Barack Obama Cedes Presidency To Glenn Beck
Tweet
Consider me disgusted. It is increasingly becoming clear that the USDA official forced out by the Obama administration was not only pushed out thanks to conveniently edited video, but especially because the right wing media has President Obama’s extremities in a vice.
If Shirley Sherrod’s story told on CNN is accurate, the Obama administration had Deputy Undersecretary of Rural Development call Sherrod and had her resign because she would be featured on Glenn Beck’s show. What the hell is that?
Look, Barack Obama, you’re not in the White House to do Glenn Beck’s bidding. We put you there to fight for the American people, not placate the right wing nutjobs who nearly ruined this country. I know you want to bring people together, but that doesn’t mean conceding the government to neo-McCarthyite like Glenn Beck.
This is appalling, and easily the worst thing that’s been done since you were elected. Under Secretary Cook should be packing her bags, and Ms. Sherrod should be reinstated with some sort of compensation to make up for this egregious error.
81 Responses to “Barack Obama Cedes Presidency To Glenn Beck”
Jennifer Aniston Reportedly Pregnant With Twins
PHOTOS: Tamara Ecclestone At The Langham Hotel
Red Front? “Center For American Freedom” Logo Echoes Communist Style
Romney Calls For Defunding Planned Parenthood, Wife Was A Donor
GOP Fundraising Email Asks Supporters To “Knock Out” Obama
Romney Comes Up Limp In Nevada
Obama Opens Lead On Romney In New Poll
What Time Is Super Bowl 2012 (Super Bowl XLVI)?
Latest Entries
Why Do Liberals Support Drone Strikes?
Weekly Standard Rolls Out The Iraq Argument For Iran
Equal Polarization, My Ass
Some Crazy Stuff That Happened In World War II
Maryland Republican Campaign Funds Used To Defend Voter Suppression
The Obama Jobs Record In One Graph
Martin O’Malley All In For Marriage Equality
Newt Gingrich, Filled With More Excrement Than Your Average Politician
New Year, Powerline Still Stupid
Thanks Again
Meta
Blogroll
Disclaimer
The views on this site are mine and mine alone, and do not reflect the views of my employer, Media Matters for America
© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
Right on. (But it’s not Beck, here, so much as it’s Breitbart.)
If the Obama administration doesn’t apologize in public, epic PR fail.
Here here! Well said. I just hope someone in the administration subscribes!
Not so fast, Oliver.
I highly doubt that someone would have resigned so readily if they were completely innocent. We should wait until the story unfolds before automatically assuming that she is a victim here.
Chris K -
The current version of events isn’t saying it’s “readily” at all. It’s saying that she was badgered into doing it immediately…while in her car.
Chris K – what world do you live in? Innocent people are forced to resign every day. Scapeoats are everywhere. And the story has unfolded.
So in other words, you’re saying that Obama is a gutless coward whose first instinct is to grovel pitifully before all the Repukes who all but call him a n***** to his face. Welcome to the reality based community.
@Shopaholic_918
Like I said, not so readily. Look, we can point to conveniently edited video or the fact that she didn’t do this incident recently but the fact remains that, on tape, she admitted to overt racism while being an official. Even the NAACP is agreeing that she should go.
@SpiderJ
OK, and she couldn’t say no? Is she saying that she would have been terminated if she refused right then?
I am sure the pressure was there to get her to resign but the point of contention was most likely clear. Did she or did she not make that admission of overt racism? If the answer is yes, then she had to go and she knew that.
Obama’s going to need Tommy John surgery from throwing Van Jones, Dawn Johnsen and Shirley Sherrod under the bus
Chris K – She was not working for the government at the time of this incident back in 1986. She was working for a farm coop. She said she didn’t give him her *full* support but did help him, as attested by the farmer and his wife. She also said that she learned from that incident that it wasn’t about race but about helping people in need.
Oh and the NAACP is calling her now to grovel and apologize for their rush to judgment.
I hope Shirley is a fighter, because some in this administration just aren’t.
Please give me a democrat who won’t cave to the GOP bullshit machine?
