White House Disavows Report That It Disdains Gay Critics, Bloggers As “Internet Left Fringe”
The White House is strongly denying a report making the rounds that it views gay critics and bloggers as part of an “Internet left fringe,” with a senior adviser asserting to me that this sentiment “does not reflect White House thinking at all.”
Yesterday, CNBC correspondent John Harwood set off a min-firestorm on the left after he claimed that the White House views gay and blogospheric criticism of the administration’s foot-dragging on gay rights issues as part of the “Internet left fringe.” Harwood claimed that an anonymous adviser said that “those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.”
Asked for comment, White House senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer emailed:
“That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all, we’ve held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth.”
Whatever you think of the White House’s record on gay rights issues or the respect it does or doesn’t have for the blogosphere, paraphrased second-hand claims from a single anonymous adviser don’t really seem like grounds for sweeping conclusions about the White House’s alleged disdain for the online community.
You can debate whether the White House has been solicitious enough towards the issues that matter to the online world. But it seems clear by White House actions — the hiring of Internet outreach staff, the frequent blogger conference calls, the elevation of Huffington Post at press conferences — that the White House sees the blogosphere as playing a valuable role of sorts.
********************************************
Update: I should add that it’s entirely legit to be concerned about the administration’s gay rights record and the disregard some White House advisers (albeit anonymous ones) hold for the “left.” My point is that this quote, given the sourcing and second-hand nature of it, doesn’t seem like enough to get upset about.
Update II: Reactions to Pfeiffer from Glenn Greenwald and John Aravosis.
Update III: Sam Stein gets more clarification from Harwood, who isn’t backing off his claim about the anonymous adviser but says the adviser was speaking more generally about the disgruntled left.
Update IV: The controversy rages on: Jane Hamsher gets confirmation from Harwood that the anonymous leaker was an Obama adviser. Meanwhile, Steve Benen and Digby are dubious, as am I, about how upsetting this anonymous, second-hand quote should be.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
DISTRACTION. NEXT.
Nice scoop. That statement was way out of line. The reaction overwhelmingly was that Hardwood must have paraphrased something was most definitely not how the WH viewed the LGBT community.
…at least that’s what I gathered from cruising the progressive blogs.
PS, Obama knows NOTHING about economics, that’s why the Dow Jones Industrial Average is approaching 10,000.
So did Harwood make up the quote, or did some WH advisor actually say that? And if so, does the fact that the advisor was apparently lying/wrong about WH thinking mean that Harwood can remove the anonymity privilege? (Not that he would given what we know about how reporters tend to give anonymity privs for ridiculous stuff these days..)
Ethan, the stock market is up mainly because the dollar is down. Since they are valued in dollars, when the dollar becomes worth less, they become worth more in dollar terms. (By the way, shouldn’t you be more worried about unemployment than the fatcat stock market?)
We all know the administration doesn’t refer to an “internet left fringe”; they prefer the term “left of the left” to describe you people.
Hey Baby Hugo,
Thanks for the update from Drudge! You are so clueless it’s sad.
We all have a vested interest in the stock market. Companies that are profitable sell stock at a higher price to raise cash which create profits and jobs.
The quote may not reflect WH policy on bloggers, but the WH behavior on glbt issues reflects the understanding that GLBT people are “fringe.” Noticeably, your blog does not contain a rebuttal of that comment!
If you go by what the White House has done or has said in the past, we know this to be a falsehood. Obama has used the web to get where he has gotten all along, why should he even think of the blogers as left wing extremists. That is why it supposedly was said by an un-named source. The peoplw who heard that and are “in the no”, know this to be a falsehood and no where near fact.
@Baby Hugo
Congratulations. I wanted to respond to your post, but I’m finding that the breadth and abyssal depth of stupid you managed to pack into a one-sentence economic statement has, for the moment, stunned me into silence.
I remember how Drudge made so many references when the dollar was EVEN LOWER last year.
Another nontroversy cooked up by the frigging msm and perpetuated by the ever pouty lefty blogs, Greg included.
The poor. ethnic minorities and women don’t even have the option of a “closet.” The poor. ethnic minorities and women can’t hide.
Self-identified homosexuals made up 4% of the voting population in 2009.
