And I am fucking tired of shilling for a team that refuses – and I do mean ABSOLUTELY REFUSES – to get in it to win it. It’s worse than being a Niners fan these days (another team whose leadership refuses to take any measures whatsoever to even have a remote shot at a victory, but would rather sit in a corner, spend no money, and rake in the money off an ever-declining number of rubes each year). In fact, reading this back over, the Dems are exactly like the fucking Niners. Even if they happen to get a good QB (Clinton, Obama), they won’t get that QB the protection they need to win the fucking game, and just let them get sacked until they have to retire early.
So I left the party and re-registered as “decline to state”. Fuck the Dems. I’ll be damned if I’ll keep spending money to watch a game where I know how it will end. They can call me when they rediscover their balls or their spines. Either will do.
slag
@Joe Beese:
Why should they? You already do your bit to help them get elected. And your money would be chump change compared to what they get from Wall Street. No. Republicans have you right where they want you. They have no need to ask for more.
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
You are the resident expert on being wrong. How many times now?
General Stuck
@Joe Beese:
Give us a list big brain. or stfu.
Linda Featheringill
To everybody:
Have you heard of “whiny white male” music? I’m sure the gals have.
Well, this blog has degenerated into “whiny white male” political comment. Frankly, I am disappointed in the lot of you.
Life is hard. Accept that and move on. We have to play with the hand we are dealt, to use a cliche. The the current crop of political players is what we have to work with.
I admit that they are not perfect. But neither are you whiners and backbiters and sarcasm queens and other jerks.
Grow up. Get busy. Or stfu.
Joe Beese
@slag:
Yes, you can thank goodness that Wall Street isn’t calling the shots in the Obama administration!
goblue72
@Tom Q: This. Also too. This.
Maybe its because the Internet generation has a short attention span, but folks forget that Reagan was looking like a one-termer at the beginning of his first term. We had back-to-back recessions under Reagan’s early years. The GOP had the White House and the Senate. Tip’s majority in the House wasn’t all that great and he gave Reagan enough rope to hang himself – which he tried to do. Then the economy finally turned (in explosive fashion) and his re-election was sealed.
Ditto for Clinton. The initial stages of the Internet boom saved his butt.
We can’t expect the same for Obama who is facing a recession far greater than either Regan or Clinton faced. Jobs growth is likely to be anemic for the next 2 years and the GOP will throw everything they can at making sure nothing is done to help the unemployed. Because they are traitors and they don’t care.
Midnight Marauder
@Joe Beese:
Because they don’t need your money, you fucking clown.
Wile E. Quixote
@Bob Loblaw:
You know, I’m sure that there are blogs where your oh so worldly “a pox upon both houses” schtick plays really well. Unfortunately for you anyone with a modicum of intelligence, knowledge and intellectual honesty (i.e., people other than you or Mark Halperin) can see that your schtick is vapid, non-instructive and completely wrong.
Joe Beese
@General Stuck:
1. “I favor a public option.”
2. “I oppose an individual mandate.”
3. “I will conduct health care negotiations on C-SPAN.”
4. “I will restore civil liberties.”
5. “I will be a fierce advocate for LGBT rights.”
Need more?
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@Linda Featheringill:
As a result of this post I have decided to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour.
Moses2317
@Bob Loblaw: You have a point about the blogging world being too insular. We need to take the progressive message to folks outside of the blogging world. That is why I’ve tried to make my blog less of an insider circle-jerk by linking to places where people can write letters to newspaper editors, sign up to volunteer, etc., and urge my readers to canvass, phonebank, write LTEs, etc. in each blog post that I write. And I comment on other blogs and newspapers to try to fire up our base, and to hope that people will go to my blog and learn things that they can share with the public. Right now my work schedule prevents me from being able to canvass or phonebank much until I run a GOTV effort the final four days of the election, or otherwise I would do that instead of blogging.
So, I reiterate my question – what do you think would be a more effective way for me to spend my time?
David Brooks (not that one)
You do too have pre-existing conditions. We have prima-facie evidence of irreversible tooth decay, which even required a prosthetic! And you have admitted a hypo-functional response to novocaine.
No health insurance for you!
Sad_Dem
“I’m 51 and was a history major, solid B student, but the US since the last Presidential election has done more to help me understand a society in decline than any book I ever read.”
I agree. The last few years in this country have helped me understand (I’m usually grateful for such help) just what the historian means when he or she starts those paragraphs that tick off just what was wrong with each class/group and how it all just stopped working.
