bumped – updated
Arianna Huffington nails it again, a follow up to “Leaderless.”
There’s no getting around it. One year after Barack Obama won an historic election he’s simply not delivered. Tavis Smiley said it well on “Morning Joe” yesterday when he used NY-23 as a model. Paraphrasing Smiley, he said Democrats need to do what Republicans would do if they had the majority: cram their agenda down our throats, just like conservatives are doing in upstate New York. Kumbaya doesn’t cut it. Neither does splitting the difference until you stand for nothing.
Case in point, today I woke up to a circa 2008 election ad from Obama touting Creigh Deeds. It’s a little late.
“We can do it again,” flashing across the screen, with Pres. Obama plaintively crying out, “I need every one of you to get fired up once again so that we can….”, as the rest of his request dissolves into political blather ending in the case that Creigh Deeds is the answer. No Democrat I’ve talked to believes that. Virginia has reverted back to red, where it’s most comfortable, because no one is seeing hope of change right now.
And at the end of this day Democrats will likely be answering to someone liberals love to hate. Sarah Palin will be declaring victory on Facebook, as her “going rogue” style in NewYork-23 will be the story tomorrow, if Hoffman pulls it off. Giving the conservatives a boost that will seem like Christmas came early. Delivering their own brand of “hope” and “change” in an in your face slap at the Republican establishment that has already had repercussions, while providing an answer to Obama’s “We can do it again” heard as “No you won’t,” which will start the 2010 engine for the right.
Let’s just hope Corzine holds on and doesn’t humiliate himself and Pres. Obama, because a loss in New Jersey and Virginia on a backdrop of NY-23 would be a Democratic earthquake, with aftershocks hitting for the next year.
UPDATE: David Plouffe responds to Arianna, though I really don’t think it’s about our need to “focus squarely enough to see it.” In fact, we got him elected. So, it’s not about us at all:
[...] Arianna Huffington has written much that I agree with. But when it comes to her opinion on the president and his record so far, or her suggestion that there is some great difference between the president and the candidate, I have to register the strongest possible dissent. A year after our historic victory, I have never been more certain that Barack Obama is uniquely suited to lead the country at this unparalleled moment. His values; his ability and desire to think long term; his determination to avoid the easy road of political expedience and to rebuild trust between the American people and their government–these are exactly what American needs right now. As on any journey, there will be twists and turns, ups and downs. But the change so many of us fought for so passionately last year is becoming a reality in front of our eyes, if we focus squarely enough to see it. And when the decisions he is making today finally resolve into a complete picture years down the road, we will find ourselves living in a stronger, fairer, and more prosperous America. And we will cherish the small part all of us played in electing this unique leader, a man befitting this critical moment in our history.
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