Posted on 08/24/2009 4:14:28 AM PDT by Scanian
'I AM a pessimist by nature, which is why I have spent my life as a journalist in stead of trying to be a leader, which requires optimism."
So wrote Robert Novak, who died Tuesday, in his 2007 autobiography, "The Prince of Darkness." He surely anticipated the problems now facing President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders, optimists all.
Not that Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the only optimists who have been flummoxed by the obviously spontaneous outpouring of opposition to Democratic health care bills. Among those optimists are almost all of the Washington press corps and a large proportion of the 53 percent of voters who cast their ballots for Barack Obama last November.
Foremost among their number are the netroots -- the young enthusiasts who flock to the Daily Kos blog and are ready to take direction from MoveOn.org.
As my Washington Examiner colleague Byron York reported on Tuesday, the netroots, once almost totally preoccupied with the war in Iraq and suffused with hatred of George W. Bush, have now moved on. Now their chief goal is "comprehensive health-care reform." No. 2 is "working to elect progressive candidates" in 2010.
To me this looks less like conviction politics and more like team ball. These activists sound much more like a crowd at a stadium, eager for a touchdown and not caring much whether it comes via a quarterback sneak or a runback of a punt.
There's always an element of team ball in politics, and in the past decade polls have shown that those identifying with both parties tend to support with suspicious regularity just about every jot and tittle of their side's platform.
But the netroots seem to have cared more about Iraq than they do about health care.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I attended the inauguration of Emperor Zero (chaperoning a high school class) and I studied the crowd all day. It was clear to me then that their only genuine enthusiasm was hatred of George Bush. They had little energy or interest for anything else.
Optimist is absolutely NOT the correct descriptive term. A very large proportion of the left is motivated by self interest. The unions want the government to force the hands of their employers. Those who are envious want the haves to be punished and to have wealth redistributed. Those who like the government assistance they receive (charitably not saying ‘handouts’ here), or who want more of the same and think the democrats are more likely to give them more. AND, a high proportion of ‘do gooders’ who want to feel good about themselves at the expense of other people's sacrifices. There are many more categories, but I wouldn't put ‘optimist’ among them. Optimists see this country as the land of opportunity, and spend their time trying to better their own lives and the lives of those around them by taking advantage of those opportunities.
Yep, and fortunately for our side, we can reject his bad policies and dislike the man himself at the same time!
I bet the dumb woman yelling about her free gas and house is hoarse by now.
Everyone knows the Joker lies, didn't you see the “Dark Knight”.
A hound started a Hare from his lair, but after a long run, gave up the chase. A goat-herd seeing him stop, mocked him, saying "The little one is the best runner of the two." The Hound replied, "You do not see the difference between us: I was only running for a dinner, but he for his life."
The Hare bests the Hound.
“I was running for dinner...
But he for his life”.
“To me this looks less like conviction politics and more like team ball.”
It looks more like fascism to me.
But hey, this is smiley-faced fascism. This is nanny-Statism. This is PC NAZI-ism.
So it’s OK. So they have a self-decreed moral authority to justify their whips and chains.
Don’t you think that there were enough voters—young ones, especially—that fell for the “hopeful changey” message to put Zippy over the top?
I hope the dems pass their health care bill without the
cover of the Republicans-2010 can’t come fast enough!
The word around the high school, after the election, was there was going to be free pot soon. So far, another disappointed constituency.
—bflr-
Potentially, but I wouldn't call that ‘optimism’ either. I'd call that being naive and uninformed.
The Left is a conglomeration of little cults, more likely to be united by hatred of a common foe than united by interests. As if the white libs of “Zero Population Growth” crowd are really the allies of the minority welfare zeolots, they are not, but they self segregate away from one another so well they rarely even have any communication.
Biggest portion are knee jerk voters who voted democrat cause their fathers grandfathers did so —trying to talk to these types is very frustrating
The mindless lumpen of no real convictions, yep I forgot about them, since I’m so used to reading and hearing the opiniated libs I forgot about the cradle Dems.
There was a certain anti-Clinton sentiment during the Bush Campaign of 2000, but it was more grassroots as the campaign refused to ‘push it’. Obama, OTOH, actively fanned the anti-Bush fire within the Democrat Party. Now maybe we can see why Bush chose not to go there.
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