One of the problems with democracy is that you can’t always do the right thing. We’ve opted to suffer the whim of the majority over the whim of the minority, and politics takes time.
Push all you want, but enough with the narcissism. There’s more than enough in this country.
Harwood’s always trying to start some kind of controversy between the left and the WH. Obama keeps rolling him ie. HCR, so he comes back with another non-controversy IMO. Although Jane Hamsher finds a lot to be desired coming out of the WH.
This tempest in a teapot will pass quickly. It was a very slow news weekend…health care debate waiting until the finance committee finally passes something (this week supposedly)..the Administration mulling over the myriad options in Afghanistan…the only news was the Gay March and Harwood needed to gin up a story.
“”"Ethan, the stock market is up mainly because the dollar is down.”"”
No, the stock market is up because blue chips that make up the DJIA are doing better than previously thought mainly because of internal cost-cutting and a return to stability and signs of improvement of most of the leading economic indicators.
The DOLLAR is down because the only way to get out of a pending Depression — caused by the pro-corporate, anti-US fiscal insanity of the Bush Administration and GOP Congress — was to borrow money to restore the credit market and to stimulate various sectors of the economy including and especially state governments.
“”"By the way, shouldn’t you be more worried about unemployment than the fatcat stock market?”"”
I am worried about jobs. You’re not. That’s why the GOP did nothing to stop the slide when you were in power. The “fat cat stock market” determines people’s pensions and 401ks, so the better it performs the more wealth is in the hands of the American people. The better people’s 401ks do, the better the perception of their fiscal standing, which means increased consumer confidence, which means more domestic spending on consumer goods, which means more profits for small to large businesses. Both increased consumer spending and smarter budgeting and cost-cutting measures in the corporate world means more — and sooner — hiring.
Everything Obama is doing is working towards a sustainable economy.
@Baby Hugo: Your statement about economics is inaccurate. Exports tend to do well with a weak dollar [and people are more likely to buy American goods], which is why a weak dollar isn’t necessarily a bad thing for our economy right now. Furthermore, with regard to the stock market, not only exports are thriving; there’s movement across many market sectors, suggesting that the current market gains are tenuously correlated with the dollar’s value.
Also, with regard to the dollar, many economists believe that once the Fed begins to raise interest rates again, the value of the dollar will rebound.
Finally, most of the world’s currency reserves are in the US dollar — on the order of about 62-65%. A shift to another currency would be quite drastic, and thus unlikely, particularly since the next best choice seems to be the euro, which only accounts for about 27% of current currency reserves.
Damn,
This blogging is becoming harder an harder. They keep putting more obstacles in my path.
Now, before I can post my next critique of The Administration, I will have to purchase either a pair of Pajamas, or a Gay Conversion Kit! Is that what you are telling me, Mr Harwood?
I sure hope Andrew Sullivan sees your comments and evaluation. I’m thinking he needs a day off.
I don’t even own pajamas.
I can not believe it. A number of people are actually trying to reason with Huge Diaper Rash!
The FED chairman said the recession was just about over.
Wall St is bullish now. They purchase when they are bullish, and they sell when they are not. KISS. We are talking about big time professional gamblers folks, who are laying down bets, on who they think will emerge as winners. They are buying low now, because Bernanke and, tracking indicators, indictate that the recession has bottomed out. It is as simple as that.
Qfwfq | you blogged that…”Self-identified homosexuals made up 4% of the voting population in 2009.” I have to ask you what is your source on that %tage? as near as i can find in the numbers it is 8.4. as i calculate, we put him ovet the top and put a win on his plate. period. and without the gay vote John McCain would be our president.
The same people who pulled a freakout over this are the same people who are becoming increasingly unreasonable on our side and are going to end up hurting more than helpinng their own cause. First they tried to make a statement that was an obvious shot at bloggers if anything with the “pajamas and cheetos” stereotype as somehow being a shot against ****. Then it became a shot against bloggers which includes a lot of ****. GTFOH with that bullsh*t. We trying to get serious stuff fixed in this country and for the most part the people pimping this victimology have been constructive in that effort but they are pretty close to wearing out their welcome even with people who agree with them on most things.
And thats real!
Somebody needs to tell this admin guy there are a number of us that blog in the nude.
Where does that leave us? How inconsiderate of him.
Look who’s talking about “hurting more than helping their own cause.”
“pimping this victimology?” “pretty close to wearing out their welcome?”
Sargent said: “My point is that this quote, given the sourcing and second-hand nature of it, doesn’t seem like enough to get upset about.”
Unless you consider that it efficiently kneecaps the efforts of all those protesters on Sunday. And by later disavowing the quote they get the added bonus of reinforcing their meme that **** are whiny, immature ingrates. They know that the larger community (even the liberal community) has no clue about Obama’s horrible record on gay rights. They think he’s our “fiercest advocate ever” thanks to the effort of his good friends at the HRC. The immediate backlash against gay bloggers who took offense by some in the larger progressive blogosphere before the White House made this statement just proves my point. Look at that statement carefully. They don’t deny that an adviser said those things, just that it doesn’t “reflect WH sentiment”… whatever that is.
Greenwald has a good post on this whole thing:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/10/12/fringe/index.html
“The issue isn’t whether “blogs” are respected but, rather, how the Party views complaints from their base that they are abandoning and violating what they claim are the party’s core values.”
sbj
Nobody believes you you need more people
If only you didn’t have a gazillion other wingnut posts here people might actually take your concern trolling seriously
Or maybe not…
of course we’re not upset – but it IS a pattern -
the “shrill” Greenwald:
“Just this weekend, a “top gay Democrat close to Obama” was granted anonymity by Politico to dismiss administration critics on gay issues as “naive.” Just six weeks ago, an equally cowardly “senior White House adviser” hiding behind anonymity told told The Washington Post that the only people who cared about the public option in health care were “the left of the left” — those same fringe, irrational extremists. In June, an anonymous “friend of John Brennan’s” told Jane Mayer in The New Yorker that the people who prevented Brennan’s nomination as CIA Director (because of his support for some of the most radical Bush Terrorism policies) were nothing more than “a few Cheeto-eating people in the basement working in their underwear who write blogs.” Last year, “Democrats on the Hill” anonymously dismissed opposition to telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping as nothing more than a fringe issue being exploited by Chris Dodd for his presidential campaign, and then anonymously warned Dodd to abandon his left-wing obstructionism if he wanted to resume good standing in the Democratic caucus. Can anyone miss the pattern?”
Hamsher has got it right:
“Obama himself said that blogs aren’t reliable, and dismissed bloggers as “people shouting at each other across the void.” John Aravosis has been giving Obama heartburn over gay issues all the way back to Donny McLurkin. The idea that it was just by coincidence that Harwood happened to mention blogs and LGTB dissent together is laughable. In this case — as frequently happens — “anonymity” was requested by the White House for the purpose of saying something that they didn’t want to publicly own — for good reason.”
Where is the reporting? Why is no one asking that hack John Harwood why he reported on something without any follow up first?
How could he call himself a journalist when he didn’t even bother to get a comment from the White House before they reported an annoyomous (paraphrased) quote on national television.
It’s this kind of lacking news integrity that is running wild in the media today.
@sg: I haven’t got a clue what you’re saying in your recent comment.
However, when you said that those who are complaining now (****) are “pimping this victimology” and are “pretty close to wearing out their welcome,” I think your meaning was pretty clear.
You can go to heck.
sound like something that would have come out of Clinton’s camp…
(maybe an ex-clinton staffer who still holds those views)
SBJ,
You are the one who wrote: “I do not support the g@y agenda”.
You are the one who used that Right Wing Christo Fascist meme.
Stop your own G@y scapegoating, and make atonement, before you start lecturing others.
Good God , have you people have no patience.
With that bunch of “Breakfast Cereal Fruit Loops” running the show, you’ll get all you want and more. MMMM just THINK
Your always just looking for the Instant Gratification!
Ya know, Patience goes along way, “He will not Fail You”
I Give You “The CZARS”
After completely obliterating any hopes with African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans, the GOP now goes after another key “interest group” by brutally attacking Nancy Pelosi with sexist rhetoric… This oughta be good.
Pelosi Key to GOP 2010 Playbook
Republicans Hope Linking House Speaker to Democrats Can Turn Centrist Districts
The approach emerged last week when the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans, issued a statement saying it hopes Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, puts Ms. Pelosi “in her place” on Afghan policy.
