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You are here: Home / When He Was Young, He Never Needed Anyone … Those Days are Gone

When He Was Young, He Never Needed Anyone … Those Days are Gone

by @heymistermix.com|  November 8, 20108:05 am| 32 Comments

This post is in: DC Press Corpse

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According to Politico, President Obama is “isolated” and it’s all his own fault. The evidence is all around us:

In June, during an East Room reception for top supporters at Ford’s Theatre, several of the attendees were disappointed that they didn’t get to shake the president’s hand and take a photo, as they had in the past. Instead, Obama greeted a few people down front, reaching over a rope line.

And delicate lobbyists feelings were also hurt:

Democratic lobbyists say they’re upset that the president had not only vilified their profession, but frozen them out of discussions on key issues. By one light, this is precisely what Obama promised to do in an effort to restore faith in government. By another, it simply enhanced the Congress-K Street power nexus because most of the horse-trading was done on Capitol Hill with White House control.

While the lobbying community is usually covered by the media like a crime beat, most lobbyists are policy experts who often provide input on commissions and other advisory boards. So lobbyists argue that the White House shunning has cost the president valuable advice, political intelligence and institutional backup.

The narrative demands that Obama be all by himself, isolated and shedding salty tears over his repudiation by the American people. After his season in the wilderness, where he goes though a soul-searching, searing self-inventory and recognizes the error of his ways, he’ll reach out to those he so unwisely rejected, shake their hands, mend their broken hearts, and we’ll all walk in the sunshine again.

Did we just have a midterm election, or will Obama be starring in the next Twilight sequel? I can’t really tell from this piece of Politico emo trash.

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32Comments

  1. 1.

    DougJ

    November 8, 2010 at 8:10 am

    How long til he’s forced to hire some David Gergen type?

  2. 2.

    wilfred

    November 8, 2010 at 8:11 am

    The narrative demands that Obama be all by himself, isolated and shedding salty tears over his repudiation by the American people.

    Yeah, but that’s always the narrative, it’s not exclusive for him.

  3. 3.

    matoko_chan

    November 8, 2010 at 8:29 am

    well….Obama is on terebi right now, talking about green tech. that is how America can lead the world….also what i think…is …America should be the worlds college campus and R&D industrial park.
    We have the best real estate so we can attract the the best teachers and researchers.
    But alas, that would necessitate letting brown and yellow and black upper tailers into the lilywhite judeochristian nation.
    Did you know mistermix that there are more high IQ indian children than there are children in american schools?
    The human capital resource race is on.
    Sony showed this to their shareholders in their meet this year.
    :)

  4. 4.

    beltane

    November 8, 2010 at 8:38 am

    As always, the media is repulsive. The picture of Obama they are painting reminds me of one of those Italian Renaissance paintings of Christ before Pilate, with them in the role of Pilate. Do they not realize that this is a bad thing?

  5. 5.

    Maude

    November 8, 2010 at 8:42 am

    Rope line; in the wrong place, should been around their necks. Someone grab one end and I’ll grab the other.
    For someone who has offended the fee-fees of the intel community, Obama has done well, along with the international community, to fend off some attacks on the Homeland.
    I think the rusty farm implements need to be motorized.
    We’ll use solar power to keep them running.

  6. 6.

    Maude

    November 8, 2010 at 8:45 am

    @beltane:
    You think they wash their hands?
    Someone else can go shake hands with them, I don’t know where their hands have been and I’m not willing to find out.

    mistermix, Help, I need someobody and not just anybody. Heard the acapella version. It stank.

  7. 7.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    November 8, 2010 at 8:48 am

    @wilfred:

    Yeah, but that’s always the narrative, it’s not exclusive for him.

    Hardly. After 2006 the narrative was: “Bush perfectly poised for a huge comeback! Will the Democrats work with him?”

  8. 8.

    beltane

    November 8, 2010 at 8:50 am

    @matoko_chan: My above average IQ science geek son attends school in a rural community full of RealAmericans. I have had parents complain to me that he “preaches” his Darwin “religion” to their children and that this “just isn’t right.” I’m not sure what role in future society the kids who are afraid of evolution are supposed to fill. All I know is that if stupid were a valuable natural resource, this country would not be running such large trade deficits.

