DOWNLOADS: (212)

PLAYS: (617)

Embed

Here's what MSNBC apparently defines as a "centrist" or "moderate" politician. A Republican, Christine Todd Whitman, who had massive conflict of interests while running the EPA and taking actions that benefited her husband and Citigroup in a Superfund cleanup case and who misled the 9-11 workers about the air quality at Ground Zero. And a corporate, union hating "Democrat" in the form of Blanche Lincoln.

It's the same game Andrea Mitchell was playing with Olympia Snowe this week. They just keep pushing that Overton window to the right every chance they get and pretend like these so-called "moderates" are a solution to what's wrong with our government instead of the very heart of it, which is politicians bought and sold by big corporate interests and doing the bidding of those interests instead of their constituents. That deal making Chris Matthews is so enamored with here usually ends up doing one thing these days, which is benefiting the 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent in the name of "bipartisanship."

And it's a game that's growing more tiresome by the day. They run these kind of segments constantly on the network. Apparently they think their viewers are incapable of using the search engines or have no memory about what any of them have done for the last decade.

Transcript below the fold.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (245)

PLAYS: (294)

Embed

Cynthia Tucker does a good job of cutting through all of the typical Villager opining about President Obama's poll numbers and with whom he is in or out of favor. When it comes down to it, what Americans are concerned about is jobs and the economy. It kills me to hear the others on the panel talk about what decisions our politicians are making purely in terms of the optics and whether the policy decisions being made are going to harm the President or either party politically, rather than as Tucker does, framing the discussion as to how those decisions are going to affect people's lives.

Howard Fineman and Norah O'Donnell also both seem to think that President Obama should have been able to work miracles with this economy given the obstructionist Senate he's got to deal with and fail to lay the blame for the slow recovery on the Republicans who did their best to make sure the stimulus was watered down. Jobs should be the number one priority for the Democratic Party if they don't want to get hammered this November. The Republicans are well aware of this and doing their best to make sure as many people suffer as possible if it helps get them reelected.

Cynthia Tucker was exactly right here. Voters aren't going to care if someone calls the President an "activist" if they see what he's doing improving their individual lives and they're able to work and take care of their families. The rest of the bunch are just having an exercise in Villager navel-gazing.

Matthews: First up, oh the irony of it all. President Obama is in poll trouble today because many in the center think he’s done too much. Since the inauguration, Obama’s lost ground with independents on whether he’s got the right policy to be President, down 21 points with independents, the true centrists. But here’s the irony or contradiction, he’s also dropped among the liberals. Nine points; they think he hasn’t done enough.

And how about the Republicans? Another irony. They’re pounding the President on policy but only 26% of voters think Republicans would make good decisions themselves.

Howard, it’s purgatory for the President isn’t it? He seems to be damned for doing too much by the center, damned for not doing enough by the liberals.

Continue reading »