Why is reality so partisan?

GOP: Voted against tax cuts, voted against jobs.

I feel better about the past couple of weeks now that Opposite Man has made his statement. Has Kristol ever been right? About anything?

Even if yoy accept Kristol's conceit, Why would the Republicans be cheering a failed presidency at a time of crisis?

Republicans are deeply unserious about governance, statesmanship, and so forth.

It surprises someone that Dan Quayle's Brain doesn't have a clue?

My only question is: has Dick Morris called Obama's presidency a failed presidency? Because if that's true you can start carving him into Mount Rushmore right now.

I feel much more confident now that the stimulus package will do good! It's bound to succeed if Kristol claims it a debacle.

*him* being Obama, not Dick Morris.

Well, there are the citizens who think this bill is the end of the USA as we know it and advocate stashing a loaded gun under their pillow (yes, this "advice" showed up in a letter to the editor in my paper today).

But as to Kristol et al, the pundits need to get out of the beltway and see the real world. Some do... the daytime MSNBC anchor (can't remember her name) had to talk down a Repub congressman the other day when the congressman said that if people got a $10K tax rebate they would go and spend it all and that would fix the economy. The anchor had to point out the truth - that people are scared and would save the money instead.

I don't have much faith in polls that can't be tested against real elections, but if 50 million people really watched the press conference the other night, it means people are paying attention. And that would mean they are listening to the facts and sifting through the nonstop propaganda. That's important in a democracy, and it's been missing for many years.

If you read all the right wing columns they are as usual in lockstep. Somehow they have deluded themselves into thinking all those real people standing on the Washington Mall on inaguration day, in the bitter cold were there to support a third Bush term. The public is done with the GOP. They need to go into rehab and get some new ideas. And it would help them a lot if just for once everyone on the right didn't get the memo and stop behaving like lemmings.

There is a counterpart to this on the left though. There's a good number of people on the left who are suggesting that Obama's learned his lesson on bipartisanship, and that now he'll understand he doesn't need to work with the GOP and should stick it to them instead. This is equally clueless, in my opinion.

the "bi-partisan" shtick can become a useful media tool for Obama. As long as he wisens up and stops trying to actually accomplish bi-partisanship having been subject to the no compromise on anything republicans, but instead uses it as a means to bludgeon republicans, it can help get his programs passed. He needs to make the appearance of bi-partisanship without actually giving republicans anything they want. The American people will think him a great success, while not looking favorably at whining republicans.

The mistake of the stimulus bill was that he actually gave republicans what they wanted. They of course stabbed him in the back - its what republicans do, its their make-up.

This is the best possible news there is. Bill Kristol has been wrong on so many things in a row that any proclaimations that he makes you can take to the bank that the opposite will happen or has happened. Hooray!! He's just like a losing sports team. If you bet against them to win they'll usually come through for you and lose.

Here's what this business means to me. I'm in New Mexico. The value of a barrel of crude is declining, yet the price of gas at the pump is back up to $2/gallon. The prices of groceries continues to rise. I'm old and would like to have a job as I make it by picking up cans beside the road.

When I hit 62, I went to the Social Security office to get my SS benefits, since I paid into that account since I was 14. It was such a hassle, and the people were so rude and snotty that I left and haven't gone back. Why must I be treated like dirt becuase I want what I've paid into all those years?

Obama hasn't helped me one bit. I've gone to highway contractors to ask for a job. Been told I'm too old (62) and the wrong race ( not a Native American on projects close to the res.). Are all the jobs for indians?

Gas and groceries haven't gone down, and there's no, so how is the guy helping?

I have had fond hopes for some time now Obama's success will demonstrate the utter irrelevance of the MSM punditocracy to the majority of Americans. Perhaps, we're making some headway in that direction.

This seems vaguely reminiscent of the Clinton affair (literally), when the pundits insisted his transgressions mattered when poll after poll proved that to a majority of Americans, it didn't. Even when the pundits insisted that it wasn't the affair, it was the lying about it under oath that was the true scandal, Clinton remained such a popular President, the GOP had to steal the White House in order to claim it. And we all know how well THAT turned out.

