Via Greg Sargent, some on-point remarks from the president during a fundraiser last night:
“You’ll hear if you watch the nightly news or you read the newspapers that, well, there’s gridlock, Congress is broken, approval ratings for Congress are terrible. And there’s a tendency to say, a plague on both your houses. But the truth of the matter is that the problem in Congress is very specific. We have a group of folks in the Republican Party who have taken over who are so ideologically rigid, who are so committed to an economic theory that says if folks at the top do very well then everybody else is somehow going to do well; who deny the science of climate change; who don’t think making investments in early childhood education makes sense; who have repeatedly blocked raising a minimum wage so if you work full-time in this country you’re not living in poverty; who scoff at the notion that we might have a problem with women not getting paid for doing the same work that men are doing.
“They, so far, at least, have refused to budge on bipartisan legislation to fix our immigration system, despite the fact that every economist who’s looked at it says it’s going to improve our economy, cut our deficits, help spawn entrepreneurship, and alleviate great pain from millions of families all across the country.
“So the problem…is not that the Democrats are overly ideological — because the truth of the matter is, is that the Democrats in Congress have consistently been willing to compromise and reach out to the other side. There are no radical proposals coming out from the left. When we talk about climate change, we talk about how do we incentivize through the market greater investment in clean energy. When we talk about immigration reform there’s no wild-eyed romanticism. We say we’re going to be tough on the borders, but let’s also make sure that the system works to allow families to stay together…
“When we talk about taxes we don’t say we’re going to have rates in the 70 percent or 90 percent when it comes to income like existed here 50, 60 years ago. We say let’s just make sure that those of us who have been incredibly blessed by this country are giving back to kids so that they’re getting a good start in life, so that they get early childhood education…Health care — we didn’t suddenly impose some wild, crazy system. All we said was let’s make sure everybody has insurance. And this made the other side go nuts — the simple idea that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, nobody should go bankrupt because somebody in their family gets sick, working within a private system.
“So when you hear a false equivalence that somehow, well, Congress is just broken, it’s not true. What’s broken right now is a Republican Party that repeatedly says no to proven, time-tested strategies to grow the economy, create more jobs, ensure fairness, open up opportunity to all people.”
President Obama has certainly called out GOP obstructionism in the past, but Sargent says he doesn’t ever recall him criticizing the media for their dumb “both sides do it” coverage before. It seems like he has, but in any case, keep working those refs, Mr. President.
Lee
OT: I posted the Reparations article on my Facebook. Man the wingers really hate the idea.
boatboy_srq
The GOTea in two sentences.
raven
Damn, it will be four days until Mornin Joe can respond!
CONGRATULATIONS!
That’s for fucking sure.
Meanwhile the right wails on about insurrection. Nothing new there either, actually. So tired of their tantrums. From the gray in his hair, it seems Obama is too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Who will be first with the whiny response, Ron Fournier or… someone at the Washington Post, Cillizza? Ruth Marcus I’m sure doesn’t do something so hippieish as “blog”, otherwise I’d say she and Fournier were neck-and-neck. (I’m not counting self-ID’d conservatives)
ETA: raven @ 3: Damn, it will be four days until Mornin Joe can respond!
I’m sure the Squint will be tweeting on it.
EATA: I checked, looks like he’s not a big tweeter
The Dangerman
This is what happens when:
1) The only threat of losing your seat is a Primary from the Right for so many members of Congress…
2) …and the reason for that sole threat is a media that is well and truly broken (for example, I read with disgust the coverage of the latest James O’Keefe shenanigans from the Right yesterday; truly stunning).
Motivated Seller
Criticizing “both sides do it” intentionally misses the point. The reason why there is gridlock is because we have a 18th-century two party system that neither D/R party wants to reform. Republicans recognize this and let their freak flag fly. Democrats on the other hand, are more comfortable enabling Republican hysteria, than with the alternative.
AxelFoley
InB4, “Obama should’ve said this a long time ago!”
SatanicPanic
@Lee: of course they do, bunch of racists.
Face
Please tell me that Obama used the correct term for this: Cleek’s Law.
Mike E
@Face: He touched his ‘cheek’ when he said it, sorta like a Carol Burnett style ear pull ;-)
Betty Cracker
@Motivated Seller: It sounds like you’re saying “both sides do it.”
GrayMatters
Has he always tied higher taxes to early childhood education, or has he learned something from Bill DeBlasio? Either way, it sure sounds pretty.
Belafon
@Lee: The great thing about the title of the article is you can immediately tell who read it. My prediction: A lot of Democrats will read it and go “we could do more,” and a lot of Republicans will not read it and go “I never owned slaves.”
MikeJ
@Motivated Seller: We don’t have a “two party system”. We have a plurality system, which Duverger’s law shows will tend to devolve into two parties.
catclub
I think Obama should do an explainer on what McConnell’s “Top priority is making sure Obama is a one term president,” means.
And that would be: He will oppose anything that will help the country, if it also is of any benefit to Obama’s popularity. And he will support any effort that harms Obama’s popularity, no matter how bad it is for the nation.
Belafon
Obama’s solution:
Turgidson
Feel that collective THUD? That’s the entire Village hitting the fainting couch at the same time.
catclub
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “looks like he’s not a big tweeter ”
More of a woofer?
Belafon
@Turgidson: First, they’ll have to get the Republican response.
