When You Don't Like What You See In The Mirror, Don't Blame The Mirror

I am pretty sure there will be a LOT of whining over this article where Robert Gibbs has this to say about the "professional left":

During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.


“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”


The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”


Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

When I read the headline on twitter I was all set to be pissed off at Gibbs. But after reading the article I came to a different conclusion.

He is right.

Now I know a lot of folks who he wasn't necessarily talking about will take offense, after all a hit dog will holler. But there is a specific subset of the left he is talking about here and that's the professional left. Those "lefties" brought on TV or Radio or given opinion writing jobs in NewsPapers and some of the more prominent blogs. And guess what, a lot of them ARE batshit insane.

Here's the deal, I've been as frustrated as anybody about some of the things the Obama administration has done or not done. But anybody who takes a step back and objectively looks at what they have accomplished in less than two years. Hell I'll let Rachel Maddow do the honors.



Imagine the pedestal FoxNews would have a Republican President on if they had accomplished even half that in a full term.

That's not to say liberal or progressives in the media should blindly promote Democrats the way FoxNews does. But by the same token how about not doing the flip side and completely trashing the President at every turn no matter what he does for the country.

Think I'm being hyperbolic?

Allow me to remind you that the firebaggers were actively lobbying to kill the health care reform bill, including teaming up with that asshole Grover Norquist and using right wing language to demagogue.

Cenk Uyger who claims to be King Progressive, has called every bill remotely having anything to do with the financial system including the new financial regulatory reform bill a "bailout". Does Cenk have a background in finance? Hell no. So how does he comes to this conclusion? Because firebaggers and Matt Taibbi told him they were. Does he have any proof? Of course not.

But hey don't let facts get in the way of bashing a Democratic President who just at the very least with the financial regulatory reform bill put us back on the path to sanity with the banking industry.

Then you have jackasses like Ed Shultz who is too much of a damn coward to run for office his damn self, beating his chest night after night about what HE would have done. Well Ed your bitchass should've run for office if you have all the answers. Oh and lets not get on the Gold Line scam you're pimping just like Glenn Beck. And mind you this is the same cretin who gives that race baiting bastard Tom Tancredo a platform to spew his venom on a regular basis.

But for somebody to claim to be tough like Ed does every minute of every day, he sure does seem to be sensitive. His wittle feewings are hurt so he's telling Democrats not to vote in the midterms.

Look around asshole. Is the Republican party you see running for office this year the kind you would want running the country.

From the bottom of my heart man

FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

And lets talk Rachel Maddow, of the aforementioned clip. The same Rachel who pointed out all the things President Obama has done. Good, progressive things. Is the same Rachel Maddow who hits him nightly for doing what he said he would do in Afghanistan.

President Obama was never an "anti war" candidate. As he said several years back paraphrased he's "not against all wars, just against dumb wars". And from day one he said he was going to finish the mission in Afghanistan, the place 9-11 was planned. And you want to know the truth? I APPLAUDED him for that shit because whether we like it or not we fucked up that country and made it even more likely that terrorists would use it as a base of operations.

Its funny because some on the left have this joke about the GOP and tax cuts that goes something like this.

Tax Cuts + ? = Prosperity

Well on Afghanistan some on the professional left have the same kind of equation.

Pull Out + ? = World Peace

If only it worked that way. But it doesn't. And even in the midst of supplying more troops to the region President Obama announced the start of withdrawal.

Did the professional left give a shit?

HELL NO

They just bashed him for doing....what he said he would do.

Matter of fact we will end combat operations in Iraq at the end of this month and like i pointed out the other day the professional left don't want to even give him any credit for that.

Mind you back when it was announced I remember all the conspiracy theories about how General Odierno and General Petraeus were ACTUALLY the ones running US foreign policy and that they would never leave Iraq according some on the professional left.

Heard any of them admit they were wrong?

HELL NO

You can say what you want about the wingnuts, when they are in power they support their party even if they fight against some of their party's legislation.

Professional leftist are loathe to even say they are Democrats though and they heap lump after lump of shit on the party and then act like when the GOP wins they had nothing to do with it. Punk asses always criticizing, NEVER taking any responsibility.

Oh and here's the kicker, Gibbs actually did draw a distinction on who he was talking about.

In just over 18 months in office, Obama has passed healthcare reform, financial regulatory reform and fair-pay legislation for women, among other bills near and dear to liberals.


Obama is also overseeing the end of the Iraq war, with the U.S. on schedule to end its combat operations by the end of this month.


He’s also added diversity to the Supreme Court by nominating two female justices, including the court’s first Hispanic. Yet some liberal groups have criticized his nominees for not being liberal enough.


“There’s 101 things we’ve done,” said Gibbs, who then mentioned both Iraq and healthcare.


Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.


Progressives, Gibbs said, are the liberals outside of Washington “in America,” and they are grateful for what Obama has accomplished in a shattered economy with uniform Republican opposition and a short amount of time.

Again, he's right.

Of course the rub is that some of the progressives and liberals who he isn't talking about will feign offense to cover for the progressives and liberals they know he's not talking about.

Because some folks are dear friends of Jane Hamsher and Cenk, and Ed, etc etc etc. And although they know these folks are on some bullshit right now, they will NEVER call them out publicly. Its funny because I thought the argument for hitting President Obama publicly and loudly was that the left didn't want to be like the right. That they wanted to criticize when its called for instead of exercising epistimic closure.

Funny how that only applies when the subject isn't a friend of theirs.

However as that great poet Jay Z so eloquently put it "Men lie, Women lie, Numbers don't"

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that this is largely a Beltway phenomenon: According to Gallup, Obama is at 81 percent among self-described Democrats and 76 percent among self-described liberals

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So have at it hoss. I can't wait to see the poutrage over this one.

I'm just hoping that a few of the people this was aimed at as well as a few of those who it wasn't will actually speak the truth on it and start taking a long look in the mirror.

PS: Say this for the right wingers, whether its astro turfed or not they banded together to get enough attention to confuse the American people on a variety of topics. And because plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle are poll watchers, the Tea Baggers helped to shape policy, legislation and voting records.

So what has the professional left done in response?

Not much.

You want to know who has been a failure?

THE PROFESSIONAL LEFT HAS!

They made their whole mission in life getting the public option in health care reform. And hell I supported it too. But did you see them getting a bunch of lefties to show up and heckle GOP legislators? Did you see them get enough people to shout down Tea Baggers at townhalls last summer? Did you see them do anything to actually influence the GOP rather than just trying to influence Democrats already sympathetic to them?

Of course not.

They are big time shit talkers, but when it comes to actually getting out and DOING something, most of them are just bags of hot air.

So when they lament what isn't in all these bills they seem to hate (which will help a lot of people) I hope one day they acknowledge that they had a hand in that.

I won't hold my breath though.