It's a delicate time in our nations' history. We joke about reality having a liberal bias, but there really is an entire group of people with access to the media who seem intent on re-writing history as it happens. Bush was nearly halfway through his second term before the "liberal" media seemed to feel comfortable questioning his decisions or abilities...once in a while, when he was being so obviously a dullard it'd be media malpractice NOT to point it out. By and large, the right-wing is not fighting to make sure their minority voice is heard in the media. They're fighting to SUPPRESS any other voice. If they can write the history, then they're always winning. Orwellian nightmares come true. FSM help us.

These are the same people who were certain that the Lewinsky scandal would force Clinton to resign before the end of the week, absolutely certain that impeachment would help the Republicans, who decided early in Bush's first term that building an adoring cult of personality around Bush was appropriate, despite his failure to win even a plurality in his first election, and so on. They are of course joined by allegedly "liberal" pundits like Maureen Dowd who couldn't stop ridiculing "Obambi" for his weakness in allowing Hillary Clinton to "intimidate" him even after he had defeated Clinton for the nomination, and were convinced that Sarah Palin would "field dress him like a moose" even AFTER he had won the election!!! They don't live in reality, they live in Versailles.

This is typical. We're trying to get a debate around sane v. insane. The Repubs are in default position--strong v. weak.

Modern Republicans have ALWAYS seen attempts at compromise as weak. In their world, that's exactly what compromise means--why would anyone compromise with the enemy unless he had no other option? So they were bound by their little lizard brains to interpret Obama'a outstretched hand in this way.

In addition, they want the debate on these terms. We're the mommy party. They're the big strong Daddies who will save us and we shouldn't worry our little child brains about whether they make sense or not. They're strong! Case closed. Obama wanted bipartisanship--weak by definition. He didn't get it. The Repubs held together--firm, potent, hard. Obama lost; they won. Game-set-match. That's their world.

Gas and groceries haven't gone down, and there's no, so how is the guy helping?

How are the Republicans helping you?

Oh right, they're telling you to help yourself. If you can't get a job it's because you are lazy. They're claiming if you give the richest people tax cuts, they will somehow "create" jobs even though most of us don't have money to spend on the products and services those jobs depend on. They also conveniently ignore the fact that many states depend on tax revenue to help the unemployed people we have right now and whose ranks are growing each week.

My family income has done down by over 60%, and I don't have any direct benefit yet from this stimulus package either. However, my wife will get to draw unemployment an extra few months (after both of us having paid in for YEARS) and if my employer cuts me loose, my COBRA payments will partially subsidized for awhile. That's really important to me. Are you drawing unemployment? If not, why not? You paid your fair share.

We aren't going back to previous levels of GDP anytime in the near future (say 20 years or so). We ALL were living on borrowed time -- a problem that was created by 30 years or more of bad habits won't be cured overnight.

If you really think that the Republican "strategy" of tax cuts for the wealthy would help you one damned bit, then you are deluded.

They don't live in reality, they live in Versailles.

Or Potomac, MD, or Takoma Park, or Bethesda, or McClean, Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill...

The chattering class are so full of their own bullshit. Because they are on the TeeVee screen, that means that they are smarter and better than the dolts on the other side of the screen. They tell us what to think, and that's the end of it.

Who could forget that stupid fucking cunt Cokie Roberts offering her advice to Obama about where he should vacation, since Cokie loves to ride topless on a Harley in Myrtle Beach like every other good American woman. Going to Hawaii? Gee, that sounds foreign and exotic.

The DC press corpse creates their own little reality, and they stick to it. Nothing will penetrate their little warm fuzzy bubble of idiocy. They really are the real life "Heathers" clique; they will make or break you, depending on what Rush and Drudge say first.

Tom Friedman lives in a home the size of a goddamn shopping mall, and he certainly knows what the average American is going through, doggoneit.

