The American Spectator : Rationalization Summer

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Rationalization Summer

By Matt Purple on 9.10.10 @ 6:08AM

The left's unhealthy state of denial about the midterms.

The evidence has become overwhelming: Democrats are headed for a colossal disaster in 2010. The enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats is enormous. Turnout in Republican primaries is exceeding that of Democrat primaries for the first time since 1930. A roundup of political scientists at the Huffington Post projected that Republicans would pick up anywhere from 22 to 52 House seats. And those dreaded words, "The Senate is in play," have been echoing across the blogosphere for the past two weeks.

Initially, leftists responded to the bad poll numbers by ignoring them or claiming the public would swoon for Democrats once their legislation took fuller effect. The stimulus would be seen as a success story after the economy rebounded this summer. ObamaCare would become beloved once the subsidy checks were in the mail.

None of that happened. Now that Black Tuesday looms less than two months away, the sledgehammer of bad news is finally starting to hit Democrats on the head. And it's everyone else's fault.

Washington Post columnist and Keith Olbermann sounding board Eugene Robinson is blaming the voters, whom he accuses of having a "temper tantrum." He writes, "The nation demands the impossible: quick, painless solutions to long-term, structural problems." Robinson claims this observation is nonpartisan and that he could have made it at any point during the last two decades. But by some stars-aligned coincidence, he decided to bring it up this year.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Cynthia Tucker sees a nation in the throes of rage against minorities. "While some prognosticators were naïve enough to believe that Obama's election signaled the beginning of a post-racial era, it prompted something altogether different: a backlash against the browning of America," she declares.

Here's how her theory works: America was doing just fine for much of 2008 and 2009, having elected and supported its first black president. Then late last year -- around the time that health care reform was being debated -- white Americans suddenly woke up and realized they didn't have jobs and that there were more black people living in their neighborhoods. This led to the ascendancy of noted Tea Party white supremacists like Allen West and Marco Rubio. It also catalyzed Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally where Dr. Martin Luther King's niece was applauded wildly.

The liberal blogosphere is fretting that Republicans will clean up this year because progressives will stay home. If only President Obama had fired up a health care public option and spent more time groveling to unions, they reason, the country's mammoth progressive majority would be more jazzed. That's a tough sell considering the progressive left couldn't win a primary race in Arkansas that it poured millions of dollars into. Only 20% of Americans identify as liberal or progressive, according to a Gallup poll from a few months ago, compared with 42% who call themselves conservative. For all the talk about keeping the Democratic base happy, progressives actually compose a very measly group.

I'm no psychologist, but I'd like to ask this question: Is this massive rationalization mentally healthy? I'd always thought the first step to solving a problem is admitting that you have a problem. When searching for the key to their unpopularity, shouldn't the Democrats spend more time looking in a mirror?

It's not likely to happen. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the Democrats' most convincing rationalization is being promoted by almost every media outlet. We hear it over and over again: Democrats are going to lose because they haven't mended the economy. Thus can the lamentations begin. If only the Democrats had focused on jobs! If only the stimulus had been larger! If only we'd socked it to the rich harder!

Paul Krugman doesn't even write columns anymore. He just rearranges those three sentences and mails them to his editor.

Of course the economy is forefront on everyone's mind, with GDP growth sluggish and unemployment close to 10%. But voting trends are complex and usually driven by multiple causes. Is the economy really the sharpest nail in the Democrats' coffin?

Jay Cost of Real Clear Politics doesn't think so. Cost graphed the numbers and found that support for Democrats began to tank during the third and fourth quarters of 2009 -- right as GDP growth was picking up and unemployment was decreasing. That's when independents, who supported Obama by 8 points in 2008, began jumping ship.

So why on earth would voters start tarring Democrats over the economy right as it was picking up? That was the same time that the ObamaCare debate was dominating the news and the Tea Parties were taking shape. It was the beginning of a tidal wave of voter discontent over the president's swell-the-state progressivism.

The truth is that Barack Obama's agenda, with health care at its centerpiece, seen as both too radical and completely ineffective by the American people, did Democrats in.

The poll numbers have borne this out for most of 2010. Rasmussen found that 57% of likely voters think the Democrats' agenda is too extreme, compared to only 40% for the Republicans' agenda. Gallup found that a record plurality thought Democrats were too liberal.

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About the Author

Matt Purple is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (92) | Leave a comment

Deborah D| 9.10.10 @ 6:22AM

When you think that you're the smartest people in the room, think you know it all and that you are born to rule, it's difficult to see the truth. The Democrats have lied to themselves so often that it's become a way of life. They've lied to the rest of the country so often that they don't know how to to do anything else. Their problem is -- Americans figured out they were liars a long time ago, and now we don't trust them with the reins of power, and won't for a long time. They also thought they could steal and/or buy votes with stimulus money and the help of ACORN and those who will not prosecute them. Let's hope we win big so their money and their illegal activity won't do them any good. Then let's sit back and watch their heads explode.

Pat Spooner| 9.10.10 @ 7:56AM

Deborah, you are spot on with your comment! It is time for the serfs to unite and vote the "ruling elite", out of our lives. The current crop of liberals in Washington have a problem, they have lied frequently to the American people and so must continue to lie to cover up their previous lies. The ruling elite steal as mush as possible from the public and live a lavish lifestyle (e.g., see Mrs. Pelosi flying to San Franscisco each weekend in a Boeing 757 that we working folk pay for!). Its time for the common folk to throw them out and return to a smaller government that adheres to the Constitution.

People reading this should also read your bog which has your wonderful piece from yesterday.

