A few months ago I wrote about how I really really want the president of the United States to be someone who is the national leader of the country and not just a party chairman. I feel the need to point this out again in the middle of some of the typical blogosphere whining over Sen. Obama’s appearance Sunday on Fox News.
There are certain things I demand out of a Democratic candidate, but I don’t labor under the pretense that the person is going to check, check, check down the line for the progressive movement. Do I want them to sound like a Republican and echo conservative phrasing? No. But to act as if a deviation from the line will cause the universe to collapse on itself? Come on.
In the case of Sen. Obama I say again: I don’t want a cheerleader for the Democratic party. I want an adult to set this country back on the path of righteousness.
This comment from Matt Stoller’s comment thread does a good job of summing things up:
The job of a candidate for US President is to put together a winning coalition, not to pamper the tender egos or play into the macho fantasies of his/her supporters.
If you are this disappointed by Obama the candidate, you will weep bitterly as Obama the President tacks and weaves just like FDR did and as every politician has to. The question is balance and total direction. What you people have failed to understand is that the problem with Bill Clinton was not that he was expedient, but that his goals were limited to his own personal political success.
Most of us who support Obama are not under the illusion that he is a magical hero or that he is a progressive miracle worker. He’s a smart politician trying an potentially game changing tack that may reconstitute a pro-working-american coalition. So we don’t weep and gnash our teeth and demand constant reassurance or go into hysterics at every imagined slight.
Grow up, children.
I know I’m too cynical, but the sort of utopianism pushed in some corners of the progressive blogosphere are just kind of nutty.
Good Post. Obama is a kind of candidate we haven’t seen in a long time. He speaks to people as if they are adults, and he treats people of all corners of the political spectrum as if they count. I want a president who is aa citizen of the world. After 8 years of jingoistic bull shit, I want someone erudite and calm, who is measured and thoughtful in his speech and his actions. Our relations to the rest of the world have never been so tenuous and volatile, and we need a leader who is capable of sane foreign policy. I think Barack has shown admirable restraint in dealing with his opponents. As much as I’d like him to occasionally tell them to kiss his ass, I appreciate that he knows there is a better waay to deal with the opposition. It’s as if the liberal blogosphere expected a smack-down on FOX. If that were Obama’s style, he wouldn’t inspires the kind of hope that he does.
I felt the same way as you and Morgaine, Oliver. I was happy that he boycotted Fox for as long as he did, and if he felt that now was the time to end it, to talk to an audience containing members he could sway, fine with me. And you’re absolutely right about the whining from some on the left — as much as would be fun to pretend that we could impose the same kind of purity tests on our leaders as the wingnuts demand from there’s, it’s really well past time for the grownups to take over.
(theirs) But you knew that.
The problem is that Faux Noise taunts Democrats at every opportunity. Just look at Chris Wallace’s reponse when it was made known that Obama would appear on the network this weekend. It makes Democrats look weak. Yeah it might be childish but why do Democrats always have to give in? When are we going to demand that Republicans be president of the whole country? I don’t hear Republicans being beat over the head with the fact that they won’t go on Air America, KO, or any of the other so called liberal voices out there. Why is it that Democrats are always held to higher standards?
I want somebody elected who wants the job rather than somebody who wants the title.
KO won’t invite them into his echo chamber. And as for Air America, you’d reach more people by standing on a street corner in Poughkeepsie than you would by appearing on their network.
What you people have failed to understand is that the problem with Bill Clinton was not that he was expedient, but that his goals were limited to his own personal political success.
Again. Another comment from the Land of the Obvious. Ironic that these comments are coming from people who’ve have their noses up his ass for the last 16 years. Only over the last several months has the haze been cleared before their eyes.
The thing you don’t get Jay is that we were willing to deal with President Clinton’s personal b.s. because we had peace and prosperity. I could deal with a goofy-ass president like George W. Bush if he wasn’t fucking up the country in the process.
Obama threw the blogosphere under the FOX bus.
As proof of his credentials, he told Wallace that he was “attacked” attacked! at DailyKOS!!
TRANSCRIPT:
OBAMA: No, look, I think this is fair. I would point out, though, for example, that when I voted for a tort reform measure that was fiercely opposed by the trial lawyers, I got attacked pretty hard from the left.
During the Roberts -
WALLACE: John Roberts, Supreme Court.
OBAMA: John Roberts nomination, although I voted against him, I strongly defended some of my colleagues who had voted for him on the Daily Kos, and was fiercely attacked as somebody who is, you know, caving in to Republicans on these fights.
Sooo, WTF? Who is Obama?
I feel like he has knocked down a lot of our cred with FOX, with the people who believe that Liberals will fold up and start crying when you punch them in the nose real hard.
I was hoping Obama was going to get a lot tougher as our cnadidate, not go limp and soft and give Wallace and FOX and McCain more clubs tohit him with.
I’m disgusted.
Ironic that these comments are coming from people who’ve have their noses up his ass for the last 16 years.
Really? You know the commenter over on Stoller’s blog?
Or are you just generalizing again?
Oh, Wellstone, come on.
You were disgusted before that.
God forbid the guy try to be gracious and try to come to grips with those who would speak against him (Clinton Scaife, Terry MacAuliffe *hearts* FOX News), so step off.
“I feel like he has knocked down a lot of our cred with FOX, with the people who believe that Liberals will fold up and start crying when you punch them in the nose real hard.”
Yes, he should have taken campaign donations from Rupert Murdoch like Hillary did.
“I’m disgusted.”
No, you’re a partisan Hillarybot that I can only hope loves his country more than he hates Obama come election day.
Obama did less damage on Fox than Clinton chairman McAuliffe did by going on air and cutting a promo for them, Sen Obama didn’t throw anyone under the bus. Get new talking points from Hillaryland.
Wellstone:
Kos himself didn’t think Obama was throwing him under the bus.
Good post. I’m mystified by the level of disgust from liberals over the interview. After all, a huge part of Obama’s appeal is his willingness to talk to America’s enemies.
Yeah, that’s right