Quick pick-me-up Sunday post, now going wide in the pixelverse. Greg Sargent reports that “David Axelrod goes there: GOP may be trying to destroy economy on purpose“:
… As you know, Obama’s newly aggressive populism and (gasp) partisan rhetoric has sparked a good deal of handwringing and complaining from centrist columists (see Brooks, David) and leading GOP officials (see Ryan, Paul), who have been arguing that the new approach is somehow out of bounds or that it risks alienating the middle of the country. Axelrod’s amplification of the charge that the GOP may be tanking the economy on purpose suggests the Obama campaign isn’t taking these objections too seriously.
__
Indeed, it’s worth asking whether we’re seeing a fundamental shift in the thinking of the Obama team and some Dems — a basic recognition that the old rules don’t apply anymore, that the unprecedented tactics being employed by the opposition require a new kind of response. As Dana Milbank notes, you can see the evidence of this in the unapologetic populism driving Elizabeth Warren’s Senate candidacy, which suggests that “Democrats will no longer play by Marquess of Queensbury rules while their opponents disembowel them.”
__
But this may be about something broader than just a new approach to Republicans. The Occupy Wall Street protests; our political conversation’s intense new focus on inequality and economic justice; and the extraordinary levels of voter anxiety and dissatisafaction with our institutions all seem to suggest that the political landscape is shifting in ways we can’t really appreciate yet. It looks like the Obama campaign is placing its bet on what kind of political response these big changes are demanding.
More at the link. This is good news for Democrats — to hell with the “centrist” fetish for imaginary moderates in search of the perfectly tepid non-response; it’s only the One Percenters (and their deluded supporters among the Twenty-Seven Percenters) who believe “All Is for the Best, in This Best of All Possible Worlds” is a workable political philosophy.
Jenny
Cain: If you don’t have a job and aren’t rich, blame yourself. If you’ve been accused of sexual harassment, blame the media.
Amir Khalid
High time the gloves came off. For three years Obama gave the Republicans every chance to negotiate in good faith, and then some, for the country’s sake — even after people had started to say it made him look weak. They refused; they preferred to undermine government, and the presidency simply because it was held by a political opponent. They’ve got no business whining now.
Jenny
Clarence Thomas’ wife is demanding that Anita Hill to apologize to Herman Cain immediately.
Amir Khalid
An interesting exercise in meme re-branding by one Newt Gingrich.
Calouste
It’s the Marquess of QueensbERRy, btw WaPo. Facts are treated with the usual contempt.
I wonder what Oscar Wilde would think about Queensberry becoming a byword for fair play. I think he would appreciate the irony.
debbie
It’s about time this was said out loud. Now point out how the Republicans’ hubristic solution is to go back to the policies and practices that got us to where we are today.
harlana
Shame on the Left for pushing their “leaders” away from the comfy, cozy center and towards a more equitable society! Worthless hippies with “no discernible message or purpose” had to teach them how to fight.
Baud
Fun fact for those who like to compare Obama to FDR. FDR’s famous quote that some people on the left like to use against Obama:
was given on election eve, 1936. I expect Obama will do something similar, although he will be accused of just making pretty speeches to win an election.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Baud: What an amazing find. NO ONE has ever posted that here, how in the world did you find it?
harlana
@Baud:
Woops, you opened the floodgates, there!. Let the BJ pseudo-intellectual FDR-bashing begin .
Joey Maloney
But it’s excellent news for John McCain!
harlana
1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . there it goes!
JPL
@Jenny: Personal responsibility for you but not for me. It must be nice to be republican.
harlana
Nice to know Axelrod had some testicles up in there somewhere after all.
harlana
It’s Halloween and I’m gonna put on my glasses and a pantsuit and go as the Matriarch of Mayhem! Muuaahaahaahaaa!
Baud
@harlana: No worries. The BJ pseudo-intellectual FDR-bashers are notoriously late risers.
@Raven (formerly stuckinred): Well, I hadn’t seen it before, so maybe there is someone else who hasn’t either.
cat48
Plouffe sent Gregory to the fainting couch yesterday by stating that “Romney has no core”. Gregory called it “unprecedented”
Good to see Plouffe & Ax playing to WIN!
JPL
Network news leads with Cain. GMA had on a Politico reporter who stands by the story. She mentioned that they gave the Cain camp ten days to respond.
How long before Cain’s wife is seen on the campaign trail?
