And while we’re on The Airing Of Grievances here today, I’ve got a beef this morning that CNN’s David Gergen seems almost disappointed that the President’s prospects for re-election have improved this year as the GOP has dropped the ball again and again.
Even though House Republicans are now wisely folding their tents, their disarray this week over extending a payroll tax cut has left a sour taste at year’s end in Washington, contributing in no small part to an even bigger political story: the resurrection of President Obama and his fellow Democrats heading toward the 2012 elections.
After the debt ceiling debacle of last summer, the conventional wisdom among many political analysts was that Obama would go the way of President Jimmy Carter, that Republicans would lose a few seats in the House but retain control, and that the GOP would surge into power in the Senate. In short, Republicans were looking for a clean sweep.
Who believes that now? Obama is still highly vulnerable and could lose, but the CNN poll coming out of the field this week reveals a remarkable turnaround, especially in the past month.
Gergen then goes on to completely misread the why of the situation as well, seemingly dumbfounded as to why Elizabeth Warren is looking very good against Scott Brown in Massachusetts, wondering aloud why Jeb Bush isn’t running, and still refusing to give the President any credit for the (extremely modest) economic improvement.
In other words, he’s one miffed Republican, our David. But that’s okay, he does arrive at the correct conclusion through the tortured logic:
Even so, we are witnessing an important change in the political landscape — and it could be lasting. Republicans well remember the mid-1990s when they seized power in Congress and Speaker Newt Gingrich went mano-a-mano with President Bill Clinton. For a while, Gingrich had the upper hand, but Clinton then outmaneuvered him on two governmental shutdowns — and when the momentum turned in Clinton’s favor, he rode it to an easy re-election. No one should doubt that could happen again.
Ironically, it’s Newt himself providing that same impetus. Now that we’re seeing the bottom of the GOP candidate barrel and Orange Julius’s true colors, it’s the Republicans who have been exposed for what they are, and what they can’t do for the country.
No mention of the other big political movement in the last six months either: Occupy Wall Street. Pretty silly stuff here, even from a Villager like Gergen.
different-church-lady
It’s new again, everything old is.
GregB
It’s funny how the media gasholes always refer to a Democratic President as failing epically like Jimmy Carter.
They never seem to say that a Republican President will fail just like Richard Nixon.
In the spirit of the holiday I’d like to pin David Gergen to the mat and throw a cup of eggnog on his conventional wisdom spouting face.
MikeBoyScout
I could stomach David better if he changed his name to David Gherkin.
cmorenc
Gergen’s true expertise is the interior political mechanics of Presidential administrations and their interaction with congress, and NOT the broader exterior political landscape and dynamics of the country at large. That’s why his analysis of the inside dynamics of Administrations and its relations with congress(and how well things are working and why *within* the Administration are often so insightful and nonpartisan (or a-partisan to be more accurate)…and why he so quickly morphs into bloviating cluelessness when he turns out to the political landscape at large, and some of his true political inclinations under the surface begin to show through.
Tone in DC
Republicans have always hated Obama. But, going into the Way Back Machine, I think this is where that hatred became full blown ODS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5BE9_x7xTo
Mr Stagger Lee
Gergen looks like one of the villains from the old Star Trek, the one that threatend to destroy the Enterprise then you find out it was a trick played by a lonely kid. Gergen what a hack, pissed off conservatives who wondered in 1992 why he so gaga over Bill Clinton till you found out he was doing some consulting with them. Send that has been hack to pasture.
Tom Levenson
Well, one thing you can say about David is that he’s tall. Really pretty darn tall.
(If you can’t say something nice, my old mum used to say…)
(Actually, she didn’t say that, or at least not after I passed the age of six or so. She could carry a grudge with brio, and did. ;)
Whatsleft
@MikeBoyScout
I saw what u did there :-)
Mike Goetz
The slow kids are finally catching up to Obama. And the penny is dropping that none of these Republican turds can beat an experienced pro like O.
Romney can barely beat a collection of morons and no-hopers, and he’s the BEST they have.
chopper
speaker man, speaker man
speaker man hates president man
they have a fight, president wins
speaker man
cmorenc
@GregB:
Actually, the example of George H. Bush (i.e. the father) tends to come up quite often whenever Obama scores a major foreign policy or military accomplishment, such as the bold and stunningly successful hit on Osama Bin Ladin. Pundits use the elder Bush as the prime example of how even a tremendously important accomplishment abroad in the world landscape will do the incumbent (Obama) very little good come election time if the public is dissatisfied with the economy.
chopper
@Mike Goetz:
this is what i tell people. if romney has this much trouble beating a stinking collection of tick-pimps, boilbacks and yard-sleepers, how’s he going to fare against the president?
Mudge
Obama is becoming the guy Independents (whoever they are) want to have a beer with.
Bulworth
Sigh. No, David. Nothing in politics is lasting. Silly villagers.
Villago Delenda Est
Gergen needs to be fucked sideways with a rusty chainsaw.
The ideal situation for all MSM talking heads is to be rolling around in a wicker basket.
chopper
@cmorenc:
of course reagan is an example of how a well-liked person, even having suffered from even worse approval ratings, can get reelected in a crappy economy when facing a really terrible opposition candidate.
Mike in NC
I missed the part where David Gergen was hired by CNN. I thought he was still a freelance whore. He and Wolf Blitzer should be required to wear powdered wigs and tricorn hats on the air.
amk
@cmorenc: Nailed it. gergen is out and out an insider punk. His ‘political analysis’ of electoral politics is all fart in the air.
