I'm not the only one who noticed that Gibbs smeared liberals with the "bailout" comment.

[Hello_Kitty]

Robert Gibbs Digs Himself in Deeper

Mike Memoli:

Gibbs lashes out at 'professional left', apologizes: The Swamp: Gibbs has since released a statement apologizing for his remarks, saying....

I watch too much cable. Day after day it gets frustrating. Yesterday I watched as someone called legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout -- but I know that's not a view held by many, nor were the views I was frustrated about. So what I may have said inartfully, let me say this way -- since coming to office in January 2009, this White House and Congress have worked tirelessly to put our country back on the right path.... e should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies, and instead work together to make sure everyone knows what is at stake because we've come too far to turn back now.

Robert Gibbs thinks the "professional left" calls "legislation to prevent teacher layoffs a bailout"?

He doesn't watch too much cable: he watches too little.

Can't anybody play this game?

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/08/robert-gibbs-digs-himself-in-deeper.html

[Jennicut]

1. No, he said he was burned out in general. And he is.

When you get burned out it is time to take a break. Press Secretaries usually do end up quitting.

[Hello_Kitty]

2. That's just an odd example to pick for why you're attacking the LEFT.

Who from the Professional Left^TM was attacking the emergency teacher funding bill as a "bailout"?

[Jennicut]

3. He wasn't talking about the left, as I understood it.

He was talking about being frustrated. He is frustrated with the right obstructionism and some on the left that claim Obama is Bush. But when you reach that level that you start letting frustrations turn to blame, I think it is time to call it a day. Politics produces burnout. Gibbs seems way burned out to me. This is nothing new in politics. Dee Dee Myers was over her head in this job and lasted a year.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. That was a prepared statement.

He, or his staffer, made the deliberate choice to use criticism from the RIGHT against today's emergency teacher funding bill to justify Gibbs attacking critics from the Left.

[Jennicut]

5. Whatever reason he did it, it didn't work or go over well.

The first statement or the second one.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

6. If Gibbs believes that someone from the "Professional Left" said

that legislation to prevent teacher layoffs was a bailout, he is a bigger idiot than I thought. I know who said that on cable news yesterday it was Mitch McConnell, I saw the interview.

[unapatriciated]

29. Gibbs used liberals much in the same way Fox uses a "D"

[pa28]

7. One of many odd things about his statement.

Is he subconsciously grouping critics on the left with the doctrinaire obstructionists on the right?

Maybe the White House enemies list is getting too long or perhaps Gibbs needs a month vacation. Maybe he could use a drug test as paranoia seemed to be lurking uncomfortably close to the surface in his comments.

[sandnsea]

8. The left has continuously attacked "bailouts"

I can see where he might have heard the comment in passing and reacted without following through to see who said it. Honestly, you never know anymore who is going to say what about anything.

[Hello_Kitty]

9. Oh gosh, he heard it in passing.

Which means he is NOT watching cable news like he says he is. Because if he did, he'd know that it was Boehner, McConnell, Pence, and their ilk who were dissing A VERY IMPORTANT EMERGENCY BILL TO RESTORE FUNDING FOR TEACHERS!!

Not the Left.

Seriously, sandnsea, you're going to defend him on this?

If this is an error of inattentiveness, it's even worse than I thought. It means that Robert Gibbs, and the entire Obama administration, are not paying attention to the very people they exhorted to "hold their feet to the fire". Far as they're concerned, we're the same thing as John Boehner.

[sandnsea]

10. Oh I agree with him on this

I don't think he needed to apologize. I saw a post at DU that used the state aid bill to complain about education. They prove his point. Obama can't do anything without someone finding a way to turn it into a bash-fest. It really is crazy.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. What are Boehner's, McConnell's, and Pence's DU handles?

:shrug:

Keep reaching.

[sandnsea]

12. McConnell called school kids a "special interest"

Where's the outrage over that? Keep reaching indeed.

There is a select group on this board who will never post anything positive because that's their purpose for being here.

[Hello_Kitty]

16. McConnell did say that. Gibbs acted as though the left said it..

The Left didn't.

What's your point?

[fogonthelake]

18. I heard Bohner say that but not McConnell.

[depakid]

17. Ask Mr. Gibbs about that

and any of a thousand similar statements and actions to choose from.

