This morning on Morning Joke they were doing it again - bashing Obama for not being able to get a (Republican approved) stimulus plan passed. Obama has been in office for just two weeks and already they are saying the honeymoon is over (except there really never was one from these folks) and that the Republican are re-moralized and the stimulus package from the House is nothing but pork.
Geez - these are the same people that attacked Obama every day of his campaign and now all of a sudden they are disappointed that he is not a miracle worker?
Here's how I see it:
1. The press - especially right wing nut jobs like Joke Scarborough - have been after Obama for two years. These are the same geniuses that spent weeks trashing Obama because of Jeremiah Wright, predicting it would lead to his political demise. Time after time they underestimated him. Time after time they didn't get how he operated. Time after time they predicted disaster only to have Obama prove them wrong. He will do it again this time because he moves forward towards his goal regardless of how the press reacts. When will they finally figure that out?
2. As the saying goes, legislation is like making sausage. You may like the end product, but you don't want to watch it being made. The legislative process is messy. The House usually provides a broad and often unwieldly partisan product but the Senate refines it and makes it more bipartisan. I expect the same to happen this time. The Senate hasn't even begun debating the bill and already the right wing press is pronouncing Obama's "honeymoon" over.
3. The right wing press really does not see that Obama is different. He is like a problem solver who thinks out loud and the press is like the listener who judges each thought as an independent thing. Obama, unlike Bush, learns from mistakes as well as successes and he makes adjutments. Bush thought compromise and adjustments were a sign of weakness and the press seemed to agree. But Obama truly does represent change. He is willing to admit mistakes, willing to learn and change as needed. The thing he keeps in mind always is that the American people need help and he is determined to bring it to them.
4. There will be a stimulus bill and it may or may not be successful in helping the American people. That's part of the problem. No one knows for sure what will help. But at least we have in the White House someone who is not so rigidly ideological that it has to be his way or the highway. I have no doubt that Obama will work this entire four years to improve things. If it doesn't happen with a first attempt, he will work to find another. That's the big difference he has with Bush. Bush made mistakes, refused to admit them, allowed them to be compounded by more mistakes, and then did nothing as he simply waited out the clock. Conservatives hate change. They will hold onto what they believe whether it works or not because they hold onto their beliefs regardless of the evidence that refutes those beliefs. Progressives like Obama, on the other hand, are not afraid to try new things, because they know if something doesn't work they can always try something else.
I'm hoping Obama's stimulus package makes things better, but I'm willing to give him several chances. I think we all should.
