Your Morning Maddow

[filkertom]

Yeah, I know. It's afternoon. Big yip. :) Rachel on DADT in specific, and Obama and political capital in general.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's still morning here, no worries!

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I've all but stopped using this icon, because I no longer believe in the guy in it... I use it here as much in sarcasm as in appeal.

Of the major civil rights things he said he would do, he has done none of them; he's made one single token gesture towards the gay community - so small I don't even remember what precisely it is - and none of the rest of it, in particular FISA and torture...

Rachel's got a point. Being upset about DADT (and the whole gay question) is one thing. Not that we shouldn't be! But asking "why", and not just rhetorically but actually *expecting an answer*... could be far more interesting.

This whole damn thing is run by Money. Where is the money in DADT? or is it more subtle than that?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

I think Ms. Maddow (and people in general) have gotten a bit glib about "political capital". I think, especially, they vastly overestimate how much of it political figures have.

I occasionally listen to Maddow and Olberman, and I run into a basic problem - in the end, they are as much armchair quarterbacks as the talking heads at FOX.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Ummm...

Okay, first, there's a reason the fabled "bully pulpit" is what it is. If the President starts talking about something, s/he can indeed direct the national conversation. And this president is, if nothing else, a pretty smooth talker.

We won't get into all the details of what Obama could be doing to push around the execrable "Blue Dog" Dems or Joe "I Need Attention Waaaaah" Lieberman. But those steps are known, and occasionally taken by this president. He could be doing a lot more, and he doesn't.

If political figures don't have "political capital", how is it (to pick an example not at random) one schmuck Senator can hold up unemployment payments for several million people?

And the talking heads at Faux News are armchair quarterbacks, indeed. But there are two profound differences between them and Maddow/Olbermann/Schultz et al.: The latter deal with facts, not their own dream-world best-case scenarios (e.g., how wonderfully the Iraq war was going to go, and how quickly it would pay for itself), and they actually have the interests of the American people at heart, not merely corporations and the moneyed and powerful.

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Okay, first, there's a reason the fabled "bully pulpit" is what it is.

Yes, there's a reason it is fabled, too :P Given how the nation's conversations about policy are framed these days, the Presidency is no long such a bully pulpit as it was. The pundits have decimated the President's ability to speak directly to the populace. Nobody listens to Obama. They listen to what others say about what Obama said. Same went for Bush.

If political figures don't have "political capital", how is it (to pick an example not at random) one schmuck Senator can hold up unemployment payments for several million people?

You spend political capital when you use the favorable opinion of others to accomplish something. What you describe here is spending political capital, that's strategic positioning. If you're the guy who gets to cast the tie breaking vote, you don't need to use good opinion to get what you want.

Facts or not, it's still from the comfort and safety of the armchair, with the clarity of only having to worry about the single issue you're criticizing at the moment.

This is not to say that there is not wisdom to be found in media. It is just that one must take statements from any pundit with a large grain of salt. They don't actually know everything that's going on.

I am, alas, too cynical to believe that any pundit, on either side, is somehow unconcerned with ratings and paychecks. It may be that they have managed to work themselves into the enviable position where the thing they care about and their daily paycheck-earning in alignment, but the $$ are still a concern for them.

[laurel-potter.livejournal.com]

When Keith or Rachel make an occasional mistake, they always correct themselves later. I don't think FOX does that so quickly.