New details on Mark Halperin’s suspension: An MSNBC source tells me that MSNBC preident [sic] Phil Griffin’s initial response to Halperin’s “dick” crack was that he should be suspended for two weeks, in keeping with Ed Schultz’s recent limited suspension. But the volume of emails flooding in demanding Halperin’s firing persuaded him the suspension should be indefinite, the source says. That’s what MSNBC announced this morning. – Greg Sargent
I was not incensed by Mark Halperin’s “dick” moment. I wish Barack Obama would show up and be “kind of a dick,” so it’s telling when he’s forced to make the Democratic case that a darling in the traditional media food chain blows all decorum on MSNBC.
People who didn’t recognize the language Halperin used to characterize Obama have evidently forgotten Game Change. A political Peyton Place that’s hard to put down, with scenes like the one with the late Elizabeth Edwards confronting her louse of a spouse in a cringe worthy scene what helped the book become a blockbuster.
The report above from Sargent is the only coverage that caught my eye as truly newsworthy about the whole event. I thought the indefinite suspension was way over the top. But now we know Pres. Obama’s supporters exploded over Halperin’s insult, with good reason, making the incoming too intense for MSNBC to ignore. What’s a network to do when the Obama brigade and their viewership descend in an avalanche of calls and emails? Obama’s faithful are paying attention and not afraid to take scalps, which is very good news for Democrats looking to 2012.
In the midst of the Halperin drama entered Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who said that Pres. Obama should “take a Valium and calm down” after his news conference yesterday.
Now, I’m not going to say Sen. Roberts is equating Pres. Obama with a hysterical woman in need of a tranquilizer, which is straight out of Roberts’ generation, but his remark clearly insinuates that Barack Obama was out of control, in over his head and too immature to control himself without pharmaceuticals.
Back last fall when Sen. Mitch McConnell stated, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” we all knew he wasn’t kidding, but now we see it in action, with Roberts willing to do some of the dirty work.
As for Halperin and his channeling conventional Republican wisdom for a living, the jig is finally up. It pissed him off to see Pres. Obama take a break from playing kumbaya games with Republicans, who’ve benefited from Obama moving the entire political discussion to the Right. But Halperin’s really upset that Obama finally listened to strong Democrats in Congress as well as his base, because it sets up a dynamic he can’t manipulate or control.
Democratic adversaries prefer Pres. Obama soft. Because to Halperin and the Beltway bunch, there’s nothing worse than strong Democrats holding the line against Republican economic insanity. These are the same people who deemed Rep. Paul Ryan courageous for suggesting the only solution to our economic problems is ending Medicare as we know it.
Pres. Obama hasn’t been nearly strong enough making the case for Democratic economic priorities, getting seduced into believing that if he played mediator instead of leader he could stay above the fray and Republicans would meet him half way, an accomplishment for him the result. This naiveté over the last 2.5 years has riled Democratic leaders, but particularly movement progressives, who have to be hoping these latest events have awakened the President to the fact that the only negotiating he’s been doing for the last 2.5 years is with against Democrats and progressives, the people who desperately want him to stand up and fight and win.
taylor- do u think th is such a moment with obama? u think he has finally done with kumbayah the fact his presser has sent msm into freakout must be positive..
It looks to me like the MSM, or at least the part of it that covers events in DC, has been in a tizzy since at least the early 1990s. Remember how Bill Clinton was “trashing the place”? Anytime anyone who isn’t in the club does anything out of the ordinary or slightly sideways they’re in a tizzy. Of course, when one of their own trashes the Constitution, leaves American cities to drown, and invades the wrong country, that’s just how things are.
Anyway, whether Obama is changing or not, you won’t be able to judge from the press. I think Obama will be the one to let us know.
For some reason, reading this article brought to mind a debate among scientists and skeptics that came to be known as the “don’t be a dick” debate. It started when astronomer Phil Plait, using those words among many (video here, plus Plait’s thoughts), said that scientists and professional skeptics shouldn’t be so mean when people say foolish things and expect you to believe them.
Well, sometimes that works. Often, there’s really no point in honking people off. Unfortunately, as many of the folks who took issue with Plait said, there are plenty of times when people aren’t going to listen when you’re being that nice. And many times, they’re going to think you’re a dick just because you tell them things they don’t want to hear, and it’s even worse if you back that up with reasoning. So it won’t matter whether you’re nice or not.
So, while folks reading here may not have heard of any of the people I’ve linked to, there are some awfully bright people out there who think it’s almost a compliment to be called a dick by some people. And I’d have to say that there are worse things in life than being called a dick by someone who is, to put it mildly, wrong more often than he’s right.
It’s telling that the Obama Cult doesn’t see things that way.
On the idea that telling people what they don’t want to hear being reason enough for them to think you’re a dick, here’s a great quote from biologist P.Z. Myers:
In the vicinity of DC, it certainly is.
Words do matter……or NOT.
Obama now has a history behind his words. His performance at that press conference was just that. Political self-preservation at its best. If there was anything behind his performance, it probably was to help reach that $60 million goal for the fundraising quarter.