Lastly, I ask all Am Spec readers to say a prayer for: the families of the September 11, 2001 survivors; the families of all our servicemen and women who risk their lives daily to protect us and preserve freedom; the families of all our firsts responders and government employees involved in preventing similar attacks on American, the Greatest Country on Earth.

A Real Republican| 9.10.10 @ 9:30AM

Deborah,
Well stated but, if I might, pick at it just a bit? If we learned along time ago that Democrats are liars, and on that, the lying I agree as it is found in their DNA, then why have Democrats enjoyed recent success at the voting booth? Is it because too many suffer amnesia? Or that too many were taken in by glib words scrolling over a teleprompter? Or that like so many voters, they thought they could have utopia at a low cost? Or that they simply failed to do their homework? Anyone who bothered to take even the minimal time, could predict the realities of an Obama administration: progressive, arrogant, snotty, snooty, elitist, Marxist. If nothing else then perhaps Mr. Obama, in an unintended way, has crushed for the long term, any hope of any progressive seeking the high office he now holds. Or maybe we'll collectively suffer amnesia, again? I won't because I know the pathological lying that afflicts the other side but when too many in this country can't name their House Rep or Governor, a repitition of the abomination now shepherding this country, in the most wrong of directions, will rise again. That's a cold reality: too many voters so poorly informed of the past and the present.
with regards,
A Real Republican

Deborah D| 9.11.10 @ 5:08AM

You raise an excellent point, Real Republican. I believe it is up to us -- those who know they are the liars that they are -- to educate new voters. New voters are generally idealistic college students who have their brains filled with left-wing nonsense. Parents need to make sure to fill their heads with logic and truth before sending them off to the propaganda machine that is college. And, after this Obamanation of an administration, make sure they know they are the ones that will be paying for all of this government largesse -- and not just with their tax dollars, but with a lower standard of living than their parents had. In other words -- reminders that there is no free lunch are always in order.

mad libertarian guy| 9.11.10 @ 11:11AM

And your comment, Real Republican, shows that conservatives live in la-la land as much as liberals. You seem to think that Obama won his election based on perceived merit or some superior leftist propaganda when in reality Obama won not for any of your conspiracy theories, but because the voting polity was refuting Bush and neo-conism.

Conservatives are every bit as blind as liberals in that neither quite understand that the majority of the American public want nothing to do with either progressive or Republucan conservative policy. We want true liberty, not trumped up liberty as perceived by both sides who want to use government force in order to enforce their own personal socio-political agenda.

Warrior| 9.12.10 @ 11:00AM

Let me give you a virtual handshake. Well said. Republicans still do not understand that running large deficits, expanding government and increasing entitlements blurred any lines of distinction between them and their democrat peers.

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:33PM

"Thar's Neo-Cons in them thar hills, Chester!"

Alan Brooks| 9.11.10 @ 8:32PM

The question for me is: which RINO will the GOP run in 2012? Republicans say they wont compromise as they did in the past, but they ought to know politics is about compromise, and though the situation may have been different in the past, to be elected in the 21st century, a GOP candidate will have to be RINO.

Christopher Holland| 9.12.10 @ 10:32PM

If politics is about compromise, then please explain why the GOP should compromise with liberals when Obama looks like being the biggest train wreck in nearly a century? Your thesis is pretty bloody stupid - liberals are heading for electoral suicide because their incompetent extremism is completely out of touch with the voters, yet you say that conservatives will not get elected unless they make compromises with the liberals who just commited public seppuku. This idea is somewhere between completely mad and hopelessly incoherent.

The age old lesson for conservatives is they succeed when they stick to their principles - Ronald Reagan, take a bow!And they fail when compromisers like Bush and McCain babble on about being bipartisans and reaching out across the isle. Compassionate conservatism - kiss my sorry arse. Screw the Bushes and the McCains and their ilk, conservatives never needed them and don't want them, now or ever.

Alan Brooks| 9.13.10 @ 12:00AM

"The age old lesson for conservatives is they succeed when they stick to their principles - Ronald Reagan, take a bow!"

Reaganism couldn't succeed today. By helping to end the Cold War, he put his own party out of business. There isn't the unity today that there was when the Cold War was on; today the Rightwing is divided on the wars in the Mideast, and divided as to libertarianism versus old fashioned conservatism.

Don Carlson| 9.13.10 @ 4:42AM

Not all who call themselves 'conservative' are. The polls are misleading many hopeful Americans into believing that their fellow citizens are ultimately so thoughtful they will reject the leftist Democrats' and Obama's socialist agenda. I would not wager real money on that.
Besides that Americans failed to pay attention to what the clown was saying a few months before the election and, so, voted him into the presidency—they have also demonstrated themselves to be as greedy for government loot as any others in the world. Also, they are beaten over the head daily by an organized television and print press that will argue unashamedly that the deficits we now enjoy in the federal budget are being caused by the 'Bush' tax cuts rather than by Obama's efforts to make us dependent for our survival on him and his party---847 billion for the utterly absurd and completely failed 'stimulus' package, and several hundreds of billions more for various bailouts of his political supporters---the public service unions, the teachers unions, and the auto workers. Heavens! The Iraq war has cost less (709 billion) and has accomplished more.
No, Americans have not necessarily figured anything out, and the media are not going to help them do it, either. Among leaders of black America, people 'getting it together to act for themselves' means fighting to be sure a big slice of the federal pie goes to blacks. That suggests a marvelously funny 21st century definition of self-reliance. Until Americans understand that government cannot create either an economy or a culture, and that government cannot make material equality actual without instituting totalitarian bureaucracies, the nation will continue its ignoble decay into third-world impotence and degradation.
In the meantime, well-meaning hopers like DeborahD will sit back and wait for the Democrats to self-destruct. It doesn't occur to some that many Americans---perhaps most---are willing to believe that Bush is the cause of all our sorrows. For decades Americans believed FDR saved the country from the depression and bravely fought the Great War. But he coddled those enemies who survived the war, and he never learned what actually makes an economy tick. Who does that describe?