If reading a book, however, is too much work, just compare the paintings of the young Goya with the old Goya. He watched his country get invaded and people die because, by gum, it was better for some that Spain suffer than those eebil so-and-sos get their way. Or you can just read Yeats’s “The Second Coming.”
goblue72
@Linda Featheringill: Its telling that the only political leader in DC that has well and truly sacked up these last two years is an Italian grandmother from San Francisco who wears Armani pantsuits and bakes cookies.
sherparick
They President Palin and Speaker Boehner will liberate us from social security, the progressive income tax, the corporate income tax, and will strart the war with Iran that will drive oil up to $200 a barrel. And I expect that Attorney General Andrew McCarthy will start detain most Democrats in Congress, environmentalists, American Moslems, Gays, and liberal bloggers for “material support of terrorism” since all criticism of the President, Congress, and Fox News will be considered attempts to “undermine the great struggle to Defend the Constitution and the American Way of Life from its enemies.
Chat Noir
@goblue72:
This exactly. And it pains me to no end that more people don’t see these cretins for what they are. Traitors.
@Moses2317: I also like the messages you post. Please continue to do so!
Steve
@Linda Featheringill: I am just happy to be one of the 12 white males who still votes Democratic.
Linda Featheringill
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
Bless you, my son.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Linda Featheringill: Have you heard of “whiny white male” music?
You mean like Coldplay and Matchbox20?
Bob Loblaw
@Moses2317:
Good for you, then. That wasn’t the impression I got when you were spamming your Sestak link lately. I figured it was just some Kos-derivative stuff favoring a specific few candidates without much to recommend to. Keep on keeping on, I guess.
Davis X. Machina
@sherparick: Because so long as one of us, somewhere, is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, none of us is truly free.
Davis X. Machina
@goblue72: Daughter of a Baltimore Democratic machine mayor.
It’s nurture, not just nature.
General Stuck
@Joe Beese:
favor is not promising
Yup, he did flip flop on that, to square up with Clinton and Edwards who did promise that. I would just say Obama was wrong initially, and then got it right. Because an individual mandate was always needed to make reform possible, short of single payer.
Well, the ones that counted, with the congress, he did have it on cspan. Surely, you are not saying that every discussion on the topic should have been televised.
Civil liberties are defined by law. Bush broke those laws. What laws has Obama broken? Be specific and cite action, and law violated. or again. stfu.
Fierce is relative. He has been imo. But that doesn’t mean he can just order up legislation and have it delivered on a platter.
Nick
@Joe Beese:
and I do and so should you
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“I blame the Roman historian Titus Livy. A friend of mine wrote a scholarly paper on his use of the phrase ‘Sunt qui…’ (There are those who…) whenever he wanted to insert something unsubstantiated. ”
No wonder we lost so many of his books.
[My Dad told me a story of going to a dance in the ’40s and meeting a girl who was in tears when talking about the loss of Livy’s histories. Dad having studied Latin for seven years, earned kudos for being able to quote Livy.]
Bob Loblaw
@Wile E. Quixote:
Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize arrogance was a partisan quality.
If you can’t watch the clusterfuck of this administration’s Middle East and Afpak policies and not realize how deeply they drank their own kool-aid, for example, that’s your business.
I have no intention of worshiping at the altar of the Almighty O. It isn’t justified. He isn’t particularly amazing or competent. He’s just pretty good. Which is fine. If you, in your angsty singlemindedness, equate that with false equivalence, that’s your call.
Serves me right for talking about “endemic institutional flaws” in the first place. Because for all you partisans’ bitchings about the story being about Obama too much at the expense of other actors and forces, you sure do hate it when his agency is questioned.
Nick
@Bob Loblaw: Condescending much, asshole?
ruemara
@Bob Loblaw:
Speak for yourself, wart.
Edited to marvel
@goblue72:
Goddamn, that’s stupid! It’s amazing. It ignores congress and media, slathering the whole thing on the president and his administration, all while bearing a name that claims support, yet shooting the pres in the face for actually, you know, trying to govern. You may not see this, but know, I am flicking a bic for you.
AxelFoley
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Cole, make this a new tag, STAT!
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
You trot this strawman out about every thread you wank in. Nobody is worshipping Obama here, you fucking sack of shit. We only require evidence from nihilistic assholes like you and Beese and the rest of the idjit posse, for when you claim failure, or bad as Bush lawbreaking, or whatever the firebagger meme of the day is. Pretty good, is good enough, with always room for improvement.
geg6
@Chyron HR:
Jeff
@Steve: 13
(I know that’s unlucky, but fuck it)
El Tiburon
@TooManyJens:
Y
And exactly how is the Republican House going to negate all of this? They can’t and they won’t. As the author at FDL noted, we are arleady in a clusterfuck of a bottleneck and that’s WITH a very large Democratic majority. Things ain’t going to change that much, not with a Democratic Senate and White House.
The problem is a lot bigger than than a Republican majority but rather with the timidity and ineptness of the current Democratic majority, especially in the Senate.
geg6
@Moses2317:
I think you’re just fine and I, personally, have no problem with you reminding us exactly what’s at stake and what we need to do to keep the crazies at bay.
slag
@Joe Beese: Your inability to grapple with your own role in any given situation is truly mesmerizing. It’s like watching a chimpanzee stare blankly into a mirror. A baby chimpanzee, of course, because once they get a little older they’re actually able to get it. So, maybe there’s hope for you yet. In a few years or so.
