Gibbs Need Not Apologize for Blasting the "Professional Left"

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Wed Aug-11-10 10:17 AM
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Gibbs Need Not Apologize for Blasting the "Professional Left"

Let me preface this by saying that I don't care for the author (his criticisms of Obama tend too be harsh), but here he has a point:

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Gibbs Need Not Apologize for Blasting the "Professional Left"

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs need not have apologized for blasting the "professional left." If anything he was much too nice when he branded the carpers at President Obama professional Obama baiters. They have relentlessly ripped Obama for being a spineless, deal making, soft on the right, beltway, corporate centrist, Democrat. Obama has had to hear this almost from the moment he opened his mouth in February 2007 and announced he was a presidential candidate.

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The dictate of American presidential politics is that liberal and moderate Democrats in the early stages of the presidential political game run to the left and move quickly to the center as they sniff the possibility of victory. This hardly tags him as a play to the gate political backslider. It merely shows that pragmatism in presidential politics is the only real principle that counts when it comes to winning and governing.

That's precisely what irks Gibbs, and almost certainly Obama too, since the criticism is drenched with political denial. Obama scrapped talk of universal health care, and later dropped the public option from his plan. If he didn't he could have kissed any deal on health care good-bye. The millions of Americans that ultimately will benefit from many of the provisions of the reform would have been the loser. He backpedalled from his hard line demand that the US immediately pull out of Iraq, and instead talked about timetables, and assessing ground conditions. If he hadn't done that, the Pentagon and conservative Democratic war hawks would have ratcheted up their assault on him as a Neville Chamberlain reincarnate appeaser. As it now stands there will be an Iraq pull out before the end of his first term. Obama gets pounded for allegedly reneging on his promise to close Guantanamo, for wiping out the ban on gays in the military, and for not spending billions more on the economic stimulus, but a close look shows that Obama has not reversed gear on any of these pledges. It just hasn't happened as fast and in the way the left demands.

Obama takes great offense at any talk that he's back flipped on the issues. He pleads for progressives to appreciate the changes that have been made in the relative short time he's been in office, to consider the mess that he inherited, and the powerful forces arrayed against him that want nothing less than his political head on a platter. That's a reasonable plea to make. But it's a plea that will fall on deaf ears. There are just too many on the left whose heads are stuffed with too many delusions about what he can do and when and how he should do it.

I believe Barack Obama is a progressive. I believe that with a Democratic majority of 65 Senators he could have gotten legislation to mirror exactly his campaign agenda. Then there is reality: He has to govern. His job isn't to fight losing battles.

What I find interesting about the above commentary that it nails a disconnect: The critics who believe strongly that the President is a "centrist" and "corporatist," claiming they knew this all along, but are offended that he doesn't coddle the "professional left."