Davis X. Machina
@Baud: More like “I welcome their hatred — but I accept their general assessment of the macroeconomic situation”.
Seven months after that speech, the austerity-driven second dip of the Great Recession was underway.
Even “FDR” wasn’t FDR.
boss bitch
Uhm, this is not the first time the Obama team has said it or eluded to it. Its certainly not the first time that a Democrat has said it. A lot of you are seriously not paying attention. Its not your fault really, I guess. Lots of liberal blogs only report what Republicans say and only seem to pay attention to Dems when they hear reports of “caving”.
I’m sure Axelrod will say this again next week and some liberal blog and commenters will AGAIN say, “Finally, about time the gloves came off blah blah blah”.
And don’t delude yourselves into thinking that the party will turn into Bernie Sanders. Its game time now and Dems seem ready to start fighting to get back their majorities.
JGabriel
@Baud:
We have FDR-bashers?
Picking on dead cripples is just wrong. At least until Dick Cheney dies in a wheelchair.
But FDR-bashing? Really? The guy was far from perfect, I know, but I don’t think it’s wise to bash the man who gave us Social Security and other protections at the same time the GOP is trying to dismantle them.
.
Baud
@JGabriel:
I haven’t seen any. I was just keying off Harlana’s post. I didn’t feel like engaging in a factual debate about the existence of said bashers.
Southern Beale
Pfft. I think it’s a re-election strategy. I mean, if they hadn’t realized the old rules don’t apply well before now, they’re the stupidest fucking people on the planet.
Everyone knows the old rules don’t apply. Hell, that’s what Obama campaigned on in 2008.
In other news, Koch Industries was the target of protests this weekend and surprise, surprise, the folks who astrototurfed the Tea Party into existence managed to muster up 20 or so people to be counterprotesters. This counter-protester’s sign made me laugh out loud:
Ogami Itto
Why, did Clarence try to put the moves on Herman too?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Baud: I guess you are serious so I apologize.
Michael Bersin
The Occupy Kansas City rally and march from Ilus Davis Park downtown went off without too many hitches. The parks department neglected to shut down the lawn sprinklers which came on before the rally started (go figure). People placed cups and buckets over the sprinkler heads.
The march organizers had applied for a permit from the city to march in the street which the police department reportedly vetoed due to manpower costs. People marched in the street anyway, the police showed up and gave up trying to get people to march on the sidewalk – the police left as quickly as they showed up.
There were approximately three hundred to three hundred-fifty people in attendance at the rally and participating in the march. photos
JGabriel
Ogami Itto:
If it ain’t bolted down …
.
Mike Jahn
Amen. As I’ve been saying for years, the Republicans are Klingons. They see any attempt to reason with them as being a sign of weakness.
John Weiss
@Michael Bersin: Thanks for the pics.
FlipYrWhig
I’m eagerly anticipating the new-found populist swagger of Ben Nelson.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
My new additional response to current events – along with “Republicans should never be allowed in office again” – is to thank those who are out protesting as part of the OWS groups. It is what blogs like DK and FDL think they are accomplishing, but can’t, because people can ignore a web page, but it’s harder to ignore physical bodies.
JCT
@Southern Beale: Wow – talk about not fitting on a bumper sticker and just look at those BIG correctly-spelled words. It was probably one of the Koch bros relatives holding the sign. What a a scream.
ellenelle
sheez, no kidding; how can a centrist message work when there’s only 1% of them and 99% of us??
there is no middle there!
The Republic of Stupidity
ndeed…
One does not attend a knife fight wielding a rubber chicken…
Frankensteinbeck
Haven’t we beaten this to death? Obama hasn’t just recognized anything. It’s CAMPAIGN SEASON, and he’s taken the last of the GOP’s hostages away from them by talking sweet to their faces and shivving them in the back. Pretending to turn the other cheek is a great negotiation strategy. Accusing your opponent of tanking the economy is a great campaign strategy. Not that he hasn’t said it before, but he’s moved from ‘polite’ to ‘confrontational’ because now is the time for it.
gregor
I think the most important question in my mind for a long time has been very simple: what would Obama do if he did not have any opposition from the Republicans? What would his policy prescriptions look like if Republicans were to roll over every time he proposed a new bill?
I heard this question yesterday in one of the talk shows too.
I think in his quest for bipartisanship at all costs during the first 60% of his term as the President, Obama has lost an opportunity to define himself.
Dave
IS OBAMA EVEN ALLOWED TO BE PARTISAN?? WON’T HE JUST LOOK ANGRY??
