Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell argue in the Washington Post that President Obama “has largely lost the consent of the governed” and “should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012.”
“If the president goes down the reelection road, we are guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it. But by explicitly saying he will be a one-term president, Obama can deliver on his central campaign promise of 2008, draining the poison from our culture of polarization and ending the resentment and division that have eroded our national identity and common purpose.”
Reader Interactions
119Comments
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Maude
PWB, that’s what they are saying.
Brian S (formerly Incertus)
They’re serious. They are also jokes. I don’t know where to go with the third leg of this syllogism.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The joke is Fred Hiatt. And it’s not funny. And he’s the last person in the country who doesn’t get it. Caddell and Schoen are probably laughing at their useful idiot for publishing it.
Kryptik
Good christ.
Yes, tell everyone you’re not going to run in 2012 because you’re convinced the country totally hates you now. That’s going to for sure help foster a new age of bipartianship and cooperation in Washington.
Dumbfucks.
eemom
It is not a joke, and I’ve been absolutely enraged since I saw it last night, so thank you for giving me a chance to vent.
cathyx
I personally wouldn’t mind if he did start to deliver on all of his campaign promises.
gregw
My immediate reaction? F U sirs.
LosGatosCA
Yes, they (both of them) are a joke.
SixStringFanatic
Yeah, if the Dems want to hand the African-American vote back to the Repubs, all they have to do is make sure that the first ever black President is also the first one to lose his re-election bid in the primary.
Expect to hear lots more of this from our sensible Villager-type superiors. Also expect Barack Obama to ignore them all.
nepat
“Liberals” for pay on Fox. Just another sign of the Foxpocalypse.
Kryptik
Guys, as much as these two clowns and Hiatt are jokes unto themselves, the real joke is on us. Every single one of us. Why?
This, apparently, is what truly passes for ‘reasonable discourse’ in our country. Unpopular Republican President gets shelled in a midterm, after 6 years of total control: “I’m the Decider”.
Democratic president gets shelled in a midterm, after 2 years of “total control”: “KICK THE FUCKER TO THE CURB, TAKE BACK OUR COUNTREEEEEZ!”
And yet, somehow, the country is supposedly owned lock, stock, and barrel by Soros and “the left”. I want to laugh if only to keep from crying. But I can’t. It’s not even funny anymore.
EDIT: Added quotes around “total control”. Since I forgot, Dems never really ever did control the Senate proper, did they?
Angela
How can anything I read or hear still have the ability to shock me with its cluelessness? It still does, this did.
Menzies
I can’t believe this shit.
Not that it surprises me, mind you, this is exactly what I expect out of Schoen’s gang, but as someone commented up above, that Fred Hiatt considers this reasonable enough for publication is nine kinds of ridiculous.
All aboard the Bullshit Express, next stop: The Crazy.
ChrisNYC
I am shocked as everyone else to wake up this morning and find Obama being attacked from his own side. When did this start? Let’s be sure to nip in the bud, huh?
Joseph Nobles
Oh, yes, Obama pulling an LBJ will evaporate the next two years of gridlock like so much dew under the morning sun.
eemom
goddammit, I was so busy venting my edit time expired.
This is really, truly the bottom of the barrel. It is concern trollism gone mad.
There are seriously no words adequate to convey what an arrogant, ignorant, patronizing, reprehensible, and yes, racist piece of shit this is.
Because — just like Joe Wilson yelling “You lie!” — it is something no one would ever have dreamed of daring to say to any other U.S. President.
JPL
If the President announces that he will not run for reelection
the republicans will
1: Bow down and work with the democrats to achieve world
peace and enact policies that benefit the middle class.
2: Criticize the President for quitting.
The Dangerman
Blazing Saddles reference for these blazing sacks of shit.
“The President’s a ni….”
“The President’s near?”
“No, daggumit, the President’s a….”
Cassidy
Well hell, if he’d just stop being black then everything would go swimmingly.
martha
It’s not a joke because they realize they are/or have lost control of the “old school democratic” purse-strings and they’re desperate. Remember, it’s all about the money–their money, their business, their political consulting firm. They must be hurting for money, so they’re desperate.
Typing that just cheered me up immensely and gave me…wait for it…hope.
Kryptik
@eemom:
But don’t you get it, Obama is such a unique threat to our way of life as president.
Because, you know, he’s a Democrat. And he’s BLACK! And people have it on good authority that he might be MOOSLIM TOO!
So you see, precedent doesn’t matter, since Obama is so wholly unique and exotic a threat, all the rules are null and void! The Republicans have to do EVERYTHING in their power to stop this exotic Bla-…er…Marxist threat in the cradle, before we’re all Stalin!!