    Son is now taunting his classmates by bringing Chris Hitchin’s “God is Not Great” into school.

  9. 9.

    JAHILL10

    November 8, 2010 at 8:51 am

    Damn you to hell for putting this whiny-ass song in my head!
    And more on-topic, I think, as usual, Obama will frustrate the media by not playing along with their stupid NARRATIVE.

  10. 10.

    Daddy-O

    November 8, 2010 at 9:04 am

    You can make fun of this all day long, but the key sentence remains:

    “Democratic lobbyists say they’re upset that the president had not only vilified their profession, but frozen them out of discussions on key issues.”

    It happened. I was there. I remember, and nothing you can snark up will make me forget it.

    The President cozied up to Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, but froze ME out. ME. What I wanted. The dirty fucking hippie. Remember me? The one who actually voted for Obama?

    You can complain from here to eternity about how we’re not supposed to criticize Obama or how I’m supposed to feel about his record, but it won’t change the facts. He has failed, he is weak, his strategy was as doomed as Bush’s strategy in the Middle East.

    And I’ll STILL vote for him in 2012 unless Lincoln Chafee runs as a Republican and is by some miracle nominated. I have no choice. It’s either Good Cop, or Bad Cop. Not much else.

  11. 11.

    Daddy-O

    November 8, 2010 at 9:06 am

    @Comrade Javamanphil: So…because it was true for Bush, that makes it true for Obama? A similarity in narrative? Makes them equivalent?

    Hardly.

  12. 12.

    A. Lurker

    November 8, 2010 at 9:06 am

    No one gives a shit about facts and analysis anymore, it’s all about “narrative” and “optics.” You laid out the narrative perfectly in your last sentence, MM. Right now someone in the WaPo’s newsroom is kicking themselves asking “how come we didn’t write this article first?”

  13. 13.

    Jay in Oregon

    November 8, 2010 at 9:06 am

    Did we just have a midterm election, or will Obama be starring in the next Twilight sequel?

    Mike Huckabee thinks he knows…

  14. 14.

    Daddy-O

    November 8, 2010 at 9:08 am

    Hey…fuck your moderation. The air in here is indecently similar to FreeRepublic. Keep in lockstep–MODERATE lockstep, or else we’ll have to cut you out. I have to watch what I say? Here? But not in other comments on other blogs?

    What’s that say about y’all? Don’t want to read my golden words? I’m too dirty, too fucking, too hippie for y’all?

    At least Obama didn’t lie to us and tell us he was a Uniter, not a Divider. At the very least.

  15. 15.

    Erikthe Red

    November 8, 2010 at 9:10 am

    The last guy who occupied the Oval Office went through something even worse. What was their advice to him?

    Oh, this is the Vandehais…

    …never mind.

  16. 16.

    A Duck

    November 8, 2010 at 9:16 am

    Must ’emo’ join all the other epithets representing the lazy constructions of ‘what I don’t like’?
    I don’t have any particular love for Twilight or DCFC and suchlike, it’s the unnecessary tribalism that I despise.

  17. 17.

    A Duck

    November 8, 2010 at 9:21 am

    Daddy-O: Ain’t nothing personal, it’s just ‘FYWP’. The FPers don’t care enough to censor you or anyone else.

  18. 18.

    Kryptik

    November 8, 2010 at 9:21 am

    And don’t forget, if Republicans shut everything the fuck down, it’s because Obama is such a tyrant and bastard and partisan that he didn’t reach across the aisle enough and include Republicans in everything. You know, despite the fact that nearly every single bill of consequence was watered down often to nothingness in committee, just to satisfy their fee-fees.

    In other words: “Why do you keep making me beat you, honey?!”

  19. 19.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    November 8, 2010 at 9:22 am

    @Daddy-O: That was not the point I was making. The narrative is always “this is good news for Republicans and bad news for Democrats” coupled with “will the Democrats works with the Republicans?” The facts and circumstances of whatever the actual events are is immaterial to this narrative.

  20. 20.

    Steeplejack

    November 8, 2010 at 9:24 am

    @Daddy-O:

    Nobody gets moderated here unless some word in your comment triggers the FYWP spam filter, e.g., sociaIism, which contains the name of the boner pill CiaIis. And comments usually come out of moderation quickly as front-pagers get around to them.