Gas and groceries haven't gone down, and there's no, so how is the guy helping?

Well, he seems to have got you a computer and internet access.

Kristol is just high-end Republican talking points. Period. Hard to understand why anyone pays attention to him.

I'm old and would like to have a job as I make it by picking up cans beside the road.

You think anyone believes this fake ass sob story? Fail. Better trolls, please. Seriously. This crap will work the dunces at redstate, but not here.

This is to be expected. They are an opposition party, sniping from the wilderness. Politics is 9 tenths perception. They will continually trumpet, the failing presidency meme. It is the only chance they got. It may only be a slim chance, but it is only one they got. So, they will obstruct, and, lie, and harp about naything that might seem wrong when examined on a ten second sound bite emotional level. Hopefully, they will simply paint themselves even further into their corner.

John Tracey is the ultimate poster-child for brainless self indulgence.

He's 62, unemployed, and so poor he has to scavenge cans along the roadside. But spending a day or two filling out paperwork to collect the Social Security he's entitled to is just TOO much effort (what with those snotty people and all). Better to spend the rest of his days cashing in pop bottles.

But by gum, he's so darn right about how Obama's been president for nearly 20 days--that's almost 3 whole weeks!!!!--and Tracey hasn't yet been made CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Obviously, Obama's presidency has completely failed.

Asshole.

We're the mommy party. They're the big strong Daddies

Who suck off the taxpayer teat every chance they get -- no bid contracts, worthless military industrial complex projects, eminent domain and tax subsidies for "private public partnerships" to build sports stadiums, bailouts for bankers, etc.

We should all be sick of this charade by now. I think rampant unemployment across all socioeconomic strata and every geographic region might just break the spell. The Republican version of "free market capitalism" is a complete lie. There's nothing free about it. It's rigged from top to bottom. Meritocracy? Bullshit. It's who you know and who you bribe. The other problem is the myth of independence. Every single one of us is as helpless as a baby when it comes to procuring basic needs and services. We don't grow our own food or build or own homes, but the Republicans and their clueless followers are still rugged pioneers in their own minds. One bad batch of fucking peanuts can taint the whole system - one bad batch of loans, one satellite crash, one line of computer code that commands "sell" when prices reach a threshold level.

The Republican answer to everything is "low taxes and big balls." Obviously, this is a message that would appeal to rubes who aspire to be rich enough to have high taxes and who very much wish they had bigger balls. That's all you need to know about Republicans.

John Tracey, if your story isn't as bullshit as it sounds, get your damn Social Security. If the local office is being assholish, find an advocacy group or lawyer willing to work pro bono to help a senior citizen getting effed over by the government. Go to the papers, go to the news. They're all filled with people looking to make Obama look stupid, they live for sob stories like yours to prove he's the worst President, like, evah, with 3 whole weeks, the stimulus bill, Lile Ledbetter Act closing Gitmo and making the government more accountable under his belt as evidence to what a shite job he's doing.

"If all you had to go by was Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard column, you'd likely think President Obama's presidency was off to a horrible start."

Kristol and his pals must be writing these pieces because of the Internets. Get enough lies out there now and future searches will help alter the truth.

"...But what about all the preoccupation with bipartisanship?..."
I think the idio..., I mean pundits, don't know what "bipartisan" actually means even if we here in the Midwest do. It means putting your country ahead of your party during a crisis; such as Fascism in the early 1940's, rampant Russian expansionism in the 1940/50's, or say, a recession that has the possibility of becoming another depression.
That's bipartisanship.
Then there's the current GOP...

Actually if the GOP had its way, John Tracey wouldn't have any Social Security at all. His retirement would be in Individual Accounts controlled by Bernie Madoff.

I started recieving my Soc. Sec. (at age 62) last September. I called the local office and made an appt. I was told what to bring. Got there on time, checked in, and was in and out in 20 minutes. They had a full history of where I worked and how many years I had contributed. I verified the info and that was it. The first check arrived when they said it would and have been on time every month since. So John, whats stopping you from collecting your S.S now??