Jay C
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Well, you know that, I know that, President Obama knows that, as does anybody with half a brain who knows anything about politics in this country. However, the problem is that today’s Republican Party has so heavily reinforced a rigid, one-sided, tribalistic political culture amongst themselves, that any idea – ANY idea – that does not originate form a “politically correct” source (i.e., themselves or their approved sources) is reflexively rejected as being “radical” or “leftist”. That is, when it isn’t simply dismissed as “socialist/redistributionist/communist” or whatever.
C.S.
Is this really a critique of the media? I don’t see him really drawing the line to them.
kd bart
But, #BENGHAZI!!!!!!!!!!!!
dmsilev
@catclub: Scarborough is more of a yapper really.
RP
Settle down everybody. Obama said this at a fund-raiser. He’s telling a friendly crowd what they already know.
Come see me when he says this at the podium in the White House Press Room or on prime-time national TV and repeats it until the propaganda has been catapulted.
Thank you.
OGLiberal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fournier was on it like 20 minutes ago.
Ron Fournier @ron_fournier 14m
Is it a bird? A Plane? No! It’s Super Excuse Man!!!! (#Obama)
SHOT (@maddow): http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-the-problem-congress-very …
CHASER: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/how-obama-became-the-superhero-of-excuses-20140521 …
Ron Fournier @ron_fournier 17m
More excuses: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-the-problem-congress-very …
MikeJ
@RP: I, for one, won’t be happy until he drinks Boehner’s blood from Mitch McConnell’s skull.
Jesus fuck, nothing ever pleases some people.
feebog
The frustrating thing is that you know many members agree with President Obama, but they are too timid and too afraid of Republicans getting up in their shit if they tell the truth.
LanceThruster
He certainly needs to take some people from the obstructionist party (and their media enablers) to the woodshed…
…or just knock them into next week.
Eric U.
this sort of thing is just going to piss off the media, but not because they don’t know it already. It’s going to piss them off because now they have to push back against it.
Whereas the status quo is that they only have to come up with reasons why both sides do it.
gbear
@RP: If he would have said that Benghazi was his responsibility, it would be playing on EVERY prime time national TV news show, no matter where he said it.
The media picks and chooses what it wants to hear, wherever it is said. They won’t cover these remarks because they don’t want to hear the message.
Hal
@RP: Mitt Romney had a few words at a fundraiser also, and that made a bit of a splash nationally.
Motivated Seller
@Betty Cracker: As is done in the title post, disparaging that “Both sides do it,” interprets the phrase to mean, “both Democrats and Republicans are too partisan.” Mr. Obamas is arguing that the parties are not equivalent; that Republicans are too partisan, while democrats are actually centrist.
However, the reason why both parties deserve equivalent blame for partisanship is not because the other party is so terrible, its because both parties resist a better electoral system, one which would likely benefit the country more than the entrenched political class.
chopper
@MikeJ:
no mention of rand paul’s entrails? you’re obviously not a real liberal.
piratedan
@gbear: ty gbear for saying that. The media (in its current incarnation, Thanks Clinton! for fucking up the fairness doctrine) exists to sell controversy and generate eyeballs to sell revenue. Reporting the news and explaining policy positions are no longer their mandate, being the multithreaded entity that has devolved into Tiger Beat on The Potomac is.
Belafon
@Motivated Seller: I’m curious how well you think “Hey, let’s rewrite the Constitution” would go over in this country. How many Democrats do you think would survive an an election where they stated that?
Trollhattan
@catclub:
That gives him crossover appeal.
OGLiberal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: My other post on this with the actual tweets is in moderation – probably because of the links in it – but Fournier was on top of this almost immediately, probably before you even posted your comment.
Trollhattan
@RP:
There was that time when he said that thing about bitter marginalized people clinging to guns and religion, but that didn’t get legs so point taken.
Zam
@Belafon: Yup, the only way to have a major overhaul of the electoral system is if we had a major catastrophe, such as complete economic collapse on a scale larger than the great depression. Even if we were able to switch over to a parliamentary system tomorrow I’m not confident it would do anything to solve our two party problem, they would still have to for coalitions for majorities and I doubt it would take long for those coalitions to become entrenched in this country.
srv
Obama finds the Bully Pulpit after 6 years. Who let the emogs out?
Also, too, Pat Lang thinks we needed boots in Benghazi
Patrick
@RP:
He has said it before. Hell, he has said similar things at the SOTU. But some people aren’t willing to listen or just read headlines.
Mason
11% approval rating… and it’s the fault of one party? I don’t think so.
John D
@srv: Because another desert adventure would go *so well*.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Belafon:
A rewrite would likely go over damned well if it included shitcanning everything but the Second Amendment.
Archon
Obama ran as a moderate willing to accept conservative ideas in the name of progress and trying to bridge the partisan divide and the rightwing in the country responded by spitting in his face (and his voters). They mocked and derided even the thought of compromising with him for the common good.
I was one of those idealists in 2008 whose illusions were shattered by unprecedented Republican obstruction. To that end that last thing I want to hear from a Democratic candidate in 2016, whether it be Hillary or anyone else is them saying they will try to work with Republicans. There can be no truce with this version of the GOP, either their vision of government triumphs or ours.
Republicans in the Obama era have turned me from a political idealist into a angry partisan who wants to see them destroyed at basically any cost for the good of the nation, and I hate them for that.
Motivated Seller
@Belafon: Everyone supports making the Constitution better. But not every solution needs a Federal amendment in order to make a difference.