She wasn’t even an official at the time, she worked for a non-profit. She didn’t start working for the USDA until just a couple of years ago.
In the same story, she admits how her feelings were wrong, and tells about how she helped the white family for two years, helping them to avoid bankruptcy, and becoming a family friend.
Yes, she should sure resign over that outrage.
Sorry, didn’t mean that last sentence to be a question.
This is what Democrats usually do in the face of manufactured right wing outrage; they immediately capitulate and roll over on their backs like some timid spaniel. Hell, you don’t even have to kick them either, just threaten and raise your voice and watch them whimper “Oh don’t hurt me Glen Beck! Don’t call me names Brietfart! I am so sorry, here, you can do whatever you want!”
This is why I have never ever been a registered Democrat, nor will I even be one in the future. They have no stomach for a fight, they cannot hold their lines when they need to the most, and they just give up and run away. Mealy mouth pansies. No one came to her defense, they just tossed her aside. Fucking pansies.
Brietbart wins this round, that’s for sure. And the so-called goddamn liberal media just bent over for him as well because they want to prove so badly they aren’t biased for the left.
Obama’s giving black people that much more reason to stay home this fall.
God DAMN it. It’s either whimpering submissiveness on the left or lying, dishonest hackery and stupidity on the right. Lose-lose. Fuck.
This looks like a good case for slander against Breitbart. Damage has clearly been done due to his distortion of her statement.
If Shirley Sherrod’s story told on CNN is accurate…
That’s a bigger “if” than you’re letting on.
This is appalling, and easily the worst thing that’s been done since you were elected.
Nice to see that 10% unemployment, $1.5 trillion dollar deficts, an increased body count in Afghanistan, an oil-soaked Gulf coast and the continuation of Bush-era security policies (Patriot Act, domestic spying, rendition, drone attacks, an open Gitmo) is peachy, but a party hack losing an anonymous beauracratic post (the first timer ever under Obama?!?) is the biggest tragedy to befall this nation in the past 19 months.
@Shopaholic_918 and all others
Like I said, doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether the incident occured now, in 1986, or when she was eighteen. It also doesn’t matter whether she was working for the government at the time or somewhere else.
The REASON she is being canned has nothing to do with that incident itself. SHE HAS ADMITTED TO BLATENT RACISM. She said publically, while as an official, “I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do” while serving in a high level post in government.
We constantly talk about how the Tea Party is racist and how the primamry component to the opposition to President Obama is due to his race. This is correct.
But we must also apply the same standard to ourselves, especially to those of us who serve in government. The woman admitted to overt racism. If she didn’t resign and we did keep her, there would be endless stories of hypocrisy within our ranks. We are willing to accuse others of racism, but when folks on our side blatently admit to racism we let it slide.
Unacceptable. This was the right decision. By her, and this administration.
Now, if more details come out or THE STATEMENT ITSELF was fabricated, then that’s another thing. But if she said those remarks as an official, then she has to go.
OK, and she couldn’t say no? Is she saying that she would have been terminated if she refused right then?
I am sure the pressure was there to get her to resign but the point of contention was most likely clear. Did she or did she not make that admission of overt racism? If the answer is yes, then she had to go and she knew that.
Tell ya what. You get a job working for the federal government and then have your bosses call you repeatedly, finally telling you to pull over the car and submit your resignation over the phone. Oh, and hey, have that happen to you while you’re a soft-spoken 60-something woman. Then we can talk about whether or not she could have just said No.
She made an admission of overt racism as an anecdote about how she learned to get past her racism. Breitbart threw away all that inconvenient context to collect a scalp, and the administration helped sharpen the knife.
Chris K – The family she allegedly destroyed is speaking out not just as her defenders but as lifelong friends.
I agree that we should call out racism from all sides, but this ain’t that.
“But if she said those remarks as an official, then she has to go.”
Again as some have pointed out….She wasn’t an official, lack of properly navigating literacy kills…bible, koran, examples.
not to mention the resent death of a former KKK member who served as a “life” long lawmaker.
Unbelievable. There is no word to describe this level of stupidity:
So it doesn’t matter that she wasn’t working for the government when the events occurred over 25 years ago, what matters is that she was working for the government when she described the events that took place 25 years ago.
See? SEE? As a government official it his her responsibility not to talk about things she did 25 years previously that she would and could not do as a government official. SEE????
This is why assholes like Breitbart win: Because there’s a lot of really, really, really stupid morons in the world. And he knows it.
Thanks, Chris. You’re brilliant.
Oh is that the angle he’s going for….I was just killed.
Still ideology in this case is plain brilliant!
OK, if you want to argue over whether this was the best way to have her leave, that’s a different story. They definetely could have done a better job.
The fact remains that she actively discriminated against someone. They could be lifelong friends or strangers. It’s great that she learned from it but the incident occured.
Now, what folks here are arguing for is essentially EVERY OTHER POLICY initiative to suffer because President Obama will need to defend her while actively keeping her in her position. No.
The person everyone here should be angry at is her. She shouldn’t have discriminated against anyone and she should do a far better job at speaking in public.
The mic is always on.
You know what, Chris? When Obama was a US Senator he admitted that he smoked pot. He said publicly, while as an official, “When I was a kid, I inhaled” while serving in a high level, post in government.
I guess we should demand his resignation because it’s against the law to smoke pot. It’s the only non-hypocritical thing for him to do now.
The fact remains that she actively discriminated against someone.
How so, genius? Here’s the current mission statement for the coop she worked for:
http://www.federationsoutherncoop.com/mission.htm
So she helped the white guy but not as much as would have helped a black person because the co-op is there to serve black people ESPECIALLY.
Please tell us all now that a co-op which is there, especially for African Americans, is racist because no one should get special treatment from a private, non-profit enterprise.
Please.
Like how you are making this personal already, fafaroo.
Your missing the point. Because she admitted to racism, now every decision she made as a public official is now cast in doubt.
How do we know she isn’t a racist anymore? What other incidents are there?
Those aren’t random yahoo questions. That’s what any suspecting mind would want to know.
I understand the anger and I would be the first to say that the Right-Wing got a scalp here. Unfortunately for the Dems, she admitted to it.
You are confusing the issue at hand. SHE CLEARLY STATED that the organizational mission was not the deciding factor. She didn’t make the case that the organization couldn’t help the farmer because the organization was not equipped to do so.
She made the case that she didn’t do everything she could do based off of HER OWN BIAS.
That’s the issue and the problem.
Your missing the point. Because she admitted to racism, now every decision she made as a public official is now cast in doubt.
Really? I’m missing the point? Because I thought, and Sherrod says, that her point in admitting that she let race color her decision making once, 25 years ago, was to illustrate that SHE WAS WRONG when she did it. She says in the video, that events drove home the point to her that race wasn’t as important as helping the “have nots” regardless of their race.
She was actually explaining the incident that brought her to the race neutral position she has today. That was her point.
Now if you can’t see that, you are an idiot. It ain’t personal, Chris, it’s just business. This is a fact.
chris k. not only conveniently ignores that breitbart’s video was selectively edited, but that the supposed victim of Ms. Sherrod, Ms. Spooner, has called into CNN and done an interview stating that there was no racism, that Sherrod did everything she could, that the farm was saved, and that the Spooners consider Sherrod “a friend for life”.
It’s easy to miss that stuff when you’re trying to defend the indefensible, and prostituting your intellect in the service of lies. Which of course makes Mr. K a liar, just like his hero Andy Breitbart.
Chris K – honestly your just talking in circles right now. How do we know she isn’t a racist anymore? What other incidents are there?
Please so no salvation? No chance to ever change? To learn from past mistakes and move forward? What you’re saying is ridiculous.
See Byrd, Robert, Senator
She made the case that she didn’t do everything she could do based off of HER OWN BIAS.
AND LEARNED THAT WAS WRONG! 25 FUCKING YEARS AGO!
Idiot.
Two completely different scenarios. Nice try, though.
One has to do with getting high.
The other has to do with HOLDING A GRUDGE based on skin color and MAKING A DECISION as a human being on whether to help someone in need.