[...]
The NRCC aired about a dozen television and radio ads during Congress’s August break linking Democrats in conservative or centrist districts to Ms. Pelosi, often noting how often the lawmaker voted with her. The NRCC plans a similar run of ads over the Thanksgiving break.
[...]
In between, the Republicans are issuing a stream of statements mocking the speaker as “General Pelosi” or as an unethical puppet-master.
[...]
Democrats say the tactics simply show the Republicans are lacking in constructive ideas. “It’s been a proven failure,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which coordinates the Democratic House campaigns. “I’d sum it up by saying, ‘Been there, done that, didn’t work.’ ”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125530046902979049.html
I guess the Republican Terrorist Party doesn’t need African-Americans, Latinos, NOR women to win elections. Go figure.
there are a slew of obama-haters on some of these blogs…not exactly the base.
Everyone
This is the same John Harwood who repeatedly quoted insiders that the Pres. didn’t really care about the PO, but just wanted a win in the HCR debate. Then last week decided the Pres. had basically been playing the “rope a dope” strategy and would probably get his PO that he actually wanted all along.
If you have a cause, fight for it. He needs us to fight for the causes we voted for. Put your money and your marching shoes on and keep blogging as well.
Remember FDR said: “Make me do It”. That’s what this is all about.
Ethan, get your donate to “Free Clinics” up and running again. Let’s see if some of our blogging friends here will put their money where there mouth is.
Liberals: $225
Conservatives: $0
“We all have a vested interest in the stock market. Companies that are profitable sell stock at a higher price to raise cash which create profits and jobs.”
HHK, it would be nice if it worked that way… In the REAL world, the companies pocket those profits and figure out ways to move more jobs overseas to increase profits more. no job creation unless you live in Singapore or Bangalore.
downsizing in the US has become ‘trendy’ among the corporate elite. its all short-term profit mentality… in the long run, who is going to have the money to buy your products?
nobody in big business seems to care about the long run though. has anyone noticed American industry is pretty much gone?
Let’s see…who is a media ***** and hates the left in the White House? Rahm Emanuel of course. If this is Harwood’s anonymous source, I have no doubt he’s reporting it accurately. On the other hand, Harwood has compromised his integrity so much that anything he says lacks credibility.
Next they will be telling us that they love FoxNews too.
margaret | October 12th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Margaret, I’m becoming convince that Rahm Emanuel is a repugnican mole.
he has the President’s ear… and he’s definitely NOT a progressive, or a Democrat for that matter.
I suppose you can be a neocon and register as a Democrat, that doesn’t really make you one though, does it?
Donate to Free Health Care Clinics:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1000863
So far:
Liberals: $225
Conservatives: $0
Need free health care or know someone who might? Find it here:
http://www.freeclinics.us/freeclinic.php
How does not having insurance hurt people? A new survey counts the ways:
….Among the ways people have tried to cut back on health care costs:
* 28 percent put off doctors’ visits.
* 25 percent have been unable to afford medical bills or medication.
* 22 percent put off medical procedures.
* 20 percent declined medical tests.
* 20 percent skipped filling prescriptions.
* 15 percent took expired medication.
* 15 percent skipped scheduled dosages of prescriptions.
The problems were more prevalent among households with incomes of less than $50,000 , in which about two-thirds said they’d cut back on health care because of costs.
The Dow is over 9900….. See if you can’t kick in $5 or $50.
Ethan–The stock market is up because Bernanke/Obama/Geithner/Summers are letting Wall Street borrow at 0% and continue playing the casinos. Obama’s #1 concern is letting his owners on Wall Street continue the greatest robbery in history. The stock and bond markets are owned and operated by the wealthy and powerful. Ordinary Americans benefit from jobs and wage increases, not the scam of the markets. Corporations and the rich DO NOT trickle down wealth.
Companies don’t create wealth and profit by selling stock, that’s ridiculous. Companies raise capital by selling stock, then working with that capital to create revenue producing options, like producing and selling products and services.
It’s like selling your house, you have more cash, but you’re not any “wealthier”, you’ve just exchanged a hard asset to a liquid one. You’ve not “created profit”, the profit was already there, you just converted it from one form to another.
