Michael Barone actually thinks that President Obama is on track to win a second term, but he still can’t help himself:
Obama came to office with the assumption that economic distress would increase support for his policies to (in his words to Joe the Plumber) “spread the wealth around.” But the 2010 midterms make it about as clear as these things can be that voters reject such efforts.
American voters are not seething with envy over income inequality and are not convinced that we’ll all do better if the government takes away more of Bill Gates’ money. Obama, like the academics in whose neighborhoods he has always chosen to live, think they should be seething and that if the message is just delivered the right way they can be convinced.
One of the things I like about Obama is that when he had a choice about where to live, he chose to live in Los Angeles, Manhattan, Boston, and Chicago. But I guess you can hate him for wanting to live in those places, too. After all, those places have gays and college professors and lots of racial and religious minorities. They eat weird things like shawarma and phở.
Why would you hate people for being educated, tolerant, and having more options for dinner than you do? Is it really because smart, well-fed, tolerant and educated people want to spread the wealth around?
It’s too bad really; Michael Barone used to be a good observer of American politics—before he let his own politics color his views.
Barone used to know that when the economy is bad, people vote against the incumbents. He used to know that the president’s party almost invariably loses seats during a midterm election.
P.S. I see from Wikipedia that Barone grew up in the Detroit metropolitan area, attended Harvard and Yale, and lives in the DC area. (Notice how I refrain from using Barone’s places of residence to make the point that he is out of touch with what “most Americans” think.)
why refrain?
why not point out that he’s an elitist pretending to be salt of the earth?
Because if I do, then I’d have to point out that Karl Rove is an elitist pretending to be the salt of the earth….
And from there, I’d have to go to Haley Barbour….
And once I’ve done that, the floodgates are open and I’d have to take down the entire right-wing establishment….
And that’s not my agenda for this week. My agenda for the week is to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.
(Taking down the hypocrites in the right-wing establishment will have to wait til next year.)
see you next year then.
New Year’s Resolution (Wish).
We progressives need to:
1.) STOP responding to/paying attention to the corporate propaganda/echo chamber and use our energy/efforts for activities which actually accomplish something.
2.) It’s not that Barone and rest of the well-paid hacks “can’t help themselves”… it’s their job to spew propaganda on a daily basis, meant to distract from the real problem in the U.S:
3.) class. the massive wealth inequity in the U.S. which is in fact dragging us down economically, socially and politically.
Dunno about the rest of you, but I expect progressive bloggers/blogs to face reality, and stop wasting time responding to corporate MSM propaganda.
wasting time? Hold on, let me get back to assembling my army of the proletariat…
be right back.
heh heh… whatever.
if your actual point is the american people are sheep and all we’re going to do is keep everything at the sophomoric “love/hate” bullcrap: THAT I agree with… but don’t ask for my $$ help for bullcrap.
fuck Barone.
I’m proud I’m an urbanite, and I’m glad my President is too.
fuck him. he probably hasn’t lived around 10 non-White folks since he moved to the DC Area.
I once rode an elevator with Barone as US NEWS and the dude exuded a negative attitude.
80% of Americans live in urban areas.
In a word, tribalism.