The Professional Left Would Rather Fart

I told y'all, but y'all wouldn't listen. I told y'all two years ago that Europe was veering precipitously to the Right. Every time an election was held in a major EU country, the conservatives would prevail:- the UK, Ireland, Holland, Germany, Denmark, now Italy and Spain. There's an election in France next year, and whilst Sarko is a centre-Right politician, his main rival will be Little Miss Le Pen, who makes Sarah Palin look Progressive.

Wanna know how far to the Right she'd be? Well, suffice it to say, when the Allies liberated France, if Mlle Le Pen had been hunkering around, her compatriots would have shaved her head for her.

Nicholas Kristof, writing in yesterday's New York Times blames the economies of those countries. I would say he's right, but I'd also add an immigration problem as well. In Europe, especially in Scandinavia, racism is the new black (pun intended).

Well, here's Kristof's words of wisdom to the Democratic Left:-

In this economic crisis, Obama will face the same headwinds. That should provide a bracing warning to grumbling Democrats: If you don’t like the way things are going right now, just wait.

President Obama came into office with expectations that Superman couldn’t have met. Many on the left believed what the right feared: that Obama was an old-fashioned liberal. But the president’s cautious centrism soured the left without reassuring the right.

Like many, I have disappointments with Obama. He badly underestimated the length of this economic crisis, and for a man with a spectacular gift at public speaking, he has been surprisingly inept at communicating.

But as we approach an election year, it is important to acknowledge the larger context: Obama has done better than many critics on the left or the right give him credit for.

He took office in the worst recession in more than half a century, amid fears of a complete economic implosion. As The Onion, the satirical news organization, described his election at the time: “Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job.”

The administration helped tug us back from the brink of economic ruin. Obama oversaw an economic stimulus that, while too small, was far larger than the one House Democrats had proposed. He rescued the auto industry and achieved health care reform that presidents have been seeking since the time of Theodore Roosevelt.

Despite virulent opposition that has paralyzed the government, Obama bolstered regulation of the tobacco industry, signed a fair pay act and tightened control of the credit card industry. He has been superb on education, weaning the Democratic Party from blind support for teachers’ unions while still trying to strengthen public schools.

In foreign policy, Obama has taken a couple of huge risks. He approved the assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, and despite much criticism he led the international effort to overthrow Muammar el-Qaddafi. So far, both bets are paying off.

Granted, the economic downturn overshadows all else, as happens in every presidency. Ronald Reagan, the Teflon president, saw his job approval rating sink to 35 percent in January 1983 because of economic troubles. A faltering economy sent the popularity of the first president Bush into a tailspin, tumbling to 29 percent in 1992.

By comparison, President Obama has about a 43 percent approval rating, according to Gallup.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois tells me he thinks that liberals will eventually unite behind the president. “It’s never going to be the first date we had four years ago,” he said. “But I don’t question the fact that he’ll have the support of the left.”

Still, it’s hard to see how Obama will replicate the turnout that swept him into office, or repeat victories in crucial states like Florida and Ohio.

Then again, Republicans face a similar enthusiasm gap with their likely nominee, Mitt Romney. (Republicans keep searching for any other candidate who they think would be electable, when they already have one: Jon Huntsman. They just don’t like him.)

Earlier this month, I asked Bill Clinton — who has a better intuitive feel for politics than anyone I know — about Obama’s chances for re-election. “I’ll be surprised if he’s not re-elected,” Clinton said, adding that Obama would do better when matched against a specific opponent like Romney.

Clinton said that Romney did “a very good job” as governor of Massachusetts and would be a credible general election candidate. But Clinton added that Romney or any Republican nominee would be hampered by “a political environment in the Republican primary that basically means you can’t be authentic unless you’ve got a single-digit I.Q.”

The credit Kristof gives the President for his achievements is grudging at the least. First, yes, the stimulus was smaller than needed. It had to be. At the time it was achieved, the President simply didn't have the 60 votes needed to secure the amount desireable. He was short of this magic number by three votes: Al Franken's victory was still under scrutiny and Ted Kennedy was ill. At best, had they both been seated, there would have been a necessity for one Republican to cross the aisle. This time they needed and got three - the two women from Maine and Arlen Specter (who re-became a Democrat shortly after this). The stimulus had to be reduced or they would never have secured Collins's and Snowe's votes. At any rate, it ultimately saved/created 3,000,000 jobs, so it wasn't that much of a failure.

Secondly, I wish the media would disabuse themselves of trying to convince people that the President is not a great communicator. He simply is. If one doesn't understand what he's saying, one's either stupid or letting one's white privilege deafen one's ears.

It's worth looking at the President's accomplishments, especially in light of the fallacious meme being pushed forever by Professional Left-troublemakers-cum-ratfuckers like Bill Maher, who consistently states that the President doesn't represent any real Democratic policies. That's a blatant lie and Maher knows it. I know his ilk are bored stiff with Lily Ledbetter, and of course, Bill conveniently forgets the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Act or the fact that DADT has been repealed. Smell like pretty Democratic policies to me - oh, along with healthcare too.

As someone else said, if George Bush had accomplished everything this President had achieved, they'd be carving his face on Mount Rushmore right now. Still, Kristof's suitably pithy, even though he actually admits that this President was given a hellacious task.

But then, Kristof makes a statement that only convinces me that headupassitis is now a bona fide pandemic:-

I’m hoping the European elections will help shock Democrats out of their orneriness so that they accept the reality that we’ll be facing not a referendum, but a choice. For a couple of years, the left has joined the right in making Obama a piñata. That’s fair: it lets off steam, and it’s how we keep politicians in line.

No, sorry, Nick. That's neither fair nor wise. For the past three years, initiated by Queen Ratfucker Omnipotent of Medialand, Arianna Huffington, and aided and abetted by such cleverly disguised racists and assorted grifters as Bill Maher, Jane Hamsher, Glenn Greenwald, Adam Green, Michael Moore and Joan Walsh, there has been a constant barrage of wanton criticism, snark, ad hominem and just general bullshit levelled at this President to such a degree as to be unbelieveable.

Yes, the Left did join with the Right in wantonly criticizing literally everything this President did or didn't do. We aided and abetted the Opposition in a way I've never seen the Democrats or anyone from the Left do. When a high-profiled Leftwing media figure joins hands with Grover Norquist, effectively, to kill healthcare legislation because it wasn't to her specific liking, when she makes the rounds proudly on Fox News to do so, one has to wonder at the dynamics of such a reaction.

Further on, especially since such well-known Leftwing voices such as Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Chris Matthews and Joan Walsh make and are called out for their racist statements, you almost know what's actually at the root of all this "helpful" criticism of the President. It's certainly not constructive, it's condescending and patronising.

It might be how one keeps politicians in line in general, Nick; but in practice, with this President, y'all are dog whistlin'.

And helpful?

That "criticism" levelled down to a major league host of an MSNBC political commentary show, Ed Schultz, actually telling people not to vote in the Midterms. You can actually listen to Ed spewing this line here, and you can listen to a woman confronting him about it and Ed lying his way out of it here. (And aren't you surprised by how much Schultz actually sounds like Rush Limbaugh?)

When you've spent the entire length of the President's (hopefully) first term calling him names like "quisling" (Olbermann), "moron" (Cenk Uygur), "dick" (Mark Halperin) and "pussy" (Bill Maher); when you've gone on Twitter and gone viral, asserting that supporters of the President who question your opinions are Republican trolls on Andrew Breitbart's payroll (Joan Walsh), you really have to wonder what the so-called liberal media's motives are. After all, as the real Progressive blogger Milt Shook points out, such wanton and unnecessary criticism is not only detrimental to the President, but to Progressive politics, in general.

Finally, Kristof magnanimously concludes:-

But think back to 2000. Many Democrats and journalists alike, feeling grouchy, were dismissive of Al Gore and magnified his shortcomings. We forgot the context, prided ourselves on our disdainful superiority — and won eight years of George W. Bush.

This time, let’s do a better job of retaining perspective. If we turn Obama out of office a year from now, let’s make sure it is because the Republican nominee is preferable, not just out of grumpiness toward the incumbent during a difficult time.

How white of Nicholas Kristof! What he needs to do, if he has the courage, is to call out, name and shame the culprits responsible for this dilemma. Maher and Moore trolled the country passing the meme, in 2000, that Bush and Gore were the same - best vote for Nader. Now, when they're not making racist jibes at the President and hiding behind the comedy of the situation (haha), they're pushing the subtle message of not voting.

Media Whoreanna purrs that she just might vote Republican, as long as the Republican is responsible - just not Romney (Mormon), Perry (Southern) or Cain (black). She never mentioned Ron Paul, however, or her former snugglebunny, Newt.

The truth is - but Nick Kristof would never acknowledge it, because it would mean breaking ranks with his brethren in the Fourth Estate - we could have been in so much a better situation for re-election if we'd only had half the support the liberal tranche of the media gave Bill Clinton.

But instead of breaking rank and being honest, Kristof, like others of his ilk on the Professional Left, would rather break wind like the big farts they are.