Mark, Mark, Mark. Still trying to make sense in the political world, I see. You would think that after the political general election of 2008, he would temper his beltway crystal ball about what will happen and why stuff happens the way it does. Every time I see this prognosticator on news media and cable shows, it always hearkens back to when he said this.
and then this shoddy display after the last Presidential Debate in October of 2008.
So whenever I see Mark Halperin, I think the same thing I think when I see Luke Russert and when I use to see George W. Bush, "There because his daddy was important enough, but doesn't know what the f*&$ to do." So, when I read his latest screed, it caused my eyes to roll so far into my head, I actually saw my temporal lobe.
With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.
Ok, one thing I don't get is how its good to be an elite again. Being elite is not a vice, but a virtue now. Two years ago, when then Democratic Nominee Sen. Barack Obama was running for office, it was that he was elitist, and that elites don't know jack shit about the political scene. Now it seems the President is not in the elite club anymore and since he isn't, its ok to be elite. And since Marky here believes hes part of the club, that Two, they all believe this guy is in over his head still, even when he proved them wrong by getting elected overwhelmingly without vote recounts or the Supreme Court in 2008. That he is insular, arrogant and clueless with getting along with Congress (which conservative members of the Democratic Party tie his hands with no fear of retribution and the Republicans who want his presidency to come out worse so that George Bush looks good by comparison, though got financial reform and health care reform through), the Media (who all want dog and pony shows with the guy, remember Jeremiah Wright said it=Barack Obama said it.), the Business Community( Who are all about making money and anyone that makes it much more difficult for them to with financial regulations must be destroyed.) and working class voters (majority white who didn't vote for him anyway.) But thats not all in the screed here.
On Friday, after the release of the latest bleak unemployment data - the last major jobs figures before the midterms - Obama said, "Putting the American people back to work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class is the moral and national challenge of our time." But elites feel the President has failed to meet that challenge and are convinced he will be unable to do so in the remainder of his term. Moreover, there is a growing perception that Obama's decisions are causing harm - that businesses are being hurt by the Administration's legislation and that economic recovery is stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and spending.
Ok, the uncertainty thing I have been hearing over and over. Its something that has never made any sense to me. Business is all about uncertainty. If you have an invention and you have to put a down payment on it for about $20,000 to get the patents, manufacturing cost, etc., your uncertain about whether it would breed results. You don't know if your opportunity cost would be for naught or would be paid back in full plus. We were in tough times before where we were uncertain about where our country was headed, but we got through it with the ingenuity of the American people, including its business set.
What gets me about this article is that it seems to lay everything on President Obama without factoring in the partisanship of the GOP, hellbent on winning after two staggering election losses, the unemployment which has no quick fix, and most of all historical context.
I had a discussion with someone about historical context and how we judge other presidencies alongside the current one. Its a reason why that stale cardboard Sen. Orrin Hatch can say with a straight face today how much he "loves" President Bill Clinton, even though he was one of the senators who voted for impeaching him.
Its why this Ronald Reagan Fellatio Contest happens with Republicans, omitting all the stuff he did in the White House and how they wanted him not to run for re-election in 1984, in which he took 49 states.
Moral here, don't listen to Halperin, and you'll be all the wiser.
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