Data show that, despite the best efforts of Limbaugh, Scarbraugh and every Republican elected official, voters know the truth.

Yep, high unemployment, $3 gas, $4 milk and all your friends in foreclosure has a way of making you see the truth.

Pundidiots

I'll be blunt: The only people on the planet who see a "lack of presidential leadership" are the myriad Spawn of Judas bootlickers (Lord Limbaugh the Ludicrous included) who get their thirty-pieces-of-silver stipends from the rotpublican tribe in exchange for their excretory verbosity.

Congressional Republicans will always have Bill Kristol columns to make themselves feel better, but if they're looking for opportunities to improve their public standing in reality, it's the minority party that's off to a "weak start." -- Steve Benen

It's not for nothing that Kristol's paper is called "Weakly Substandard"

It's truly a wonder that so many supposedly smart "inside-the-beltway" political pros are actually judging the success of Obama's bi-partisan courtship by how many Republican votes he is able to get rather than on the sincerity and good faith nature of his outreach. By the Beltway's standards there is no way Obama could win since success was entirely in the hands of his adversaries. All they had to do to see the new guy "fail" was sit on their hands.

Thankfully, the public has a different and more reasonable standard for judging bi-partisanship, one that gives credit to a new president who seems genuinly sincere in his desire to put both parties in harness to a common cause and pull together. And by that standard, Republicans are the big losers for reciprocating to the President's genine peace offerings with the back of their hand.

"They need to go into rehab and get some new ideas."

Well, that's really the rub, isn't it, aline? They're conservative because new ideas terrify them.

it suddenly occurs to me as i let the scope of teh stoopid to flow over me as i read ...

what is it that makes kristol, mccain, scarborough and all the rest unhappy with obama?

it's not that he's a democrat. that's just their excuse.

it's that he is smart.

it's that he is clearly an adult.

it's that their arguments fail when he is in the room.

he makes them look stupid and inept. he reveals the emptiness of their thought.

they don't like that, it makes them uncomfortable. so they have no choice but to try to destroy him.

death by a thousand undermining cuts.

since they can't debate the president straight on and win, they do stuff like this:

http://knowyourgovernment.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/how-dishonest-are-republicans-let-me-count-the-ways/

I wish Michael Moore would make a documentary film that totally exposed the CORPORATE MEDIA and all the criminal 'pundits' that are bought and paid for by them. These pundits are nothing more than dancing monkeys at the end of a tether that is attached to a grinding organ, with their little bell hop hats on, bell hop uniforms in place, and the TUNE THAT THEY ARE DANCING TOO IS PLAYED BY THEIR CORPORATE MASTERS. Maybe a great question that Michael could ask in the process of exposing the DANCING MONKEYS is why is it that the corporate cum sluts like Brian Williams , for example, is PAID 10 MILLION A YEAR. And exactly for what ? What justifies this cum slut being paid that amount of money given he spends less than 30 minutes reading what is put in front of him to read: the corporate propaganda. All of them have been turned into millionairs by these Corporations so that the dancing monkeys then do their bidding. And here we are in this economy , at this time, 10,000 hard working folks loosing their homes every day now. What is left of our once great country is collapsing around us, 2 million have lost their jobs in just the last three months, and yet these evil dancing monkeys are making millions. Meanwhile the teachers of our kids make about 30,000 a year.

And of course all these millionair capitalists smear the word socialism. Like the work liberal has become a swear word. Socialism simply means a social system that is fair and equitable to all. Oh my god. There goes my personal greed, the very same personal greed that has destroyed this country, the same greed that is the very essence of what is means to be a REPIGLICAN.

This greed knows no limits to these evil creatures. And of course the millionair dancing monkeys want to protect their own greed. They get to be the 'media elite'. All of them should be arrested for journalistic fraud, a purposeful effort to deceive the American people. As Scott Mcllelan said these dancing monkeys have been and are 'actively complicit' in advancing the Corporate Agenda including Iraq.