Borrowing your way out of debt is another misconception. Yeah, you may pay off one debt, but you’ve incurred another, doesn’t matter if you’re a F500 company, an individual or a government. You can restructure your debt from one vehicle to another, but you’re still in debt. You MUST find new revenues to reduce the principal of that debt. That’s not to say that taxing more will give you those revenues, because taxes are just sucking the profit and reinvestment capacity of the private sector to feed the government which DOES NOT create any wealth for anyone at any time.
Reduce taxes, let the economy grow and watch real revenue increase, it’s a formula that has proven successful time and time again, in multiple economic environments. Taxing more and shuffling money around in circles only produces superficial (and fake) short term improvements while exasperating the real fundamental source of problems.
it’s a formula that has proven successful time and time again
Actually the only people who believe that believe it despite reaity. When you are an ideologue all solutions agree with your ideology.
However, reality has demonstrated persistently that ideologues are dangerous people to take advice from.
Ok, oddjob, can you give us an example where raising taxes improved the economy and and example where lowering taxes didn’t?
It’s not about ideology, it’s about economics.
Who cares what the WH says. We will all be in poverty by the time Obama and his coharts get done with the country.
Instead of fighting each other, we should see that the real enemy is in Washington. And haven’t you learned not to trust the stock markets yet?
No, oddjob will not sight examples because his is the side of rhetoric. Lower taxes means people have more money, people with more money spend that money…and while yes, they should safe more of that new found money, they hardly ever do. And when people spend more money, more money is actually raised by government. Imagine that, lowering taxes produces more money. Check history. Check what Reagan did…heck, if you don’t like Reagan (which I’m sure you don’t) go back and see what JFK did.
Obama knows SO MUCH about economics, that’s why the unemployment rate is at 10% and is predicted to hit 10.6% by June.
I wonder with hilarity how the Dems intend to run the 2010 election on “we created millions of jobs” meme which 15+ million unemployed will laugh at through their tears.
Keep wearing out the kneepads, Liberal bloggers. This administration is counting on your mindless service. Some of us are tired of being crapped on by this administration…we aren’t satisfied with winning elections. We’d like to see some actual change…which isn’t happening. This is like Bush II, except the Left doesn’t mind taking it just because it’s Obama.
The Democrats need to be stopped. Their **** AND TRADE bill will hit each American family with $1,700 in higher energy costs. Their health care debacle will hit each American family with up to $4,000 in additional costs. Taxes are going up under this administration, and they are spending $500 million a day just on the interest for the debt they have accumulated this year alone.
The Taliban are not in Pakistan…they are in the White House and in power in the US Congress. And we need to stop them using every tool we can. Call, write, march, pray…this crowd of thugs, slugs, and thieves needs to be stopped. Do what you can to stop them. In New Jersey and Virginia, go to the polls in three weeks and evict Democrats from the head of state government. In November 2010, march to the polls and send Nancy Pelosi and her crowd of sc*mbags back into the minority for good. Let’s send Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, and Arlen Spector into retirement. And, in 2012, let’s send Obama back to Chicago for good. One year of him is more than enough; let’s hope we as a country can survive one term of this arrogant, inexperienced naive clown.
Anyone who thinks or says the economy is getting better is showing complete lack of experience and/or education. I can’t even begin to explain money markets to this group. Let’s all revisit this thread in February…ignorance is bliss I guess. Hey I know!!! Let’s chase a black dog around a dark room until then, shall we? Oh, we are? ROTFLMAO
John Harwood is a right wing instigator who rarely passes up the opportunity to smack the left and bolster the right.
While he’s a relatively credible journalist he has an obvious (and sometimes nasty) right wing bias.
He was comfortable at the right wing Wall Street Journal, but also knew enough to leave when Murdoch bought it. From there he moved to the right wing CNBC channel and regularly joins the right of center discussions on Meet the Press with David Gregory and Washington Week with Gwen Ifill (where there is rarely, if ever, a liberal voice to be heard [Maddow being the rare, recent exception on Meet the Press]).
Harwood can give a decent and interesting political analysis but it almost always comes with a hostile barb thrust directly and deliberately at the left.