General Stuck
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
Go forth and firebag no mo.
Wile E. Quixote
@Joe Beese:
Shorter Joe Beese: “Obama didn’t give me a pony so I’m going home”
@Joe Beese:
And I’m willing to bet that your commitment to these causes is about sincere as any member of the 101st fighting chickenhawk’s brigade commitment to serving their country in uniform. You’re a fake and a poseur.
pickledjazz
I do not give a rats ass what Mark irrelevant Halperin thinks.
Whatever he says is the usual bullshit coming from the repub domain.
I for one thinks the Prez is doing a great job, considering the times, the lack of co-operation, and the constant pounding!
God, these nauseating little men with their shit voices every day.
But then this is the same gimpus who thought Bush was great and said nothing much about the downslide, so what does that tell you?
pk
You ought to care, because once they are done with the rest of us they will definitely come after you. You may be a white guy, but you are not the right kind of white guy (you are not a abortion hating jesus loving closeted gay).
And remember we won’t be around to save you!
Steve
@Wile E. Quixote: If the silly C-Span thing makes the top 5, I’d say that’s a pretty impressive record of keeping promises. The last guy, by contrast, promised a humbler foreign policy.
El Tiburon
@John Cole:
For the love of God, I’ve stated numerous times I don’t really give a rat’s ass about FDL (except for TBogg). The comparison to No Quarter was a shitty call though.
The Republicans are getting more extreme and radical and are blocking every single thing Obama and the Democrats do. AND THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING MAJORITY!!
So judges aren’t getting seated, laws are being held up RIGHT NOW. How is this going to change IF IF IF the Republican take a majority?
Um, yeah, there already is a judgement on Obama and Democrats. This judgement will be there regardless of who wins the majority. Do you think if the Dems hold on the MSM will all be like, “Oh, wait, maybe Obama is The Man afterall. Nevermind.” Right.
The writer suggests there will be no meaningful legislation regardless of who is in the majority.
Now, and I don’t think the writer addressed this, but if Obama decides to play nice with these fucks if the Republicans take a majority, then we are screwed, but that’s on Obama.
Bottom line is that if the Republicans take the House, it ain’t the end of the world. Now, 2012, is where it gets very, very, very serious.
General Stuck
@El Tiburon:
There is not a nickels worth of difference in what you say here and the average comment at FDL. So who cares if you don’t care about them, though maybe you should like birds of a feather.
Bob Loblaw
@El Tiburon:
Because all spending bills must originate in the House.
You’re guilty of conflating different institutional roles. A Republican controlled Senate would pretty much be a non-issue. It already is a Republican controlled Senate in so many ways.
But the House has its own institutional prerogatives that, in Republican hands, can be a significant detriment to progressive policy even with a Democratic Senate and Executive opposing them. It’s the “death by a thousand cuts” theory of budget making.
The Democratic Party has already demonstrated their willingness to rob things like food stamp funding to make ends meet right now, just imagine what Republicans could get up to.
Billy K
I ask myself this question almost every day. I know I could just give in, and I’d probably be OK, just because of all of the above. But for whatever reason, these assholes just piss me off so much, I can’t help but stay at least marginally engaged.
Joe Beese
@General Stuck:
“I’m disgusted with this President.” – ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero
“The new administration has copied most of the Bush program, has expanded some of it, and has narrowed only a bit.” – Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith
“At this point, I didn’t believe it was possible, but the Obama administration has just reached an all-new low in its abysmal civil liberties record.” – Glenn Greenwald
I could pile up similar examples all day long. But there’s no limit to the amount of evidence you can ignore – just as there was no amount of evidence that Bush’s die-hards couldn’t ignore to keep supporting their man. You’ll just crank up your keyboard bully-boy act and fleck the walls with spittle again.
JPL
@Earl Butz: 2008 was a very good year for dems. Granted they could not turn around the deepest Recession ever in under two years but don’t they deserve some credit for passing health care, financial reform, Lily Ledbetter act and stimulus bills. Most bills need improvement but none of this would have happened without democratic majorities.
Bob L
@El Tiburon
It will even be worse than that for the Republicans; Beck, Rush and Limbaugh aren’t going to quietly fade after November. They will gleefully play purity troll on the Republicans and make it impossible for them compromise on anything they want to pass. Plus you have Rove still in full butt hurt mode GOP paralysis and outright civil war are likely.
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@pickledjazz:
In the quoted portion above Halperin says nothing about how good a job Obama is doing, he’s making a statement about what DC elites think. John is right, Halperin is a brainless purveyor of conventional wisdom, and as such I see no reason to dismiss his account of what’s being said on the DC cocktail circuit. Aren’t those people the very epitome of conventional wisdom, after all? And isn’t Halperin one of their unofficial spokespersons?