RareSanity
@RP:
Oh, for the love of…
You realize that if The President of the United States says anything, anywhere, and there is someone there to hear, record, or video it…and the media wants to bring attention to it, they will?
Hell..we all heard about the poorly recorded (audio only) conversation of an 80 year old NBA team owner, talking to his mistress, discussed all day, every day, for like a week…in every form of media available currently.
Someguy
Speaking of false equivalence, anybody else see Mark Cuban’s latest defense of racism? When is the NBA going to do something about him, I wonder…
Eric U.
@Mason: Nice demonstration of a perfect logical fallacy. People don’t understand how our government works. That worked to Obama’s benefit in 2008, and against him starting in 2009. The republicans are only passing the bare minimum to keep the country from falling apart, the Democrats have been willing to give up some things they shouldn’t be willing to give up just to try to make things better. If that’s the definition of partisanship I have no idea what the word means anymore.
@Archon: I am somewhat afraid that what the republicans have done is going to turn out badly for the country when their brand finally falls apart. People are not stupid, they just don’t pay attention. For all sorts of reasons. When all the scammers from the republican party join the democrats, then we will have a pretty serious problem. That happens all the time in deep blue sections of the country.
Mnemosyne
@piratedan:
Your memory fails you — it was Reagan who killed the Fairness Doctrine.
Belafon
@Motivated Seller: Did you see that the Republicans are suing the FEC because they’re not allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money like PACs?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Someguy:
Rich white people aren’t even called to account for their actual crimes and you want them called to account for their bigotry?
Eric U.
@Someguy: I don’t know what to think about Cuban’s statement. I think white guys should not talk much about race because they have a defective understanding of it. But thanks for the link, I learned the Cramer says I should hold everything because the upside is enormous. I am therefore selling everything
Howlin Wolfe
@Betty Cracker: I think he’s saying the Republicans do it, and the Dems acquiesce. Not quite the same, but it skates close to it. It has validity in the sense that we want to elect more and better Dems who can prevent the Repub freak-flag flying.
But it’s hard to fault the Democrats for it because, with the house under GOP control, nothing can get done for precisely the reasons the Preznit outlined.
SatanicPanic
@Someguy: I don’t know, I mean, that’s a bad thing to say, but he seems at least a little bit self aware. It’s not like he’s denying housing to people like Sterling or harassing his employees. I just can’t get all that worked up about peoples’ personal prejudices.
Paul in KY
@RP: Agree that it would be even better if the Pres. stated these basic facts at a WH presser.
Paul in KY
Note: Cannot reply to the MikeJ comment at #26 above. Strange…
piratedan
@Mnemosyne: yup, it did fail me, my bad and ty for the correction.
Paul in KY
@Archon: Glad you’ve come around.
Howlin Wolfe
@Mason: Does that “11%” tell us why? Please provide an argument with some data, and I’ll give credence to your assertion.
Motivated Seller
can’t reply to MikeJ #15 either.
Paul in KY
@RareSanity: The Sterling tape was replayed due to it’s sensationalism, etc.
The President’s comments will probably not get the same level of attention from the courtier press outfits. That’s why him saying it at an event they usually cover would be even better.
Trollhattan
Stay classy, Republicans.
Abortion Barbie posters greet Wendy Davis
Bobby Thomson
@Motivated Seller:
How do you propose changing the Constitution without amending it? Please show your work.
JustRuss
@C.S.:
Really? This isn’t enough of a line?
True, he didn’t come right out and say our media sucks, but when you need the media to get the message out, a touch of subtlety is called for. Declaring war on the media rarely works out well for a politician.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@srv: Pat Lang is a racist, gun-fetishizing jerk who is like the proverbial craftsman who only learned to use a hammer – everything to him is a nail, and you use the hammer.
He’s a smart guy, I will give him that. And personally very brave. But he is not as smart as he thinks he is.
pamelabrown53
@Motivated Seller: Oh my FG,: President Obama is not arguing for centrism, he’s arguing for governance. Something the republicans have eschewed for radicalism.
Ripley
Little evidence for that one; it’s most often referred to in deferential tones and conceptualized as venerable to the point of being sacrosanct. It’s consequently static, which is… weird. Imagine trying to operate your 3D printer using the instruction manual for a 30-year-old dot matrix.
Secondly, better how and for whom? My better is, for instance, drastically different from Ted Cruz’s better.
Faction
@Paul in KY: Can Obama go on Between Two Ferns again and say some version of this? So maybe it’ll reach the people he needs to turn out and vote in the mid-terms?
cckids
@Lee: I’d bet money most of them didn’t read it beyond the title.
Paul in KY
@Bobby Thomson: Getting the current Supreme Court to rule in a way that interprets the constitution in a more progressive manner?
(snicker).
Suffern ACE
@Ripley: Yep. I can only imagine what a constitutional convention would produce at the moment. Something about banning gay marriage and allowing child sacrifice, mandating church attendance, making taxation illegal but mandating Social Security benefits rise with inflation. I’m guessing a powerful exective appointed by the Chamber of Commerce if we’re lucky; the Southern Baptist Convention if we’re not.
Paul in KY
@Faction: Probably wouldn’t hurt. Would also get the wingnuts riled up again about that.
Paul in KY
@Suffern ACE: Also, Medicaid only for white people, but no government interference with that medicaid. Something like that.
Villago Delenda Est
“These people also strongly tend to be people who get mighty upset at the thought of a near sheriff, and probably should be rounded up to be processed in the FEMA camps I’m going to set up in the next few months for resettlement on Rura Penthe, where my Klingon friends will get an honest day’s work out of them…one way or another”, the President did not add.