Frankensteinbeck
@gregor:
He would increase industry regulation across the board and invest heavily in infrastructure, especially education and renewable energy. He would cut out tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations. He’d expand the safety net, and change laws and regulations in regard to health care to bring health care costs under control He’d mildly improve civil rights. Other than that, pretty standard Democratic president stuff.
He talks about these things all the time. Has been since he was elected. Puts them in his policy actions, too.
Origuy
Happy Samhain, Anne Laurie!
FlipYrWhig
@Frankensteinbeck: But the important thing to consider is this: would he have the right look on his face while doing it? Probably not, I imagine, and that imagination justifies every one of my several amorphous worries.
FlipYrWhig
@gregor: Instead of a “quest for bipartisanship,” consider it instead a “quest to keep as many conservative Democrats in the fold in order to secure majority support.”
Bruce S
“Frankensteinbeck” – what’s been beaten to death is the Obama-centric bullshit that he’s invariably “got this” and everyone else should STFU. I am a great admirer of the President – which is why I took him at his word to early, committed supporters (not in “official” campaign rhetoric or emails to the “come lately” crowd) that it was imperative to keep the heat on the White House if he was elected, whatever “strategy” or political maneuvers they might appear to be following. The shrill complacency of so many alleged Obama “supporters” who define politics in the same Beltway terms as David Gergen and David Broder was pretty bizarre…and embarrassingly high volume and hysterical…in some of these threads.
Bruce S
Just an observation on the GOP field, given that I read that Romney who was apparently a critic of Steve Forbes and his flat tax is moving in the direction of…a flat tax.
The irony of Romney’s core of 22-24% support – presumably among whoever is left in the GOP who doesn’t sport a clown nose on days other than Halloween – is that his “flip-floppiness” isn’t a flaw, it’s a feature. Actually it’s his virtue. He’s perceived as a guy who will say anything to stay in the game with an increasingly lunatic GOP base, but you can be pretty sure – unlike the rest of them – that he doesn’t believe a word of it and will govern as a “centrist.” The fact that he makes an alleged, high-profile “flip-flopper” like 2004 John Kerry appear as the Rock of Gibralter in comparison to Romney’s feather-in-the-wind performance on any and every issue is a “good thing.”
Pretty obvious observation, but it strikes me as bizarre nonetheless and another indication of how deep into the muck the GOP has crawled. Their most “presentable” candidate’s alleged credibility is that he doesn’t believe a word he’s saying?
Urza
“may”?
TenguPhule
This ia an insult to Klingons, who at least lead from the front and fight to the death against each other for Promotions.
The GOP are the Ferengi. Only more corrupt and sexually deviant.
TenguPhule
This has the added benefit of being *TRUE*.
Now it is only one short step for denouncing the GOP to ordering them to be rounded up and placed in reservations for speedy multi-decade long trials for treason, sedition and being Republicans.
SteveinSC
@Bruce S:
Game, Set Match. Now quick, back into the foxhole, there’ll be ABL incoming and Exquisite Prig shocktroops.
Bruce S
SteveinSC – I think they’re in the mode of trying to pretend that nothing has happened in recent months to shift discourse other than the onset of “campaign season” – and that all of those rationalizations of lousy, regressive policy that was apparently being floated in the “deficits uber alles” period don’t still exist in those comments threads. The thing that’s stunning about that argument is that it undermines the jobs message that’s become dominant and suggests political opportunism as the primary motivation of the more populist President we’re seeing.
Essentially that line not-too-subtly reinforces the worst suspicions of Obama’s sharpest critics and – worse – is founded on the pathetic notion that Democratic and liberal politics are all about Obama, when his job as President is far more complex and constrained than “leader of the Democratic Party” or “tribune of liberalism.”
gregor
@FlipYrWhig
Where has that got him?
His willingness to concede at the first sign of opposition on every issue has given the impression, even to this anti-Republican to the core, that he has no basic principles for which he willing to fight. Talk about living up to the stereotype that the republicans paint of the Dems.
Paula
@Baud:
So … what? People aren’t allowed to mention the fact that FDR imprisoned American citizens, ignored racial discrimination to get policies enacted by the Southern wing of his party, and that actual Socialists still hate his guts for stifling any real leftist movement in this country?
Paul in KY
It’s about fucking time.
Paul in KY
@Calouste: He had a good enough sense of humour that he would have appreciated the irony (studied Mr. Wilde in college).