Oh really? I thought the actual specifics of the incident didn’t matter:
What matters, apparently, is that she admitted to something she did 25 years ago that she is not allowed to do now in her current capacity as a government official.
It’s as against the law to smoke pot as it is to discriminate against people while working for the government.
Both Obama and Sherrod have admitted to doing these things while holding government positions.
I am sitting at my computer trying desperately to come up with a description of how ‘STOO-PID’ Chris sounds.(This is not name calling as I described how you sound, not what you are).
Maybe you are one of those people who, when busted, cannot find it within to say “I was wrong…sorry”, but make no mistake…you are wrong.
Please answer Fafaroo’s Obama/marajuana question.
“She made the case that she didn’t do everything she could do based off of HER OWN BIAS.”
And apparently the fact that the White farmer was initially being a jerk toward her because she was Black.
If we fire everyone who admits to racism in the past 25 years (and never mind if it was subsequently regretted) a 10% unemployment rate will look like an ice cream sundae.
Once again, obscuring the facts. The problem isn’t that the people never recieved help or that she didn’t learn of the incident.
As a public official, you don’t engage in racism. If we are trying to hold other people to that standard, we need to hold ourselves to that standard.
Your missing the point. Because she admitted to racism, now every decision she made as a public official is now cast in doubt.
The logical fallacy on display here is monumental, Chris.
The whole point of her admission is that she realized she was wrong, and then not only gave the white family farmers the attention they deserved, she also gave them (according to said farmers) attention above and beyond.
As a public official, you don’t engage in racism. If we are trying to hold other people to that standard, we
need to hold ourselves to that standard.
And who says that Sherrod doesn’t hold to that standard? She was not a public official when the incident occurred and she says the incident taught her that race should not be a consideration who gets assistance.
Of course, if you’re going start the discussion by arguing that the actual facts and context of the incident–who she worked for, when it happened, what she learned–don’t matter, gosh, I guess you’re right: Sherrod is a racist.
You just have to overlook every fact and bit of context to get there. Just like Breitbart did.
Brilliant, Chris. You’re just brilliant.
Sure, people change. But you are not including the people hurt throughout. I would have pushed for Sen. Byrd to resign, BTW.
Based on your statement, as long as the Tea Party says that racism is bad and that we can change, all of their past transgressions are forgiven without punishment.
Once again, obscuring the facts. The problem isn’t that the people never recieved help or that she didn’t learn of the incident.
This statement really simply astonishing.
Chris, you’re accusing someone of obscuring the facts just before you tell us that the facts don’t matter.
You’re right, Chris: We’re obscuring the facts when we should just be ignoring them.
Sure, people change. But you are not including the people hurt throughout.
Oh? Really? Well by all means, let’s include the people that Sherrod hurt:
http://www.ajc.com/news/farmers-wife-says-fired-574027.html
I suppose you mean all the other white people that Sherrod has admitted to treating unfairly. Oh, wait, she didn’t admit that? Well, now, since we can’t really know for sure how many white peoples’ lives she destroyed while working for a farming co-op designed to “especially help African Americans” she really should have been forced to resign.
Just to be on the safe side.
Yes, she said that on tape twenty-five years later. When, exactly, did she learn the lesson on race?
What I am seeing here is everyone bending over backwards to defend this woman. Great.
What we need to understand is that this use of resources is a problem. Instead of spending time defending this woman for a mistake she completely admitted to we need to be spending time getting the work done for America.
More time defending her is less time working on legislation or holding corporations accountable, etc. This is what the administration sees that you are not seeing. Keeping her on the payroll means having to spend tons of time doing exactly what you are doing now.
Which, ultimately serves no purpose. Sure, you defend against the Right-Wing machine. But, at the expense of getting nothing done that actually helps people.
You guys need to understand how scandal politics work. The whole point of it is to get the left focused on scandals rather than actually move legislation forward.
Based on your statement, as long as the Tea Party says that racism is bad and that we can change, all of their past transgressions are forgiven without punishment.
All of their past transgressions is what the sane among us call “Monday.” And they haven’t proven a whit that they can change.