RP
I take the point that I’m an ingrate that will never be satisfied. I should have made my point more clearly.
Fact is, Obama’s remarks will get no coverage outside of some political junky websites precisely because it was at a fund-raiser and it doesn’t fit the established narrative that “both sides do it”.
Good Lord, Obama himself blames “Congress” instead of calling out Rethugs by name, pissing off Democrats themselves!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62898.html
Let the record be clear. Props to the prez for calling it like it is. Please keep it up when you get back to D.C.
Thank you.
RareSanity
@Someguy:
Actually, I have a great deal of respect for what Mark Cuban is doing. He’s a highly visible figure, that is trying to use his platform, to initiate honest discussions about race in this country.
He made a very poor choice of an example to use, in trying to illustrate a larger point. Even in the article you linked, he said that he hadn’t even considered that his example would have rekindled the emotion of the Trayvon Martin situation…and he apologized for it.
It wasn’t a fake apology, where he was only sorry people were offended by what he said. He admitted that it was a mistake on his part, explained why he understood it to be his mistake, and apologized to the people that were offended by his mistake.
He didn’t back off of the idea that he was trying to express, and he shouldn’t have…if he has those feelings, it doesn’t make them inherently wrong, it is how he chooses to process those feelings, and whether or not he recognizes them as being wrong, is what is important.
He said that this is one of the things that he is working on, and one of the things that he tries to instil in his kids…I’m not going to jump all over the guy for making a mistake when his intentions were not malicious.
This is how difficult discussions like this happen. Each party speaks honestly, each party expresses those things that create offense…and the parties try to move forward by getting a better understanding of each other, and more empathy to the other party’s perspective.
If you ask me, that is exactly what is happening with Mark Cuban right now, he experienced some growth in regards to the words he uses when talking about race, and he apologized for the offense he caused by making that mistake….what else do we want from him?
I really don’t like how some opportunists are taking this as an opening to try and kick him in the nuts, instead of trying to continue the discussion.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ripley:
Ted Cruz’s father would gut Article VI of that troublesome “religious test” clause to catch up with the Wahhabists in the religious repression arena.
RareSanity
@Paul in KY:
I’m aware of that…and I agree.
I was just contradicting @RP’s assertion, that unless the President made these statements on prime-time, national TV, they wouldn’t be heard.
My point being, if the press wants cover something, they will cover it, no matter where or when it occurred.
Villago Delenda Est
@Trollhattan:
Unpossible.
Villago Delenda Est
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
He’s very similar to John “Auger In!” McCain in that respect. McCain thinks there is NOTHING that cannot be addressed and resolved by bombing. To include the girl at the Mickey D’s driveup not asking him if he wants fries with that.
SatanicPanic
@RareSanity: You said it better than I could.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Villago Delenda Est: Admiral’s Son McCain managed to wreck five of his own aircraft. Does that make him some kind of reverse ace?
ETA: “Auger In” – I LOLed.
gbear
@RP: You’re using Politico to prove your point? Thank you for not embedding the link so we had the trigger warning right out in the open.
Trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
This Texas governor race might hit new lows, which does seem unpossible but Abbott appears bent on finding a way.
State motto suggestion:
“We’re so proud of being different, we even like our governors dumb and mean!”
RareSanity
@SatanicPanic:
The media smells blood in the water because of the situation with Sterling, they would absolutely love to have another story…seemingly just like it…to draw viewers or readers.
But Mark Cuban is nothing like Donald Sterling.
A lot of people don’t like his personality…he rubs me the wrong way sometimes…because he’s an arrogant SOB, so they would love to “knock him down a peg”. However, he does have some very thoughtful moments mixed in between all of the bluster, and this was one of those moments…he just, inadvertently, stuck his foot in his mouth with his choice of words.
But I really think the guy is sincere with what he is explaining were his motives, and that it was a legitimate mistake. I don’t want to shut people like Cuban down, when they are sincerely trying to help a situation, that is long overdue for it.
I wish there could be a collective, “OK Mark, we’re going to take you at your word and forgive you. Because you have no pattern of bigotry in the past, and you seem sincere in your apology. Let’s keep talking and see if we can work through some more issues, together.”
Of course, that is a pipe dream when you have one faction wanting to use the situation as an example of, “a white person can’t say anything about race without being called a racist”, another faction wanted to stir up controversy for ratings and/or readers, and yet another faction using it as, “see he’s a racist, send us some money so we can combat this kind of behavior”.
It’s all pretty sickening when you think about. This discussion is never going to be able to move forward.
Villago Delenda Est
A very good reason to raise taxes on the 1% is that their wealth is not being reinvested in the economy, in infrastructure, for fear that such investments might not fully accrue to the 1%. They’re hoarding all those resources because they’re assholes. If they will not play nice on their own accord, time to move in and, at first, use fiscal means to get those idle assets to work. If that does not accomplish the goal, and resistance to hoarding remains, then we move on to more emotionally traumatic means of getting the job done.
Paul in KY
@RareSanity: See your point. No problem.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: Reagan is the one who got rid of the Fairness Doctrine, in part due to the reaction of his drooling fan base to not having “Bedtime for Bonzo” marathons on broadcast TV back when he was running for office…because to do so was a pretty obvious case of why the Fairness Doctrine exists.