WOLVERINES, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!
….dammit, just wake me in 10 years.
Brian J
It certainly isn’t a joke. Forgive me for the rough (no pun intended) comparison, but their suggestion is like two guys telling a battered wife that if she would just shut up and cook dinner on time, her husband might not beat the shit out of her. Instead, their marriage would be okay.
In the end, this is what I find so exasperating about the status of the Obama presidency and the midterm results: they really didn’t deserve to win. Make the argument that the Democrats failed if you like, but the Republicans did absolutely nothing to try to fix the problems they created or made worse. They spit in the face of their president and opposed even the most basic parts of the governing process. They lied and purposefully made things more difficult than they had to be. They had the gall to act is if the Democrats were the problem. And in the end, they got rewarded for their behavior. They will only get worse.
I don’t know what to say, except that at some point, something has got to give. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later. I also hope Obama prepares to crush whomever their nominee is in 2012. It would only be fair.
Hal
Let me just repost, because it bears repeating on these two clowns…
and my favorite:
His analysis on polls and campaign issues often puts him at odds with the current leadership of the Democratic Party. He has been criticized for predicting the downfall of the Democratic party. Critics point out that he has defended the Bush administration by claiming that Republicans did not exploit the issue of gay marriage in the presidential election of 2004
He also denounced Democrats in the House who voted against the Palm Sunday Compromise, which sought to reinstate Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube, as “cold blooded”
ogliberal
There may not be a bigger pair of asshats on the planet than these two fuckwits. I hope – hope – there isn’t a single Democratic who takes these fools seriously. Schoen is trying to sell his “tea baggers are soooooo great” book that he co-authored with Rasmussen and Caddell hasn’t been a Democrat since the 90s. (he was on the wrong side of the Schiavo fiasco, for pete’s sake!)
But the Beltway media will still call them “Democrats” and say stuff like, “even Democratic pollsters Caddell and Schoen” and they’ll be lavished with attention by FoxNews, where they can join lawn jockey Williams in writing Obama’s obituary.
Why are these jackasses even afforded the space to publish anything? O, wait – it’s Kaplan. Carry on.
joe from Lowell
Schoen and Caddell are idiots. We’re guaranteed two years of gridlock regardless, because that’s what the Republicans want.
But I’ve wondered even since 2008 about Obama not running in 2012. Given his age, he could easily run again in 2016, 2020, maybe as late as 2036, for his second term. If 2012 looks like it’s shaping up to be a lock for the Democrats, such that even Harry Reid could win the presidency, would it be good move to keep Obama on the bench so he use his once-in-a-generation talent in a more difficult election year?
J sub D
To you and I, yes. To the partisanship is everything blowhards who wrote it, sadly no. The intelligence requirement for writing op-ed pieces is minimal if it exists at all.
This is just mouth foaming nonsense from the rabid right that somehow thinks gaining control of one house of congress was some sort of landslide mandate. It wasn’t. It was a mid-course correction by the electorate, greater than usual but hardly world shattering.
I’m not happy with Obama, I think he’s in over his head. Still, he beats the hell out of his predecessor. He was elected for four years and only a fool would make himself a lame duck after less that two. Nonsense like this is best ignored.
Bullsmith
It’s the standard argument, only Republicans are real Americans and thus any Democrat who tries to get elected is, by definition, a traitor. Best thing is that on Fox News, these guys play Democrats.
cat48
I can’t even get upset anymore. In their next column they will use the “N word” several times to clarify how they really feel.
WyldPirate
@joe from Lowell:
Wake up drunk often, joe?
I mean you seriously wrote that “…if 2012 looks like it’s shaping up to be a lock for the Democrats..”, after the election day drubbing and the gridlock and stonewalling the Rethugs are going to purposefully produce so the economy has no hope of recovery?
Garbo
More fancy dressed up versions of the same old wish: why won’t all the Dems liberals, lefties, etc. just die already and leave us to OUR country. Seriously, they will NEVER be satisfied until we are ALL dead, buried and forgotten. Next question.
Kryptik
And remember folks, apparently, most people in this fucking country still thing the GOP isn’t far right enough, and that the Democrats are still some kind of commune of far left psycho fucking hippies, to the point that a majority of DEMOCRATS want the party to move ‘to the center’. As if totally and completely internalizing every single stupid fucking thing said about Democrats, liberals, progressives, etc. spouted by people like these dumb fucks, Fox, et. al.
It really is just fucking amazing how fucked we are.