General Stuck
It is funny to me that so many liberals have a false idea of what the relationship is between a POTUS and the federal government as an entity. Yes, he is a chief executive of the executive, or sorts. But it is not like a corporation where the CEO sends out orders and everyone automatically jumps to. In his CiC role, that is true with regard to ordering military actions, or not, but the rest of his power over the governments agencies is watered down, and even trumped in most cases. He can top down set broad policy goals, but he is severely restricted, as each agency has congressional mandate dictated by public law and the federal registry of regulations on how that mandate is carried out. An administration can tinker with that some, but the mandate charged is independent of the president, and the laws on the books cannot easily be changed by a presnit for an agency to carry out it’s mission, or civil lawsuits ensue to force the issue.
For instance, in the area of national security. Currently, the army field manual clearly articulates what is, and is not acceptable for interrogation, and is independent of presidential intervention, so long as the manual, approved by congress is being followed. He can call for moratoriums and such, for further study, but the military has a mandate to collect intelligence, that comes from congress, separate from even the CiC. It is like this throughout the federal government, even more so when outside a presnits commander in chief powers. It is not like a corporation where the CEO is the word of gawd, and there are no other constraints for that word being carried out, or else.
Wile E. Quixote
@Bob Loblaw, the braindead fuckspawn of David Broder:
What, the drawdown in Iraq isn’t enough for you? Come on Bob, tell us what you want them to do. I’m not criticizing you here (I’m saving that for later) I’m asking the question “If Barack Obama appointed you HMFIC of US Middle Eastern Policy (the appellation “czar” having been overused and done to death”) what would you do?
OK, braindead fuckspawn of David Broder, do you have any evidence for Halperin’s contention? Can you give us some examples? Compare and contrast the Obama administration with the Clinton and Bush II administrations. If you weren’t such an ignorant little shit you’d know that this is the same kind of shit the villagers were spouting about Bill Clinton and before that Jimmy Carter. Oh, and who the fuck is “worshiping at the altar of the Almighty O.” Halperin is full of shit, he posts some nonsense about everyone being unhappy with the Obama administration, nonsense that has no names attached to it, other than Fox News, which is hardly a credible source and you equate pointing out, once again, that Halperin is full of shit, is somehow worshiping at the altar of the Almighty O.
Serves you right for taking a quote from Mark Halperin, an ignorant moron who even by villager standards is rather dim and who was totally in the tank for John McCain in the last election and George W. Bush before that and use it to spin some bullshit about “endemic institutional flaws” so you can sound as if you’re actually intelligent and actually have something interesting to say. And then, when you’re called on your bullshit and when it’s pointed out to you that Halperin is an idiot and that your basing your grand theory of “endemic institutional flaws”, one of those nice phrases that’s full of sound and fury but, which upon examination, signifies nothing without some concrete examples and definitions, you fall back on the old chestnut of accusing anyone who disagrees with you or calls you on the second hand bullshit you derived from Mark Halperin’s unsourced bullshit of “…worshipping at the altar of the Almighty O”.
I have to say Bob that I do worship at the altar of the Almighty O, but it’s not Barack Obama. It’s the almighty O I have every time I fuck your mom in the ass.
Annie
CW
Fixed.
nancydarling
I was researching the Claremont Institute (not to be confused with Claremont College). That is where Christine O’Donnel took her seminar on constitutional law or whatever. It is a conservative think tank. William Bennet is a Washington Fellow and Mark Halperin is a Senior Fellow. According to wiki, many of their scholars are students of Leo Strauss of the noble lie and neocon acolytes fame. Larry Arnn was president of the institute from 1985 to 2000. Arnn is now president of Hillsdale College in Michigan which according to the National Review is a “citadel of American conservatism”.
Sharon Angle claims to have received the Ronald Reagan Freedom Medallion for Courageous Client from the Claremont Institute in 2004.
These neocon thinkers (Perle, Wolfowitz, most of the signers of the Project for the New American Century) are a cancer in the body politic of America How will we ever purge ourselves of them? Francis Fukuyama has distanced himself from the PNAC since they had such a glorious failure in Iraq.
General Stuck
@Joe Beese:
Dissent is part of the system. And I am all for it, just so long as it is factual based. And DC, and other types of advocates have their own MO. They sue for the ideal, and holler loudly for that ideal to be met. It is a kind of on going negotiation between the activists and the government, where both sides fight for getting everything they want, and such statements by the ACLU and others, is part of that game. With the knowledge that neither side will get everything they want, all the time. It’s the cacophony of democracy, and is a very good thing, except when it strays into the false.
Cacti
Okay, here’s my problem with getting motivated to vote.