[Aramchek]

13. face it, you thrive on the argument. you don't want to stop.

[Hello_Kitty]

14. Face it, you don't want to explain what Gibbs said.

Fine. :shrug:

[Aramchek]

19. Gibbs said that those who think Obama is no better than Bush are idiots.

Those who are too blind to see that Obama is our only chance at accomplishing anything are misguided.

And what he said rings truer with each emotional overreaction that I read here.

[Hello_Kitty]

20. That's not what this OP is about. It's about his "bailout" comment.

Where Gibbs implied that liberals were calling the emergency education bill a "bailout", when it was Republicans who were saying that. Keith Olbermann was right in his comment last night. The White House needs to go after the "professional right" and this is a perfect example.

[Hello_Kitty]

15. dupe. delete.

[flpoljunkie]

21. Seems Gibb's anger is displaced here. We are not his problem. The Republicans are.

Gibb's is starting to piss me off with the cavalier attitude toward his own base he displayed today in front of the Washington press corps on his remarks about the 'professional left.' He insists he has not talked with the president about it.

And, I am still not sure what Gibbs meant by the term 'professional left.' He refused today to elucidate.

[JoePhilly]

22. If the Republicans are the problem .... then why ...

does DU spend endless threads fighting itself.

Gibb's point is that on one side, you have the insane right wing calling aid for teachers a "bailout", meanwhile, you've got folks on the left screaming that "Obama hates teachers".

The "professional left" are commentators from the left who are all too happy to generate controversy because it attracts eye-balls.

[flpoljunkie]

23. Gibbs f*cked up. He knows it, but, understandably, won't admit it.

No part of the 'left' was calling aid for teacher a 'bailout.' So, yes, Gibbs anger/frustration was displaced from Republicans to Democrats. Insulting your base is stupid!

Obama has told us to hold his feet to the fire, and I expect he feels he could have led more and earlier on both healthcare and finreg. And, I imagine he is quite concerned about Afghanistan, as well--whether escalation will really make any difference. And, of course, whether he could have pushed for a bigger and more effective stimulus. The economy is the major concern heading into the mid-terms, as always.

[JoePhilly]

26. I don't think GIbbs was saying that the "left" called the money for ...

teachers a bailout.

You have the right calling Obama a Socialist. And parts of the left are calling him a corporatist. He can't be both. In reality, he is not either one.

And last, does "his base" think Obama is just like Bush?? I don't think that is Obama's base talking.

I'd suggest that Obama's "base" are pragmatic progressives who prefer tactical progress over ideological defeat.

While Bush was President, long before Obama was elected, I felt that it was going to take MANY YEARS to recover from the damage. I still think so.

[flpoljunkie]

27. No, but Gibbs gave that as his lame excuse for bashing the 'professional left.'

You need to ask him why he takes his anger of the right out on the left. He doubled down today by standing by his earlier dumb remarks. He need to learn from this.

[JoePhilly]

28. The "professional left" is motivated by the same thing that ...

the "professional right" is motivated by ... "eye-balls". And controversy drives eye-balls.

Personally, I think that we'd be getting much more if the left, all of the left approached this with both a tactical and a strategic mindset. That means ...

Even when we only get "half of what we want" ... CHEER the win anyway, and then, also point out that we still want more, and describe why that additional movement is needed ... but then close by saying the progress we did make is important progress.

That approach will bring people from the CENTER into the discussion.

But what parts of the left are doing now is simply SCARING the middle. The GOP is already telling them Obama is the anti-Christ, a socialist, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, all rolled into one. A small number of folks on the left claiming Obama is "just like Bush" is not going to move folks in the center to the left.

And this is how it plays in the media ... when ~40% of Americans on the right OPPOSE Obama because he is "doing too much", and then ~10% from the left OPPOSE Obama because he is "doing too little" ... the media claims that ~50% of Americans OPPOSE Obama for doing TOO MUCH.

And the folks in the dead center, those who could go either way, they go to the RIGHT.

[chowder66]

24. He was referring to a segment on Dylan Ratigan's show

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/10/gibbs-mockery-of-professi_n_677487.html?ref=twitter

[Phx_Dem]

25. Go Gibbs!

:applause: