So, many of us on the "Professional Left" have been watching with considerable dismay as President Obama grows increasingly disdainful of... well, of us! The mistreatment of the progressive base by the White House has been extraordinary. Countless diarists have struggled to rationalize, justify, defend, assail, or just plain figure out the motives behind the utterly perplexing disregard for those of us who worked so hard to elect this man.
Well, I think I might have stumbled across a clue:
President Barack Obama apparently hasn't had a cigarette since March, but the White House stopped short Thursday of declaring that he has officially kicked the habit bedeviling millions of Americans.
"I have not seen or witnessed evidence of any smoking in probably nine months," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs replied when asked at his regular media briefing about Obama's habit.
Has the president quit smoking? Gibbs wasn't ready to make that declaration.
"For that nine months, yes," he said. "I don't want to be flip. I think the president would be the first one to tell you that it's a struggle."
...
Gibbs said he thought Obama was still chewing nicotine gum to help him quit.
Smoking "is not something that he's proud of. He knows that it's not good for him. ... He doesn't like children to know about it, obviously including his," the spokesman said. "He has worked extremely hard and I think he would tell you even, when in the midst of a tax agreement and a (nuclear arms treaty) and all the other things that accumulate that, even where he might have once found some comfort in that he's pushed it away."
*bold emphasis added by diarist*
Perhaps all the punches being thrown at us dirty f*cking hippies are a projection of Obama's real frustration: The man wants a goddamn cigarette.
No wonder he's been getting so much cozier with the John "The Great Orange Chimney" Boehner lately. Hell, he probably offered up the estate tax "compromise" just for a whiff of Boehner's secondhand smoke out on some Beltway golf course. Never underestimate the power of the Marlboro Man.
To all of you in the mushy middle, who are defending this President's flushing away any hope for progressive change dealmaking prowess and decrying the "purity" and "ideology" and "pony-wishing" of those who challenge it: Take care not to make excuses for the most powerful man in the world, who increasingly dismisses those of us in his own base, those of us who should be kept closest to him. It is direct scorn and mistreatment that we do not deserve. It can be all too easy to give the President the benefit of the doubt, and continue on along our descent into right-wing lunacy: It's not his fault, he's just got all thiose darn GOP'ers and bastard ConservaDems to deal with. He's just having a hard time giving up an old habit. Quitting is stressful! Of course he's a little testy. Of course he's going to yell at the kids when he comes home after a hard day without a smoke - it's his crazy time of year, after all. Let's not trouble him with our little foibles and petty wants, like justice and equality and economic parity. So what if he's opened a window for the Right to gleefully dismantle Social Security? We don't want to be too shrill. We should be grateful for everything he did for us!
Welcome to flavor country, hippies.
Update Comments in the thread pointed out an earlier version of this diary contained questionable comparisons to domestic abuse relationships. I apologize for the irresponsible use of that metaphor.
Update 2 On DKOS, polls don't lie: The President Must Get Stoned.