It has been widely reported that the administration has decided to "double down" and plow forward on its health care and banking reform agenda and either spin or ignore the voter discontent whose clearest and most recent sign is the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. It's as though Team Obama attended telemarketing training, where the main rules are "ignore the customer's first two objections" and "above all, stick to the script". While for the first time a few tiny cracks are appearing in the media's united pro-Obama front, many in the self-described (and pseudo-intellectual) press elite are still carrying water for a man that they perceive as "one of their own", somebody who really "gets" the liberal message (and the need to further it through Alinskyesque subterfuge). In that spirit Joe Klein of the once-respected
Time has placed his own offering at the feet of his president by attempt to clear up confusion and explain away all that nasty controversy. And what is his thesis to explain Obama's current difficulties?
Most Americans are simply too stupid to appreciate Obama's vision.
In his brief article he supports his thesis in a variety of ways: ridiculing "average" voters ("nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted...they may be right: it's been wasted on them...It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos"), echoing the complaints of earlier Bush apologists ("The Obama Administration has done a terrible job explaining the stimulus package") and even slandering his own competition ("Americans are flagrantly ill-informed...and, for those watching Fox News, misinformed"). Perhaps Mr. Klein is breaking some unnamed journalistic code by stating it so frankly, but this post is a great thumbnail view of the current state of Progressive thought and its contempt for the average American.
I can only imagine that as the out-of-touch and sneeringly elitist Mr. Klein watched the comments roll in he must have realized his error in stating his views so plainly. Like a benevolent dictator sensing that he'd gone too far, he moderated his elitism, tried to spin his earlier post and resumed the facade in
"Dumb or Just Badly Educated...or Maybe Just Lazy?".
Man - someone remind me how Time stays in business.
See
here as well (Valley of the Shadow)