On guns, Democrats are dropping the ball because they didn't immediately politicize the killings at VT like George Bush or Jon McCain, who couldn't wait to reassure the gun owning, NRA crowd:
No, and I think you saw what the Democrats—there was a lot of kind of deafening silence, in a way, on the gun issue most of the week. You know that in 1994 the Republican blowout was to some extent, and in some quarters, blamed on the crime bill, on President Clinton’s anti-crime legislation. I know that people close to the Gores blame the loss of Tennessee in 2000, and therefore the loss of the presidency, on the gun issue. And so I think the Democrats are very touchy about this, and the Republicans are, rather predictably at this point, playing, playing to the base. It’s an inevitable conversation that comes up after one of these horrible things. We have a piece in Newsweek this week by Mike Bloomberg, who is, argues, "Let’s enforce what’s on the books. Let’s crack down on illegal guns." And I think you’ll see more of that moderate Bloomberg-Schwarzenegger wing of politics taking the lead on this.
Meacham basically warns that Dems need to stay away from any attempt to push for more gun control because it's political suicide. Only moderate GOPs like Bloomberg can get anything done on the issue even though they are essentially advocating doing nothing. So according to Meacham's narrative, as usual Dems are terribly out-of-step with the American public on guns. So out of step that they will stay silent on this issue. Wrong! Pelosi and Dingle have already started working on legislation that will ban the mentally ill from gaining access to guns. Sorry Jon, Dems are taking the lead on this not wishy-washy types like Arnold and Mikey "Bought myself the mayorship" Bloomberg.
On the issue of Supreme Court's decision on so-called Partial Birth Abortion.
MR. RUSSERT: Jon Meacham, perhaps it was Virginia Tech and other issues that captured the news attention, but this decision by the Supreme Court was significant, and, yet again, the Democrats seem to have been relatively careful in their response to it.
MR. MEACHAM: Well, you’re right, we had a week where some of the most fundamental questions in our national life, in our politics were changed to some extent. The—this is the first Roberts court sign that the long-feared liberal, liberal fears that the court was going to turn right on these issues—this is the first time that there’s actually evidence that, that they will. Although the—as you know, the country is against this procedure, and there’s there’s popular—against that. The, the people are against it. I think you have Democrats who are still struggling to find out how do they signal to the broad American public that they share their values, that it’s a party that understands and believes—whether it’s religion or guns or life—that they, too, are in tune with the public. And it’s—the Democrats have a long history of being able to do this, but it’s been a long time since they have.
Jon, you're wrong. On the issue at hand; Abortion, Americans overwhelmingly support the right for a woman to choose according to a recent Washington Post Poll, 56% to 42%. That's a sizable gap. And Jon, it's not just "liberals" who are concerned about the direction of this very conservative court, it's the majority of Americans. Dems are "in step" and share American's "values" on the issue of a woman's right to choose.
On the issue of Iraq, Jon was way off.
MR. MEACHAM: I think we’re in this odd moment where everyone wants to support the troops, but move away from the mission. And the Democrats are living in terror of—and I think that’s the reaction to Senator Reid’s comments—is to look as though they’re being unsupportive of the troops, because that is a—to link all these things together—that’s an American value. That’s something we should all share. We should be—in the political culture at the moment, we should be supporting the troops in the field, we should be taking care of them when we come home. That’s become a very live political question. And when the language of lives wasted, which Senator McCain said on Letterman, and had to...
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Obama.
MS. GOODWIN: Obama.
MR. MEACHAM: Senator Obama. People don’t want to hear that more than 3,000 American lives have been wasted in a war that, whatever you think about the run-up and the intelligence failures, was undertaken with Congress and with the broad support of the American people and is a grand historical bet. And it’s something that we are not going to know whether it’s worked or not worked for a long time.
Again, Meacham is an expert on the values of Americans. Iraq isn't the foreign policy disaster of the century, it's "a grand historical bet." Americans "don't want to hear" that Iraq is a complete and utter cock up. Democrats are terrified of not supporting the troops, not supporting them "in the field" or "when they come home." We just won't know whether the war will work for many years so let's tone down the debate. Americans are upset by the discussion. Dems need to "support the troops" never mind that under Bush's watch Walter Reed, The VA, and the military in general have gone to pot. Never mind, our soldiers are going on their 3rd and 4th tours in Iraq because they never had a plan to win the peace. I wouldn't call that "supporting the troops." Americans overwhelmingly support Harry Reid and the Dems on the war. 67% of Americans disapprove of the direction of the war 54% of Americans trust the Dems on the war, while only 34% trust Bush. The American people have turned against this war. Most Americans want the troops to come home. In Bizarro Meacham world, Reid and the Democrats aren't doing the will of the people clearly articulated by the results of last november's election; Reid is far off in left winger land on his own track. The truth is that George Bush and company are defying the wishes of the American people. Bush, McCain, and the GOP are the radicals who are not listening to the calls to bring our troops home.
It seems to me that Meacham is the one who is tone deaf to the "values" of the American people. It's like he never saw how Dems wiped the floor with the GOP's "values" candidates
like Santorum, Talent, and Allen last November. Meacham is much more comfortable in the pre-November 2006 world and he intends to stay there regardless of the facts.
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