Appleby| 9.10.10 @ 7:06AM

But who is going to lead this Republican parade? Not the same washed up old fat guys who have been wasting our time since the 1990s, please. Is there nobody out there who has not been spending his university years getting drunk and studying gender identity in rock and roll, who has read the Federalist Papers and Alexis de Toqueville and understood them, who has had a full time job and made a success of it, and who can put together two entire sentences without saying YKnow, And I Go, f**k or s**t? Can we persuade him to take a term off and lead the charge?

And no, I am not looking for a young woman to lead the parade, because sadly, the instant we invest our time, talent and treasure in her, she will get pregnant.

Fenestra| 9.10.10 @ 8:34AM

So what if she does, you misogynist jackass. Her husband can take care of the child.

wodiej| 9.10.10 @ 9:55AM

Uhm, no kidding. Palin already did that while Governor and did quite well. Much better than most men.

RCV| 9.10.10 @ 1:08PM

...and then she just quit her job one day.

Purple Lips| 9.10.10 @ 4:51PM

And cashed an $8 million check for a book she didn't write.

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:28PM

Well Purp-i-traitor,

(Just kidding. Sort of.) Now I don't know whether it's true or not that she didn't write her book. Methinks you may be telling a fib... or a 1/2 truth.

As for cashing an 8 mil. check for her book, are you a Leftist who believes instead that she should spread the wealth and perhaps give you a cut? Maybe you're just jealous?

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:32PM

I wish Obama would decide to just quit his job one day, and SOON. Along with the likes of Pelosi & co. A bunch of inept Leftist losers who have the understanding of DoDo birds as far as what makes this great country great. They've worn out their welcome long ago. Maybe Sarah will become President and get things done.. the right way!

RCV| 9.12.10 @ 6:48PM

Save us, Lord!

Alan Brooks| 9.13.10 @ 12:06AM

Egads, a Palin dynasty on top of the Bush dynasty?

Hell is wherever we hang our coats.

Appleby| 9.10.10 @ 1:07PM

I am a woman and having worked most of my life in a career that is top-heavy with young women, I am cynical about the usefulness of training a young woman to be a leader just in time for her to get pregnant and quit. We don't need a leader when Junior starts school; we need one now.

Yes, Mrs. Palin did a fine job -- but she was an adult when she was Governor, not a college age kid.

daddio| 9.10.10 @ 12:20PM

Wow-you had me going in the first paragraph, and I was thinking, right on! Those are good campaign questions for potential candidates. Who wrote the Federalist Papers and what do they mean? Who was Alexis de Toqueville? What did he write? Etc.

But then you let loose with that second paragraph. Dude, what were you thinking???

Christopher Holland| 9.12.10 @ 10:38PM

Maybe we could go with the guy who gets the chick knocked up. He must be reasonably articulate and aware to get to the summit of that particular mountain. I admit, not the best way to pick political candidates, but you did open the gate on this one.

Scribonius Curio| 9.10.10 @ 7:35AM

Is Barrack Obama really a conservative mole? He's going to provide the Republicans a majority no one imagined possible when he was elected, and his actions seem almost calculated to aid the GOP.

al| 9.10.10 @ 7:51AM

He is helping the republicans so that he has them to blame for the mess we will still in when 2012 comes along.

RCV| 9.10.10 @ 12:09PM

Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. In the 1994 midterms, Republicans regained control of the House. By 1996, the electorate reelected Clinton. History will repeat itself in 2012.

daddio| 9.10.10 @ 12:21PM

I hope note, but I fear you may be right...

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.10.10 @ 1:15PM

We're buying shrimp, RCV. You are living in the past you old white man. You don't realize how stubborn I am. I am no Clinton you idiot. That is yesterday's news. If you start up this Clinton crap, I might not make it through the primary. Why can't I get good help? We are going to support a human mission to the moon by 2020 baby. If you are not careful RCV it might be you for a one way trip.

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.10.10 @ 1:19PM

We're buying shrimp, RCV. You are living in the past you old white man. I give you points for trying to rationalize in a column about guys like you rationalizing. Very cool on that front anyway. We are reducing earmarks to 1994 levels baby.

Purple Lips| 9.10.10 @ 4:53PM

But Obama doesn't have Newt; he certainly doesn't have Dick Morris. No, Obama will announce in 2011 that he will retire to his plantation in Kenya.

RCV| 9.10.10 @ 7:55PM

He'll have John Boehner, sort of Newt with a tan instead of brains.

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.10.10 @ 8:51PM

We're buying shrimp, RCV. Why bring up that you think Boehner has no brains? This invites comparisons to myself and I don't come off to well. Well, as long as you are enjoying yourself. We'll be giving the annual "State of the World" address soon or later baby. Golf tomorrow.

Scribonius Curio| 9.11.10 @ 5:37AM

John Boehner is not a well known figure. Trying to demonize someone is more effective if the public actually recognizes the person. The press might want to investigate whether Boehner paid his tanning tax.

RCV| 9.11.10 @ 1:54PM

You're right! As the President said of Boehner, "Like me, he's a man of color. Just not a color that appears in nature."