He did have a performance (act) like that before. Right before the mid-terms he ranted like that and what was the end result? A two year extension of the Bush tax cut.
He ranted about corporate crap before. Now it’s corporate jets, before it’s Wall Street bonuses. How did that turn out? Wall Street is doing just fine.
His performance has nothing to do with being strong for what the Democrats believe in. Nothing to do with standing up and fighting. His performance was just about him and his owns wants and needs. Self preservation.
Good grief. I didn’t watch the whole press conference but it seems to me that the GOP is way overreacting here. To me he sounded like the usual Obama “i’m the adult here babysitting the children” crap which is more condescending than anything.
The thing is Obama can pop out some words but it’s rarely followed by any actions that back up those words. I’m sure we’ll soon be hearing that “this is the best deal we could get”.
He said what he thought. That’s a crime?
It’s not the word, it’s the object of the word that makes it out of bounds. Witness the endless use and constant tittering at the words “tea baggers”. What a filthy joke, and yet because the media enjoyed smearing the object of said filth, no one got “suspended indefinitely”.
I read, “They Like Obama Soft,” and began hearing Aretha singing:
“He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me as if I wasn’t there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life, with his words
Killing me softly with his song”
Actually, Joyce, I heard “Roberta” – as in Roberta Flack. Same impact, however.
He sounded (well, in the transcript, anyway — and from his pictures of his petulant, crabby face) like a petulant whiny child, being a nag and a scold. He’s met for something like 4 hours on this issue and beats his chest and says he’s been around. Excuse me — he just finished, what? Fundraisers 34 and 35? He left his scoldfest to welcome yet another sports team? He’s not around. He’s not leading. He only gets involved when it looks like it might impact his re-election. So then the GOP invites him yesterday to meet with them and he blows them off. It wouldn’t be worth it, Carney says. The Senate cancels its recess — but Obama leaves today for Camp David.
He’s pretty much what Halperin said. He should have used the word “jerk,” instead, and he wouldn’t be in so much trouble. And apparently, the hordes of Obama lovers inundated MSNBC with so much outraged e-mail that the powers that be changed the planned two-week suspension to “indefinitely.” Wouldn’t do to upset the faithful, after all. (That’s from WaPo’s Greg Sargent (sp?).
And yesterday on Politico, it sounded like some Dems, at least, were not happy with Obama’s performance for the simple reason that the GOP did exactly what anyone would: said, “we’re here, where are you?” And they’ll keep saying it for Camp David, for every fund-raiser, for every golf game.
Most Democrats are quite happy with his press conference. It’s only the right wing and left wing rigid Progressive ideologues who were unhappy with President Obama’s press conference and the outcry was entirely predictable. President Obama’s disapproval rating among Democrats is 15%. The rigid Progressive ideologues that represent 90% of the posts in this blog represent less than 8% of the total population.
One is reminded of 1936 and the drive to pass the first social security act. There weren’t enough votes in the Democratically controlled Senate to pass SS into legislation. The southern Democratic segregationist Senators were unwilling to pass into law any legislation that might be of benefit to southern African Americans and Hispanics. It was only when FDR agreed to write te legislation that would exclude almost all African Americans and Hispanics was the SS passed into law. The reaction of the Manhatten Progressive ideologues was pedictable. They accused FDR of abandoning the Progressive agenda by accusing him of betraying Progressive ideals and caving in to the demands of the racist southern Democrats and there was much talk about putting up a real Progressive candidate to oppose FDR in the next election.
No one except yourselves care what you have to say, you are not an influential part of the ameican electorate. Stay home or write in a real Progressive in 2012 pick your choice, Russ Feingold, Dennis Kucenic, Michael Moore or Ralph Nader. The Progressive ideologues have had influence in only one Pesidential election. In 2000 enough of you voted for Ralph Nader in Florida to turn the government over to Georgr W. Bush.
As far as Afghanistan is concerned 72% of the people support President Obama’s with drawal plan.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/148313/Americans-Broadly-Favor-Obama-Afghanistan-Pullout-Plan.aspx
I was reading this morning (Huffington Post) that he also called Obama a p*ssy in 2008 on the radio.
I don’t like Halpern and it has nothing to do with any of the above, it’s simply he represents the worst of media’s tendency towards sensationalistic political pseudo-journalism that is making the American population dumber by the day.
I read ‘Game Change’ out of curiosity and I’ll admit it was a page-turner, but as Taylor mentioned, it was the juicy tidbits that made it such a hit. Never mind that there was NO sourcing for anything and people in both Obama and Hillary’s campaigns clearly used Halperin to continue to wage their respective wars against each other.
Game change was also very hard on women in general. All the women end up looking like hysterical b*tches while the men seem to come off looking like the adults. Now, granted, some of the women in the book may have acted like fools during 2008 but I sensed there was more to it than that. I think Halpern has some issues and also a political bias. His treatment of Hillary was particularly brutal.