    Go breathe into a paper bag for a while and check back in a few.

  21. 21.

    matoko_chan

    November 8, 2010 at 9:38 am

    @beltane: but stupid is a valuable electoral resource to the GOP.
    50 years of racebaiting and IQbaiting has left the TP/GOP the party of intransigent racists and anti-meritocratic candidates.
    They have their own media and culture now so they are unchallenged.
    Its like biomemetic engineering for an electorate that is impermeable to intelligent argument and fiscal mathematics.
    But the racism is so ingrained that the leadership cant switch it off, so the base continues to alienate minorities even while the leadership dives into tokenism to blunt the effect of the demographic timer.
    And Salam-Douthat stratification on cognitive ability has resulted in a slate of unelectable anti-meritocratic candidates like Palin and COD.

  22. 22.

    matoko_chan

    November 8, 2010 at 9:42 am

    @beltane:

    Son is now taunting his classmates by bringing Chris Hitchin’s “God is Not Great” into school.

    law.
    and tell him the Bible lies.
    the Geek shall inherit the earth.
    :)

  23. 23.

    Erikthe Red

    November 8, 2010 at 9:55 am

    @beltane:

    Damn, I hope your son takes some kind of martial art, too. I applaud his guts, but nowadays I’d be worrying about some classmate(s) deciding to “get physical” on him at some point.

  24. 24.

    kth

    November 8, 2010 at 10:01 am

    Dear Politico:

    Beltway toadies != ordinary Americans. Obama connects with the latter just fine, and his unwillingness to cater to the former is a virtue, not a flaw.

    Sincerely,
    kth

  25. 25.

    Deb T

    November 8, 2010 at 10:03 am

    Who gets to write the damn narrative? This little tale Politico tells is just that – a tale told by idiots (to paraphrase). It has nothing to do with what is actually going on.
    Obama is getting on with business. These guys who make it to the Presidency are tough. He had a rough week and now he’s on to India doing the country’s business.
    Here’s a newsflash for Politico – all President’s are alone! Just ask em.

  26. 26.

    Deb T

    November 8, 2010 at 10:06 am

    @Daddy-O:

    Tiresome.

  27. 27.

    Citizen_X

    November 8, 2010 at 11:03 am

    @Daddy-O: Jesus. Lighten the fuck up, Francis.

  28. 28.

    rachel

    November 8, 2010 at 11:07 am

    @Daddy-O: Thank you for having given me the opportunity to write: “STFU n00b!” and “Lurk moar!”

  29. 29.

    Gravie

    November 8, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    He looked pretty chipper on 60 Minutes last night. Once again, the conventional wisdom narrative doesn’t match what I see & hear. There must be something wrong with me.

  30. 30.

    Suck It Up!

    November 8, 2010 at 2:14 pm

    Daddy-O this is not Huffpo. Also, you are not the center of Obama’s world and bj doesn’t censor. They (or john cole) are not afraid to tell you off if they need to.

  31. 31.

    THE

    November 8, 2010 at 8:20 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    and tell him the Bible lies.
    the Geek shall inherit the earth.

    I prefer my version:

    The meek shall inherit the Earth.
    The bold shall inherit the Stars.

  32. 32.

    THE

    November 8, 2010 at 10:22 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    We have the best real estate so we can attract the the best teachers and researchers.
    But alas, that would necessitate letting brown and yellow and black upper tailers into the lilywhite judeochristian nation.

    Matoko, I have a problem with this idea.

    My long-term dream is that scientific culture will one day spread over the entire world.
    For me it is not about America, and it is not even about the West.
    It is my belief that science and reason is the path to enlightenment and empowerment for all mankind.

    So I have a real problem with developed nations like the USA, filling in the gaps in their own culture and education system, by “stealing” the best and brightest minds from the developing world.

    We need to understand how difficult it is for the poorer, developing nations, to pay for educating their populations up to the highest standards of excellence.
    It is no wonder that they focus so much on science and engineering and mathematics.
    They see it as the key to their modernization and development.

    Much better that we focus on educating our own.
    And if that means that we have to stop pandering to the enemies of science and reason, in order to compete,
    then so much the better. This is the kind of thing that gives me hope.

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