Donviti has challenged his fellow bloggers at Delawareliberal for not holding the Obama administration to the same standards they held the Bush administration.
He says [in very small part]:
Progressive Mom sums up the deflecting response of his co-bloggers and other regular commenters who accuse dv of being (omigod no!) a purist and who then gins up a fake list of things she suggests dv wants the President to have accomplished:
Now dv is a big guy who would not even need a wide stance to get laid if he were gay [how do I know? he told us], but in the pile-on it looks like he might be able to use a little help parsing the bullshit rationalizations that are flying thick and heavy over there. Let's go back over to Progressive Mom's little list and take it item by item:
What's going to be ironic is this: liberals have failed to accept the conservative argument that they disown Dubya because he turned out not to be a real conservative. Unfortunately, they are now finding themselves forced to fall back on arguing that Obama never was really a liberal or a progressive.
As for donviti [I'm trying to get him fired again for sure; but he has a free invite to guest post here anytime he wants as long as the primary subject is not his balls], Delawaredem misunderstands completely. DV is not a purist, he's an idealist with a conscience.
His ideals on many issues are not mine, but they are consistent. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a winning attribute for him.
He says [in very small part]:
I have learned theat both sides have hyper partisan people that are willing to attack and defend the messenger no matter who it is. It’s all fine when it is directed at the other side, but when you start questioning, honest questioning of people that are supposed to be on your “side” people can get very uptight. Down right angry and nasty.
What I find the most amusing is that it exists on both sides, but both sides don’t see it that way. They are too busy pointing fingers to notice the plank in their own eye. We had it here and yesterday I was the victim of a few waves of incorrect assumptions. What I find amazing is the willingness to go on the offense and assume that questioning what someone has done is a direct attack on their record.
Progressive Mom sums up the deflecting response of his co-bloggers and other regular commenters who accuse dv of being (omigod no!) a purist and who then gins up a fake list of things she suggests dv wants the President to have accomplished:
If I’m reading this correctly, here is a partial list of what Obama was supposed to have done — single handedly and without the help of the chickenshit Congress we have — since mid-January, 2009:end an 8 year old war;
end a 6 year old war;
repeal DADT;
repeat the Patriot Act;
fix the banks;
fix unemployment;
fix the White House web site;
unfix the election in Afghanistan;
fix the home mortgage crisis;
fix the student loan crisis;
punish Charlie Rangel;
meddle in private enterprise by stopping bank/insurance and Wall Street bonuses;
change the car fuel standards by, I dunno, next week?;
prosecute a whole bunch of people who may or may not have broken laws in the Bush Administration;
and get us universal health care.
Now dv is a big guy who would not even need a wide stance to get laid if he were gay [how do I know? he told us], but in the pile-on it looks like he might be able to use a little help parsing the bullshit rationalizations that are flying thick and heavy over there. Let's go back over to Progressive Mom's little list and take it item by item:
end an 8 year old war;
President Obama has first more than doubled, and is about to triple the number of US troops involved in a war that his administration admits repeatedly it doesn't even know how to define victory for. But this is not a problem for PM or the DL crew? Can't be--because they don't ever talk about it.
end a 6 year old war;
President Obama has quietly set aside his self-pronounced time-table for withdrawal and committed the US to a semi-permanent presence of more than 50,000 US combat troops whenever we actually get around to a withdrawal. But this is not a problem....
repeal DADT;
President Obama has repeatedly promised to do this, and has repeatedly waffled on the issue of a timeline. He has even refused to characterize the continued expulsion of trained ordnance disposal and linguistic specialists as a bad thing. But this is not a problem....
repeat the Patriot Act;
Not repeal? President Obama has extended and exceeded Bushco positions on telecom immunity, preventive detention, and a variety of other civil rights abuses. Under his watch the Patriot Act has actually gotten WORSE. But this is not a problem...
fix the banks;
President Obama has instead continued the Bushco policy of turning the economic direction of this country over to Goldmann Sachs, and has blessed repeated bank mergers and acquisitions that worked to the financial advantage of GS and the disadvantage of competing institutions. But this is not a problem...
fix unemployment;
President Obama crafted and sold a stimulus bill that is to this point generally admitted to be a gigantic dud in terms of softening unemployment, to the point that most of the administration [except our Joe] has stopped even talking about the issue. But this is not a problem...
fix the White House web site;
I'm not sure what kind of idiot puts this item on the list.
unfix the election in Afghanistan;
President Obama and Secretary Clinton are not interested in fixing the election in Afghanistan; because the outcome--however illegal--suited their purposes, they publicly told the world that they would not allow the Afghan people to have a run-off as their constitution requires. But this is not a problem....
fix the home mortgage crisis;
President Obama's program for helping homeowners was so badly conceived that few banks participated and even fewer homeowners could actually qualify for it. But this is not a problem....
fix the student loan crisis;
President Obama has failed to even ask Congress to act on this mess. But this is not a problem....
punish Charlie Rangel;
President Obama promised the most ethical, non-lobbyist-controlled administration in history. He immediately reneged on the lobbyist thing and can't find a voice to criticize poor behavior in his own party. But this is not a problem....
meddle in private enterprise by stopping bank/insurance and Wall Street bonuses;
President Obama chanted populist rhetoric about doing all this, swore to the American people he was on the case, and all the while knew he could not do anything about it because the bail-outs [to which he was a party in structuring] made all the behaviors he was condeming legal. But this is not a problem....
change the car fuel standards by, I dunno, next week?;
President Obama has repeatedly demonstrated a love of claiming as his own huge advances that will never have to be dealt with in real terms until he is either re-elected or out of office. New health care plans? Will be passed but will not have a chance to screw up before re-election. New cafe standards? Yeah, great reading, but wouldn't want to lose those contributions, so we'll phase them in when I retire. But this is not a problem....
prosecute a whole bunch of people who may or may not have broken laws in the Bush Administration;
President Obama has not only vacillated repeatedly on this issue, but supported moves to suppress information about CIA abuses and ordered his DOJ to fight the ability of victims to seek redress, while he is not really closing Gitmo nor changing any of the barbaric practices at Bagram. But this is not a problem....
and get us universal health care.
President Obama didn't even have the political moxie to start with his own preferred plan--single-payer--on the bargaining table, and he has accepted major campaign contributions and media pay-offs from related industries throughout the process. But this is not a problem....
What's going to be ironic is this: liberals have failed to accept the conservative argument that they disown Dubya because he turned out not to be a real conservative. Unfortunately, they are now finding themselves forced to fall back on arguing that Obama never was really a liberal or a progressive.
As for donviti [I'm trying to get him fired again for sure; but he has a free invite to guest post here anytime he wants as long as the primary subject is not his balls], Delawaredem misunderstands completely. DV is not a purist, he's an idealist with a conscience.
His ideals on many issues are not mine, but they are consistent. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a winning attribute for him.
Comments
I may have to reconsider my antipathy towards dimwitty, er, um, donviti ...