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.11.10 @ 4:15PM

We're buying shrimp, RCV and I mean that good and hard. White people are making fun of white people about their skin colors. This is working out just like my spiritual mentor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright said it would. This is what I call being a racial healer. I love it when a plan comes together. As long as you're having fun RCV that is what this all about. I mean all. I am going to provide an annual report on "state of our energy future", baby. It sucks by the way if you leave Democrats in charge of the legislature, the executive or the judiciary. Hope and change in November.

RCV| 9.12.10 @ 3:29PM

At least Boehner has started to show some statesmanship in today's announcement of a compromise with President Obama on the Bush tax cuts. Of course we'll hear cries of betrayal and RINO from the likes of TAS readers, but it's a promising sign for some progress even if the GOP takes the House in November.

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.12.10 @ 5:09PM

We're making shrimp, RCV. " Even if ..." Because of useless trolls like yourself it is a sure thing. Maybe if I declare war on someone I could save congress. You have had a gay old time RCV but you haven't done a damn thing. You only have enthusiasm for gay marriage. I needed you to sell our economy. This is the endless summer of recovery, we are providing green jobs, we will heat your house and charge your 40K Chevy Volt with wind farms. Peace will declared all over the world. I will make the Oceans recede. You get the picture so start selling. The war is over in Iraq and we're coming home, baby.

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:24PM

RCV aka Liberal Reader lite:

You are such a twister of reality. I'm glad you don't run yet another "news station." Reading your posts is like watching CNN or PMSNBC!

RCV| 9.12.10 @ 6:40PM

Thanks, Margie! I'm a fan of CNN and MSNBC, as you might have guessed. When I was in active legal practice, I used to represent both of them (and Fox News) in First Amendment litigation and reporters' privilege issues.

al| 9.10.10 @ 7:46AM

I think the house will have gotten the message that we want change. The senate's old farts are the ones that worry me.

russel| 9.10.10 @ 9:12AM

Once the house is in order we can begin on the yard . Look how long it took the socialists to get their way . For now , we can finally get our just desserts watching the likes of the Queen herself , braindead Pelosi , get hauled out kicking and screaming .

Deborah D| 9.11.10 @ 5:22AM

Yeah, what will she do without that airplane, paid for by you and me, taking her across country to her POS state? California is a window into the USA of the near future if we let these folks keep the reins of power--bankrupt, overrun by illegals and gangs, and businesses and those who create wealth leaving in droves. Queen Nancy, go back to the utopia of CA!

ggoblue| 9.10.10 @ 7:48AM

the dems believe their own BS...therefore they cannot change...my daddy taught me this in 1979, it still holds true today, only moreso.

the tsunami in this country is about FREEDOM...the liberals threaten our freedom, and we will reject that threat on nov. 2

the bulk of conservatives know that with increased freedom from govt. will come the economic freedom to create lasting wealth...

first protect and grow our freedoms and the jobs will naturally follow...the libs will NEVER GET THAT POINT.

53 days to the tsunami

madlibertarianguy| 9.11.10 @ 11:23AM

The bulk of conservatives no nothing of true liberty or less government, or can you name any of those magical times in which conservatives helped government shrink and didn't use overt government force in the face of individual liberty to enact their own socio-political agenda?

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:20PM

"The bulk of conservatives no nothing of true liberty..."

Quite a statement there, guy. I protest! I protest that you try and claim this as truth, and try to paint most freedom loving individuals with your broad and ever so arrogant brush! Count me out. I do not stand with those of your ilk who think of themselves as the only ones on the block who "understand" what liberty is.

What is it with you haughty Liberalterriers, anyhow?

Tom Anderson| 9.13.10 @ 3:00PM

The issue, Marge, is whether Republicans can begin to understand that if they behave as they have under Bush, that is, as opposing limited government, low taxes, low spending, then they will also be repudiated (as they were in 2006 and 2008).

The only reason why they will be elected is because they are the "other guys". We'll just have to see if they oppose limited government or support it, which is the point of the mad libertarian guy, and all those who love liberty, as defined, for example, by our founding fathers, who were libertarians, not conservatives, in the modern sense.

Tony Raskoon| 9.11.10 @ 5:30PM

The measure of success must change. Instead of earmarks delivered to one's district, it should be reduction in number of Federal employees during term. The ideological part will sort itself out.

Louis Jenkins| 9.10.10 @ 9:12AM

The liberal agenda is in trouble. (Lots of laughter and hurraying.) America is pissed off, and they're going to make a statement this Nov. But don't let up on the pressure, keep it on. There's another election two years from now, and we must see that it too is set right. Oddly, without a leader. Hmmm....

WRTolkas| 9.10.10 @ 9:31AM

This week, the Republican cause this November lost one vote. The single vote was not lost because of a change of policy or change of mind. The vote was lost because of an automobile accident. My son-in-law lost his valiant battle and is now resting awaiting His return.

At his young age, he knew what is at stake for the future of this country. More importantly, he knew what was at stake for the future of his young son. I pledge that I will talk to voters, contribute to candidates, and be watchful during the elections. I expect the dimocrats to pull every dirty trick they know and if all else fails, try to use the stacked courts to steal this election. I'll be watching. If my son-in-law had been a democrat, this November, his vote might still count.

Have a safe weekend,
WRTolkas

P.S:
I'll be shoveling snow in Acapulco before I give a darn what that race-baiter Cynthia Tucker thinks.

Kishego| 9.10.10 @ 10:58AM

God Bless Him and may He rest in Peace. My prayers are with you and your family.

Deborah D| 9.11.10 @ 5:26AM

I am so sorry to hear of your sadness. Bless your son and your family.

