04
Feb
The Question Of The Day
Why won’t Democrats defend their own damn bill? Even if the Dems have some intricate strategy they still lose when Republicans run all over then in the media space. If public relations is such an important part of saving the effing country from complete economic collapse then it makes no goddamn sense to let Republicans set the terms by which the public discusses the bill.
Don’t just wring your stupid hands when Republicans dominate the cable shows. You have the big mic now. Use it.
Tonal Crow
What? Democrats still haven’t learned that rhetoric is key to implementing policy? Where have they been the last 8 years?
Nickleby
What can I do to help?
demkat620
Why would they do that? Being run over is much easier.
Linkmeister
Well, in his press conference today Obama did defend a little. Ignore my lousy basketball metaphors if you like.
J Royce
The assigned role of the Congressional Dems is to:
A) Be placeholders so that nothing & no one better can take their seats of power.
B) Be completely irredeemable weak losers to give a false image of what "libruls" are.
C) Take turns falling down and surrendering to the Corporate agenda personified by "Conservative" Republicans.
D) Divide and demoralize their own constituency.
E) Suction money, effort and motivation from their supporters.
This has been my story about the Dems since the late 1990’s, and it has explained everything quite well. Not once have I been shocked by the Dem leadership, from Patriot Acts and Kerry’s early surrender to the Military Commissions Act and the Bailout.
Boy do they earn their bribes, these traitors. It was a wonderful investment for our Corporate Overlords. Almost as good as the capture of the free press.
Xenos
Are Dems being let onto the shows? Is corporate media undermining them? I should think the WH and Congressional majority staffs have noticed the message is not getting out…
By the way, who is running the FCC these days? Is that twerp Martin still running things?
Joshua Norton
INTERESTING RESEARCH:
I google news searched “Obama Fail”
http://news.google.com/news?hl.....038;tab=wn
JC
I’m with Xenos – is there a conscious strategy by media execs here? Are they, as the refs, working the rules?
rock
I’m with Xenos. Is this lack of initiative or that there are barriers to being broadcast that inhibit Democratic response? I have no idea. Does the stimulus bill have a, ahem, "czar" that is supposed to shepherd it through the media gauntlet? I don’t know.
I’d love to pile on Democrats for being ineffectual and spineless. And I’m not happy with the concessions they’ve made among many other things. But I have no idea if it really is their fault, or if the media is a player.
I will say that I have heard Andrea Mitchell et al have previously voicing neo-Hooverite positions on economy. I would be unsurprised if the message of "fiscal discipline" appeals to many talking heads (i.e. other people in this country need to tighten their belts). Plus the "liberal spendy Dem" story practically writes itself. We all know the Dems are the party of failed economic policies. We’ve known that since Reagan.
Xenos
@Joshua Norton: Nice – nearly 15,000 hits, with official Heritage.org press release published by Fox News right near the top.
Welcome to the propaganda machine. Where have you been? It’s alright we know where you’ve been.
Stuck
Doesn’t really matter at this point. If they are not being let on these shows, then they are cowardly not screaming foul about it. And if they are, and just choosing not to, then they are hapless idiots. No win here.
Paul L.
From reading Liberal Blogs, I thought the Vast right-wing conspiracy message machine was destroyed and discredited by the Truth tellers of the Netroots, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann and MSNBC’s soon to be newest star Cenk Uygur.
Hopefully they can defeat the Rethugs before 500 million jobs are lost next month.
Binkyboy
Just as Paul L. linked above, the one Democrat that made the most public noise defending the stimulus made the foul mistake of saying million instead of thousand.
Which makes her entire point, and the stimulus bill, useless, stupid and made of nothing but Lucky Charms and sand.
So the Democrats are attempting to defend it, but they’re being drowned out by the Republican noise machine in full forward motion and by their own dumb speaking mistakes.
Hey Paul L, where were you when Dubya was mangling the English language? You know, since you’re so good at picking up Nancy’s slip.
John S.
@Paul L.:
You know damned well the right-wing noise machine is alive and well – hell, you’re a minute part of it. Every day you show up to link to your bullshit and nonsense gleened from Newsmax and Worldnut Daily is living proof of that.
So either entertain us by explaining what this all has to do with Mike Nifong, or shut the fuck up. You serve no other purpose.
liberal
@rock:
A cold place in hell is reserved for that scum and her husband, one of the leading creators of this mess.
Paul L.
Now I get to use the talking point that progressives used every time I pointed out Bill Clinton did same thing that they were outraged at something George W, Bush did.
George W. Bush is not President anymore!!
I noticed a mistake in my previous post.
The nutroots now use "Vast right-wing conspiracy noise machine"
Comrade Kevin
Your problem is that you don’t actually know how to read.
Sister Machine Gun of Mild Harmony
Chill. It’s not over yet. Everytime there is a setback, there is a collective freakout here. Take a deep breath.
TenguPhule
Democratic Politicians have gone through a long and successful breeding program that renders them genetically incapable of defending against any natural predators.
TenguPhule
Fixed.
But the Legacy of Bush lives on as a turd floating in the gene pool.