Which is to say it wouldn’t be beneath John Harwood to find a low level functionary at the White House, ask him leading questions to elicit a specific response, and then mischaracterize a quote that would deliberate rile the left.
In this case Harwood has successfully created a toxic rift between President Obama and the GLBT community the day after President Obama went to the GLBT community to specifically address their issues and promise to fight for their causes.
Mission Accomplished, Harwood.
Obama may not like our politics or how we express them but I’m sure he likes our money…
Mmm, mmm, mmm
The left of the left
It kind of rolls off the tongue.
Ok, oddjob, can you give us an example where raising taxes improved the economy
In 1993 taxes were raised, over the stringent objections of the right. I remember because at the time I was living in Delaware and I called Sen. Biden’s office specifically telling the staff member that you cannot tax your way to prosperity, just as Rush Limbaugh had said on the radio.
The years that followed were the most prosperous years of my adult lifetime (I was born in 1960).
It isn’t raising taxes that’s the problem, it’s what the government does or doesn’t do regarding maintaining fiscal sanity.
If I have to choose between “tax and spend” or “borrow and spend” (which is what you are de facto recommending) I will choose tax & spend every day.
Just look at the delusion: “John Harwood is a right wing instigator”
John Harwood was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, that’s hardly a right wing anything.
John Harwood was/is/and always has been a firm liberal/left journo beginning his political involvement at the age of 11 in television spots for Robert Kennedy.
If anything, Harwood is struggling with the disappointment that is this presidency.
David Gregory right-wing? That’s even more laughable, considering his political donations and volunteerism always falls left of center and his wife was and is a longtime Democrat operative who the Clintons rewarded with a VP slot at Fannie Mae.
Gwen Ifil right-wing? My goodness you should be a comedian, Ifill is downright hostile to the right and is a sycophant for Obama. Check out her list of writings and if you still want to claim she’s a member of the vast right wing conspiracy, I suggest you check your meds.
Come on people, this is a sad, sad display ya’ll are offering as far as argumentation goes. Next you’ll be claiming that Lincoln was a Democrat and Byrd was a member of the KKK.
The reason the quote created such a firestorm is that it reflects the substantive behavior of the Obama administration. After Rick Warren, no action on lgbt issues of any significance, discriminating in cabinet level appointments on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and packing the administration with retreads from Bill Clinton’s homophobic administration, ****** have no trust left.
CNBC correspondent John Harwood claimed that an anonymous adviser said …
all you need to know
Jason @ October 12th, 2009 at 03:42 pm
You’re coming off like one of the right wingers that think the right wing corporatist media is “liberal”. Why? Because it occasionally cites inconvenient facts despite it’s general right wing bent?
NBC’s David Gregory regularly pushes right wing commentary, frames questions as if they were written by Republican Karl Rove (his former dance partner), and rarely, if ever has an actual “liberal” on and then usually as a minority of one in a group of four or five.
Gwen Ifill is one of the center right voices that regularly come on Meet the Press. Her panels on Washington Week never have liberal voices on and do an excellent job limiting the conversation from the center right all the way to the far right.
Ifill and Gregory are perfect encapsulations of the “Little Village” and a perfect example of limiting the debate to right wing topics and framing while completely excluding liberal topics and liberal ideas.
It’s why John Harwood (formerly of the right wing Wall Street Journal and now on the right wing CNBC channel) moves so easily between David Gregory’s Meet the Press and Gwen Ifill’s Washington Week.
Both programs exclude liberal voices (with the noted recent exception of Maddow being on Meet the Press all of, what, two times? And even then, she was paired with the right wing propagandist Dick Armey who has been the corporate arm animating the teabaggers.).
My points stand.
Nonsense. Everyone knows that the Democrats don’t view the gay community as “fringe left”… They view the gay community as easy votes that they -NEVER- have to deliver on their promises to. That’s how the Democrats work. They pick a victims group, make them feel like they’re going to do something for them, then once they’re in office, they let them all down and blame the GOP. Hard to do that now, though, since the GOP has literally no power at all in the federal government. I got sick of being used by the Dems for my vote quite awhile back.
News Reference: You certainly are correct in pointing out the rightist bias in the corporate media.