@Garbo:
Unfortunately, this seems to be the prevailing wind in general. Even despite Republicans tainting everything they touch, even with the public utterly skeptical of everything they have to offer…they’re still better than those goddamn hippie fucking Democrats because LIBRULZ ARE EVIL AND HATE THE ECONOMEEEZ!
Boots Day
Sarah Palin thinks Obama should just go ahead and quit now. That worked real well for her.
Ann B. Nonymous
@joe from Lowell:
Sensual. Powerful. Biden. It’s Joe Time in 2012.
Lupin
We’re entering the times of the clowns, just like the USSR did.
RalfW
We can hope to hell that no Dem ever hires these tin-plated asshats as consultants again.
Dr. Drang
Whenever Pat Caddell’s name comes up, it should always be mentioned that he’s an undisputed political genius with deep insight into the American electorate.
He ran George McGovern’s presidential campaign, after all.
mk3872
These guys are regulars on Fox News and are working the old MSM theme that the lack of bipartisanship and the ability to work together to get things done is always and forever the Dem’s responsibility.
Since the GOP and their voters do not care about compromise, we simply cannot have a Dem president.
So just step aside and let the GOP run things seems to be the theme.
And no, it does not matter about the horrible things that happened during GOP rule from 2001-2008.
me
So, how’s the Washington Post’s circulation numbers lately? Hopefully they will drop a measurable amount on Monday.
dj spellchecka
mr. whipple
Rumproast has a nice post on this today:
sven
Didn’t Caddell and Schoen publish a similar column in the Washington Post only two weeks ago? Are either of these guys on staff at WaPo? It seems unusual for outside contributors to get this much space focused on a single theme.
MattF
Hey, “blazing sacks of shit” is good. And accurate.
And, btw, in case anyone is missing this, the Republican strategy is to ‘Carterize’ Obama. I predict Republicans will have their hissy fits, and I predict it won’t work. In any event, consider yourselves warned.
Another Bob
Yes, it makes perfect sense that since the Republicans have a majority in one-half of the legislative branch and refuse to compromise, it’s then up to the Democrats and Obama to unilaterally surrender so the Republicans can have their way. If they don’t surrender, the Republicans will have to pursue their uncompromising political agenda at the cost of likely inflicting further harm on the nation during a crisis of historical proportions. So, yes, absolutely, it would all be Obama’s fault for not going along with the Republicans’ demands. Goddamn liberals.
JCT
@Menzies: Actually the crazy stop was awhile ago, we’re stuck at the lunacy stop and not moving .
And really what is Hiatt’s fucking problem publishing this complete nonsense? Does Obama personally piss in his Cheerios every morning?
Kryptik
@JCT:
Just remember though, Hiatt’s still one of the best liberals in Washington, the Daily Beast said so! And if they’re trustworthy enough to merge with Newsweek, then by gum they must be onto something!!
joe from Lowell
@Ann B. Nonymous:
Biden 2012: Stand Up, America.
jwb
@martha: I imagine that you are correct that it has a good deal to do with money (one rarely goes wrong following the money). The fundamental problem with the Democratic coalition is that if the corporatist wing of the party leaves (or even sits out) the Dems will get slaughtered in the media game (witness 2009-10); if the progressive wing of the party leaves (or even sits out) the Dems will get slaughtered at the polls. So they desperately need each other, but the moment it comes to policy they are at each others’ throats, and I really don’t see a good way out of the situation. Because Obama’s promise was the reconciliation of these two wings of the party, he suffers to the extent that that reconciliation fails to materialize.
Woodrowfan
So President whose party loses big in their first midterm election should give up?
Well they have a point. no president before Obama has ever had such huge losses in their first midterm.
Except, of course,
Harding in 1922
Truman in 1946
Johnson in 1966
Carter in 1978
Reagan in 1982
Clinton in 1994
And none of those guys ever succeeded in anything after that!
Seriously, for two it was a sign of coming problems with re-election, but three were reelected (all 3 by comfortable margins), and Harding most likely would have been reelected if he had lived.
FYI, Coolidge in 1926, Eisenhower in 1954, Nixon in 1970 and Bush I in 1990 also saw their party lose ground in the Congress, but not as dramatically.
Bruuuuce
Quelle bullshit.
On the other hand, I’d totally be behind Franken/Grayson 2012.
cermet
The cocoon these stupid asswipes live in with their sole source of news the fake news cable channel or stations with their idiotic and unbalanced format just proves that most of their viewers are too racist, moronic and unbelievably so hypocritical as to render them incapable of an original thought outside their narrow world view; as such, they should be denied the right to vote like they try (and too often succeed) to do to all other groups – when I once joked no white man (and yes, I’m white) should be allowed to vote if the candidate was also white, I now realize that this is the only solution that might save this country from going down the sewer.
