Van Jones, who is idolized by the netroots and whose departure from the WH was blasted far and wide has a message for those same Netroots. QUIT BEATING UP BARACK OBAMA.
100% Agreed.
Van Jones: Stop Beating Up on Obama
"I can't stand it. President Obama volunteered to be the captain of the Titanic after it hit the iceberg," Jones said at Netroots Nation while being interviewed by journalist Ari Melber of The Nation.
Jones, who resigned last year after conservatives targeted him as an extreme leftist, refrained from any Obama-slamming of his own. Speaking to a large second-day crowd, Jones reminded the group that he quit and wasn't pushed out. "I resigned. I did not want to be the banana peel that the president of the United States slipped on trying to win on health care," Jones said.
He cautioned bloggers from despairing and going after Obama. "This is harder than it looks. Having spent six months in the White House, it's a totally different experience when you're sitting there and the missiles are coming over the horizon at you," he said.
To all of those idolizing Van after his departure, will you folks listen? I've been paying attention to Netroots Nation, off and on, but the message so far appears to be the same kind of anger that the tea parties have been generating. Again, it appears to be directed at Obama. Do people remember that there are republicans planning on winning Congress? And that all they'll do is serve subpoenas and just do nothing or worse, try to enforce the Bush agenda? Or are the netroots going to maintain this circular firing squad forever?
Let me conclude that I think Van had no choice but to leave after he was ambushed. He was ambushed but he still signed that stupid truther petition. Worse, having that petition come out a week before President Obama's first anniversary of 9/11 as President, there was no other choice with Van. That said, he has proven himself to be as effective an advocate outside the WH as he was inside. And on this, like the green jobs he preaches, he needs to be listened to.