Printable View
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/14/opinio...ice/index.html
A short (single page) blip from James Carville, Democratic strategist and talking head. Not a lot here that hasn't been heard from other sources, but interesting to hear it from Mr. Carville. Ignore the Republican bashing that this left-handed Limbaugh is paid to do and there are some pretty valid points in what he has to say.
I've always admired James Carville, both for his candor and the fact that Mary Matlin married him.
In the article, he mentioned (and I paraphrase) that the President must change course, fire his top advisors and start over. I agree with this to a point, although he's already lost most of his economic team, replacing everyone won't make any difference if they are hindered by a top-down ideology. That's the surest way to guarantee more of the same.
That is great! I love James Carville, as "idiosyncratic" as he is. I also love the fact that he married a Republican, because that's what I did (although I'm not Democrat--I'm a Democrat-leaning Independent).
It's good when a "family" member points out the elephant in the room. I, too, shudder at the thought of another Texas cowboy president (nothing against Texas, but Perry seems even more opposed to my values than Bush). Time is running out, though, so maybe Obama should heed Carville's advice.
Independents like me need to get louder in our support for Obama. Independents generally don't speak up much because they don't have a polarized ideology, their views are more nuanced and harder to put into a sound bite, kind of like Obama!
I believe President Obama has gone WAY too far in attempting to compromise and find ways to work with people who have no other aim in life other than to destroy him and his Presidency, to gain power themselves. While he is looking for fairness, long term good governance, and trying to chart a course with that in mind, he is dealing with people who will and do obstruct his every effort, and by his compromising with them is disheartening people in his own party.
I kind of agree with James Carville, and especially with this part:
"As I watch the Republican debates, I realize that we are on the brink of a crazy person running our nation. I sit in front of the television and shudder at the thought of one of these creationism-loving, global-warming-denying, immigration-bashing, Social-Security-cutting, clean-air-hating, mortality-fascinated, Wall-Street-protecting Republicans running my country."
-----------------------------
just as an aside, we have friends who have a home very near the Virginia vacation home of James Carville and Mary Matalin and know them well. According to our friends, they are very different from their public "partisan gunslinger" personas, and often agree much more than they disagree, which is comforting. Our friends say that both of them just know how to make the most money out of their partnership, but are really great people in real life......I can't imagine being married to someone whose political views were so opposite to mine, but I guess if we both made a huge amount of money because of it, it would be easier to deal with, hahahaha.
That's why he makes the big bucks. Framing things using imagery which appeals to a fringe audience. Of course he's not the only one, and he does it in an entertaining way, but let's not forget that it's all theatrics and hyperbole.Quote:
Originally Posted by loosechickens
So his advice to the President is:
1. Conduct purges of scapegoats within the Administration.
2. Conduct show trials of scapegoats outside the Administration.
3. Limit communication to authorized party hacks (Not that "over-educated, over-explanatory" CBO Director).
4. Never, ever deviate from the party line.
People pay this guy for advice? Seems like it would be cheaper to check out a copy of “Darkness at Noon”, or “The Gulag Archipelago” from the library.
With over a year to go till the election, I still think that at best the election will be very close. That being the case I give the advantage to Obama simply because it could come down to the lesser of two evils.
I do think that if President Obama makes a few dramatic moves he will win handily. I will concede the Bible Belt to the opposition but this is a large country and for the most part the collective wisdom will not go for the GOP radicalism.
Peace
I'm confused LC. Its comforting to think of opposing celebrity analysts who happen to be married finding middle ground, but not the President of our country? Carville and Matalin are just a less glam, lower profile version of Brad & Angie so the level of cooperation within their relationship is inconsequential to most of us. I would go so far as to say some of us wish them well, but don't really care.Quote:
Originally Posted by loosechickens
The President on the other hand has a relationship with each of us that matters a great deal because it will effect us, our kids, grandkids, etc. He damn sure better compromise and better start doing a lot more of it. I hate to use phrases like "in typical liberal fashion...", but you're driving me to it by picking the rhetoric out of Carville's article and ignoring the substance. There are apparently a LOT of people in this country that feel the President needs to get off his butt, climb down off that very high horse he's been riding and get something done. Mr. Carville offered some interesting thoughts in his article, even if they were completely framed in hyperbole. It might do the President (and therefore the rest of us) some good to think it over.
I'm sorry, Gregg.....I really have to disagree. I think that if there is one thing this President HAS done, it's been to try to bring all voices to the table, with the expectation that everybody would have to give some to arrive at some solutions. But the Republicans have pretty much been totally unwilling to compromise, and have shown themselves willing to crash the whole economy to protect even the richest from paying any more taxes, while expecting the poor to suffer more, and the economy to sink even further while they protected those corporations' every tax break. People such as Mitch McConnell have said publicly that their primary mission is to make sure that President Obama is a one term President, so they have ruthlessly opposed even things that not too many months ago, they supported, and in some cases even originated, just to make sure of that goal.
Nope.....only in the past week or so has the President more or less been on ANY kind of a "high horse", as he's tried to show the ?American people just what is going on. There can't be much compromise happening when only the President and the Democrats are doing any compromising. Even the debt ceiling bill, the Dems caved on, giving the Republicans pretty close to 100% of what they wanted, because in the end, somebody had to blink to keep the economy from going over the cliff.
Today's Republicans are not the Republicans of even a few decades ago. This group really would prefer to destroy the Federal government, although I think many of them would be really surprised at the chaos were they to achieve their aims.
I wasn't making any comparison between the Carville-Matalins and the President, only making a comment that friends who know them well say that much of their differences are part of a "persona" that each of them adopts, as hired "gunslingers", and that they are kind of laughing all the way to the bank. Is Carville a Democrate and Matalin a Republican? Of course, but those personas are mostly for public consumption, and both of them in real life are much more moderate and closer together than the parts they play in the public sector. I just thought that was interesting. But nothing was meant in any sort of comparison to the main subject under discussion, which was that this President has some real problems, and needs to address them if he expects to win re-election.
If you think that this President has been "on his high horse" and somehow hasn't BEEN trying hard to "get something done", then we'll just have to agree to disagree, I guess.
It's going to be an interesting year ahead....sometimes I have to fight my urge to just insulate and isolate and come up out of my hole on voting day, cast my vote, and then see what happens. Because the process of getting to that point is going to be traumatic, I'm afraid. Every time I think this country cannot be more divided without actually ending up in civil war, the polarity ratchets up a notch. Scary.