Democrats’ Strategy is Working
The Democrats’ strategy of focusing the debate on who the leader of the Republican Party is working, at least in the media. Sadly, the media has taken this question seriously. To their credit, the House Republican leadership team of John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Mike Pence haven’t taken the bait:
Speaking with reporters this morning, House Republican leaders criticized President Obama’s budget and blasted what they say is a lack of focus on the economy.
“It’s as if the administration thinks it’s a part-time job to address this economy,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. “We’re at the White House last week for two hours talking about health care while the Dow drops 200 points.” Going forward, Cantor said, “our focus will be about jobs; jobs are the path to putting this country back on track.”
The GOP leaders, including John Boehner, Mike Pence and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, also called on Obama to veto the omnibus appropriations bill that the Senate is expected to pass today.
Also present was freshman Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who argued against what she said is “the largest budget proposal in history.” Pence chimed in on the budget as well, saying it “spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much, and the American people know it.”
The team of Boehner, Cantor and Pence haven’t been distracted by the White House’s shiny ball like the media got distracted. They’re continually talking about how too many of President Obama’s policies create inflation. They’ve talked about how President Obama and Tim Geithner still haven’t cobbled together a plan to fix the banking system.
In short, the Obama administration has played political games while Rome, aka the economy and the banking system, have burned.
The other thing that the Democrats’ strategy is designed to distract attention away from is the fact that the Obama administration is having difficulties filling out cabinet posts, especially in the Treasury Department.
This is just another bit of proof that the Obama administration is in over its heads. Thus far, Tim Geithner hasn’t put a plan together for TARP II, which has caused hundreds of billions of capital to flee the stock market. Thus far, the they’ve alienated our most trusted allies, Israel and Great Britain. In addition, their policies have destabilized Iraq and Afghanistan and strengthened Iran, the Taliban and Hezbollah.
At minimum, that these things haven’t gotten more coverage is aggravating. It shows how easily duped the media often is. The Obama administration is relying on the media following shiny objects instead of focusing on important things. That’s why their strategy is working. That’s also why we need alternative media watching the erstwhile reporters. We simply can’t trust the paid media to maintain focus on what’s important.
It’s a blogger’s responsibility to point the spotlight at the Democrats’ tactics because we’re the only people who (a) either understand the White House’s tactics or (b) won’t pretend to be distracted by the shiny object.
Technorati Tags: Media, White House, Economy, Policies, Treasury Department, Tactics, President Obama, Democrats
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
March 11th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Thats why everything has to be done now now now! While the pretty spinning dance floor is still glitzy. When the honeymoon is over and the adoring press finally catches on, the damage will have been done.
We used to have a tongue in cheek maxim in the Navy;
When in trouble, or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.
It was funny then, because things only seemed to be out of control.
March 11th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
What’s the big fuss about, other than saying Rush is the factual leader of the leaderless Republican party? They’re almost right, you know. Mr. Steele only represents a relatively small fraction of the center/moderate segment of the party, not the fiscally conservative and certainly not the socially conservative portions. In other words, the Republicans have no effective leader.
Rush, on the other hand, does not “lead” anything except his program. Yes, he is a strong voice for conservative social and fiscal policies, and he has more listeners than any other radio personality. But no one has nominated him to any position of power within the party, and he repeats nearly daily that he would not want such a position because it would rob him of his independence.
Bottom line is that Rush is temporarily filling a void the moderate leadership of the party has created, and those genii haven’t a clue how to break back into the mainstream system of the Republicans who have the power to elect a real leader, and the conservatives have not a clue how to use the resources available to them.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Nice post pessimist. President Obama needs a villain. Last year it was HR Clinton, when McCain proved to honorable, he took on W. Now it seems “Operation Rushbo” has started coming right out of the COS Rahm Emmanuel’s office with Begala and Carville hands all over it.
I read somewhere that going into the upper floors of Treasury, the place resembles being foreclosed upon, so many offices vacated. What a nice ‘change’ he’s brought us.
March 11th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
The administration is too busy taking care of important things (like demonizing Republicans, capitalists, etc.) to pay attention to petty things like the economy, foreign relations or jobs in America for Americans.
In over their heads? Heck, they’re so far down they’ve got to be fairly close to the center of the earth by now.