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432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
…had Obama allowed the Republicans to turn the national debate into nothing other than a debt seminar? “We can be faulted for this,” Axelrod said later. “Nobody anticipated the degree of Republican obstreperousness and implacability. We knew there would be strident voices, but the degree to which that tail would wag the dog—we didn’t assume.”Really? Don’t you guys read the papers, watch TV, check out internet sites? Yes, the administration most definitely can be faulted. They paid no attention at all to the thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, and maybe even millions of us who were sending the White House e-mails wondering why he could not see the obvious. This is a prime example of how politicos slip inside the DC bubble and fail to appreciate what is going on in the world beyond.
Axelrod subsequently explained. “The decision was made to go out and talk about jobs and the economy and allow the negotiations to proceed until the president needed to intervene.” And as Robert Gibbs put it, “It’s difficult to put out your right hand to shake their hands and then strike them with your left hand.“Why the hell not? The other side has no such compunctions. They never stopped accusing Obama of being an alien, never stopped claiming he was a secret Muslim, never stopped accusing him of being an anti-American, even a terrorist. Are they so completely lily-livered that they can dish it out but they can’t take it? Well, yes they clearly are, given their hysterical reaction to any criticism, but why should Democrats give these nut-job hypocrites an inch? They did not exactly soften their stance at the negotiating table because Obama kept the gloves on. The arena of public opinion counts, and it was, and remains important for progressives to not allow the fear-mongering and divisive hatred of the right to blare unchallenged. Bad call, Mister President.