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:15PM

Mr. WRTolkas,

God bless you, sir. You will meet again in the Great Beyond and rejoice.

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not now see Him you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls." 1Pe. 1:6-9.

wodiej| 9.10.10 @ 9:51AM

they have nothing to run on so it's the personal attacks. Islamphobia, bigots, etc. They are just making it worse for themselves.

Ellis Wyatt| 9.10.10 @ 9:58AM

WRTolkas, I am sorry to hear of your loss.

Your last point regarding Cynthia Tucker is what I believe to be one of the most important reasons for the left's demise, the leftist media itself. The leftist media in this country has gone so far over the edge that people like Tucker and Krugman only enrage sensible people. Olbermann has become a cartoon of the fringe left that who "jumped the shark" long ago. People like Tucker insult Americans by their baseless race baiting and that has backfired on the left. Being called a racist in the media is now a badge of honor because it no longer has anything to do with race. A racist has now become someone who simply points out the failures of leftist policies. America is tired of the Cynthia Tuckers and Eugene Robinsons of the world. Their "arguments" are ignored and we no longer cower to political correctness that is abused to advance a leftist agenda.

Marney| 9.10.10 @ 9:59AM

Liberals cannot accept reality as it is so they construct their own.

michigander_sandusky| 9.10.10 @ 10:03AM

Mark my words. In 2012 uncle Barry will blame the Republican majority in Congress for all the ills of the country. Amazing how that works! He won't take responsibility for the failed policies of his fledgling administration, but he'll do his best to hang all the sins of mankind back to creation on the 2011-12 Republican congressional majority. It may just get him a second term...God forbid!

skip| 9.10.10 @ 10:20AM

I don't think the liar idiot in chief can even get the democratic nomination. Too many dems will see they can't get elected because of him. The national debt will be front and center in 2012 and will be the last nail in the political coffin of this stupid and dishonest despicable human being.

michigander_sandusky| 9.10.10 @ 10:46AM

Skip, I pray you are right! I really do.

jokemachine| 9.10.10 @ 11:24AM

Don't worry. Most Americans see through Obama, and that won't change whether the GOP has control of congress or not. The American people want solutions, not scapegoats. Despite the Ministry of Truth out in full force most still know that 2 + 2 = 4.

If the GOP does its job by cutting back the intrusion of the federal government into our lives they will be rewarded. If they don't they will be punished and the cycle will begin again.

skip| 9.10.10 @ 12:43PM

I do worry. Less than two years ago the citizens of the greatest civilization ever known elected a person who does not have, even to this day, the experience, much less qualifications, to run a convenience store, a person who claimed the constitution was fundamentally flawed. Despite this concern I believe the debt will affect lives to such a degree that the despicable one will no longer be politically viable.

Steve A| 9.10.10 @ 10:09AM

Fast forward 30 years & Obama will be seen as the pivotal force causing a great awakening in a generation of American Conservatism. After we shed ourselves of the Progressive baggage it will return again in some other form years from now as this country has virtually no memory of itself. Hopefully, this changes with a dynamic conservative leader who contrasts the disaster of liberalism so greatly that it is impossible to deny.

Bilwick| 9.10.10 @ 10:30AM

The author says that Paul Krugman basically writes the same column with slightly rearranged sentences. Isn't that essentially what all "liberal" (i.e., State-humper) pundits are doing now, whether writing newspaper columns or commenting on tv? They could all coast along just by repeating the same message over and over: "Shut up and submit, peasants!"

Mish| 9.10.10 @ 10:31AM

This led to the ascendancy of noted Tea Party white supremacists like Allen West"

Gee, Allen West must be history's first BLACK white supremacist!

Patrick| 9.10.10 @ 9:45PM

Haha, Mish. That's the point! It was a sarcastic jab at the liberal media.

Derek Leaberry| 9.10.10 @ 11:01AM

Keith Olbermann and Eugene Robinson have as much credibility on just about any public issue as the men riding on the back of trash collection trucks. In fact, Olbermann and Robinson would be more useful to society if they ditched their current sinecures and worked as trashmen.

Kishego| 9.10.10 @ 11:12AM

Why would you insult Trashmen like that. They perform a far more imprtant service than any of those a$$bags in the punditocracy.

Derek Leaberry| 9.10.10 @ 12:06PM

You are quite right, Kishego, and I apologize to all trashmen if I offended them. For Olbermann and Robinson to become trashmen would be to elevate them to a higher level of personal achievement than they now have.

dw| 9.10.10 @ 2:55PM

Ah hum.... they are not trash men, they are 'waste management technicians'. Let's be P.C. about this, so we don't offend the liberal dimwits. Did I just offend liberal idiots...oh I offended them again.
Obama is the trash they need to dump.

naturalborntexican| 9.10.10 @ 11:04AM

First: Dump Obama! Second: Deal with the life-long incumbents in our congress who exist quite lavishly on bloated salaries, and then give themselves a raise EVERY YEAR!!

Term limits. Term limits. Term limits. The powers that be are way too comfortable with their positions and our money. They have become parasites on the American people. They believe they are smarter, and somehow holier and better, than the average American and therefore should dictate how we live.
And that is just step ONE!!!!

davelnaf| 9.10.10 @ 11:40AM

Yes, the left’s claim to represent the “the people” has been the ongoing national joke for at least a century. Let’s hope the Obamanoids have angered enough people this time to put them back in their box for good. Of course, this is hoping for too much. At some point they will be back again, promoting their hilarious government-can-cure-everything snake oil. One gets some comfort in the fact that these locusts need a perfect storm to elect someone like Obama. But this is not much comfort when you consider the damage they can do in a very short time.

Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 9.10.10 @ 12:00PM

Matt: There's one thing you're guilty of (and you're not the only one), and that's giving more credit to the power and influence of the likes of Paul Krugman and the New York Times than they deserve. In New York City, where the NY Times is based, it's not even the best selling newspaper there (nor is it number two, or three, or ?). It's getting its ass kicked by the Post, and the Daily News and Wall Street Journal everyday, every week, every year. The only people who still care about the New York Times in New York City are the homeless sleeping on park benches (they use it, to cover the pigeon crap). They like the Times the best, because it's real easy to find, it's in any garbage can, on any given corner. Stop giving the NY Times, Time magazine, and Newsweek more credit than they deserve, unless of course you really are concerned with the political beliefs and opinions of the homeless (I'm not). It's like this crazy Pastor down there in Florida, if we just ignored him, he'd go away, but we build him up beyond what he ever should have been, which is completely irrelevant.

Nothing to see here, except a bum sleeping on a bench!!

dw| 9.10.10 @ 3:34PM

It amazes me that these liberal jerkoff pundits really believe that all the millions of us that oppose them are of a significantly lesser intelligence and are only capable of reacting to their magnificence on some sort of base level of grunts and hand gestures. They think that their positions of influence somehow grant them and only them the right and ability to commentate with any kind of cognition and that what they say should be taken as gospel and not subject to debate.
Which is also the way the 'lecturer in chief' talks to us and feels about us.
It's ironic that when they do that, it is they that are showing their ignorance and outright stupidity. It is way easier to explain the opposition they find in their way with charges of racism and phobic behavior, than actually having to use energy to defend the indefensible.
They can no longer silence the silent majority with these accusations and it is us that must send these people to the corner and let them drive each other crazy with their sophist rants.

Oldefarte| 9.10.10 @ 4:06PM

Great article, Matt! Morons like Robinson, Tucker, Olbermann, the entire staff of MSNBC, etc JUST DON'T GET IT AND NEVER WILL. If people of color [West, Thomas, Steele, Rubio,etc] proclaim/promote intelligent, rational ideas intended to improve this country, then no one sees what color they are-----they are simply AMERICANS]. West served his country in the military, Thomas did so as a lawyer and judge, Steele and Rubio as political leaders. Condi Rice did so as a distinguished college teacher and recently as our Secretary of State. What color are they.........WHO CARES. The insanity of liberals/progressives is that they promote the subserviant nature of government control over all people, which is anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-human. The characteristics of liberalism can be seen in Cuba, Russia, China, Venesuela, Columbia, Nicaragua [and to a lesser extent in France, Spain, Italy], etc. Hopefully this will be liberalism LAST STAND in this country, and with its defeat in november of 2010/2012, it will cease to be anything resembling a political movement going forward!!!!!

Redstateboy| 9.10.10 @ 5:04PM

Liber-uls? Admit there's something wrong with their political philosophy?? HA!

Redstateboy| 9.10.10 @ 5:10PM

These are people who'll proclaim.. Communism is a great system of Government.. its just not had the right people come along to administer it properly!

Larry| 9.10.10 @ 7:55PM

Mr. Purple, I shared this article with Allen West as I thought he would find it funny to hear that he is now considered a "white supremacist". As expected, he got quite a laugh out of it. You may want to do your homework on the people you write about in the future.

Patrick| 9.10.10 @ 9:41PM

Hahaha, Larry! Did you miss the blatant sarcasm in that sentence? Mr. Purple was referencing the misleading criticism of the left of calling the tea party racist. Allen West is black and Marco Rubio is hispanic further solidifying the obvious joke.

Matt Purple| 9.10.10 @ 10:13PM

I hope that isn't the case Larry! As Patrick pointed out, it was a sarcastic jab at the left who insists on portraying Tea Partiers as white supremacists despite the minorities among them. I have nothing but respect for Colonel Allen West.

Oldefarte| 9.11.10 @ 11:48AM

You should re-read Matt's words regarding Allen West, as you obviously misunderstood his meaning!!!!!

Tony in Central PA| 9.10.10 @ 8:43PM

The sad reality remains that the American public elected Obama. If somebody told me twenty years ago we'd elect somebody like Obama, I would not have believed it. His ethnicity would have been among the smallest surprises. Get rid of Obama and we still have a public that by in large doesn't know American history and increasingly seems to be losing common sense.

Emma| 9.11.10 @ 11:18PM

Please understand. Please. "The American public" most certainly did NOT "elect obama."

Of the portion of the American public who were registered to vote, 53% of THEM "elected" him. That is ONLY around 30% of "the American public."

The problem is, we have too many alleged Americans who can't be bothered to get off their butts and VOTE for the security of the nation.

Margie| 9.12.10 @ 6:06PM

"The problem is, we have too many alleged Americans who can't be bothered to get off their butts and VOTE for the security of the nation."

And if they don't vote they have no right to complain about the state of affairs!

Oldefarte| 9.13.10 @ 1:30PM

Beyond this, ladies, if they don't 'get off their butt and VOTE' in November for conservative, constituent-devoted candidates, this country will CEASE TO EXIST as we know it, in a very short period of time.

steve in SoCal| 9.10.10 @ 11:56PM

What you see here, in terms of the left is a complete meltdown. They can no longer rely on the racist tag, as indicated in the article. They can't push their policies because of Greece, Spain, NY, Cali or NJ before Christie. People might not know exactly what a million or a billion look like. They certainly don't know what a trillion looks like. But they do know it's a freakin' Titantic amount of money. . and if the president (assuming the economy is 17 T) can claim to spend 5% of that in a year to boost the economy and it doesn't work, people understand that. If you got a 5% bonus and were told you can't pay credit cards or tuition or any loans but must go out and buy "stuff" and after a year didn't have anything to show for it. . you would know you spent it on the wrong stuff. That is what has happened. Yes the deficits mattter and the future of our kids and grandkids. But people understand that it was a freakin huge amount of money, spent entirely thru dems and their wishes and we have nothing to show for it, no matter how much Obama blames Boehner.