Corner Stone
@Boots Day:
I don’t know her net worth before 2008 but she’s worth over $10 million or thereabouts now.
So I’d say it did work real well for her.
ronathan richardson
Jesus Christ. His approval rating is the highest of basically any major national politician.
moe99
I tried to post a comment on the WAPO site to tell them to stop smoking crack, but the site won’t let me post anything.
Allan
Yeah, we’re gonna party like it’s 2007.
With a lame-duck president and the opposition in charge of Congress, we can expect wondrous moments of bipartisan comity just like the one that gave us TARP.
Because that’s what Americans want.
Kryptik
@Corner Stone:
But remember, she’s a Republican. The only thing that disqualifies a Republican from being seen as a Very Serious Person is being caught with trou down with someone of the same sex.
Obama is a Democrat. Thusly, he is evil and should be burnt at the stake at the slightest sign of impropriety.
Allan
@Bruuuuce: Why not Gore/Edwards?
Tipper and Elizabeth, I mean.
“If you’re as tired as we are of being screwed, used and abused by rich white guys, then elect us.”
A. Lurker
Here’s the deal: Give your “advice” to Mitch McConnell and newly-elected President Orangeman that they not seek re-election at the end of their terms, then come back in two years. If the evil “partisan gridlock” (WORSE THAN HITLER) has magically disappeared by then, maybe we will consider it when Obama leaves in 2016.
NobodySpecial
I want the Democrats to move to the center.
The center is about three steps to the left of where the Senate is operating.
Corner Stone
@Kryptik:
Mmmmm…Palin/Bachmann 2012…Now there’s a double dip I could get behind!
Ba dum duh!
You Don't Say
It must be satire.
And I’m with Steve Benen on this.
debbie
Jeez, not even 2 weeks since the election, and they’ve already overreached in any number of ways. They’re just like a clown car full of clowns.
Kryptik
@You Don’t Say:
Steven Benen says:
At Obama for Preznittin’ while Democrat (and Black). Duh.
martha
@jwb: I share your worries. But I think the next two years are going to be filled with so much overreach and full-out crazy by the usual suspects and some of the new ones we were introduced to recently, that the D’s who keep their heads and all those sane I’s and the wishy-washy I’s will just shake their heads and go with the calm, cool, responsible guy who’s sitting in the White House right now. Of course, we have to make sure that the Ds appeal to the under 40 crowd and the new demographic that is going to roll over the Rs like a Mack truck.
As matoko chan keeps reminding us in these comments (and all the young folks we hire at our company)…things they are a’changin…
BGinCHI
@You Don’t Say: This is correct.
In 2007, the Onion Corporation (AKA, Big Garlic) purchased Kaplan Test Prep and thus the Washington Post. The test prep service is now a training ground for snarky undergraduates and smartassed B School backrowers.
This should have been acknowledged by all Post readers when the editor’s name, Fred Hiatt, was clearly an anagram for “Fuckhead AssHat.”
wasabi gasp
Bonus points if the Democratic Party promises not to run any candidate at all.
ruemara
Let me see, Thom Hartmann, super liberal, said the president was weak and ineffectual (this was in the president’s defense) and also said he was not a fighter, having succeeded because he was eloquent. This is a smart, savvy guy and liberal hero of mine. It crushed me to hear this version of dismissive well-spoken bs. Am I surprised to see “reasonable people” basically calling for the black president to step down for being too divisive after he basically shoots himself in his own foot to at least appear to be impartial in governance? Not really.
Menzies
@JCT:
I think it’s just preening. He for some reason likes to think that since he’s a “moderate” or “centrist” liberal who lets this shit get published with little vetting it makes him a better editor or journalist or some shit.
I don’t claim to know what he actually thinks, but I like to think I’ve met people like him here at college.
Agreed on the stop though.
@Bruuuuce:
In an ideal world where you could actually pick the people who are best for their fucking jobs, I would put Alan Grayson and Eliot Spitzer together in some kind of special prosecutorial office.
They’re both such gigantic, narcissistic dicks there’s no way they’re going to get bribed into stopping it, and if they piss off a few journalists along the way, so much the better.
Of course, in this world Sam Alito would retire to spend more time keynoting conservative events, Russ Feingold would be appointed to replace him, and we’d have an actual educator at the head of the Department of Education
So yeah.
ogliberal
@martha: That’s exactly what this is. These guys haven’t been hired by Democrats as strategists or pollsters in years. They’re only source of income is appearing on FoxNews and writing tea baggers are the shit books with Scotty Rasmussen. They’re pissed that they are on the outs with their old party and they’re taking revenge whenever they get the chance. Unfortunately, Kaplan Daily regularly gives them a platform to preach their bullshit.
Pat Caddell predicted that the Democrats position on the Schiavo issue would hand the next election to the GOP. Um, the opposite happened. (wasn’t it that incident that brought Cole over to the “less than fucking horrible” side?) He was also the genius behind Carter’s “malaise” speech. Yeah, Obama should listen to him.
You Don't Say
@Kryptik: Eric Cantor was outraged … at Pelosi in 2007. From his National Review op-ed at the time: “Presenting Assad with ‘a new Democratic alternative’ — code for making President Bush look feckless — Mrs. Pelosi usurped the executive branch’s time-honored foreign-policy authority. Her message to Assad was that congressional Democrats will forbid the president from increasing pressure on Damascus to stop its murderous way. Several leading legal authorities have made the case that her recent diplomatic overtures ran afoul of the Logan Act, which makes it a felony for any American ‘without authority of the United States’ to communicate with a foreign government to influence that government’s behavior on any disputes with the United States.”
Ash
It’s always best for the black dude to just give up.
J sub D
@Woodrowfan:
Except, of course,
Harding in 1922
Truman in 1946
Johnson in 1966
Carter in 1978
Reagan in 1982
Clinton in 1994
And none of those guys ever succeeded in anything after that!
To be fair, Johnson and Carter didn’t. At least not in anything that resonated with the electorate.
Still, it’s a valid point (5 of them). The Obama administration isn’t even at halftime yet, its a wee bit early to pronounce the game over.
timb
@ChrisNYC: That’s NOT his side. These guy are Democrats when they appear on Fax. Otherwise there is no difference between them and Dick Morris
Jim, Once
So does anyone else see this as the opening chord of the “Fixin’ to Impeach Obama Rag'”? The Kaplan Post, et al., just softening up their readership for all the funness to come.
eemom
@J sub D:
What the fuck does that mean, please?
El Cid
Given the overwhelming reaction by every single American to the crimes of the Obama Democrats, every Democratic member of Congress and the Senate, every Democrat-nominated agency leader, every state and local elected Democrat official, and every Democrat-nominated judge should immediately resign.
The Democratic Party has completely lost the respect of 200% of the American people, and since the public believes in compromise on policies to achieve the best results, a government composed of 100% Republicans, and most of those should be Tea Party activists, would allow us to finally achieve American Greatness once again.
Montysano
Schoen and Caddell are loathesome fuckwits.
That said, I wouldn’t hold it against Obama if he said “Fuck 2012, I’m outta here”, and then went and did something else with his life. It’s been a horrorshow for all of us since 1/21/2009. Imagine what it looks like from an African-American perspective.
ruemara
@eemom:
I interpret it to mean, “we gave him a chance, because, you know, we figured he’d do what we want. he didn’t, which makes him not quite as smart as us, really underperforming, in fact. not his fault he didn’t measure up.”
They hybrid clone they have, Kucinichomgrayfelfranken, will be the perfect liberal president who will do what people on blogs think should be done.
Bruuuuce
@Allan: For one thing, because I want candidates who have principles that basically match mine and aren’t afraid to fight for them.
@Menzies: Spitzer would make a GREAT Special Prosecutor, or even AG, if he could get past the political problems that caused him to leave office.
eemom
@ruemara:
still, of course, he’s “a credit to his race.”
Bruuuuce
@J sub D: If Carter were looking to “resonate with the electorate”, he’d have been far more vocal about his work for Habitat for Humanity than he has been. As it is, he’s been working, hammer in hand, for them, for many (over 20, AFAIK) years, and doing a heck of a job promoting them that way.
J sub D
@eemom:
He was unprepared, lacking experience in the all too real world of political horse trading and executive experience. His half of one term in the Senate is not a whole hell of a lot of real world prep for the office of POTUS. Granted, its OJT for everybody in the first term, but it seems Obama is further behind the power curve than the two men who preceded him. How fast and how much he has learned about governing, something he has never done before in any capacity, in his first two years remains to be seen.
If you’re an Obama fan, you’ll likely deny this. I’m not a fan of him or his predecessors, I’m just calling it as I see it.
J sub D
@Bruuuuce:
Oh jeebus, we were talking about presidents’ accomplishments in office, not what the hell they did after getting booted out.
Jimmy Carter’s a well meaning guy. I wouldn’t mind having him for a next door neighbor. He has parlayed his notoriety (that is not a negative term) into some good things after he left office. In office, he was a highly ineffectual caretaker, doing some good, some bad, nothing monumental either way.