Zifnab
Well, that’s the joke isn’t it? The media doesn’t seem to do much to actually address the benefits and drawbacks of taxcuts versus infrastructure spending or "pork barrel" scientific research versus mortgage credits.
They just piss on everything and make asinine remarks about "bipartisanship".
dm
How’s this?
I’ve seen Barney Frank taking it to the Republicans, too, in the past week. I think it really is a matter of Dems not getting invited onto the shows (and the Republicans having plenty of free time on their hands, since they don’t have anything constructive to do). If the Dems kvetch about not being invited, it just sounds like whining.
We do have one Dem who, whenever he opens his mouth, it’s news, however, and it looks like he’s talking.
Tonal Crow
It’s not over yet, but it’s long past time that Democrats learned that good rhetoric is absolutely key to implementing policy. Even the best policies will not sell themselves. They must be sold, and the selling is done through rhetoric. Thus, you don’t talk about "health care reform", you talk about "letting Americans choose the same health plan Congress gets". You don’t talk about "economic stimulus", you talk about "putting Americans back to work".
The GOP understands this. Indeed, they understand it too well, and have long used great (did I say, "great"? I mean it) rhetoric to sell the lousiest policies. Rove was a rhetorical genius, and Palin, et al, mockworthy as their policies are, are also very good at rhetoric.
It’s time for Democrats to match them, sell good policies, and gain the accolades. Or, they can keep doing what they’re doing, lose Congress in 2010, and lose the Presidency in 2012.
Rainy
Barbara Boxer and Russ Feingold were on Morning Joe last week or the week before. They had the pundits agreeing with them about the stimulus bill for the most part. You know Feingold will not just vote for something he knows won’t work. He didn’t vote for Geithner, because he didn’t believe his tax story.
Tsulagi
I’m thinking there’s an easy answer. The brave Dems are doing the same type of math as the guys who show off their lapel pins.
Congressional Pubs are voting in lockstep against the stimulus package because there’s no political advantage in doing otherwise. Economy improves, voters likely would credit Obama and the Dems. Not good. Of course that wouldn’t slow them down in claiming credit. See McCain and veterans bills.
Dems are afraid of the other scenario. If the economy continues sideways in this shithole or gets worse after passage of this stimulus package, in 2010 and especially ’12 they’ll be running against Pubs claiming to be the fiscal conservatives who could have turned it all around. Not good. They don’t want Pubs to also be able to run ads showing them on the alphabets, ABC, NBC, CNN, etc, pushing for passage of this stimulus package. Seems they’re hedging by keeping a low profile.
Country First
Mnemosyne
And Nancy Pelosi has never been President at all. What’s your point?
minordomo
One thing I don’t understand about American politics…
How does 41% defeat 59%?
By saying the word "filibuster"?
WTF?
I understand that Obama wants to and has to reach across the aisle, but as long as he has the bully pulpit and the Senate is 59/41 and the House of Rep is in Dem’s hands…
You just wave the filibuster wand and that’s that?
And since when does filibuster not mean filibuster? Make them do it? Make them stand and talk until they’re blue in the face, all in the name of defeating a stimulus to the economy.
Elie
#25—the weak always need strong leaders with courage—
Obama has remained fairly hands off until yesterday and today when he said a little in defense of the stimulus. But he hasnt really owned it and pushed it—- just kind of suggested it, perhaps suggested strongly…
That is not enough..
He has to provide the brave example and also the cover, to some extent. At 70 somethin popularity, what is he waiting for? Will he ever have more capital than now?
No, this was a mistake by his White House—not uncorrectable but he had better get after it (in my opinion)
JWW
Because it is a wish list. Not wise, read the bill yourself, you be the judge. I read the bill, it would be my Christmas List for America, if it weren’t on a credit card.
Zandar
The problem is that our financial system is insolvent. Because Obama can’t or won’t come out and say our financial system is insolvent, the Republicans therefore get to define the debate instead.
This suits the Republicans fine, because they basically want the country’s economy to fail so that they can get back into power.
The GOP cannot politically allow Obama to succeed in saving the economy, or the GOP is done for a generation or two. Ergo, the GOP will make sure a lousy bill is passed, the economy fails, and Obama is blamed.
It’s all that simple.
CuriousBlogSampler
Few of us think the stimulus bill is really worth anything in the real world. We figure the powers that be will continue to benefit and we’ll get screwed, with or without the stimulus as it is now framed. It’s bailing out the wealthy and super-wealthy in the name of keeping OUR nation’s banking system going. That is insane but its what our system has come to. It’s our system because these guys get a ton of their working capital from the Fed, which is our IOUs as the citizenry. And, when/if we do put our money into these corps big time, then hell yes we own those businesses or ought to. but few want to say that openly besides Krugman. So we’re mostly depressed, the Dems that is, cause so few like this medicine. It’s not only awful tasting, it probably won’t work, except to re-float these same crooks.
This was the October surprise come a month early. It’s the conservative’s Legacy Screw Up designed to cripple our party’s new great leader. BHO’s admin will be hard pressed to stay on the surfboard against this wave. The Reps have never been more anti-American than during these last eight years. Their gleefulness in the face of the impending disaster is really, truly, scary.