FOX News and Firedoglake - Together Again!

On Friday, as any political junkie knows, President Obama and 140 Republicans from their caucus came together to have a discussion about a wide range of issues. The result of the meeting has spread around the internet and revealed the extreme biases that exist in our media. I found it curious that FOX News and Firedoglake, the brain child of Jane Hamsher, found common ground by trying to ignore that it ever really happened. FOX News reaction was predictable and in my mind so was FDL’s. I went over to FDL (even though I hate giving them clicks) and found they basically ignored the whole event on Friday. All the other progressive blogs were ablaze with clips, commentary, analysis and a lot of glee. It was a reminder to many of them of the skills of our president at framing issues, pushing pack against Republican talking points and a reaffirmation that we elected the best person for the job, Barack Obama.  Once FDL did put up a post on the event, it reeked of their bitterness towards the president. They truly are following through with their idea during the election that if they can’t have Hillary Clinton, they don’t want anyone. From their first post mentioning the event entitled “It’s Called Debate, Not Hero Worship.” (I’m not linking to them because I don’t want them to get any more clicks, that’s what they want.)

To be sure, Obama and the WH staff deserve high praise for his performance yesterday, and they are rightfully getting it. I personally think it’s one of the best moves they’ve made. But let’s not respond to this event with the kind of undisguised and embarrassing hero-worship that was on display last night on MSNBC.

Although it may be true that Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and Kieth Olbermann were a bit excited about the event and praised the president’s skills in this setting, but to portray it as hero worship harkens back to the election. Remember when the Hillary folks used that line over and over again because candidate Obama was soooooo popular and was able to get people fired up about his candidacy. Jealousy, bitterness anyone. The next post that FDL posted about the event was titled “Obama Debating Dummies Is Easy; How About Debating the Grownups on the Real Issues?” No snarkiness there, huh? Here is a chunk from that post…

Debates with deluded dummies in the hope of convincing them is not just pointless; it is a distraction from the more important discussions we need to be having.

It is mindless to debate phony Republican talking points about government health takeovers, with people who not only lied about death panels but cannot even acknowledge that every universal coverage/care system in the advanced world relies on extensive government structure, funding and price/quality regulation.

So it’s mindless to go on national television and take on these Republican talking points? Really? It’s mindless to confront the republican lies with well reasoned, factual information? Mindless? This post reveals the real motives of the folks at the Firedoglake, to damage the president as much as they can to prove that Hillary really should have been president, the votes of the people be damned. This post finishes up with even more drivel, pure shit…

The President has run away from real debates on these and a dozen other national issues. His refusal to engage genuine, credible critics while playing instead on the dummies’ anti-intellectual turf is what is crippling his credibility and sabotaging his ability to govern and actually solve these hard problems.

Dismissing the dummies should be the media’s job. If the President wants to have a debate on the real issues facing America, how about confronting the grown ups, and not just the 12-year olds?

So by taking on the opposition (Republican Party), you know, the ones with votes in the house and senate, he is “crippling his credibility and sabotaging his ability to govern”? By presenting his case to the American people and sharply shooting down the Republican talking points, he’s crippling his credibility? Wow, talk about spin. So he would have been better off debating the idiots at Firedoglake (not all are idiots I must say)? And then the final sentence reveals how naive these bitter people are by retreating to their fantasy world “Dismissing the dummies should be the media’s job”….how’s that working out for you. The media hasn’t done it’s job for many years, it’s a reality we all have to live in and as progressives, we must find ways to get our message out to the masses without relying on the media to do it. This forum was an awesome way to do it, I hope it happens more but I am doubtful that the Republicans will put themselves in that position again.

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