Simon Max - Obama and the "Professional Left"

[Bobbieo]

Simon Max to bobbieo - Who is this guy?

Recently, White House press Secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the “professional Left” for its constant anti-Obama rhetoric. Of course, left-wing blogs were unhappy at the characterization. But the shoe fits. There’s a syndicate of journalists who make a living preaching that the President hasn’t created very many jobs or done enough to help the uninsured, and hasn’t delivered much relief to society’s most marginalized citizens. To which the President responds, “Well, duh.” Who’s claiming that he has? Obama himself certainly isn’t. How could even the most well-meaning legislation, chopped to bits by Republicans bent on sabotage, undo the damage done by the Cheney Administration? But the professional Left works from the notion that Obama is so dense he can’t grasp how limited his successes have been. The Left assumes that only they, with their heart-wrenching accounts of working-class misery, truly get it. They paint a portrait of Obama as an apologist for the status quo, as if he’s unaware that the legislation he sponsored was severely watered down. They tell us again and again that everything Obama does is too little, too late, and school him with constant object lessons in how poorly regular people are faring these days. Their goal is to draw the most radical distinction between Obama’s sad, piecemeal efforts and their own bold ideas. Like Republican obstructionists, these writers are professionally obligated to disparage everything emanating from the White House, and assume that every time Obama takes a hit, their ideas will appear wiser. They don’t write in order to make life better for people right now, but write with the goal to be the only voice in the wilderness. Like Republican obstructionists, they believe that moderate solutions are bad, because they muddy up the stark choices that voters must make. The “professional Left” would happily live in a Republicanized America locked in a nuclear stand-off with Iran, because they could position themselves as the lone warriors of truth. Apparently, by then, we’ll all have seen the folly of compromise, and be won over to their ideas. In such a Bush-on-Steroids world, these writers would have real enemies, genuinely nasty people to scream about, and blog themselves silly in a rush of self-importance. For now, however, they must be content to denigrate the best efforts of a well-meaning President, a man trying to get some good done before his curtain falls. And if the curtain falls on Obama, it will be because of the professional Left. They do him more harm than any tea-partying Friend of Sarah ever could.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013389-503544.html

[angee_is_mad]

1. WOW! Just WOW!

K&R

[CTLawGuy]

2. the professional left

are businesspeople. They will print and broadcast that which will maximize their profits or the profits of their corporate employers (as the case may be). That means maximizing the numbers of viewers/readers, which means heavy on ideology, outrage and controversy; and light on truth and nuance.

[tblue]

3. Yes. It's our fault.

Duly noted. I'll go kick myself and stuff a rag in my mouth. Heaven forbid I don't fall in lockstep and learn to keep my thoughts to myself.

[Bobbieo]

6. I'm not sure why he sent this to me. I'm not a political writer AND

he is not a journalist. You don't use double quotes in a headline and you break up your copy into readable paragraphs.

[Raine1967]

8. Are you the professional left?

Just curious why you took this so personal.

[Jim Sagle]

4. So says a professional corporatist center-right jagoff.

:boring:

[peacebird]

5. "if the curtain falls on Obama, it will be" because he abandoned the progressives

Simple as that. He campaigned on Hope and Change. He has delivered "some" of that, but he has refused to step to the plate to get REAL health care reform. He has kept the wizards of wall street in charge of the regulation of wall street. In short - he is a centrist pro business DLCer.
If he goes down it will not be because of the progressives, but because he lost the trust of those who worked so hard to get him elected.

[Raine1967]

7. Who is Simon Max?

The article you posted is written by Chip Reid.

That said, I tend to agree with this person, Simon Max... ;)

[Bobbieo]

10. Okay, so who is Chip Reid?

[Suich]

11. Chief White House Correspondent for CBS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Reid

:hi:

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Phx_Dem]

12. Bravo.

:applause:

[tabasco]

13. The truth hurts the comfortable utopians.

They would rather see people suffer under republicans and be "lone warriors of the truth."

They are comfortable assholes who will not suffer.

[Bobbieo]

14. Who is Simon Max? - Obama and the "Professional Left"

Simon Max to bobbieo

Obama and the "Professional Left"

Recently, White House press Secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the “professional Left” for its constant anti-Obama rhetoric. Of course, left-wing blogs were unhappy at the characterization. But the shoe fits. There’s a syndicate of journalists who make a living preaching that the President hasn’t created very many jobs or done enough to help the uninsured, and hasn’t delivered much relief to society’s most marginalized citizens. To which the President responds, “Well, duh.” Who’s claiming that he has? Obama himself certainly isn’t. How could even the most well-meaning legislation, chopped to bits by Republicans bent on sabotage, undo the damage done by the Cheney Administration? But the professional Left works from the notion that Obama is so dense he can’t grasp how limited his successes have been. The Left assumes that only they, with their heart-wrenching accounts of working-class misery, truly get it. They paint a portrait of Obama as an apologist for the status quo, as if he’s unaware that the legislation he sponsored was severely watered down. They tell us again and again that everything Obama does is too little, too late, and school him with constant object lessons in how poorly regular people are faring these days. Their goal is to draw the most radical distinction between Obama’s sad, piecemeal efforts and their own bold ideas. Like Republican obstructionists, these writers are professionally obligated to disparage everything emanating from the White House, and assume that every time Obama takes a hit, their ideas will appear wiser. They don’t write in order to make life better for people right now, but write with the goal to be the only voice in the wilderness. Like Republican obstructionists, they believe that moderate solutions are bad, because they muddy up the stark choices that voters must make. The “professional Left” would happily live in a Republicanized America locked in a nuclear stand-off with Iran, because they could position themselves as the lone warriors of truth. Apparently, by then, we’ll all have seen the folly of compromise, and be won over to their ideas. In such a Bush-on-Steroids world, these writers would have real enemies, genuinely nasty people to scream about, and blog themselves silly in a rush of self-importance. For now, however, they must be content to denigrate the best efforts of a well-meaning President, a man trying to get some good done before his curtain falls. And if the curtain falls on Obama, it will be because of the professional Left. They do him more harm than any tea-partying Friend of Sarah ever could.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20013389-503544.html

[RandomThoughts]

15. Whatever

Funny thing, that article does what the Republicans do that it criticizes.

[TheKentuckian]

16. Nobody, an anklebiter that can't decide if he should make excuses or pretend all is well with

"moderate" policy.

[Stoic]

17. Just a regular hate fest going on here. Wow! n/t