If you wish to reflexively defend the Carter presidential accomplishments this is certainly the place to do it.
Menzies
@Bruuuuce:
Exactly. I would personally be glad to see him in charge of the OLC or some other bigshot DOJ force where an asshole personality could actually get things going.
We seem to be focusing way too much on how nice people are. Ken Starr was and continues to be a dick. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. Just place them where they can do some good.
eemom
@J sub D:
if you are seriously arguing that Obama is “behind” anything when it comes to GWB, you have forfeited any right to be taken seriously about anything, ever.
Your “calling it as you see it” is just a slightly less obnoxious form of the same arrogant ignorance that motivates the two asswipes who wrote that op-ed.
Angry Black Lady
i’m fine with it. let the asshats keep it up and you can bet your boob job the young folks and the colored folks will be back in full force in 2012.
assholes.
Bruuuuce
@J sub D: Not gonna defend Carter as Prez; not only are others better qualified than I to do that, but it was a pretty sucky time in many ways. Of course, we didn’t know that the next President was elected because of dirty tricks in cahoots with the Iranians, but he was, after all, a saint. [spits dirty taste from mouth after saying that, even in sarcasm]
Angry Black Lady
@ruemara: this is why i stopped listening to even liberal talk radio. during the bush years i needed to hear that other people thought the motherfucker was crazy.
i’m really tired of hearing everyone talk about how much of a pansy obama is after criticizing bush’s cowboy attitude for 8 years.
i just hate everyone and went them all to fuck right off. if i were obama, i would flip the country the bird in 2012 and move to new zealand.
Angry Black Lady
@Montysano: THIS.
BGinCHI
@J sub D: Maybe Google Carter and deregulation.
Man, you can be dense.
J sub D
Not gonna defend Carter as Prez; not only are others better qualified than I to do that, but it was a pretty sucky time in many ways.
That it was, not all Carter’s fault to be certain.
Of course, we didn’t know that the next President was elected because of dirty tricks in cahoots with the Iranians, but he was, after all, a saint. [spits dirty taste from mouth after saying that, even in sarcasm]
I loves me some unhinged conspiracy theorists. I think we should set aside a preserve for all of you. With separate enclosures for the different types so you wouldn’t have to mingle with the grassy knoll, Birther and Troofer types.
Bruuuuce
@J sub D: Oh. So the televised hearings I saw with Ollie in Congress were actually stage shows? Good to know my memory is the first thing to go as I get old.
Tim I
Here’s the real joke. The GOS is teasing a Sunday front page diary titled:
We are all firebaggers now. In the words of the immortal Walt Kelly
SiubhanDuinne
@BGinCHI #64:
An actual anagram of Fred Hiatt is “Faith Terd.”
Works for me.
BGinCHI
@SiubhanDuinne: That does have a nice ring to it.
J sub D
@BGinCHI:
I’m well aware of trucking and airline deregulation during the Carter presidency.
If you consider those worthy accomplishments monumental, we have different definitions of the word.
ChrisNYC
@timb: I know they’re moles.
It’s just pretty fucking rich that this has created such a firestorm of “How dare they say this about Obama!!!! I mean, sure, every good lefty knows (and says and says and says) he’s a corporatist puppet, the EVIL puppetmaster, the BLACKITY BLACK Jimmy Carter, worse than Bush, bluedog SCUUUUUM, wouldn’t know Democratic values if he fell over them, is a bigot, stinks at politics, is effectively a war criminal, is a worthless President who has done SQUAT, should be primaried, will sufffffer for what he’s done to the ‘base’ — but THIS — now this is out of BOUNDS.”
J sub D
@Bruuuuce:
I’m going to have to quote you here –
Perhaps your timeline is a bit skewed.
The Iran/Contra scandal happened after Reagan was elected. It had not one single thing to do with Reagan’s defeating Carter in 1980. The only Iran to Carter vs. Reagan related thing was the rumored Reagan campaign conspiring with the Iranians to keep the embassy hostages imprisoned until after Carter left office. The so-called October surprise conspiracy theory
Since you were referring to the 1980 election I naturally thought that was what you were referring to. So what were you referring to when you wrote
“Of course, we didn’t know that the next President was elected because of dirty tricks in cahoots with the Iranians,”?
Was it the reverse temporal effects of the arms for hostages deal that caused Carter to lose the 1980 election or the non-existent October Surprise Conspiracy?
Uloborus
@J sub D:
Behind the power curve?