I care a lot about election outcomes, more than is probably healthy for my blood pressure. I vote regularly in local, state, and national elections. HOWEVER…
I’m in the lunatic, redneck, teabagger slice of hell known as Arizona. Ben Quayle is going to get elected to Congress, by virtue of having the surname Quayle. Jan Brewer, a community college dropout, who offers nothing beyond the lowest form of bash-a-spick bigotry is going to get swept into governor’s office. The most important local issue is whether we should use public funds, in a recession, to build a new spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs.
This state has lost its mind and my single vote isn’t going to change one damn bit of it. Why should I care?
Barb (formerly gex)
@Joe Beese: Not that I want to get into this fight necessarily, but examples of Obama’s actions are not the same as examples of comments by other people about unspecified Obama actions.
General Stuck
@Cacti:
I still have a sticker on my truck camper that says “Don’t blame me, I voted democrat” It helped me survive the Bush years, though I don’t know if anything can help much in AZ, except moving over here to the Land of Enchantment, sandwiched between two of the biggest portals to wingnut hell. We just chant some and it scares the bejeebers out of the tea tards.
NobodySpecial
Listening to all of you whine, I’m praying for the Large Hadron Collider to actually make that black hole right about now.
General Stuck
@NobodySpecial:
Nobody aches for the soul of humanity like NS. We don’t need no black hole maker with you around.
Nick
@Cacti:
Because the more non wingnuts vote, the less wingnutty it gets. Your vote could decide if that Cubs stadium gets built, it could decide who gets elected to your state legislature.
i live in an area where Obama got 80% of the vote, and Gillibrand, Schumer and Cuomo are likely to get the same and I can tell you the 20% are not wondering why they should care, they’re asking if they can care enough.
Silver Owl
The conservative tards always say things are really really bad for everyone but them. Only white conservatives can be correct about everything. They are pathological liars.
Personally I think they talk shit because they need to convince gullible people their eyes are deceiving them. Conservative con game.
Nick
@Wile E. Quixote:
are you, by any chance, from New York?
D-Chance.
Cole snark, followed up by 200+ Drama Queens… check.
kay
That’s how he covers his ass.
He knows how it would read if he listed the players (Congress, the media, the business community) without the obligatory nod to the wealthy pundit’s favorite voter, so he added them.
Of course, he means white working class voters. Not the other kind.
I bet the first draft didn’t include “working class voters”.
Nick
@Joe Beese: Oh gee, the ACLU and Glenn Greenwald are upset by something the President did, clearly that means he’s the most awful person ever.
General Stuck
@D-Chance.:
plus one critic from the peanut gallery
gogol's wife
@Moses2317:
I was just thinking (before this controversy erupted) how much I enjoy your posts. I don’t spend all day on the internet, so this is the only place I see them.
gbear
@D-Chance.:
Yes. I found that being a complete mindless zombie Obot allowed me to skim thru this thread in record time. I don’t have anything to add beyond reposting John’s comment way up the thread:
@John Cole:
yes.
Bob Loblaw
@D-Chance.:
I like how it’s now burdensome to be a white male in America because of something written in Time magazine.
This blog sure does specialize in navel-gazing pity parties.
Tomorrow’s top story: BJers moved to suicide because of something Bob Herbert wrote in the Times. They will be mourned by the cats they left behind.
Ash Can
@Moses2317: Ditto on the kudos for your posts. They’re a welcome counterpoint to the whiners, concern trolls, and horse’s asses. Keep ’em coming.
eemom
@Wile E. Quixote:
being a mother myself, I don’t usually go in for “yo mama” type insults, but this
is, as they say, Teh Win.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@kay: I would rec this comment if I could
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw: We just bury the idiots up to their necks and pour honey over their heads for fun. Pretty soon it will by your turn, tough guy.
Ailuridae
@kay:
Of course, he means white working class voters. Not the other kind.
I was shocked he didn’t use the phrase “Real Americans” at all in his analysis.
El Tiburon
@Bob Loblaw:
Let them have at it. Republicans talk a good game, and yes the Teatards are loons, but we have already seen what can happen when a Republican tries to meddle with Social Security.
Maybe what this country needs is a little reminder of the batshit-insanity that is the Republican party when they have a majority. Evidently too many people can’t seem to remember what they had for breakfast.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@El Tiburon:
How will it change? One way is that they will be able to pass whatever they want. Oh, you say that the President can veto it? Damned straight he can. And if that happens then they will accuse him of stopping them from getting anything done, blame the mess we are in on him and tell the voters to give the White House back to them so they can get ‘stuff’ done without the obstructionist Democrats getting in the way.
Were you serious in asking this question or was it just a thoughtless throwaway line to bolster your weak-tea arguments?
TooManyJens
@Bob Loblaw:
Come on, you’re not even trying now.
And Another Thing...
