The Traditional Media remains as clueless as the Republican Party as to what the American public thinks. They continually regurgitate the same "hand-wringing" lines that failed time after time throughout the General Election.
Just listen to Chris Matthews and the panel parrots over on MSNBC squawk about how the Gregg defection as Commerce Secretary is "bad for Obama". Sound familiar? It should. It was the mantra of talking heads throughout the campaign. No matter what happened, it was "bad for Obama". And every time they were proved wrong by their own damn polls!
In this most recent bout of handwringing, they want us to believe that the cabinet defection of a Republican from New Hampshire who is virtually unknown outside the beltway, who proclaims his strong "fiscal Conservative" credentials while fresh off eight years presiding over the Bush spending spree, will somehow damage a President with a nearly 70% approval rating. Nice try.
To fortify their position, they trot out the same tired clowns of nebulous accomplishment who pretend some incredible knowledge of all things political and what America is thinking to once again expound on what President Obama failed to do, needs to do, or has to do. It would be funny if it wasn't so ridiculously repetitive and shallow.
Let me save these poor pundits from themselves and future embarrassment. President Obama knows more than you do about what America thinks and feels. He has spent the better part of two years among people from all walks of life in this country, not bloviating in a bubble in Washington. He has proven you wrong time after time after time, and is President of the United States today because he DID connect with the Hispanics, blue collar workers, white women, etc, you proclaimed he wasn't reaching. He has proven over and over again that it is YOU who are out of touch with reality.
It is not President Obama and the Democrats who are sinking in the polls. It is Judd Gregg's partisan Party. It is not the Stimulus Plan that is losing public support, it is the obstructionists on the Right who are perceived as wanting to see the country fail in order to regain power. Gregg's departure is not a loss for Obama. Rather it is just one more sign to the American public that the Republican Party is so deeply entrenched in their failed ideology, that they will not be happy until they completely destroy this country if they get their hands on the reins again.
The "Judd Gregg Incident" is just the latest example of where the Trad Med's expert analysis will be proven hollow. Judd Gregg will not be viewed by the general public as a man of principles. He will instead be seen as the latest weak, Bush-era Republican who is unable to stand up against the Rush Limbaugh/FOX/Union Leader crowd and work for the betterment of a nation struggling to survive the fiscal devastation caused by his party's rule. Gregg had a chance to step up and help lead this country into an era of a real working government, but chose instead to buckle under to the partisan harpies on the Right.
Judd Gregg was correct in his self-assessment, however. He was not the man for the job. He is not a real team player. He lacks the spine. But he is wrong in that he is not his own man. He is owned by the parrtisan forces in his Party, just as the media is blinded by their own self-importance and reliance upon the good graces of the power brokers that own them.