If you’ve eaten recently you may want to wait a while before reading Sam Stein’s (EXCLUSIVE) at Huff Post. Apparently, David Axelrod is opining publicly that a "Republican congress could be ‘More Extreme’ than Bush". Well no shit.
Borrowing quotes from Sam’s piece:
Axelrod:
"I saw that Joe Miller said that he would abolish Social Security if he had the chance and he is not alone. This is akin to what Sharron Angle has said in Nevada and also a number of these other Republicans. So, this could go one step beyond the policies of the Bush administration to something more extreme than we have seen."
Me: Where have you been for 18 months? Paul Ryan ring any bells?
Axelrod:
(Republican leadership, he ventured, has) "put emphasis on throttling things down... hoping that the mess that they created... would be so difficult to clean up that they could then blame us for their problems."
Me: Gosh, really, who could have predicted (hand to face).
Axelrod:
"I think realistically what you have is a Republican Party that is now thoroughly focused on one thing and they have been frankly from the beginning: which is to try and regain power, and their strategy is to lock everything down and not let anything happen."
Me: Which is exactly what Rush said they should do before Obama was even sworn in.
Axelrod:
"In a sense, we are a victim of our own success, of the expectations that the president aroused, and the fact that we have gotten so much done. Everyone who has a particular passion says, 'Well if you got that done why couldn't you get this done? If you got health care done why couldn't you get energy reform done? If you got financial reform why couldn't you get something else done?' The successes we've had have been a double-edged sword. I hope that at the end of the day, however, people will realize that this has been a period of enormous progress. I'm not begrudging people's desire to get more done. There is a lot of pent-up energy and aspirations and all these things are important. But objectively this has been an enormously productive time and everyone who helped elect the president should feel gratified at what's been accomplished because it wouldn't have happened but for their efforts."
Me: Where to begin. Could it be that what you call ‘success’ is not close to what you promised to do. Secret deals with Pharma? Negotiating away a public option secretly and then pretending for months that you supported it? Fighting against allowing a vote on drug reimportation? You are not a victim of your success; you are a victim of your process.
Axelrod:
"Perhaps this is where we have been failing to communicate; a large number of people (don't) believe that a Republican Congress would go back to the policies of George W. Bush, even though their own leaders have said as much in public. Pete Sessions said we want to go back to the same exact agenda that was there before this president took office. So our job in the next eight weeks is to make sure that people understand that, that they understand the stakes."
Me: And it took you until 8 weeks before the election to recognize this?
Axelrod:
"The depth of the problem that was created, the irresponsible policies, is something we are going to live with for a long time."
Me: Sounds like what was said during the campaign, and then stopped being said after election day.
Axelrod:
"People are struggling and you want a silver bullet that will make that all better but there is no silver bullet."
Me: Hey idiot, NO ONE expected a silver bullet. Millions did expect to have someone who would fight for them, someone who would change the way Washington did business, someone who would out their needs ahead of the desires of lobbyists. And someone who could communicate what HIS policy goals were.
Axelrod sounds as though he continues to live in a pity party. He does not get it, and I don’t see that anyone in the White House does. Let me explain to Axelrod:
Me:
You fucked up. Your whole team fucked up. You never led the county; you negotiated in private. You refused to draw contrasts with the past; you just looked forward. You concluded republicans would be drawn to work with you, but your wishes had no basis in reality. You refused to criticize, let alone attach, opponents out to destroy you, but you had no problem attacking those who supported you. You believed yourselves to be the great communicators, but you have let lie after lie take hold without serious fighting back. (Death panels, anyone).
At all of the most visible moments of this presidency, Health Care and Financial Reform in particular, the country has watched as Wall Street and Lobbyists have prevented votes on policies that had overwhelming public support as the White House said NOTHING.
And now you are frustrated that the public doesn’t understand how bad things would be under republicans. Leading republicans were calling for their party to oppose everything you would try to do since before you were sworn in. They wanted you to FAIL and were willing to do anything to make that happen.
Your "critics" on the left have been explaining this to you since day one. So if you think you feel frustrated imagine how we feel. And we have been paying attention, and we have been Monday morning quarterbacking, and WE have understood better than what we have seen you do what needed to be occurring for the last 18 months to prepare for an election that is now only 8 weeks away.
We democrats are in deep shit. I understand that politically the White House can’t admit that it fucked up on their strategies, their communications, etc. But just who is Axelrod whining to? The people who have been telling him what needed to be done all along? The disaffected that have never seen the White House willing to actually fight republicans for anything it campaigned on?
Here Axelrod, let me waste my breath one last time, with only 8 weeks to go don’t whine, ATTACK! (Shit, didn’t you learn ANYTHING from Rove?)
Message 1:
We believed the Republicans cared about fixing problems; they don’t. We believed America would have a chance to see what specifics the Republicans would offer; they won’t. We believed Republicans would recognize the economic damage done to this nation by the policies of the last 10 years; they can’t.
Message 2:
Republicans believe America’s pains are their electoral gains. Republicans don’t offer solutions just accusations. Republicans can’t be honest about what they want to do because they majority of the country does not share their view.
Message 3:
Republicans are willing to foster hate for electoral advantage. The Republicans are willing to spread lies for electoral advantage. The Republicans do not care about any Americans that disagree with them.
Message 4:
Republicans believe the economic policies that got us here are what we need for the future. Republicans believe the rich getting richer is better than the middle class being able to afford more.
Message 5:
Republicans believe that should you die because you can’t afford health care that’s your fault; that should have no income at retirement that’s your fault; if you can’t afford for your children to go to college that’s your fault; if you are unemployed and can’t find a job that’s your fault. That’s what they believe, and that is how they governed in the recent past and would again. But what they will only tell you is: it’s Obama’s fault, it’s the Democrat’s fault.