“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”
The
press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar
to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying,
“They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve
eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”Of those who
complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare
reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was
president.”The White House, constantly under fire from
expected enemies on the right, has been frustrated by nightly attacks
on cable news shows catering to the left, where Obama and top
lieutenants like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have been excoriated for
abandoning the public option in healthcare reform; for not moving
faster to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay; and for failing, so far,
to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
I don’t know what’s more tiresome, Gibbs saying this shit or the chorus of nonprofessional lefties who are going to jump all over every comment thread in blogtopia today to say this PROVES Obama’s just as bad as Bush and everyone who voted for him was a moron.
Thing is, I expected this shit to a certain extent. It’s not like every Democrat ever hasn’t positioned himself as “not like those crazies” to appeal to some mythical voters somewhere who think “both parties are crazy” because they can’t be bothered to pay attention. I expected a certain amount of this crap, especially from somebody who always was a centrist and shouldn’t be blamed for the misconceptions of his supporters.
However, this is past the extent of what I expected. This is counterproductive, small, mean, and most of allstupid. Setting hippies and the merits of the argument aside for a moment, what exactly is saying this going to do? Provoke a round of soul-searching in which liberal bloggers realize that yes, actually, we have been kind of tough on Obama, and we should calm down and accept that he’s done the best he could under the circumstances? If you seriously think that’s a realistic expectation, Robert, you need to go back to Psych 101. Setting hippies and their drum circles aside, it’s just bad, lazy strategy, and that pisses me off more than any implied insult to my liberal bona fides could.
Republicans already hate you, Bobby. That’s not gonna change. Saying shit like this is just gonna piss off people who want to like you except you keep giving them reasons not to. You keep reminding them of all the things they wanted, that you said you would do, that you haven’t done, simply because you don’t want to piss off people who don’t like you anyway. Those of us out here in the world who want help getting and keeping our jobs and getting and keeping health care and getting and keeping honest-to-blog national security are not cowed by Republicans, so we don’t understand why you are.
Explain that, maybe, and then you can vent for a bit.
A.