@nancydarling: Drat, I was about to be excited about news that Mark Halperin is on wingnut welfare. the Claremont guy is Mark Helprin.
http://www.claremont.org/scholars/scholarID.36/scholar.asp
Double drat.
AxelFoley
@Wile E. Quixote:
OH, SNAP!
Joe Beese
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Oh dear. Those Republican bullies will be mean to him? And after he’s tried so hard to get them to like him.
In any case, you’ve convinced me. Obama is powerless against the Republicans even when he has dominant majorities – let alone with whatever he’ll have after November 2. I now feel completely justified in my decision to never vote for him again.
TooManyJens
@And Another Thing…: It’s sad — Mark Helprin is such a great novelist, and such a staggering wingnut. Maybe it’s just that in both of his professional capacities, he writes fiction.
AxelFoley
Gotta ask trolls like Beese–why the fuck do you asshats post here if you don’t like a left-leaning blog defending a Democratic President?
Paula
@MattR: … Awesome [Turd] Blossom.
nancydarling
Thanks for the correction Another Thing. I got all excited when I read it, because it all seemed to fit with the BS he spews. This is how rumors get started! My bad.
Paula
@AxelFoley:
I admit that I’m a sometime shut-in who spends way too much time arguing politics and crap on the interwebs. But I don’t spend the amount of time here that these people seem to, if I’m going by the sheer number of threads and the number of comments that they seem to poop out.
Like, seriously, go lead the progressive revolt already since you’re talking about it so much. How beneficial is it to gab at the heathens in here?
General Stuck
@Joe Beese:
Is this a great country, or what? Anyone can be an idiot like Mr. Beese, AND announce it to the world.
Chris
Man its hard to vote for a congresscritter with a D beside his name who voted to impeach the big Dog. When he did that…I decided I wouldn’t piss on him to put him out if he was on fire. However, like John, I give a shit and I am gonna vote for his sorry blue dog ass to avoid the teabagging lunatic running against him. What a shitty choice to have to make.
Ruckus
@Joe Beese:
At least the Republicans don’t ask me to give them money for doing it.
They don’t need to ask you for money, you already gave it to them when you bought toothpaste, the computer you are writing on, the place you sleep at night, the food you eat, that big building where you store any extra money you have, the clothes on your back and on and on.
That’s why corporate money skews elections. It is your money. but you don’t control how it gets spent on elections. You could be the most liberal person (boy was that was hard to write) but if you purchase almost anything in this country it will go to or end up in a large corporation. And they will spend your money to bend elections to their way and you can’t do shit about it. That’s the half billion John is talking about.
The people asking for your $10 or $20 were asking to represent you. The people taking your $10 or $20 and spending it their way are not doing it for you.
Bob Loblaw
@Wile E. Quixote:
1. Iraq =/= the Middle East.
2. A politically motivated logistical operation is not the same as a broader regional strategy.
3. The fact that you would say stupid shit like this pretty much compromises your credibility on this subject, so let’s just move on.
Yes, it’s called “they’re the White House.” Of course they’re arrogant and in their own little bubble. So it has been, so it will always be. They think they know everything because they won an election. And then the real world comes in and kicks their ass, and all of a sudden the job doesn’t seem nearly as fun anymore.
Because it was true then as well. It was true under Republican presidents. It will be true under Obama’s successor. It’s always been an irrelevant attack. It’s rarely why policies fail or succeed.
And, of course, when administrations complain that the press is vapid, spoiled, shallow, elitist, and non-compliant, that’s true as well. And it will also never stop being true. This stupid tete-a-tete between our oligarchs is tiring.
But you’d rather bitch about Mark Halperin as an individual actor, as though that’s even remotely the case. I’d advise you to pull your head out of your ass, but given your use of David Broder’s name as epithet, it’s clear you love Versailles far too much to ever do away with.
Joe Beese
@AxelFoley:
Who says I don’t like it? Watching you party loyalists try to excuse the same crimes you all bitched about two years ago is very entertaining.
But hypocrisy that rank does deserve to be made as difficult as possible. It’s almost a civic duty, really.
cat48
@Bob Loblaw:
Midnight Marauder
@Joe Beese:
The only thing you make more difficult for people here is how quickly they can scroll past your inanity.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Cacti:
Idiocracy. Like it or not, here we come!
Bob Loblaw
@TooManyJens:
If that’s not a sad sack recitation of white guilt, then I don’t know what is. The only difference is that Cole isn’t a 19 yo liberal arts student. Which only amplifies the pathetic factor.
He cares so much about the cause he could just break down and cry. Why oh why doesn’t the cause care as much about him?! Why can’t he be a part of the struggle? And why can’t those that are do it properly? It’s all hopeless, I tell you, simply hopeless…
Paula
Dems seize on tea party candidates’ social stances
I love this article because the subtext is that it’s somehow a little improper, beside the point, or at least uncouth that Democrats should actually dare call Teabagger candidates on the extremity of their statements about social issues.
