Thus Hurricane Katrina, in the Washbowl, erm, Washpost, where she is characterized with deadly delicate accuracy as an "opinion writer":
There's a tension between the Obama administration and the progressive movement, but it's not the one mainstream media have been describing or the White House seems to perceive."Progressive" rhetoric is frequently incoherent, but this is pretty spectacular. Obie & Co. "misinterpreted" the Lincoln primary challenege as a "threat from the base". No such threat was either actual or intended, according to Katie, yet such challenges are this year's Hope for Change(*). "Those opposing Obama's reform agenda" seem to include all the people he has picked to work for him in the White House. "Progressives" don't want to threaten the prez, but to "save" him; and yet the prez -- the smartest prez since Jimmy Carter, without a doubt -- doesn't seem to have grasped this fact.....[W]hat's happening on the left isn't the equivalent of the anti-incumbent anger on the right. Most progressives support Obama and want his agenda to succeed.
...What we see, some 500 days into the Obama administration, is a president obstructed by a partisan Republican opposition, powerful entrenched corporate interests, and a minority of corrupt or conservative Democrats.... [I]f progressives organize independently and forge smart coalitions, building a mass movement for reform with a moral compass that can transcend left-right divisions, we may be able to push Obama beyond the limits of his own politics, overcome the timid incrementalism of the establishment Democratic Party... [and give everyone a pony -- ed.]
That's what key progressive groups -- Labor, netroots activists and others -- were trying to do in supporting a primary challenger to Democratic Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln. But the Obama administration, which had endorsed Lincoln, apparently misinterpreted the progressive position as a threat from its base....
Actually, the point of the exercise was that those opposing Obama's reform agenda will not get a free pass.... Labor will continue to devote resources to accountability primaries in several states this year, MoveOn will be campaigning to counter corporate influence, and the NAACP, SEIU and the Center for Community Change are organizing a march for jobs in October....
The tension between Obama and the progressive movement isn't a threat to the president. Rather, it may be needed to save him.
Or maybe it's the old story -- the Tsar means well, but his advisers are misleading him.
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(*)Katie is certainly right about one thing: primary challenges are no threat at all.
Comments (10)
She wastes not time whipping out the "essentialist" argument. That, in a metaphysical sense, Democrats are essentially good and malignant polices result from the (disproportionately) corrupting influence of a few "conservative" souls.
By the way, it's worth reflecting on what the "limitations" of Obama's "politics" concretely: imperial murder in Central Asia, providing PR cover for the BP oil release, appointing bailout-economy financial wizards to key posts, expansion of NCLB expropriation of education,...and so on.
Posted by Peter Ward | June 15, 2010 9:24 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 21:24
"... [and give everyone a pony -- ed.]"
I see today that Obama has assured the folks down south that after he's finished there the Gulf will be Even Better® than it was before the BP gusher.
This is a modest ambition and well within the capabilities of one who managed to get elected to the most powerful office in the free world.
I'm convinced! Where do I pickup my seapony?
Posted by Anon | June 15, 2010 10:07 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 22:07
Where do I
pickuppick up my seapony?Btw, I understand you can get any color you want as long as it is black.
Posted by Anon | June 15, 2010 10:11 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 22:11
Boy, that's a formidable coalition of disappointed supporters! I guess Obama's guaranteed of another term.
Posted by senecal | June 15, 2010 10:22 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 22:22
Chronic delirium is no obstacle to working within the system. Indeed, it will likely get you promoted.
Posted by Jay Taber | June 15, 2010 10:47 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 22:47
Boy.. I think that may have been the worst presidential speech I've ever seen. Anyone else catch that?
Barack "jazzhands" Obama
Posted by FB | June 15, 2010 10:53 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 22:53
FB, I concur.
http://www.deathbycar.info/2010/06/wrong-again-about-obama/
This was historically bad. Really. It is likely to wind up in history books as such, assuming there are still books around after this overclass finishes itself and us off.
Posted by Michael Dawson | June 15, 2010 11:29 PM
Posted on June 15, 2010 23:29
Interchange a few words here and there and Katrina would sound just like an abused spouse making excuses for the sweaty beast in a wife beater t-shirt who just broke her arm, gave her a black eye and put her in the hospital.
Liberals have become about the most pathetic lot on the planet these days. I fear the rabid right wing, I despise liberals. Guess who gets more respect?
Posted by Drunk Pundit | June 16, 2010 3:23 AM
Posted on June 16, 2010 03:23
i'm suddenly in to these primary challenges
okay they are loser affairs even
when they win --lamont --
and yup a spoiler indy run in the general is prefered by SMBIVA double domers
but can it hoit ?
i mean at least for once pwogs and unions are pissing into the tent not out of the tent
ain't that a start eh ??
must these pillars of the party
bolt to spoiler role b4 we see their usefulness ??
anything that splits the jackass
between the ears weakens the new home party
of center aisle-o-crats
lincoln was effectively protected
can the GOP point to a center aisle titan the core elements rallied around
john mccain looks to be left
swinging by his scrotum
is that what the corporate masters like in a party apparatus ??
Posted by op | June 16, 2010 3:55 PM
Posted on June 16, 2010 15:55
check it out
romney and pallin campaigning for him
so the party orthrians
aren't giving up without a fight
what a droid sarah is eh ??
Posted by op | June 16, 2010 10:52 PM
Posted on June 16, 2010 22:52