Yesterday, in a different post about long-term unemployment, I wrote: "Of all the reality-denying aspects of Obama administration press coverage, the usually implicit but occasionally explicit assertion that he and his people are just helpless bystanders in an economic calamiity is easily among the most annoying."
Bloomberg's Mike Dorning triggered the annoyance meter today with an "analysis" contending that President Obama's move from being a "conciliator" (quoting an alleged "expert") to supporting "populist causes" and sympathizing with the anti-capitalist Occupy Wall Street assemblage "may provide some inoculation" against the continuing bad economy -- as if Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the their party bear no conceivable responsibility for current economic conditions. Here are the first seven paragraphs of Dorning's dreck (bolds and numbered tags are mine):
Taxing Millionaires Casts Dems as Class ‘Warriors’
Democrats have turned to an agenda that Republicans are calling class warfare, as President Barack Obama presses a “Buffett Rule” to tax the rich, Senate Democrats offer a millionaires’ tax instead and party leaders fulminate against Bank of America’s $5 debit-card service fee.
Campaigning for re-election, Obama welcomes the charge.
“Then guess what? I’m a warrior for the middle class,” he declared Sept. 22, standing at a Cincinnati bridge linking the home states of the Republican leaders of the House and Senate and setting a new course for his own party. [1]
“The president tried to be the great conciliator and suffered politically for it,” [2] said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California and a former adviser to Republican Senator John McCain. “The message this fall is no more Mr. Nice Guy.”
As the Occupy Wall Street protests that have gained strength in recent weeks expanded to Washington, Obama offered a measure of solidarity, saying in an Oct. 6 news conference the demonstrators were “giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.” [3]
“Americans understand that not everybody has been following the rules,” said Obama, who stopped short of endorsing the protests. “These days a lot of folks that are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded.” [4]
The populist causes Obama and his Democratic allies are beginning to champion may provide some inoculation against the broad public frustration with the economy that is shaping the contest for the White House in 2012. [5]
Notes:
[1] -- This would be the Brent Spence Bridge connecting Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In his speech, by saying "Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell, help us rebuild this bridge," Obama deceptively gave the crowd the impression that passing his American Jobs Act would speed along planning for and construction of a replacement. It isn't so. The Associated Press's James Kuhnhenn inexcusably attempted to cover the President's keister by claiming that the statement was "symbolic."
[2] -- Other than the golf game with House Speaker John Boehner, Vice President Joe Biden, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, does anyone remember the alleged "great conciliator" stage? Me neither.
[3] -- Unfortunately, the financial system works as it does largely because of how the Obama White House administered the Troubled Asset Relief Program and because of last year's Dodd-Frank "financial reform" bill. These origins perfectly explain why Herman Cain is exactly right when he says that the Occupy Wall Street crowd should change its location to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
[4] -- This laughable contention comes from an administration which has been the laboratory for corrupt crony capitalism exemplified by Solyndra, LightSquared, and so many other enterprises which have milked their White House connections to raise capital and receive favors instead of competing in the free market.
[5] -- The idea that a White House which has exhibited unprecedented authoritarian tendencies can now turn around and say, "Hey, it's not our fault, because we couldn't control the greedy bankers. Reelect us so we can take it to them" seems like a herculean stretch. But, given enough establishment press "journalists" like Mike Dorning, you don't want to totally rule out the idea that it might just work.
It would seem closer to the truth that the longer Occupy Wall Street continues, and the longer and more obviously the Democratic Party expresses solidarity with it, the more likely is it that:
- The general public will come to see that it has turned into the mother of all astroturf operations.
- The extremist signs, mindless chants, and unacceptable behavior which the press is working so hard to cover up will become visible to much of the relatively disengaged, who will be turned off bigtime.
- The party will start losing (even more) independents in droves.
So, as a caller into Rush's guest host Mark Beling said today (paraphrasing), "Now that the Democrats have express their solidarity, I hope they keep going with this until Election Day 2012."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