Thanks AP!
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
. The fact that you would say stupid shit like this pretty much compromises your credibility on this subject. It was and is being done as part of a status of forces agreement signed by Bush and the Iraqi’s. Or, Obama just carrying out the
his country’s legal agreements.
And the rest of your nonsense is a manifesto of a quitter. Or, it’s all fucked up and familiar, so why engage it, or blog about it. Nothing will change, why bother. Which begs the question of why you bother to pen this existential tripe?
Bob Loblaw
@General Stuck:
Precisely. A politically motivated (by both governments) logistical operation. There’s nothing pejorative about any of those words, that you don’t insist on reading into. Thanks for agreeing with me.
But while the drawdown was a logistical success, simply pulling troops out doesn’t satisfy the broader economic and diplomatic and security-related vacuums that remain with Iraq itself and its neighbors. This is where I believe the administration has failed.
And that’s of course, not even getting into other Middle Eastern topics like Syria, Hamas, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, the Likud settlements policy, Yemen, etc., where the administration has made a practice of falling on its face whenever possible, regardless of whatever pretty words of outreach they use at the beginning of their alleged policy shifts that somehow mysteriously never amount to much.
Mark S.
@Bob Loblaw:
Does anyone here speak Loblow? Stuck? Translation please?
General Stuck
Does anyone else get the vague impression that Loblaw is writing a very long suicide note here on balloon juice.
Jeebus dude, you need to talk to someone, and not on a blog.
Does anyone here speak Loblow? Stuck? Translation please?
best I can do
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Joe Beese:
What a fuckwit. You aren’t even worth that response but there you go.
Enjoy.
Paula
@General Stuck:
In which case, Loblaw, I’m really sorry for calling you an asshole.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Mark S.:
I’ll try.
Shorter Bob Loblow: “Watch me foam at the mouth!”
Does that help?
Bob Loblaw
@General Stuck:
You’re right, I was clearly in no way mocking Cole. In no way.
Mnemosyne
@El Tiburon:
It just took us 100 days to get a budget passed in California, which included huge disruptions to the state like involuntary furloughs for state employees, closing state offices for budget reasons, major layoffs, etc.
Now imagine the Republicans holding the federal budget up for over 100 days like the Republicans in California did.
Corner Stone
@Mark S.: Let me see if I can help. Shorter Stuck:
“Slurp, slurp, slurp.”
Corner Stone
@Midnight Marauder: Speaking of inanity, could the bloody Texans play any worse the last two weeks?
Good sweet Jeebus.
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
If you haven’t figured out that Cole was talking tongue in cheek via snark, then you are likely on the wrong blog. But that has been painfully obvious for awhile. Otherwise, you are making little sense, at least for someone who is not very depressed. I am being sincere.
Nick
@Mark S.:
Hillary wuz robbed!
General Stuck
@Corner Stone: Ever the master of whitless.
Why won’t the Mexicans take back Texas?
discuss
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
The pass defense is absolutely horrid right now. The Texans can’t defend anything as long as you send it through the air. Just complete ineptitude all around. I don’t even know why they bothered coming out of the tunnel for the second half against the Giants; it’s not like they showed up for the first fucking half anyway.
Mnemosyne
Funny, I searched that firedoglake story and it appears that it doesn’t mention that Congress controls the budget even once.
You’d think that would be kind of an important thing to know before you posit that the Republicans having control of Congress is meaningless, wouldn’t you?
ricky
Do they have an actual convention where they pass that wisdom out to delgates?
General Stuck
@Mnemosyne:
I usually bite on a cork, to ease the pain.
TooManyJens
@Bob Loblaw: Seriously, do you read this blog at all, or do you just quote-mine it? To say that you’ve misinterpreted that paragraph is like saying that Christine O’Donnell is a bit sheltered from the world the rest of us live in.
ricky
@General Stuck:
You are not from around here, are you?
They have. They are just waiting for the anchor babies to be old enough to vote.
General Stuck
@ricky:
I guess then Texas will secede from itself. Refugees coming to NM, are subject to lobotomy. Corner Stones are exempt, for obvious reasons.
Jamey
Tonight on a very special episode of Balloon Juice: John Cole outs himself as a gay polygamist.
Seriously, though, when I saw a Yahoo linq to the Time/Halperin piece, I knew that this would be the place to be.
Mothra
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. MLK
Corner Stone
@General Stuck: From all the genitalia you have in your mouth I’m surprised you can find time to walk your imaginary dog.
Mothra
That was supposed to make you feel better. I know it’s probably too much of a cliche for the room-but I’d rather be on the side of justice. Especially since we’ve got more political power than most of the people who have ever lived.
But I do hear you, Doug. I do.
Bob Loblaw
@TooManyJens:
Of course it’s snark. But it comes from the same place as if it were genuine, it just has a different destination.