Name recognition is perhaps the most important element in the election process.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mason: You do realize you’re a dumbass, right?
JPL
Congrats to the President for calling out the republicans.
@RareSanity: This. Unfortunately the mainstream media didn’t concentrate on his comments about white thugs.
Bjacques
@Motivated Seller:
Looking enviously at the parliamentary system of elections and governance as an alternative to the two-party system?
Be careful what you wish for. For fifteen years I’ve had a ringside seat at Dutch politics and close-enough view of British, Belgian, French, German, Italian and Greek politics. I’ve seen things that would curl your hair (or straighten it). The European elections are now upon us, and the far-right parties are licking their chops at the prospect of forming a bloc.
For what it’s worth, the Dutch PVV, fronted by Geert Wilders (some of you remember him hanging out with Pam Gellar and Ayaan Hirsi-Ali), won’t work much with Nigel Farage’s UKIP, since the former, their xenophobia and boorishness aside, look out for the little guy, while the latter are the Conservative id.
Anyway, the grass isn’t greener here. Different systems are broken in their own way. That’s politics for you. Even absolute momarchies and hereditary dictatorships have politics, mostly within the palace walls, so the mess you hate wouldn’t be solved under a different system.
Jeremy
This thread proves that too many on the left love to bitch and complain about everything this President does. The President has said these things in various forums so this isn’t the first time. If some of you bothered to listen to the man instead of assuming things you would know this. Also, Obama was the one who talked about early childhood education, and crafted a universal pre k proposal before DeBlasio was relevant. Even DeBlasio said that Obama has been talking about these issues from the start. No matter what this man does the emo liberals complain.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but Noisemax is at it again:
F. Lee Bailey: O.J. Trial Was A ‘Circus’
Thank you, Counselor Obvious.
? Martin
@Someguy: They should so something about Avenue Q as well, for similarly defending racism.
RareSanity
@JPL:
Well, because of the immense weight of the Trayvon Martin imagery that the first part of the statement provoked, there really is no way that there could have been an equivalent, modern day, comparison. The statement was just a train wreck from the instant he said, “young black man in a ‘hoodie'”…nothing really mattered after that, the stage was already set.
I really wish he would have phrased the whole thing differently. If he would have just said, “I’ll admit that at night, when I see young black males dressed a certain way[…], the same as when I see young white males, with shaved heads and swastikas tattooed all over their body[…]”, it wouldn’t have generated the same level of controversy.
The media is definitely over sensationalizing the entire comment, but we know that’s what they do.
Jeremy
Just like Gay rights. The President was mainly responsible for the end of DOMA and DADT. He signs into law a landmark hate crimes bill, signs several executive orders that benefit the gay a lesbian community, comes out in support for Gay marriage which creates a substantial increase in public support, and yet he is accused by emo liberals of being an anti-gay bigot. GLAAD gives an award to a man who signed DOMA into law and failed to end anti gay discrimination in the military.
This president has been so disrespected from so many people that I’m surprised he hasn’t told the entire country to go F*** itself. He receives more respect in other countries then here.
SatanicPanic
@RareSanity: I don’t like playing gotcha with people who are clearly trying to explain themselves and be a better person.
I think we need a middle ground term for someone who sometimes says or thinks racist things but doesn’t rise to the level of an outright racist person who is actively trying to harm people. Or someone who says something that could be taken to be racist but doesn’t mean to. The issue is a minefield, and no one is perfect.
? Martin
FWIW, it appears that Cuban is trying to walk a fairly fine line, that he’s not (and I’m probably not either) good enough to express.
I think Cuban agrees that Sterling shouldn’t have any NBA affiliation due to his comments. That is, social damage has been done and social consequences must be paid. However, I think Cuban disagrees with forcing Sterling to sell the team because team owners (at least in theory) like business owners should have the benefit of a wall between social and capital. I’ll agree with him (in theory) that saying something stupid shouldn’t necessitate the loss of property, and Cuban’s defense of that appears to be that everyone says stupid things, which is true, and that ideological purity here is no better than ideological purity in other endeavors.
That said, pro sports doesn’t work in theory. There is no free-market feedback mechanisms. Pro sports is a cabal of team owners, where the owners set many of the rules and which Sterling will always have an equal seat, with no provision of losing influence by the introduction of new members. You just can’t compare it to Chick Fil A because Congress hasn’t given Chick Fil A defacto monopoly protection. I don’t think that in the normal course of things an owner of a business should be forced to sell because they say something stupid, we just boycott them out of business – problem solved. But pro sports is different and Cuban ought to realize that but is unwilling to.
RareSanity
@SatanicPanic:
I guess a term would help, because “guy that said something that he didn’t know would be offensive, but when informed, immediately apologizes for his mistake”, doesn’t roll off the tongue very well.
the Conster
@Jeremy:
I want to marry you and have your babies.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeremy: It’s not enough that he says it, the institutional roadblocks to his agenda have to fall like the walls of Jericho when he says it, or else he didn’t say it. Or he said it in the wrong place. Or he said it at the wrong time of day. Or wearing the wrong color tie.
Interesting the Hamsherite Left and Fournierite “Centrists” all sing to the same tune if with different words
? Martin
@Jeremy: Obama hate gays because Donnie McClurkin. No evidence after October 2007 will be accepted to counter this assertion.
Betty Cracker
@Jeremy: Which specific “emo liberals” are calling Obama an anti-gay bigot? I mean aside from anonymous nutballs in random blog comment sections? It sounds like you’re implying there’s widespread anti-Obama sentiment among gay rights groups. I haven’t seen any evidence of that.
