At the beginning of the Obama presidency, it seemed like whenever they wanted to change the story, they would release some new, infuriating finding about the previous administration that would sufficiently raise the hackles and dilute the nightly musings of the village press. Unlike the Bush Administration's use of this tactic, which claimed to have killed the number 2 Al-Qaeda guy enough times to make White House press conferences look like the opening to that summer's zombie flick, the Obama administration at least had a plethora of actual actrocities to choose from. Why, then, could they have watched August waste away into the nonsensical drivel that resulted in the Acorn 'scandal' dominating anything other than the fringes of Fox News?
Undoubtedly, some of what we are seeing is, and always has been, racism. But we must remember that this nonsense all began with populist rage against healthcare reform, misguided though it was. I do not believe that the vague and exploited rage August was treated to was of such a nature that it could not be adequately redirected at any lingering scandal from the Bush era embarrasing enough to change that night's news line up to something more favorable to the current administration. But on many of those issues Obama has disappointed, hasn't he? Torture, surveillance, bailouts, DADT, and now healthcare. Either Obama the campaigner is running a dismal presidency or none of these things seemed worth spending his political capital on. Not until it was too late at least.
Given their successful track record one would think the White House would have listened to the liberal blogosphere, who were screaming their heads off that this would happen. You need a steady stream of personal horror stories in the media to sell this thing. Of course the news is being dominated by racism and ACORN. What else is there? The Obama administration has been reduced to reacting, and using precious (and finite) air time to do it. It was exhausting enough having to constantly monitor and debunk republican lies and disasters. Now the left must spend its days trying to interpret the current administration as well. Some of this was foreseeable considering how obviously dysfunctional the Democrats in congress were, but this is ridiculous.
The President is the only one with a chance of reaching people who refuse to watch anything other than Fox News. As President he is the one they have the most difficulty ignoring. Yes, I know that isn't saying much, but there are no better options right now. It was terrible watching all those people with their shattered lives literally begging for some sort of assistance at townhall meetings. They are the faces of healthcare reform and they deserve a wider audience. And the public must never be allowed to forget the footage of them being shouted down in those townhall meetings by the angry Right, or the blank stares of the congressional republicans holding these townhall events when asked by their constituents if there was anything they could do to help. But to sit back and allow ACORN to the be story is simply criminal.