Again, again, again, the point of Sherrod’s story is that she realized she was wrong, and frankly a lot sooner than Byrd did. You’re arguing that it doesn’t matter if she realized she was wrong, she should be punished in perpetuity for a moment for which she managed to make amends.
The God of the Old Testament is more forgiving than you.
“I would have pushed for Sen. Byrd to resign, BTW.”
Would you have done the same to Strom Thurmond?
You guys need to understand how scandal politics work. The whole point of it is to get the left focused on scandals rather than actually move legislation forward.
There’s an old axiom about your entire line of thinking, Chris, about babies and bathwater.
The administration did what was politically expedient without doing what was right. The last administration that behaved as such cost us the lives and limbs of thousands of American soldiers.
“You guys need to understand how scandal politics work. The whole point of it is to get the left focused on scandals rather than actually move legislation forward.”
So, if you were in her shoes, you would resign for the good of the country?
Ok I get it, Chris K is trying to tie all of our racial troubles to the back of this one woman. Poor Shirley Sherrod has to bear the burden of the hundreds and hundreds of years of unfair treatment against white people. She should be punished without haste for a mistake she made, acknowledged and rectified more than 25 years ago, I get it now.
Chris – your argument is false. Your logic is false and you simply refuse to admit it. No one is perfect and this woman was railroaded by the RW noise machine and you, for some untold reason, don’t find fault in the railroading, but in the bound and gagged woman laying on the tracks.
Wow.
You guys need to understand how scandal politics work. The whole point of it is to get the left focused on scandals rather than actually move legislation forward.–Chris K
Right, we should fold every time a wind bag douche like Breitbart lies and gets a administration official fired because it distracts us from the work we need to do.
That whole post was so beyond concern troll/weasely I am kind of stunned.
I’m not even commenting on the above back and forth. What I’d like to know is this: For this white farmer to seek help from a private nonprofit, he must have gotten no help from Rural Development or Farm Service Agency. These are the agencies in USDA that loan the money to farmers. I’m pretty sure those offices were staffed with whites in 86 (I was the only black female in the whole state of NY in USDA back then). I wonder why he was not serviced there? And if he was, what happened? Can you imagine how desparate a southern white farmer would have to be to go there for help? It would be interesting to know the backstory.
You guys need to understand how scandal politics work. The whole point of it is to get the left focused on scandals rather than actually move legislation forward.
It would be a wonderful world if the administration could just fire Sherrod and everyone would just forget about the whole thing. But the damage has been done already. As you said yourself:
Yeah, well, the Obama administration hired her. Aren’t all of its hires now in doubt because they forced her to resign? And if their hires are in doubt, what about its policies?
A narrative is being formed on the right, Chris. You can see it in the Arizona law, in the NBPP case and now here: Obama isn’t fair to white people.
Forcing Sherrod to resign didn’t disprove this in the minds of those who believe this narrative, it confirmed it. That action said to them: “See, the Obama administration hired someone who acts based on race” and now they’re asking “How can we know there aren’t more? And how can we know their policies aren’t racially-biased?”
Forcing Sherrod to resign was the worst they could have done because it confirmed the narrative, it didn’t dispel it.
So they’ve opened the doors to more and more of the same.
Chris K.: The fact remains that she actively discriminated against someone. They could be lifelong friends or strangers. It’s great that she learned from it but the incident occured.
So every mistake anyone ever makes in their life should be held against them forever. Even those they learn from and end up becoming a better person because of.
Doesn’t matter that it was nearly half a lifetime ago.
Doesn’t matter that the folks actually involved are not bothered by or even concerened about it.
Once upon a time someone who ended up with a government job did something stupid and wrong so let’s drive tehm out of public service.
Is that the standard by which you’d like to be judged, Chris?
The person everyone here should be angry at is her. She shouldn’t have discriminated against anyone and she should do a far better job at speaking in public.
The mic is always on.
Yes, by all means. Let’s get rid of those who speak honestly of their experiences and mistakes. We only want people who know how to work the system and put forth a false face.
Chris K.: Because she admitted to racism, now every decision she made as a public official is now cast in doubt.
On one side a thing she did 25 years ago. On the other side everything she’s done since and the esteem in which she’s held by those she once wronged.