Belafon
@Jeremy: Obama Tells Nation He’s Going out for Cigarettes (hope the link works).
SatanicPanic
@RareSanity: And once you say racist then it’s a fight. We need a warning sign or yellow card or something.
goblue72
@Ripley: The reason we don’t periodically scrap the Constitution is because its a constitution. Its not a set of statutes. It is a FRAMEWORK for organizing our Federal government. Which has embedded within it the procedure for keeping it current and useful, via amendment. It is no small thing to form a constitution – indeed, it is the most serious and difficult task any nation can undertake with respect to its own self-governance. (The Britons don’t even have one.) The scrap the existing Constitution to write a new one would require not merely the ability to assemble a convention of legitimate representatives of each state to come together to achieve a compromise, but then each state would each need to individually ratify said new constitution by popular vote. It is naive to just propose “hey, let’s just write a new constitution” as a solution to our current political problems – none of which approach the level requiring us to completely destroy the framework of our entire government.
“A Constitution, to contain an accurate detail of all the subdivisions of which its great powers will admit, and of all the means by which they may be carried into execution, would partake of the prolixity of a legal code, and could scarcely be embraced by the human mind. It would probably never be understood by the public. Its nature, therefore, requires that only its great outlines should be marked, its important objects designated, and the minor ingredients which compose those objects be deduced from the nature of the objects themselves. That this idea was entertained by the framers of the American Constitution is not only to be inferred from the nature of the instrument, but from the language. Why else were some of the limitations found in the 9th section of the 1st article introduced? It is also in some degree warranted by their having omitted to use any restrictive term which might prevent its receiving a fair and just interpretation. In considering this question, then, we must never forget that it is a Constitution we are expounding.” Chief Justice John Marshal, McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
RareSanity
@? Martin:
Now see, that is the part that I actually disagree with Cuban on, because he’s not being completely honest about the situation.
The NBA is not taking away Sterling’s team because of his comments. The NBA is taking away Sterling’s team because his comments, have forced greater visibility to all of his other racial improprieties…which is brings more negative scrutiny on the NBA, because they wholly ignored all of it.
The NBA is taking away Sterling’s team, because he finally did something that was not ignored by the media…and is causing all the things that were ignored, to now be exposed, and it will cause even more negative scrutiny of the NBA as a whole, until he is removed from the situation.
Cuban is being less than forthright when he claims that it is merely because of these comments that he is losing his team. Furthermore, if you read the NBA constitution, there are rules in there that are purposely vague, to address situations just like this.
It basically says, “if enough of us decide that we no longer want you in our exclusive club, we can vote to kick you out of our club, for just about any reason we want.”
That’s what Cuban really doesn’t like about this situation…he doesn’t want to one day be on the other side of one of those votes. Boo-fucking-hoo on that point. I’m not going to shed tears if one group of billionaires, decided to kick another billionaire, out of their club, using the purposely vague rules they agreed to when joining the club.
If he had objections to the vague description of what would justify an owner being forced to sell them team, he should have protested it BEFORE agreeing to it…or, just not bought an NBA team at all.
He can kiss my ass on that point. You don’t get to enjoy all the benefits of being a member of an exclusive, privately managed, protected monopoly, then complain that the rules you agreed to, could end up in you getting kicked out of that group, by the other members, for any reason they decide.
Neither him, or Donald Sterling, were held at gunpoint and forced to buy an NBA team.
Belafon
@RareSanity: Flint Lockwood might be able to do something with that.
goblue72
@Jeremy: I am hoping Obama’s last SOTU he just walks up to the podium, grabs the microphone and goes exactly that “All y’alls is effed up and bull___t. Eff y’all. I. Am. Outta. Here.”
And then he drops the mic.
drkrick
@piratedan:
The Fairness Doctrine was abolished by an FCC dominated by Reagan appointees in the mid-’80’s. How the hell is that Clinton’s fault?
RareSanity
@SatanicPanic:
A yellow card would be hilarious…and maybe inject some needed humor into the situation, so people can just relax and talk.
RaflW
@srv: would that be an Iraq-style “several months”? Or more like Afghanistan? How about Korea?
Jeremy
@Betty Cracker: I should clarify. The majority of gay people support and appreciate what the President has done. But a number of high profile bloggers like John Aravosis, and people like Dan Choi and Dan Savage have accused this president of being an anti-gay bigot. They discount all of his accomplishments and say “Well it doesn’t really matter if Obama is in office because he wasn’t responsible for this achievement”. Then you have GLAAD ignore the most pro-gay rights president ever, and then give an award to Bill Clinton who had a horrible record on Gay rights. That’s like the NAACP ignoring Lyndon Johnson and giving an award to Barry Goldwater.
goblue72
@Bjacques: Agreed. Look at the EU – its like a poor man’s version of the Articles of Confederation. Which Articles created a very weak central government that at the end of the day fell apart. The primary thing that appears to hold the EU together currently is the euro and the elites need to keep the common currency from imploding.
I think folks sometimes forget what a completely rare situation we have in the U.S. having created a continent spanning democratic nation with broad economic prosperity & power along with a fairly solid central government that still retains some functional vestiges of its past as an association of independent territories.
Davis X. Machina
@Jeremy:
Obama doesn’t mean it, though.
You can tell.
If he did, he’d be leading. With leadership.
