Posted on 10/28/2010 8:24:57 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
Democrats know Barack Obama needs to reconcile with dispirited liberals. But some of them wonder whether televised couple’s therapy with Jon Stewart days before the midterms was the ideal way to do it.
Obama, according to his aides, knew exactly what he was getting into when he descended into the surprisingly inhospitable “Daily Show” den Wednesday night. They say he actually welcomed Stewart’s at times uncomfortable public airing of Democratic family tensions – and the mutual expression of disappointment between Obama and his base, represented by the suddenly un-comedic Stewart.
But while White House officials on Thursday described Obama’s appearance on the show an air-clearing “success,” it was also stark proof that Obama can’t expect the same got-your-back support from the progressive media as George W. Bush enjoyed from conservative TV and radio hosts.
“The left is genetically disappointed, with or without Obama, so Obama needs to face the fact that we are not going to roll over like conservatives did with Bush,” says liberal radio host Bill Press.
“It’s just the reality and it’s good that he’s facing it,” Press added. “Stewart was fair. These are the kinds of questions the left is asking Obama. It’s a good conversation to have.”
It’s the timing that may prove to be a problem. The White House had clearly hoped the event would generate a handful of funny sound bites, a few serious encounters, and re-connect Obama with young liberals the party needs to turn out in the midterms.
Instead, the appearance turned into a serious – and largely laugh-free – discussion that belied the “Comedy Central” bug on the screen. For more than 15 minutes, Stewart detailed his dissatisfaction with Obama’s pragmatism and the president responded with impatience that he has not been given credit for health care, the stimulus and banking reform.
“I think the president is wise to choose any atypical venue to get any message out, although I don't think Stewart represents the left. He represents the cranky kinda-left,” says MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, who hasn’t been shy about calling out Obama when he thinks the president has been dragging his feet.
“The president himself gets a little cranky at the idea he's disappointed the left,” Olbermann wrote in an email to POLITICO. “I think, and I have suggested to the White House that some maintenance of progressives on their turf would at least counteract this GOP/mainstream media theme that” the White House has stopped caring about the party’s progressive wing.
If nothing else, the Stewart appearance proves Obama isn’t afraid to address dissent in his own party, Olbermann added.
“This president does not disavow you for not genuflecting. That one [Bush] did,” he said.
Liberals still overwhelmingly support Obama, but the Democratic base is far less motivated than fired-up Republicans this year, greatly increasing GOP chances in a wide range of Senate, House and gubernatorial races.
Progressives, have “now defaulted to their normal stance on everything, which doesn’t mean they’re against the president,” says former Clinton aide William Galston. “Instead of the god-like halo which he was surrounded two years ago, now he’s just a mere mortal.”
Still, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that Stewart and other liberal critics don’t reflect the wider views of the party base.
“I think this overall notion of huge disappointment among Democratic voters is -- it is not matched in any of the empirical data,” he said.
But Obama is spending the last days of the 2010 campaign furiously courting progressives – and the overlapping base groups of African-Americans, women and youth voters.
He’s been making himself available to niche media, including progressive bloggers, and booked a last-minute Friday rally in Charlottesville, Va in support of freshman Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), who might lose a seat in a conservative district for backing Obama’s health care reform and stimulus bills.
But Progressive Change Campaign Committee founder Adam Green – who split with the White House over Obama’s endorsement of conservative Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) – says he’s less interested in seeing the president engage his base and more interested in seeing him ditch bipartisanship.
“Jon Stewart is right,” Green says. “President Obama could have fought for and passed the public option, a more effective stimulus, and… he refused to step on Republican toes, pre-emptively caved to senators with no mandate to oppose him, and refuses to acknowledge his mistakes as Democratic candidates across the country face an uninspired electorate as a result.
“Democrats need to learn the right lesson from this year's election, which is voters will show up if you fight harder for a popular progressive agenda."
Obama’s “Daily Show” appearance, a warm-up to Stewart’s big rally on the mall this weekend, started breezily enough with the host handing Obama a customized coffee mug and a stoked audience offering a long ovation. But things turned serious fast.
“How did we go, in two years from hope and change… to ‘you’re not going to give them the keys, are you?’ Are you disappointed in how it’s gone? Are you surprised that other people, even your base, can be disappointed?”
Obama tensed visibly and shot back: “Jon, I love your show. But this is something I have a fundamental disagreement with you [on]… It gets discounted because the perception is we didn’t get 100 percent of what we wanted, so let’s focus on the ten percent of what we didn’t get and not the 90- percent [of what] we did.”