Clinton failed at HCR. Obama succeeded. NO ONE has succeeded for a hundred years. AND a nice financial regulations package. His record of getting crap through congress in his first two years is longer than any president in God Knows How Long. I’m told he’s quietly and under the radar tightening regulatory standards and systems all across the board in ways that people who have to deal with them consider stunning.
About all he’s failed at with congress is getting them to shut down Guantanamo and pass an even BIGGER stimulus, and instead he’s apparently stuffed little packages into every bill that’s gone through. So the man clearly can play the system.
His failure is getting the MSM to talk about any of this instead of spewing Republican talking points. But I think that’s a failure along the lines of him not being able to walk on water or feed 3000 people with one loaf of bread.
General Stuck
@Uloborus:
Brilliant comment!!
double kudos for this
J sub D
Yep. Not getting the message out about all of his and congress’s admirable successes like the
health care clusterfuckThe Affordable Health Care for America Act is exactly why the GOP gained so many seats this midterm election. That and Citizen United! And the Kocktopus!!If the Dems actually believe these talking points they are looking at a very sad November, 2012. I hope not, because one thing we don’t fucking need is GOP control of both the executive and legislative branches again.
General Stuck
@J sub D:
So it pissed off enough firebaggers and scared enough seniors in the presence of normally lazy liberal mid term voters to get an election win. Some prices are worth paying.
Oh, but you must mean that the crappy health care bill caused us to lose because the divisions of disappointed libtards were crying in their soy shakes, due to the PO pony getting sent to the glue factory, was why we didn’t win. I like fairy tales sometimes, but not in politics. booring.
ruemara
@J sub D:
Not to beat a dead horse, but I constantly hear Obama has a messaging problem. And whether or not you want to believe it, AHCA was a factor in the GOP gaining seats. Why? Because the lies won. The Koch brothers were a factor along with Citizens United. If you choose to persist in the belief that “Obama wasn’t progressive enough, people will vote for the progressive”, I can only point to Alan Grayson, very progressive guy, who lost his +5 Republican district.
General Stuck
@General Stuck:
that should have been pissed of enough tea baggers
J sub D
@General Stuck:
I think you misunderstand me. I was mocking the idea that communication was the reason for the recent donkey drubbing at the polls.
It’s not the messenger! People know about the government’s actions over the last two years. The swing voters, the one’s that don’t identify as Democrats or Republicans, the ones that are paying the most attention, left the left in droves.
They heard and understood the message. They then rejected it. Unless the powers that be in the Democratic party recognize that it is going to happen again in two years.
You don’t want to see that. You want the Dems to retain the executive or at least one branch of congress to keep a check on the GOP. Maybe retain the executive and gain back the house. The filibuster proof majority is gone for a long, long time.
J sub D
@ruemara:
I think persisting in the belief that the message is fine, it’s the delivery service that needs work is a mistake. It’s a wrong diagnosis that won’t help y’all get better.
If by “more progressive” you mean more meddling in the economy and more regulatory excess, god no! Do that at the risk of giving the GOP total control. If by being “more progressive” you mean tackling immigration, DADT, repealing DOMA and addressing the excesses of law enforcement (it’s not just the War on Sanity, it’s prosecutor misconduct, it’s public defender underfunding, it’s minimum sentences. it’s a broken system) yeah, that’s what you should be doing.
Of course that is obviously a libertarian prescription. Obama got quite a few of folks who lean that way in 2008. They stayed home or voted GOP in 2010.
ruemara
@J sub D:
I’m going to sidestep my own and other more worthy opinions regarding “meddling in the economy and more regulatory excess” and address what we can both agree on as worthy: DADT, DREAM Act, DOMA and our adolescent fascist state (because that shit ain’t just budding).
1. Obama is on the record as calling for repeal of DADT. There was a vote, it failed in the Senate, due to Republicans. If we had 1 or 2 so-called moderates stand up for their beliefs, the DADT repeal, such as it is, would be done.
2. DREAM act and any immigration reform. See above.
3. DOMA. Oh, hell no. I’d like to see it happen, but the President isn’t that progressive. I wish he were an outlier, I also wish to own 2011 Mini-Cooper wagon thingy. I can’t tell which one has more likelihood.
4. As long as the masses can be told they won’t be safe-and they believe it, even as crime goes down, they won’t stand for any reigning in of cops. No one ever believes police overreach will affect them. Not until a cop is arresting you for being in your house and sassing him.
Angry Black Lady
@Uloborus: I just read this article the other day. Talk about a whole bunch of good stuff he’s doing that nobody is talking about!
joe from Lowell
@J sub D:
Is that why he has racked up the most substantial legislative record of any president since Johnson, if not FDR? Is that why he was able to do what every other president who tried failed to do, and get health care reform through? Whether you like what he’s done or not, he’s done an enormous amount that he set out to do.