But he isn’t. So he’s worse than Bush.
Jeremy
@Belafon: LOL ! Thanks ! I never read that before.
goblue72
@Jeremy: Everybody on the left expected Obama to be a Magic Negro with lefty superpowers able to subdue the rest of government to his awesomeness and usher in an era of lefty utopian nirvana.
And then when he turned out to be just a human President, they were all butthurt.
jl
I take Obama’s accurate portrayal of the current political scene as a hopeful sign. Maybe he is getting fired up and ready to go for what is actually his last political campaign (if we wants to get anything done at all and not experience a living nightmare during his last two years in office).
If so, the village media response will be hilarious.
Jeremy
@goblue72: LOL !
danielx
@Turgidson:
And about fucking time, too. Let the pearl clutching commence!
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: I agree. There was grumbling before Obama took his pro-marriage position. But grumbling is a far cry from credible people (or orgs) calling him anti-gay
ETA: Jeremy if you have links to Dan Savage calling Obama an anti-gay bigot, I will certainly read ’em.
Suffern ACE
@Jeremy: O.K. have you heard from Dan Choi lately?
I agree, Avarosis, Choi and Savage were over the top nutters in 2009. Heck. Avarosis writing at Salon about the insults of the administration back in May 2009 was exactly why I stopped reading or commenting at Salon. But that was 5 years ago now. I think they have moved on.
As for GLAAD’s award – I don’t know why you think GLAAD should hand out awards to sitting presidents as part of their fundraising dinner. That’s really all that award is. Obama is going to get his award when he is out of office. If he agrees to come and speak at the GLAAD dinner and accept his award. That’s what awards are. It would be odd for them to give an award to the President. He isn’t going to be coming to their dinner. It would do them no good to offer their “presigious award” to someone who couldn’t attend the ceremony.
In fact, I would prefer all presidents NOT go and accept achievement or hall of fame awards while they are still in office. Just like I don’t want presidents to name buildings after themselves or put their portraits on postage stamps. That’s what dictators do. The accolades come when the term is done. The exceptions are Nobel prizes, and whatever it is that foreign countries give when the president visits. It’s kind of rude to turn those down.
I think you are being a little emo yourself when you persist on whining about the GLAAD award “slight.” Al Gore won an oscar and a grammy before Obama did. Maybe you should cry about how ungrateful musicians and actors are.
Betty Cracker
@RaflW: I was kinda pissed when he invited that goateed, homophobic oaf Rick Warren to have a prominent role in the first inauguration ceremony, but I understood the rationale.
? Martin
@Jeremy: I think anti-gay bigot is too strong. They mainly accuse Obama of taking gays for granted, that they’ll vote for him and donate to him while receiving nothing in return. Mostly, that Obama doesn’t care about gays. I think this is fairly representative. Of course, if Obama had pushed faster on gays, the latinos could complain he was taking them for granted, etc. Unless you solve everyones problem together, immediately then you’re ignoring them. Its an impossible standard.
The anti-gay bigot stuff is from 2007-2008 and that seems to have mostly died off.
Eric U.
@goblue72: dropping the mic wouldn’t be enough. Hammering it on the podium would be better
Keith G
@AxelFoley: Nonetheless, that is a valid issue. Even the President, when asked to reflect, has acknowledged that this is where he and his team have needed to do better.
I wonder if he will keep this up, with increasing intensity as needed, or is this another “one and done”?
goblue72
@Eric U.: What if it does that high-pitched feedback whine when he drops it?
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: Yeah. I did not enjoy that. I’m sure I had some choice words at the time.
But expressing disappointment with a president is not some horrible thing, in my view. I didn’t storm off, take my marbles and scream “goodby EX-friend!”*
*actual quote of my irate best friend in 5th grade
Calouste
@goblue72:
That’s a particularly clueless comment, even for an American on the internet.
For starters, you might want to think about how and why the EU (and its predecessor the EC) stayed together and even expanded in the 44 years before the introduction of the common currency (which of course not all members currently take part in), if its structure is such weak sauce even compared to the Articles of Confederation. Take your time.
Mnemosyne
@? Martin:
There was kind of an interesting split after the DADT repeal passed. It seemed like most people who thought that Obama wouldn’t fight for its repeal were pleasantly surprised that he did and cut him some extra slack. It seems to be a pretty fringy fringe that still tries to claim that Dick Cheney is more pro-gay than Obama is, especially once Obama publicly supported gay marriage.
RaflW
@? Martin: The taking for granted complaint was common in the last election, no doubt. And I then and now have defended Obama as doing more than was acknowledged for advancing LGBT rights strategically and effectively.
Not as an excuse, but for historical grounding, I thing us gheys have been too often used and taken for granted by Dem pols (I’m talking past 20 years, not as much today). Obama got seen with that lens of many past burns, IMO.
Calouste
@Suffern ACE:
You know what dictators also do? Stage some self-congratulating semi-heroic photo-op, preferably with a lot of military hardware in the background and a simple slogan like “Goal accomplished”. They also like to dress up in military uniform and be referred to as “El Commandante” or something along those lines.
jl
@goblue72:
@Calouste:
I agree with Calouste. The EU and Eurozone (countries on the Euro) are different things. And the EU is designed to work regardless of whether Europe ever moves to some kind of federated government or not.