Yeah, that scale should tip totally toward that first side.
That only makes sense. Right, Chris?
How do we know she isn’t a racist anymore? … Unfortunately for the Dems, she admitted to it.
To what, Chris? To what exactly did she admit? It wasn’t to being a racist as you suggest.
Chris K.: The problem isn’t that the people never recieved help or that she didn’t learn of the incident.
As a public official, you don’t engage in racism.
And, as a public official, has she? 25 years ago, she wasn’t a public official. Have their been any accusations of her being racist in far more recent years when she has been working for the government?
Your moral high horse is 23 hands deep bullshit.
If we are trying to hold other people to that standard, we need to hold ourselves to that standard.
So, Chris, what mistakes did you make decades ago that we should use to utterly dismiss anything you’ve accomplished since then?
That’s the standard you’re saying we should hold you to.
If you believe for a femtosecond that because she was prompted to resign immediately that this fake “scandal” is now over, then you haven’t been paying attention for about the last decade.
I can assure you that as far as the evening cable news shows are concerned, this will be THE ONLY THING THAT HAPPENED TODAY. It will be all the Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly, etc. will talk about and then the other news outlets will have to talk about the fact that they’re talking about it…
Then Republican Congressmen will take the House floor burning with righteous indignation that such discrimination could be practiced, and DEMAND a through review of all federal agencies for institutional reverse-racism. Next, every snotty cracker who feels that the Nigra down at the local DMV wasn’t sufficiently prostrate before him will now call in to his local radio station and insist he has been discriminated against too just like that awful mean Obammmy woman did to that poor upstanding salt of the earth farmer years ago, etc. etc. ad infinitum, until Obama is impeached.
Chris K.: What I am seeing here is everyone bending over backwards to defend this woman.
What I am seeing here is you bending over backwards to insist that anyone less pure than Christ should be forced out of public service. You’ve had to dismiss facts, utterly ignore what was actually said, completely disregard the comments of the people actually involved and make up unsupported suppositions to support your claim that she’s always and still is a racist and therefore unfit to serve.
Instead of spending time defending this woman for a mistake she completely admitted to we need to be spending time getting the work done for America.
And that work can only be done by people who don’t admit or learn from their mistakes. Right, Chris?
This is what the administration sees that you are not seeing. Keeping her on the payroll means having to spend tons of time doing exactly what you are doing now.
Which, ultimately serves no purpose.
On the contrary. Yes, it would be a distraction now. But the proper course isn’t to cave and give in to the wingnuts who are lying and care nothing for getting the right work done. You don’t give in to terrorists; it just convinces them to keep doing it.
The proper course is to call the liars liars. To condemn their attempts to slander her and to distract the administration from doing all that important work you really want them to focus on.
By your standard, it’s the victim’s fault for tying up the court’s time.
Giant piece of shit Breitbart to TPM
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/breitbart_i_did_not_edit_this_thing.php
Democrats caving to right wing fake ginned-up bullshit? No way!
Great post Oliver, agree 100%. I’ve already e-mailed the USDA. I hope they do the right thing, but I doubt it.
Are you illiterate as well as denser than lead bricks? She said she learned that lesson almost immediately — she referred the farmer to a white attorney who wasn’t helping. So she had a change of heart almost immediately.
I notice this Chris troll is showing up on all the liberal blogs making the same dense argument.
When I heard what Sherrod said I just assumed that she misspoke. However, if she really meant it then I do believe that it deserves termination.
The NAACP learns what we all know. Never trust right wing shit heads.
http://www.naacp.org/press/entry/naacp-statement-on-the-resignation-of-shirley-sherrod1/
Do *not* get me started on this POS “statement” from the NAACP. They did not apologize to her at all. It’s a teachable moment for activists and journalists, but not themselves. They bore no responsibility at all. GRRRR
From Marco’s link:
One wouldn’t want to wait for teh entire thing before destroying a career, now would they. Why, that’d be irresponsible.
“Present tense” being nearly 25 years in the past, of course.
Yes, and asking someone to swear that they’d defend the Constitution is the same as calling them a terrorist.