An “outsider” (cough) who’s angry that these yucky holy warriors have gone and fucked up the holy war. It’s always troubling to realize there’s not a single thing that’s glamorous about the cause. It’s all the same bullshit.
General Stuck
@Corner Stone:
Goddamn CS, Loblaw has more class than you. What is with your oral fixation, what is up with that? Jeebus dude. better material. embarrassing
General Stuck
@Bob Loblaw:
You are aware that senor Cole has labored hard and long to create and maintain a popular political blog for you to show up on and complain about him not caring? I hope you are aware of that.
Admiral_Komack
@Steve:
The Phallus Of Doom.
Hi JS
//Some days I wonder why I even worry about politics. I’m single, white, straight, somewhat educated, over the draft age, and I’ll make it. I don’t smoke pot, I don’t want a gay marriage, I’m not a minority, I’m not disabled, I don’t have any pre-existing conditions, I’ll never have an abortion, I’m not going to be discriminated against in the workplace, no one is going to beat me up on the street for who I am, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about the big issues of the day like global warming.//
Ah! Had a vasectomy. Gotcha.
Paula
Some Dems uneasy with attack on Chamber
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
These bozos are literally ALLERGIC to winning!
Nick
@Paula: Well gee, if only Obama used the bully pulpit.
Nevertheless, this whole article is based on anonymous sources, who are, btw, saying that when the Republicans make the same accusations against Democrats, their lies aren’t called out by the media, which is true.
It’s good to know our media is on top of it!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_chamber_fight
Nope, no proof, moving on.
mclaren
Wile E. Coyote asked:
That seems like a fair question.
Let’s start with the basics: Obama allowed himself to be conned and scammed and outmaneuvered by the generals in the Pentagon. In a word, Obama got rolled on Afghanistan and Iraq.
Nick
@mclaren: this is so fucking funny, I can’t stop laughing. Here’s a bunch of opinions I present as facts, good move there bucko
Sounds more like a man governing to me, but what do I know? I don’t think the worlds coming to end like you.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Obama is at a 48% approval rating, which sounds about right. With the rabid left and right attacking him in the 52% showing their disapproval and knowing that the 28%’ers are at about 28%, that means that the rabid left are in the remaining 24%. While their goals are the polar opposite of the other, one goal that the wingnuts and manic progressives do share is that they want to suppress Democratic vote so they can prove their point; that they are right and everyone else is wrong. While the goal of both sides is to inflict pain on the Democrats this fall, only the wingnuts want to win. The manic progressives want to lose and the bigger the Democrats lose, the sweeter it is for them.
They’re not progressives, they’re adults with the mentality of children. If they can’t have their way immediately then it’s time to throw a royal shit fit of a tantrum.
Paula
@mclaren:
The myriad complexities and contingent interest groups of the American political system can frustrate even intelligent-seeming people. Film @ 11.
Seriously, dude, I’m really sorry you had to take what must have been a couple of hours to cut and paste stuff into this blog. Hope you sit back with a cold one tonight for all your hard work doing … something.
El Tiburon
@Mnemosyne:
Did we just not fail to pass a budget for the military in like forever?
We basically live under republican rule right now.
We can argue until all of you nu,bunts turn blue in the face. Whatever happens happens. Hey, I’m voting for my Lloyd dogged, I gave to feingold , Grayson and a few others. Ive done all I can do. I just don’t have time to run off with old Ben kenobi right now and save the inverse.
General Stuck
@Paula:
Whenever Mclaren writs one of these brain numbing diatribes, I think of maybe it should be on something like Saturday Night Live, or more fitting, Saturday Night Dead/
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT: Ron Paul on O’Donnell saying he is for term limits. Lawrence asked him that if that is the case then why is he still in office?
The few seconds of silence that followed until he started sputtering his non-answer was absolutely hilarious.
JAHILL10
@Wile E. Quixote: Dude! Playin’ the dozens!
Sofia
John: having to listen to President Palin on the teevee would hurt you. Nails on chalkboard. That alone is a good reason to vote Democrat.
Keenan
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.: Doug, I’m with you. It kills me that my favorite show and host is drifting towards mediocrity and “meh, they all do it” equivalency.
Paula
I know it galls everyone nowadays that Jon Stewart does not seem to be fighting your battles, but the mistake lies in ever thinking that he was there to fight your battles in the first place.
And he warned everyone, constantly, about not mistaking him for that kind of guy.
He told a representative anecdote of a person who would laugh at most of the show — except for some jokes related to an environmental issue, wherein this person would come up to him after the show and tell him that telling the joke was wrong and that the issue was very very serious.
All these “Stewart is getting meh” sentiments are along the same line. I’m sorry he’s not forwarding your agenda, but it’s not an argument for his being less funny or or good at his job — which is, after all, to be a comedian, not an activist.