Mike in NC
@Mudge:
While Romney is becoming the guy nobody wants to have a
beercup of coffeeglass of water with.Cat Lady
Does anyone not a political junkie like us hopeless cases here give a rat’s ass about what David Gergen thinks? Would he change one mind about anything? He’s just on CNN to fill their need for 24/7 programming, and to talk to the other insiders about insidery stuff and to take their spin out for a test drive. 90% of anyone on the street would confuse David Gergen with David Gregory and no one would be the lesser for that. The last few days have been great for Obama and Boehner looks like spineless clueless turd, and there’s no amount of spinning that will work on the casual observer who only wants to see their paycheck unchanged for the worse.
Linda Featheringill
A number of Republicans seem to have convinced themselves that Obama would be easy to beat. I wonder where they got that idea.
The election in 2012 is not already won for Obama, and it is possible to beat him. But it won’t be easy. Not in a million years.
Mustang Bobby
@GregB: I think he needs an eggnog enema and a ten mile hike.
Kathy in St. Louis
chopper
@Linda Featheringill:
these are the same people who think reagan and bush were intellectuals yet obama can’t count to 5 without a teleprompter. they’ll always misunderestimate the guy.
miningcityguy
I remember David Gergen pumping for Jeb Bush as the Republican nominee in a Rolling Stone Magzine panel discussion with Matt Taibbi and somebody else about a year ago.Taibbi reacted by saying that the thought of another Bush in the White House made him want to douse himself in kerosene and jump in to a blast furnace.Was wishing that I could have seen Gergen’s reaction to that comment
Cat Lady
@miningcityguy:
The kicker was Gergen was shocked because he thought Matt Taibbi was his fellow Village hack Matt Bai. Hahaha.
kay
This played out beautifully in local and state news, I would say.
It was all over the place, I think partly because the hapless Boehner is out of Ohio. If all politics is local, and I think it is, they got killed.
It worked out well for the Senate race, too, because Sherrod Brown and Portman (our new GOP Senator) voted this out of the Senate, leaving Boehner and Sherrod Brown’s opponent, Mandel, twisting in the wind as lunatic extremists, siding with the Tea Party. Panic! They didn’t know what to do.
Nice. Boehner is a gift to Sherrod Brown.
Jerzy Russian
@chopper:
I am recording those put-downs in my little book I keep.
oklahomo
@chopper: OT, but I have to delurk to say I totally, totally know people who fit each and every one of those pejoratives…and I haven’t stopped laughing like a loon yet.
johnsmith1882
@chopper: is he a dolt, or is he a hack?
when he’s under the influence does he tear up?
or do the tears get him instead?
nobody knows, speaker man
johnsmith1882
@Mike in NC: ole’ wolfie should have to wear the bunny costume from a christmas story on the air. that guy, what a maroon.
dww44
@GregB: He really is patently obvious these days as to which side his flag tilts, all under that pretend facade of elder pundit statesman. Who at CNN even has any credibility these days? Seriously, are there any?
johnsmith1882
@chopper: shhh. (speaks louder:) we, the liberal community, are totally skeered to face your champion of conservative values, mitt romney. the vetting process has obviously forged him into a strong-willed straight-shooter, whom the average american will connect with in an instant. we might as well give up on our treasonous liberal agenda now!
wrb
@Villago Delenda Est:
Better:
In one of John Burdett’s fantastic tales of neurotic smack-smuggling whoreson Buddist Arhat police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep elephants are taught to play soccer with giant balls. They are also taught to stand on the balls on command.
Deserving person in placed in a giant wicker ball which is given to the elephants.
Symbolism there.
Calouste
@Linda Featheringill:
Funnily enough, none of the Republicans who regularly deal with Obama, like Senators or the House leadership, drew the conclusion that he would be easy to beat, or if they did, for some mystical reason they decided not to act on that conclusion and actually run.
Thymezone
David Gergen is a useless schmuck whose pundit career has earned him a spot on CNN as the Senior Political Hack on a team of exceptional political hacks, empty suits, name droppers and bores.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I seem to recall Obama consistently out polling the GOP clown car except for Mr Generic Republican. It was always if this goes long enough the voters might go for the clown car as a Haily Mary thing in sheer desperation.
Must be a lovely fantasy world these pundits live in.
RalfW
Outmanouvering a clown car 1973 Chrysler Imperial is not difficult, Mr. Gergen!!!
kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I feel as if it’s really simple. The way they earn their living is who’s up and who’s down. That has to change, constantly, or they don’t have anything to say, and aren’t worth paying. They don’t add a lot of value. Without “up and down” what are they selling? Nothing, really. Just another opinion.
HumboldtBlue
Ya know what? If you don’t understand the Spanish language just stop using the term “mano a mano”. It doesn’t fucking mean what you think it means you blithering sack-canchre. It means hand-to-hand not fucking man-to-man so just stop using the fucking phrase. That goes for every goddamned talking head on ESPN as well. Oh, and Gergen? Fuck off.
Sophist(from droid)
Is he depressed, or is he mess?
Does he feel totally worthless?
Who came up with Speaker Man?
Degraded man,
Speaker Man
mclaren
Is David Gergen still alive? I thought he was dead.
Hard to tell, though, what with the whole Weekend-At-Bernie’s vibe you get from the guests on the talking heads shows nowadays…
Cue John McCain to explain all the alleged problems with Obama’s “extreme” “radical” “far-left” presidency in…3…2…1…
JoyfulA
@wrb: Ah yes, I read that book and may never forget that scene.