James Carville's Advice to the President...Panic!

[creaker]

Thank goodness President Obama came along to put a stop to all that nonsense.

Obama has been way too far to the right for my taste on many issues he's addressed, attempted to address - or ignored.

[iris lily]

Your post reminded me of something I read shortly before the 2010 election:

“It is a measure of the corruption of liberal thought and the collapse of its self-confidence that, finding itself so widely repudiated, it resorts reflexively to the cheapest race-baiting (in a colorful variety of forms). Indeed, how can one reason with a nation of pitchfork-wielding mobs brimming with "antipathy toward people who aren't like them" -- blacks, Hispanics, gays and Muslims -- a nation that is, as Michelle Obama once put it succinctly, "just downright mean"?

The Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November. Not just because the economy is ailing. And not just because Obama over-read his mandate in governing too far left. But because a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082605233.html

This goes to Bernie Goldberg's analysis of his news buddies during the Bush election years. They simply could not imagine rational people who would vote for GW Bush. They wouldn't do it. None of the people with whom they associate with would do it. They didn't know anyone who would vote for GW. Therefore, it won't happen.

And they were shocked, not once, but twice, at the election outcome.

That's what I think is the worst thing about the progressive/conservative divide, that too many people refuse to recognize that the other side has a reasonable point of view. It doesn't happen to be their point of view so it gets trashed. I think there are reasonable points of view on both sides. Only a few opinions are what I call "fringe" or excessively weird.

[JaneV2.0]

Thank goodness President Obama came along to put a stop to all that nonsense.

That he hasn't even tried is shameful, IMO.

[loosechickens]

"That's what I think is the worst thing about the progressive/conservative divide, that too many people refuse to recognize that the other side has a reasonable point of view. It doesn't happen to be their point of view so it gets trashed. I think there are reasonable points of view on both sides. Only a few opinions are what I call "fringe" or excessively weird." (Iris Lily)
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I agree, Iris Lily. Which is why, if I were a conservative, I would be both embarassed and ashamed of the percentage of really out there on the fringe folks who are being seriously considered as Presidential timber on the Republican side. It's as though the Republican party has been taken over by idiots. Even Goldwater or Reagan would be considered RINOs by these people.

President Reagan, he who headed a large union, raised taxes on the rich, etc., could not possibly win this election's primary campaign.....he would be considered far too moderate. Despite the fact that they all appear to venerate the man, and Rick Perry has even been receiving consultant lessons on Reagan mannerisms, ways of ****ing his head, standing, etc., to evoke the "Reagan image". Lots of luck!

Honestly, I feel badly for friends who are serious, knowledgeable conservatives. I know you are, I consider Alan and others to be thinking people. You HAVE to, underneath, be seriously embarassed at folks like Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Rick Perry, et al being who is representing conservatism. It would make past and should make present conservatives squirm with embarassment. You're not people who hold many of the fringe views of people like Michelle Bachmann.

I really think that if the folks fanning the flames of partianship could be quieted, and folks on both sides could sit down and discuss quietly all the problems our country faces, and how we could work together to solve them, with each side being willing to some compromises, rather than "my way or the highway", we'd find that we are not so far apart.

Both Republican and Democratic families want opportunity for their kids, something of a fair opportunity to succeed, decent schools, access to health care, a reasonably clean and less toxic environment, and moderation in government. Unfortunately, the loudest voices live on the fringes, and both parties are pulled by the loudest and most rigid ideologists, and the large bunch of us on either side of the middle get little representation, and even less decent government because of it.

JMHO

Of course, there is a reasonable conservative view of the world. I don't happen to share it, but it's not the bunch that deny the science of global warming, or the ones who have kept the birther stuff about President Obama alive despite all proofs, think that humans and dinosaurs coexisted and the earth is only 6,000 years old. Yet a fair percentage of the people being seriously considered for President on the Republican side either believe or support that stuff.

[peggy]

This goes to Bernie Goldberg's analysis of his news buddies during the Bush election years. They simply could not imagine rational people who would vote for GW Bush. They wouldn't do it. None of the people with whom they associate with would do it. They didn't know anyone who would vote for GW. Therefore, it won't happen.

And they were shocked, not once, but twice, at the election outcome.

That's what I think is the worst thing about the progressive/conservative divide, that too many people refuse to recognize that the other side has a reasonable point of view. It doesn't happen to be their point of view so it gets trashed. I think there are reasonable points of view on both sides. Only a few opinions are what I call "fringe" or excessively weird.

agreed. +1

[loosechickens]

Just to add.....today on www.thehill.com, conservative son of President Reagan, Michael Reagan said.....

"“If you look at my father and you just knew him as governor — raised taxes, signed an abortion bill, no-fault divorce, and a few other things — today, the argument against him would come from the right, not from the left,” Reagan said. “He would have trouble getting his own nomination, but yet he ended up being the greatest president in our lifetimes...................”


These conservative candidates today have marched so far right, they've practically fallen off the edge of their flat world. Yet serious conservatives will not denounce them, defend them, and in the process hurt the Republican Party.

Hey, if I just look at it from a Democratic point of view, it's fine....let them howl at the moon if they want, but when I look at it from the standpoint of the fact that should President Obama lose the election, one of these folks will be sitting there in the Oval Office being expected to deal with the complexities that face a President, it's VERY scary. And should be scary to you guys, too, much as you might disagree with this President or the views of Democrats.

How would you serious conservatives, with good minds, really FEEL about one of these folks like Perry, Bachmann or Palin ending up in that Oval Office? Honestly.

[LDAHL]

Just to add.....today on www.thehill.com, conservative son of President Reagan, Michael Reagan said.....

"“If you look at my father and you just knew him as governor — raised taxes, signed an abortion bill, no-fault divorce, and a few other things — today, the argument against him would come from the right, not from the left,” Reagan said. “He would have trouble getting his own nomination, but yet he ended up being the greatest president in our lifetimes...................”


These conservative candidates today have marched so far right, they've practically fallen off the edge of their flat world. Yet serious conservatives will not denounce them, defend them, and in the process hurt the Republican Party.

Hey, if I just look at it from a Democratic point of view, it's fine....let them howl at the moon if they want, but when I look at it from the standpoint of the fact that should President Obama lose the election, one of these folks will be sitting there in the Oval Office being expected to deal with the complexities that face a President, it's VERY scary. And should be scary to you guys, too, much as you might disagree with this President or the views of Democrats.

How would you serious conservatives, with good minds, really FEEL about one of these folks like Perry, Bachmann or Palin ending up in that Oval Office? Honestly.

In all honesty, I'd prefer to see Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan duking it out right now.

Would a recovering Democrat like Reagan be considered today? Or any other ideologically impure candidate? I think that's still within the realm of possibility when you consider Romney hasn't dropped out yet.

[JaneV2.0]

Right now, I'm cracking myself up contemplating Chris Christie practicing international diplomacy...

[JaneV2.0]

Jeb Bush? Ben Stein? (I might even contribute to Stein's campaign, though he surely doesn't need my money. I rarely agree with him, but I respect him nonetheless.)

[LDAHL]

Jeb Bush? Ben Stein? (I might even contribute to Stein's campaign, though he surely doesn't need my money. I rarely agree with him, but I respect him nonetheless.)

Love his column in the American Spectator.