Is that why his military/security leadership – whether you agree with it or not – has been a spectacular success on Obama’s terms, while every other recent president (except Poppy Bush) ran into embarrassing fiascos when they first took office?
There has been absolutely zero rookie-itis under this president. I don’t see how you can possibly argue that he’s over his head. He is a great deal less over his head than every other president in my lifetime, except perhaps Poppy.
Karen
@Ash:
Because white America hates him.
And if you’re white and don’t hate him, you’re not a Merkan.
How extreme will the crazy go when they finally realize they will never be able to drive him away (for the good of the country, of course) or scare him away (with not so veiled threats of violence)?
Once they give up the code and say the N word out of sheer frustration then apologize that the Obamas were offended, President Obama better increase the security because the crazy will become the insane. Insanity has no conscience.
Karen
@J sub D:
Because no one cares when a poor child dies.
Do you?
General Stuck
@J sub D:
Well, okay then.
Karen
@J sub D:
Because Hillary would have been so much better and Obama should pay for daring to run!
I don’t know if you’re PUMA but you sure sound like it.
J sub D
@Karen:
I’m a libertarian who considered long and hard about voting for Obama in the general election. I went with Bob Barr instead.
J sub D
@Karen:
Only patriotism has launched more pieces of wretched legislation than “It’s for the children”.
Third on the list is “If it saves one life…”.
Mnemosyne
@J sub D:
And what message was that? I honestly want to know what the message was you think people heard and rejected.
Given everything I heard in the buildup to the election, the message seems to have been, “
Nig…Mooslims are coming to steal all of your stuff! Run! Hide!” but maybe you can tell us what the message actually was.In your reply, don’t forget to explain why the people in Oklahoma who voted to ban sharia law were completely non-racist and only acted from a rational fear that the US was going to discard the Constitution and adopt sharia law instead.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I have the solution to Obama getting the worshipful press coverage that Dumbya had. Remember when W pulled his “Mission Accomplished” stunt on that aircraft carrier? Remember Chris Matthews blurting out in a ‘schoolgirl-hit-by-crush’ burst of breathlessness his memorable utterance admiring the Presidential “onions” while Bush was strutting around on the flight deck in his three sizes too small flight suit, harness and codpiece? Obama needs to do the same thing! Bush may have made Matthews swoon but I bet this Presidential Package would leave him speechless and breathless, which would lead to his quickly passing out.
A lot of the criticism Obama gets seems to be implying how inadequate he is, how ineffective he is and just plain unable to get any job done or done right. Too much of it comes across as something like ‘this big black stud can’t get the job done so he ain’t a stud’, like it’s a performance issue that only manliness can solve. I think more than a bit of this criticism stems from the feelings of inadequacy that the critics themselves suffer from.
‘If this guy is a great president and has a huge schlong then I’m worthless.’
There seems to be an increased questioning of manliness coming from the right and the M$M, a lot of it coming out blatantly in this last election cycle. Republican women calling Democratic men out and clearly questioning their manliness. Combine that with what I said above about my impression of the coverage of Obama and how inadequate he is and I’m thinking that the theme the right is humping the hell out of right now is that Obama/Democrats are not man enough to run things, and that they are. In fact, the Republicans are so manly that their women are manlier than the manliest man that the Democrats can put up!
Seriously, this has to be it. This guy is making them feel inadequate and they just can’t bear it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
J sub D: “I’m a libertarian who considered long and hard about voting for Obama…”
See what I’m saying! ;)
joe from Lowell
I wouldn’t trade the accomplishments of this administration and Congress over the last two years for a 100% guarantee of Congress and the White House in 2012. Not for a million dollars.
What the Democrats did over the past two years is what winning elections is for. What’s the point of winning elections if you don’t do things as substantial as what Obama and the Pelosi Congress did?
Brian J
@joe from Lowell:
I wish we could have gotten more done as far as spending to improve the labor market, but still, you are absolutely, positively right. I’m guessing/hoping that health care reform, generally speaking, is here to stay. It’ll change, as it should once we learn more, but unless the Republicans are successful at blocking implementation, we succeed in putting in place the idea and the practice of having a floor on a basic level of care for every American. That alone would be worth 100 seats.
Like I said before, the wins weren’t unexpected, just exasperating because the Republicans did virtually nothing to deserve their wins besides being the other guys in a two-party system. They acted as arsonists for years on end, and now, they are back in charge of part of the fire department. Life isn’t fair, but this really isn’t fair.