Read the vast majority of punditry on the left regarding Obama. It's "he's in command" " smartst guy in the room" "intellect" and not a comment, pro or con about his policies. Sure, you might get Journolist and the like to say he hasn't gone far enough left. But the dems in 08 thought that "let's give it a test drive" meant "with all the bells and whistles and everything else." You only get one roll out. New Coke. MicroSoft Vista. Pocket Fisherman. Some work, some don't. Obama thought that the media would go whole hog in regarding Recovery Summer. "It's not as bad as it could have been." "It's moving in the right direction." The dems playbook, in reality is 10 years old (since Clinton's last year). The ability to have Jennings, Brokaw and Rather on each night to say "well, it could have been worse if not for the stimulus" back in 1999 would have alot of people thinking differently because that's the place they would have gotten the vast majority of their news. And like Goebbels said, a lie repeated enough times becomes the truth. People hearing incessantly everyday that things could have been worse (as obama said last month about unemployment could have been 12, 13 or 15%) would have made people think differently if every nite the big 3 anchors are saying the same thing. It may be Alinsky rule 13 in "personalize, demonize, isolate, . .etc." but I think that rule in terms of the president went out about 10 years ago. Obama's election had alot to do with the electonic world. donors. . .email lists.. and the like. Now, Palin can in 10 minutes or less Tweet she's against Quran burning. Regardless of what Clinton said in 95 about McViegh, conservative talk radio has gone up.

Think about it. . .1999....there's email, but no web essentially. CNN rules cable and is on in every hotel lobby, airport bar and in between. No cell phone that costs less than $500 and fits in your pocket. And the nightly newscasts probably have at least 3 times the amount of viewers they have now and there is no alternative media. Those same conditions exist today and we're talking Obama's poll numbers a probably quite different.

The MSM put so much into this president's election that they have no choice but to try anything and everything they can, whether it's E.J. Dionne saying we don't get it or Tucker calling us, excuse me, not all of us (her qualifier so she appears objective). .. racists. They can't hold themselves out to be the smartest in the room and then come back and say "we mis-read Obama." At that point, who is ever going to listen to them again, what remains of their audience.

What we're seeing here is the last days of MSM. America is a can do nation that doesn't stand up and say yes I did. Whether it be the first responders at 9/11, Vietnam or WWII or the quiet elegance of Jack Nicholas. The MSM was talking about Obama and Mt. Rushmore, his pecs and creases in his pants before even presented a plan for recovery.

What we have is a host/parasitic relationship. The MSM needs Obama/liberals to succeed so they can claim they were right in pushing his election. Obama needs the MSM to help push his agenda so he succeeds. They are both feeding off one another, but don't know it. And it's only a matter of time before both die.

Yosemeti Sam| 9.11.10 @ 12:03AM

" ...Washington Post columnist ... Eugene Robinson is blaming the voters, whom he accuses of having a "temper tantrum."...."

Yo, Robinson, give Carville a call - ask him
to draw you a picture as to what " it's the economy - stupid " means and how it IMPACTS Americans!

Then offer some intelligent journalism - instead of claptrap!

Qwilly| 9.11.10 @ 7:34AM

Racist make money being racist. Since they have never earned a dollar in free enterprise all they
really know is keep the game going. Leftist, progressives and liberals cant count. That is why
they cant discuss business with honesty.

Tenn Slim| 9.11.10 @ 9:35AM

"The truth is that Barack Obama's agenda, with health care at its centerpiece, seen as both too radical and completely ineffective by the American people, did Democrats in."
Amen.
Thier continuing effort to entangle, regulate, Fundamentally Transform the USA electorate, will complete thier demise.
Believe that? Never happen. The Leftist's have the Movement moving. Inertia alone will continue to plauge the USA. If one belives that the 2010 Election will end all this trauma; Check your history. The Left has been at this effort since 1898. This current election blip, if it even comes off, will only be a minor bump in the Leftist road.
We, you, the USA Electorate are in for a loooong hard slog.
As Gen Chesty Puller said, in 1950, "They are Left, Right, Center, we have the enemy just where we want them, advance in another Direction." Actually the qoute comes from Guadacanal Ridge, circa 1942, from Major Edson USMC.
We Will Prevail, the Lefties will eventually quit.
end

Tom in Michigan| 9.11.10 @ 10:12AM

What happened to the Democrats is really quite simple. They let the extreme left, a sub-species the vast majority of Americans find repugnant in the base case take control of their party. This put singularly reprehensible characters like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the forefront and in everybody's faces on a daily basis (Honestly, have their ever been two more reptilian people in their respective leadership positions?). Even dedicated Democrats (I’m talking good, hard working folks here; mill wrights, teachers, engineers not leftist trolls) in my family and of my acquaintance find them repellent.

The leftists running what was once the Democratic Party then put their least qualified, least experienced Senator forth as their Presidential candidate consciously calculating they’d draw in the white-guilt voters along with their base to their cause. Though he acquitted himself well during the campaign, once on the job and off-teleprompter he proved himself to be singularly incapable of actually doing the job. Not only is he incompetent, he’s brittle and whiny. Those white-guilt voters and “moderates” who thought they were getting a post-partisan, post-racial, blah, blah, blah President discovered they’d elected a crypto-Marxist crybaby instead.

