I was going to respond to this truly obnoxious piece by Jon Chait which argues that liberals are never happy with Democratic presidents (to start with, it’s not our job to be cheerleaders). Thankfully, Glenn Greenwald points out the obvious (boldface mine):
onathan Chait, whose career (like the magazine that long employed him) has been devoted to complaining that liberals are so unreasonable and unSerious (that is, when he and his magazine weren’t cheerleading for the Iraq War and vowing to re-make the Democratic Party in the image of Joe Lieberman), today complains that liberals are so unreasonable because they don’t swoon for Obama the way he does; maybe Chait could ask Dick Cheney to explain to him why this is so. Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan today observes that Chait, David Frum and himself all adore Obama and believe he has done an absolutely superb job, and just cannot for the life of him understand why many liberals don’t share this sentiment. Aside from the fact that the question sort of answers itself — is it really baffling that a President viewed with such adoration by David Frum, Andrew Sullivan and the permanently-New-Republick-ed Jonathan Chait doesn’t provoke the same level of giddiness among many liberals?
I have said this so many times, but it sadly bears worth repeating: in a sane political system that was not riven by culture wars and race, Obama would be a Rockefeller Republican.
This isn’t hard, and you don’t have to be very intelligent to figure it out.
mikethemadbiologist
“This isn’t hard, and you don’t have to be very intelligent to figure it out.”
That just shows you how far down the scale Chait is. He needs an education to be able to rise up to “not very intelligent”.
Yes, but journalists and pundits are issue blind. Recognizing a Rockefeller Republican requires some understanding and sensitivity to the individual’s stands on the issues. When all you care about is the horse race or “character”, you can only rank on a like or don’t like scale.
Liberals aren’t happy with Democratic presidents for a pretty simple reason. With the exception of FDR and Johnson, Democratic presidents really haven’t been liberals.