It's a Disaster! It's Horrible! The Conservatives are coming back into control of the Government after eight and more years of proven incompetence!! Two weeks into office and Obama has lost control of his Presidency and the government!!!
Or at least that's the conclusion that a lot of people seem to be jumping to, based on the ignorant froth and ranting in the political media.
It seems to me that I recall one or maybe two occasions during Obama's campaign for President when they lost a week or so in the media and everyone was screaming that it was a disaster. Then for no reason that was obvious in the media, the situation was turned around. Obama was a real long shot, but he won.
I think that the Obama campaign specifically eschewed the use of the Bill Clinton-style media-focused warroom rapid response operation in favor of deeper understanding and control of the problem. They were using different, none media-centered levers to manipulate public opinion. And somehow the Obama campaign then seemed to almost effortlessly to turn such "disasters" around.
The same small group of people is still running the Obama operation. They didn't miss much. When they did, they quickly adjusted their focus. And since they operated below the media radar, their opponents did not know what was happening to them and found it difficult to prepare a defense.
Many of the same otherwise sensible anti-conservatives were reacting to the Obama "disasters" during the campaign much as they are reacting to this situation, with much noise, anguish and wringing of hands. Remember when McCain had his Palin-bounce after the Republican convention?
These Obama guys didn't expose their strategy in public to the media. (Or if they did, the media never figured it out. Either way, they didn't see it. Why should that change now? When was the last time a media-generated flap like this one was anything more than the result of the fevered imaginations of people looking for something to write or broadcast about to fill a news hole or empty airtime? I don't think the public is being influenced my the media nearly as much as the media is feeding the public what they want to hear so they can get ratings/advertising revenues. The public is already quite set in its opinions and demands. The Obama camp is trying to change those basic public opinions, and they in the past seem to have learned how to actually get what they want in spite of the media.
I don't think those of us who try to keep informed will have a clue what is really going on until after it has happened. No amount of screaming, wailing, shrieking and rending-of-clothes will make a difference. But the same is true for the conservatives.
The conservatives, now, are (probably) badly misreading the situation. They think (as do the writers of the articles Steve is responding to and as do much of the rest of the political media) that they really do think they have caught up with the Obama juggernaut. That's certainly the talk show conceit. But if the pattern holds true, at some time soon the obstructionists will suddenly find that the situation has changed and they have been outflanked. They, along with the rest of us, will not know in advance how or when.
I suspect that we need to learn more patience. I have little doubt that Mitch McConnell and his compatriots are going to learn a touch of humility - to the extent that they are capable of learning anything. Rush and most of his ilk never will.
[ h/t to Steve Benen at Washington Monthly's Political Animal. ]
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