Several Democrats close to Obama said the exchange was productive in the long-term, but a damaging distraction so close to such a consequential election.
“He looked defensive at times,” said one longtime Democratic operative. “But look, it’s good to have him out there, engaging on this issue. It’s a real problem and it doesn’t hurt to have him out there showing that he’s still the guy they remember and that he’s still likeable and serious-minded.”
Gibbs said Obama told him he was happy with the way the interview came off during the ride back to the White House Wednesday night.
“I think Jon Stewart is about as good an interviewer as there is in the public domain right now,” Gibbs told reporters. “I certainly -- we didn’t walk into that interview with -- thinking that we were going to get asked a bunch of softball questions and somebody was going to hand us a list of jokes that -- and they’d hit the laugh machine and it would sound like a bunch of people -- we didn’t expect that to happen.”
But the press secretary, who prompted a mini-firestorm earlier this fall by suggested liberal criticism of Obama was largely confined to the “professional left,” bristled a bit when a reporter suggested Stewart had been expressing “skepticism” of Obama.
“Cynicism,” Gibbs interjected.
Still, Gibbs dismissed the idea that Obama was getting a rougher handling than his predecessor or former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who were seldom subjected to similar treatment during their appearances on FOX and other outlets.
Olbermann had no problem making the link.
“I don't think the Right ever seriously criticized Bush. Even the parts of it he screwed, like the Evangelicals, kept quiet for six years and more,” he said. “That was one of the biggest flaws of his presidency and the lockstep Right. This President does not disavow you for not genuflecting. That one did.”
Obviously, Olberman doesn't read FR. And therefore, cannot be considered "well read". Rather parochial in his outlook.
Aren't his number falling off the face of the earth and headed toward black-hole territory?
Schadenfreude: It's what's for supper.
/johnny
So freaking hilarious. Funniest thing I've read all day.
Sometimes I wonder what universe these guys live in. Lord knows it's not this one.
This article goes on and on about how conservatives didn’t confront Bush when he dissapointed us, his conservative base. They don’t really know anything do they..? We confronted him all the time with his “compassionate conservative” liberal agenda!
Oh and I can’t help but see this article in part through the lens of a lefty screeming (”Obama dissapoints his base..’it’s all Bush’s fault’ “)/.
Even if lefties are easily dispirited, there’s a new leftie born every minute.
1) Illegal immigration
2) Harriet Miers
3) Dubai ports
4) Signing stimulus bill
...for starters.
A universe where “progressives” apparently believe that Obama has been exhibiting bipartisanship is a bizarro universe indeed...
The dems are in total disarray. It’s fun watching Politico run around trying to put out the fires with a squirt gun.
Exactly.... we followed in lock-step with Bush SO much that we forced him to cease his plan for “immigration reform”, made him tell Harriet Miers, “Never mind.”, stopped the Dubai port deal, and raised heck over his signing of the stimulus bill.
Yeah. We never seriously criticized Bush.
Olberman-”This President does not disavow you for not genuflecting. That one did.”
Former Clinton aide William Galston. “Instead of the god-like halo which he was surrounded two years ago, now he’s just a mere mortal.”
No one ever thought Bush was god-like, or that he had a halo. Yet Olberloser claims Bush disavowed people for not genuflecting.
Mental disordered liberals.
5)#1. Because his name is Bush...
“atypical venue?” It’s exactly what he would have picked in any other situation. His presidency is a joke, he’s in the right place.
“Genetically disappointed” is just a polite way of saying “idiot by birth”.
“His presidency is a joke, he’s in the right place.”
You’re right; at this point he’s “Def Comedy Jam” material...
I’ve stumbled upon clams with greater grit between their teeth than these wussies. No wonder they can’t handle Iran, the Border or even the banks, or a thousand greater things facing the U.S.A. than ‘disappointed liberals’. Finding the leader of the country having to explain his actions to a comedian on cable TV is the blackest black comedy to come along in the history of our country. What an ugly disgrace.
Idea for a political cartoon: Update the Carter versus Rabbit boat scene. Replace Carter with Obama and the Rabbit with John Stewart. Obama pleads: “So soon?”
That’s funny I seem to remember several times when Bush was subjected to very intense and very public criticism from the conservative GOP base: Dubai ports deal, Supreme Court nominee, spending, and the amnesty.
Anyone who wants to pretend they are a journalist would have been paying attention to notice.
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