If anything, the elites’ and certain countries’ (Germany) mismanagement of the Euro are endangering the very successful EU. The EU is primarily an international trade union and international product, labor standards union, and completely different from the Euro and Eurozone, which is a monetary union.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, it seems more to me that Obama often has to work twice as hard to get half as much credit as, say, Clinton did. Jeremy’s observation on GLAAD, for example. Yeah, DOMA took a while, but shit, Obama had one hell of a big hole to dig out of when he was first elected. Everyone benefitted from the recovery act, ACA, ending wars, etc. These are not trivial things chosen because he cares about group A more than group B.
Keith G
@Jeremy:
Complaining and pushing for more is a foundational political behavior. Strong political leaders and their team realize this and deal with it. It is only their thin-skinned followers who get the vapors. Obama chose to be a politician, not the praise leader at a summer Bible camp. Thus, I assume and fervently hope, it bothers him a lot less than it bothers many here.
The man makes mistakes, both of omission and commission and when the does, he needs to hear about it. As for the small minded who level personal vitriol….that seems to be a price that is often paid when one becomes a significant historical figure. It usually passes
Chyron HR
@Suffern ACE:
I forget, which movie did Obama make?
Or was that a, “you Obotomized Obots think your Dear Leader should win every award because he’s just like a dictator,” quip?
ruemara
@RP: what part of “it’s the other party” is not clear to such delicate dems?
boatboy_srq
@Motivated Seller: Define “Better.” Ask a Tenther how to accomplish that and you’ll get “repeal of every amendment from the 11th onward.” That’ll make the document shorter which to them is better, but whether that’s an improvement according to the rest of us is debatable at best.
Patrick
@goblue72:
Not true. 18 countries have adopted the Euro, 10 have not, including the UK.
AxelFoley
@Jeremy:
And so it was ever thus. Sad, ain’t it, though? The most progressive President since FDR and all the emos do is bitch and moan.
AxelFoley
@Jeremy:
And co-signing on this, too.
Turgidson
@Keith G:
Totally agree that complaining and pushing for more are essential. It’s productive, and keeps those in power from losing sight of its priorities.
But there’s a distinction to be made between that kind of activism and dialogue, and reflexively whining about being betrayed and accusing the president who is on your side of being one of: [take your pick – corporatist stooge, tool for the MIC, worse than Bush, and on and on] because he did not (and probably could not) deliver the exact action or legislation you wanted.
Obama has moved the ball forward on countless issues, but given his cautious nature, our tripartite government structure and the complete batshittery of the opposition party he finds himself dealing with, that progress has been fitful and incremental, and yes, in some cases, minimal to non-existent.
The obvious example was of course the health care fight, where Jane Hamsher was so butthurt about losing the public option during the battle that she made common cause with Grover f’in Norquist to try to kill the ACA. I was pissed the public option got chopped too, but once it did and the choice was between passing the ACA and passing nothing, the “complain and demand better” crowd reluctantly but responsibly threw its support behind passing the ACA, and the Hamsher clique sat in the corner muttering incoherently about how horrible Obama is and bitching about how the ACA is an insurer windfall, without seeming to care a whit that the ACA, even without a public option, will also offer coverage and subsidies to tens of millions of previously uninsured.
A pretty similar split exists over other things too – drones, NSA, policy towards banks, and so on. The bitch-and-sit-out crowd gets tiresome after a while.
jaleh
Every Republican should read “The Bully Pulpit” about Teddy Roosevelt and Howard Taft. Teddy Roosevelt was to the left the Progressives. Today’s Republicans can learn from Teddy! Taft was also pretty liberal compared with the these crazies.
Of course, TeaGop don’t read, so….
chopper
@Suffern ACE:
as an aside, clinton got a GLAAD award about a month after (finally) publicly coming around to the idea that DOMA should be overturned. i wonder if GLAAD leaned on him over his public stance on marriage equality or if they made the decision to honor him last-minute.
metricpenny
@boatboy_srq:
Just so you know, I’m stealing “GOTea”. And I’m not giving you credit.
David Koch
@Chyron HR:
I forgot the name of the movie, but he won an Academy Award last year
Keith G
@Turgidson:
I have never seen numbers that show that the current bitch-and-sit-out crowd is any greater (relatively speaking ) now than at other times. Yes, we see people type that. How many do they represent? Were they actually going to brush off the Cheeto dust and face the outside world, or are they just venting to strangers to be temporarily noticed?
How many divisions does Hampsher command?
Counter factuals are always tough to figure out. How many more Jews would have been saved in 1944 if (as some advocated) Allied priorities were changed just a bit to focus on known death camps?
How much more progress could have been made on important progressive initiatives had Obama been a tougher, stronger advocate for those initiatives? He wasn’t, so we will never know. Attacking those who wonder about that seems unnecessarily defensive and churlish – especially if you’re of the opinion that we have achieved all that we can or could have.
Turgidson
@Keith G:
Fair points all. I Wasn’t attacking those who wonder if everything that could have been done, was done. That’s how you learn and do better the next time. I don’t consider the Hamsher types to be that. The purity-or-nothing thing is what I can’t stand, as it’s more often destructive than useful; not pre- or post-hoc criticism of Obama itself. He deserves that and can take it.
You’re probably right that the loudness of the whiners is not indicative of their numbers.
Matt McIrvin
@? Martin: I recall that an article by Choire Sicha, all about how Obama sincerely hates same-sex marriage and liberals should face up to the fact that he’ll never support it, came out literally the day before Obama endorsed same-sex marriage.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I am a very partisan Democrat & I have wished the President was a more partisan animal (certainly in his 1st term).