The Administration in this past week has been under a cloud of criticism for not moving forward with due deliberateness and speed on repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and pushing Congress to repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
At the Human Rights Campaign Annual Dinner, the President did indicate that he was solidly behind the greater LGBT community, but did ask for patience from the community on these issues due to other pressing matters. [Inferred was Health Care Reform & the Afghan conflict.]Thus far, reaction to the President’s plea for patience has been lukewarm at best from the LGBT community including the bloggers.
The White House however, has not indicated any form of dissatisfaction or conflict with the LGBT community as a whole even as they have been under fire, thus Harwood’s comments are suspect at the very least. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs when asked, simply said it was not correct and moved on.
The White House seems to be fully aware of the political favors owed to the LGBT voters and does not appear as if it is willing to trade off that political capital nor lose it entirely.
@michael straus: “we put him ovet the top and put a win on his plate.”
Given the margins of victory in individual states, I’d bet that Obama would have won even if the gay vote had tipped for McCain.
Can we stop with the stupid, narcissistic, self-serving comments, though? Honestly, a critical mass on the left seems to think that its, and only its, whims are the ones that Obama should follow. Seventy million Americans voted for Obama last year and not all of them did so because they wanted immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, or a total restructuring of America’s banks and corporations.
Nine months into his first term I could have predicted that the rightwing would be all panty-bunched, but the feverishness from the left is completely nuts. Jesus, do you want him to resign because he hasn’t instantaneously addressed each and every one of your pet issues?
castanea: Your are making a straw man argument. The left is disgusted because Obama has continued Bush administration policies on the overwhelming majority of issues, not because of a need for absolute and instant gratification.
Greg links Steve, quoting Greg, linked to Steve. What do they call that? Oh yeah, a noise machine. Whoops, I mean that’s an echo chamber. A noise machine is when people complain about the taxes being too high and/or government being too big.
The “left” includes people who recognize that there are a diversity of what constitutes the “left”.
Some on the “left” recognize that someone who is looking to deliberately provoke a reaction by calling themselves “godlessliberalhomo” (above) and then claims to speak for the diversity on the “left” does more than just antagonize and energize the opposition of the “right” but also alienates a good chunk of the diverse “left”.
It’s darkly ironic that what energizes much of the right wing base is the fear that all of the “left” is represented monolithically by someone who will fanatically push on them a “godlessliberalhomo” agenda.
“godlessliberalhomo” might as well be a right wing enabling troll trying to create rifts on the “left” while energizing the “right”.
Again, mission accomplished.
Speaking as someone who supports LGBT civil rights, the “godlessliberalhomo” commenter is exactly the person that the majority of “right” wing voters I know are energized to work against and even some of the “left” wing voters I know find it discouraging to support.
Work against your own ends much?
I think it’s great you feel free to be out, “libhomo”, but despite spending years trying to explain to my conservative extended family that your civil rights (as a complete stranger) aren’t anything for them to fear, most all of what they consume is right wing media which paints ‘godlessness’ and ‘liberal’ and ‘homo’ as things to FEAR.
They are more motivated by their fears than they are by the “better angels”.
And there are a lot of right wing wolves that are preying on those fears.
And motivation wins elections (and referendums).
Just an FYI.
Be more dubious, Greg. Reed Greenwald, or read here:
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2009/10/self-contradiction-is-message-john.html
Exposed Kevin Jennings Obama’a Safe School Czar.Don’t be fooled they are working behind the scenes to pass their agenda.After watching these videos you will know what they mean by Safe School Czar. He is trying to make it safe for Homosexuality in our Schools. I was able to get some good footage on this guy. He wants to bring change into public schools to change the way society looks at homosexuality and he wants to do it by teaching our kids and teachers about homosexuality. There is 8 videos take the time to watch these video so you are aware of what the Obama Admin is trying to do to our kids.
https://www.americanpatriotsprevail.com/Exposed_Kevin_Jennings_Obam.html
This stories hard to believe, Michelle Obama needs to update her facebook page though http://www.examiner.com/x-19673-Michelle-Obama-Examiner PEACE
He is trying to make it safe for Homosexuality in our Schools.
OH MY GOD! THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!!!!!!
Be a nice bigot and go lynch someone, okay?