TPM Reader LB doesn’t take too kindly to Obama’s comments to Rolling Stone:
I saw your quote of the President wagging his finger at those who might not vote and have to point out that the President is committing (once again) a huge tactical error. Temper, temper Mr. Cool is all I can say. Methinks Obama doth protest too much and seeks a scapegoat for his own failure of vision and leadership. It’s just too damn bad he couldn’t have gotten mad at his enemies at any point since becoming President and instead saves his disdain and anger for his allies. It’s kind of the story of his Presidency.
He (along with Biden and others in the DC establishment) are using progressives and the left as their scapegoat for the enthusiasm gap: a problem that they and not the left, created! This isn’t too surprising from the gang that couldn’t figure out for the past two years that the Republicans and not the left are their political enemies.
The left and the progressives and the “Democrats” are going to vote and support the President and the party. The people who are creating the enthusiasm gap are the people that all of the President’s flip flops and frankly: lies have turned off and disappointed. It is the much vaunted independent voter, the moderate and nonpartisan voter who have been completely alienated and disappointed by the actions of the administration for the past 18 months that are going to stay home or vote Republican this year.
It’s time for the administration to face the fact that it is they who are responsible for 100% of the problems the Democrats now face in the upcoming midterms. It isn’t the left and progressives and actual Democrats who criticized them and warned them and begged them not to sell out on issue after issue who turned people off. No polls are providing evidence that progressive criticism of the President’s lackluster results on everything from the stimulus, to healthcare, the wars, climate change, financial “reform”, credit card “reform”, and a host of other issues is fueling the enthusiasm gap. Quite the contrary.
It is a total distortion and misreading of what is going on among voters to make the straw man argument that people are upset because Obama didn’t do “everything” “overnight”. People are upset because the administration’s priorities have not been addressing the problems that real people face like unemployment and foreclosure and that those things that have been done have been an almost embarrassing gruel of half measures and compromises that don’t promise to solve the problems we face or prevent future problems.
TPM Reader BA:
Really?
The first paragraph you quote seems to me to be a very effective message.
But the second paragraph? Let’s assume–both because it’s fair to do so and because Obama makes this assumption–that there are some Democrats who voted for Obama in 2008 and are, out of frustration, going to sit out this election. Does accusing them of not being “serious in the first place” help GOTV? I cannot imagine that it will.
That second paragraph might well appeal to supporters who don’t understand why others are bitter about how these last twenty-one months have gone. But if Obama is serious about closing the gap and convincing people who are so angered about administration policy that they’re thinking of simply not voting, he needs to take their frustration more seriously, take more responsibility for things that have gone wrong, and promise something different in the next two-to-six years. Instead we get this preemptive finger pointing.
Just to lay my cards on the table: I’m a progressive Independent who voted for Obama in 2008, feels frustrated (if not very surprised) about this administrations policies, but will vote for the Democrats this fall because the GOP is even worse.
TPM Reader DN:
I can’t understand why it would be a good idea for the President to repeat, repeat, repeat what sounds to me like a scolding of his base. He is, in essence, lecturing them for using their hearts rather than their heads in the face of looming catastrophe. However, given the reality of their disaffection, lecturing them reeks of desperation, not leadership. At this point, the relative coherence and validity of their objections does not matter. All that matters is whether they knock on doors, phone bank, donate and vote. Does the President really think lecturing them will move them to do that? If so, he is as guilty as they are of letting his passions overwhelm his judgment.