In what can only be called delicious irony, the corrupt, leftist media who sold this snake oil to Americans of good will who voted for this empty suit are now sealing the deal on his political demise by writing endless columns, like Eugene Robinsons’ childish screed referenced in this article insulting recently returned-to-full-consciousness Americans and calling them names revealing just how hateful the leftists really are and the degree of contempt in which they hold most Americans. Way to “win friends and influence people” guys. Keep it up.

Yeah. I know. All the trolls will now pipe in and tell me all about how great Obama is (try telling anybody how great Pelosi and Reid are though and, they’ll laugh in your face) and, well maybe he could have been if he hadn’t laid with leftist dogs (continuing the President’s “dog” theme of his Ohio speech here) and picked up their fleas.

So, you can’t (despite what most leftists believe and not without some justification) fool all the people all the time. You can however, fool SOME of the people all the time so, while cooler heads bail out of the Democrat nightmare, the extreme left and the dependent-upon-government-everything classes are still in the soon-to-be-former (but, God knows not soon enough) former President’s corner. Other than that, it’s going to be lonely at the top for the next two years.

The One We've Been Waiting For| 9.11.10 @ 4:37PM

We're buying shrimp, RCV. Who is Boehner? Do I know him. My teleprompter told me to say things about him and I did but I don't know who he is. Is he bad like me? If Rahm was around he could help me with this. We're still doing rendition, baby.

Sarbo| 9.12.10 @ 12:43AM

Liberals, apart from their multiple flaws, are also wimps. They will jump with glee when the US flag is burnt in public or the Bible is trashed, but cringe in fear when some non-entity threatens, repeat, merely threatens to burn a book.

Did you guys see that CNN interview where the Cordoba imam said the mosque must be built where he wants it ... or else, the muslims will kill you? I saw the look on the interviewer's face. It visibly blanched. There was no immediate pushback on this blatant threat, only anxiety ... as if he was asking "You don't really mean that, do you? I mean, really, really? Oh my God. We're screwed."

It's time America learnt you cannot appease Islam. It doesn't a fair share of the world. They want the whole bloomin' planet.

MtTopPatriot| 9.12.10 @ 10:33AM

The thing to understand is that millions all over America, from all walks of life, have had enough. We are fed up with the Big Lie, the destruction of our families, the destruction of our livelihoods, the brainwashing of our younger generations by ideologues who hate everything America stands for. We have had enough. We are millions upon millions who carry a quiet but oh so restless lawful grace that is part and parcel both what makes us a great society and vulnerable to the domestic enemies, the oath breakers and their particularly heinous elite mendacity. This is tyranny unique to America, our Republic.
There has always been millions who intrinsically understood that a ruling elite has foisted so much trash on us in order to gain total power over Americans, and make no mistake, power it is, whether it is communists, racial supremacists, islam, republicans or democrats, potentate sociopath’s the likes of George Soros, criminals like Bill Ayers or Andy Stearn and Sol Alynski, bigots, new world order fascists such as the UN, the Bilderbergs, or the Chicago credit exchange, the global warming maniacs, or the cultural corruption that is out of control within our governments. It is all about taking the sovereign unalienable instruments of Liberty and Self Determination from the people of this great nation.
All the punditry and talking heads, all the analysts, the political advisory and soothsayer class, everyone, all the above I have listed, and more, every one of them, have no idea what they are talking about. Angelo Cordevilla so far has been the only one who has intimated mostly correctly about the transformation that is going to take place, one way or the other, in America. And by transformation I'm not talking about ideology or the crackpots who think they are gonna destroy an idea and principles 234 years young and the people who will choose Liberty or Death, I'm stating in no uncertain terms that the destruction of America is history. And the people standing in the way in whatever capacity and mendacity of revolt for restoration of OUR Republic have no concept of the freight train of redress bearing down on them. Those glorious founding documents remain intact, intact in more than ink on parchment, but in the soul and spirit of a peaceful but ferocious beast that if pushed, deceived, conned and bullshitted any longer is going to purge this Great Nation of the disease of tyranny and its dictators the ruling class by whatever means that will work to do so.
Nothing is so fierce as a Republic unleashed once pushed beyond endurance. America is a Republic born of, populated by fearless heroism. When the tyrants who have infested our governments media and schools rant about Americans as slothful deity worshipping armed racist cowards who are bitter knuckle draggers make up the bulk of the constituency of this nation, is hubris capable of rewriting biblical accounts of that mortal sin, but far far beyond that is so far from what people who make this the shining light on the hill that words can not convey the evil nature of the people who promote such ultimate absolute hatefulness.
The beautiful thing is that nothing is so ugly, so bad, so disgusting, so evil as what has for decades built up to the tyranny we have today in America, that is not good for something. In our case it is good for more than something, it is good for what has ailed us as a people of God Given Unalienable instruments of Liberty and Independence. There is a fire in the belly of this Republic that will brook no further trespasses on our persons and self determinations whatever the source. The window of redemption for OUR branches of government is narrow and about to run out of time. The time of Sovereignty of the people, and by the people is near at hand. Make no mistake, nothing can withstand the legal and moral redress the ground swell of the only sovereign power that exists and is the foundation of every law and principle this Republic was created upon.

Tony in Central PA| 9.12.10 @ 9:47PM

While some people are rubbing their hands with excitement over the impending midterm election, let's not forget who put somebody like Obama in the White House and gave us a Democratic Supermajority with the cartoonish Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running the ship.