by tychay
No matter how many seats the Republicans win tonight, you will see these three bogus narratives popping up all over the place as soon as the results start rolling in. Chris Matthews will undoubtedly endorse all three. And of course, they're all wrong.
1) The electorate punished the Democrats for "over-reaching." Very Serious People like George Will and Jeb Bush are already saying this, and it's absurd on its face. The simple retort: what did Obama and the Democrats do that they didn't explicitly campaign on? Health care? Actually more conservative than what Obama promised. The stimulus? An emergency measure that a) staved off an even worse collapse; b) was nearly 40% tax cuts and c) was probably much too modest. TARP? That's Bush's baby, and with it, Obama saved a million auto industry jobs. Financial regulation? Perceived by the public as insufficient. There's no "liberal over-reach" except in the minds of conservatives who think Democrats controlling the White House, Senate and House is ipso facto an over-reach.
2) Obama should move to the middle if he wants to save his presidency. Given that Obama has cut taxes, opened up offshore drilling, passed Mitt Romney's health care plan, appointed a deficit commission for the purpose of curtailing socialism entitlements, doubled down in Afghanistan, continued and amplified the Bush/Cheney national security policies, expanded the War on Terror(TM) into Pakistan, retained a huge footprint in Iraq and increased the defense budget, where exactly is this "center" he's supposed to move to? Between Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham, apparently.
3) Republicans will now be more sensible and work with Obama to get things done. David Brooks trotted this one out today and it's just absolutely hilarious. In the Senate, you've got Mitch McConnell (R-KY) saying his goal for the next two years is to destroy Obama, while in the House, you've got John Boehner (R-OH) saying "we will not compromise." Very bi-partisany! And these two look like wise elder statesmen next to the mob of deranged Teahadists storming the gates of Congress. Don't believe it for a second, Charlie Brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment