The Trouble with Obama is America
by Andrew Loewen on October 4, 20123 comments
The web is of course churning with responses reactions to the Presidential debate last night. The consensus is that Romney won by swinging into populist gear while Obama failed to show up. Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive says Obama was “pathetic” (and not just in delivery as is the standard gripe but in message). Big grownups that they are, liberals are licking their wounds by posting pictures of Big Bird and feeling righteous about their love of Sesame Street (Romney said he’d cut funding to PBS).
The best commentary on the debate you will read anywhere – the one that says it all – goes to Doug Henwood. Author of a masterful examination of Wall St (as even the Harvard Business Review attests) and a radio broadcaster and journalist for two decades and change, Doug is the US left’s best kept secret. He should be a household name. See for your self: Why Obama Lost the Debate. Then subscribe to his podcast.
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3 comments
Matthew on October 5, 2012 at 10:48 am. #
On a related note, the latest thing is that Romney “cheated” by making things up and taking notes out to the podium, with him. This seems, to me, to be the perfect meme for the Obama presidency among his supporters. You see, Obama was just too nice to stand up to that mean ol’ Willard. Really? What I saw was at best a “prevent defense” and at worst a total capitulation to the GOP frame, accept on medicare (which savvy progressives would be able to use to say, “Well, if private insurance is predatory for seniors, why are you foisting it one me?” I’m not sure if I buy Doug’s argument about Obama and narcissism (though that would describe a great deal about his governing style), but I find his other arguments very compelling. Essentially, Obama lost the debate because Obama more or less agrees with Romney, which is why he spent so much time praising this governor fellow from Massachusetts. Of course they have substantive disagreements, but mostly they simply disagreed in the debate over a largely symbolic 3% tax increase of the top marginal tax rate and whether states should run medical care. Otherwise, on fiscal matters, they were remarkably similar. Liberals are focusing on “Big Bird” because they don’t want to face up to the big elephant in the room–Obama is Romney lite.
Matthew on October 5, 2012 at 11:11 am. #
Well, I guess someone else on the intertoobz beat me to it (as did Doug Henwood):
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8915
Andrew Loewen on October 5, 2012 at 2:21 pm. #
Good interview w/ Panitch. The Real News is a great resource. About a week ago Henwood actually hosted a conversation with Panitch and the labor scholar Sam Gindin for the launch of their latest book. Good stuff but the critique here has to fall on leftists for not being able to competently mic an event. Longer than most people will have time for too, but a nice discussion of the relation between finance and official politics, and I like their take on how worker militancy in the 60s was a factor in stagflation.
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