What a moran.
Breitbart said his source sent him just the edited clips at first, but is in the process of sending the full video.
Considering what happened the last time Breitbart pulled this stunt, I wouldn’t count on it.
Speaking of which, have we seen the fabled Michelle Obama “whitey” tape that Sean Hannity promised?
ou guys need to understand how scandal politics work”
Every time someone lies about you…resign and piss yourself in a corner.
Jeez. Lets just forget that if she actually discriminated againsts these people, she wouldn’t help them at all.
I know Obama is skiddish about race, but grow a set! You know how you win when the right wing lies? Point out there lies. Obama did it with unemployment benefits which had me cheering but one brave turn begats a capitulation. F’ing sad.
This goes to the heart of some of the differences Oliver and I have had over this presidency. When he hears criticism of Obama, he immediately wants to play “punch the hippie” and blame the more progressive side of the blogosphere for not thinking Obama is liberal enough.
No, no, no. We’ve been criticizing Obama over Healthcare, Afghanistan, and the need for a second stimulus bill because he isn’t enough of a fighter. He needs a bigger pair, and quick.
He and Rahm are still trying to stake out a middle-ground that hasn’t existed since November, 2001.
“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple where the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.”
The Art of War
Bunch of peace-time consiglieri in this administration. Really, “Beck might criticize us” is not a problem, but a condition. Not knowing the difference between problems and conditions is almost a pass-fail fail of executive function and capacity. Problems have solutions; conditions don’t.
I’ve said it before and it bears repeating: Obama needs to stop acting so damn collegial, and get in touch with his inner ni**er. They want a “scary black man?” GIVE IT TO THEM. Hell, no other approach seems to work.
I’m thinking of an old Moms Mabley bit where a black Northern man goes into a Texas filling station and doesn’t show the appropriate level of deference to the owner. “You’re in Texas, boy!” he sneers. The owner demonstrates his “supremacy” by flipping a coin and shooting a hole in it while midair, daring the black guy to “top that.”
The brother throws an apple into the air, and as Moms describes it, “out with his switchblade, peeled it, cored it, and cut it up into little pieces before it even hit the ground!”
The owner is only able to say, “How much gas you want, Mister??!!”
Obama needs to be that kind of ni**er: a brother who don’t take no unnecessary shit from NOBODY. He needs to ditch the Stepin Fetchit act and become John Shaft.
Ya daaaaamn right!
Oliver, if you have the chance, please read this excellent piece by my friend John V. Moore on the Sherrod matter.
Haha. Glenn Beck is actually defending Sherrod.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/glenn_beck_defends_shirley_sherrod_its_possible_th.php?ref=fpa
Somebody has a pair of balls, and it ain’t Barack Obama.
Beck is just looking for a line of attack vs Sherrod. I clearly think Obama screwed the pooch on this, but Beck’s no hero.
Of course he’s not. But in the PR battle he’s the winner. And that frustrates me to no end, but it’s also starting to be funny.
I say we blame Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald for this mess.
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Check mate. Sad.
So did someone finally kick that Chris K. asshole in the balls?
This is a prime example of how they operate. Smear and repeat until something sticks, then make it look to the tools like they were doing it “for the good of the country” if the smear works and they got caught. Obfuscate the issue by repeating that “See!! They do it too!!”. The real motive is power and control. But most of us knew that already.
“Don’t start nothing won’t be nothing” is easy one on one. But in front of a live national audience, most of whom are gullible emotional tools, it’s is easier said than done. I’m still just watching this one. At the end of the day the birthers did look like fools, and some kind of health care did get passed when everybody said it was dead and the system broken. The Administration may have an answer for this one too.
That being said, Breitbart is a piece of shit. And any fans he has left are gullible tools.
No, dave, I think Rahm texted him and told him to go troll some other thread where Obama is catching flak. Beating dead horse and all, you know.
Oliver, I think you mean they have his extremities in a vise, not a vice.
On the Sunday talk shows Howard Dean also admitted/confirmed that it was the Obama administrations all consuming fear of Glenn Beck that caused this debacle to precede in the way it did.
Confirmation.