They should be arrested and frog marched out of the protection of their Corporate Studios and sent directly to prison. Once there they should be turned into bitches for the enjoyment of the inmates.

I hope someone like Michael Moore can document all of it.

-- I just don't think that the Republicans have a paradigm for facing reality and having that drive their policy. They operated through making up reality and saying it often enough to enough of the Media to make it SEEM real. Unfortunately, reality never completely fell in line so we have the economic collapse, failed wars and lost jobs.
They see that but do not have the conceptual ability to deal with it so they go back to what they know --- making s--t up.

There will be smarter republicans who will eventually start to get it and drift away, but the core doing all the yammering now just don't have any other choice. For obvious reasons, if they were to truly confront reality, they know that their policies and ideas could not address the needs of that reality. So its better to go back to their faux world -- They are stuck...

Bob So/Cal:

You could have written my Social Security story, except mine was a few months earlier. I went in at the end of Feb. 08, just after I turned 62. Like you, I had checked beforehand and had brought the documentation I needed. (BTW, the copy of my birth certificate from Kentucky that I had to obtain before going to the SS office is almost identical in appearance to the "fake" birth cert that Obama put up on his website after all the hoorah about him supposedly not being a U.S. citizen.)

I had a pleasant visit with a very pleasant man. I had to wait about 1/2 hour to get in to see him because lots of other people were also in there applying for benefits. But once I saw the guy everything was fine, and like Bob, my first check came exactly when they said it would, and it's been like clockwork ever since, plus a little COLA at the beginning of this year.

I don't know about anyone else, but I almost always have pleasant interactions with bureaucrats, clerks, waitstaff in restaurants, etc. I expect to be treated pleasantly and I also treat them with respect as fellow human beings. The rare occasions I have problems it's almost always due to some policy (often stupid, alas) that I wasn't aware of beforehand. I'm always sure to tell the person with whom I'm interacting that I realize they're just doing their jobs and it's not them I'm mad at, but at whatever higher up set the stupid policy.

John Tracey: go back to your SS office and make sure you have your birth certificate and photo id. No reason you shouldn't be collecting if you paid into the system.

Oh yes, and the Republicans are STILL trying to dismantle SS. I can't believe that anyone given today's market would seriously suggest that the market would outperform SS, but Republicans do seem to be inhabiting an alternate reality...

I expect to be treated pleasantly and I also treat them with respect as fellow human beings. -- Wolfdaughter, @21:14

I think that's why you get positive results. I haven't had to deal much with US bureaucracy (except when applying for the green card and, later, for citizenship) but I remember how it was in Poland. I never had any problems, though a lot of my friends and acquaintances did, sometimes not just with the same office but with the very same officials. As I listened to their self-pitying litanies of being victimised, it always came to the same thing: like our "John Tracey" they all had an overblown opinion of themselves and had their bullying tendencies thwarted, when they tried to grind the "lowly clerks" into dust (or, according to them, into the place the morons belonged).

If you don't see and respect the humanity of others (including servants), you'll *always* end up screwed in the long run. Just as you deserve :)

I think the majority of the beltway pundits who are so disconnected with the American public should find out what it is like to be unemployed because they cannot do their job well any more.

They don't live in reality, they live in Versailles.

Or Potomac, MD, or Takoma Park, or Bethesda, or McClean, Arlington, Fairfax, Alexandria, Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill...

Somehow, I can't envision many members of the "chattering class" in Takoma Park, since it's probably a bit too funky and multicultural for their liking. (Great Victorian houses, to be sure, but it's next door to -- shudder -- Prince George's County!) Oh, and that town in Virginia is spelled "McLean."

The chattering class are so full of their own bullshit. Because they are on the TeeVee screen, that means that they are smarter and better than the dolts on the other side of the screen. They tell us what to think, and that's the end of it.

That I won't dispute. And let's remember it's not restricted to the broadcast media -- think of David Broder.