Even though I long ago stopped mentioning on this site when something I've written appears in the Huffington Post, it doesn't mean I've stopped writing for them. The truth is that the decent political or media-oriented material you read here is often cross-posted at HuffPo, thereby giving me as much bang (or at least exposure) for my buck as I can get.
I typically don't think it's worth even getting into here when this double-posting thing happens, but Friday's piece is a different story altogether. My stuff occasionally generates some good back-and-forth commentary among the Huffingtonites; occasionally not. But it's been a very long time since I've published something there that's drawn the kind of unbridled blood-lust directed toward me that Friday's column on, ironically, the left's inability to stay on message has. At last check, there were more than 360 comments published in response to my little diatribe -- from some who agree with me vociferously and many, many more who think I'm the world's biggest asshole for not understanding the "critical thinking of progressives" and for being willing to supposedly "compromise" liberal values.
It's right about now that I should remind everyone that I'm not a liberal. I'm not a conservative either. I'm an independent. My argument was simply that while it's important for Obama to be held accountable, it's self-sabotaging for those who supported him so strongly for so long to now turn on him publicly and entirely just seven months into his presidency. The left's inability to settle the fighting among its many disparate factions is what allowed the on-point-to-a-fault GOP machine to crush them all underfoot for the better part of the last decade. I certainly wouldn't want to see a right-leaning, constantly-selling-out doppelganger of the Barack Obama I voted for spend four years in office, but I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for more than ten minutes. Sorry, folks, but the honeymoon's not over yet for me and Obama -- especially not when there are so many within both parties right now who seem to want to see him fail at all costs.
And those on the left who are giddily scooping the water back into the boat that Obama is trying to scoop out appear to have forgotten the massive victory that simply getting him elected was.
Add to that, this: In Friday's column, I never said anything about compromise. I'm a die hard proponent of serious health care reform (what the Paul Krugman piece I cited in my own piece was pegged off of) and have pushed for the public option for months. I don't want to see Obama wheeling and dealing with Big Pharma or bending to the will of the Blue Dogs, Tom "What the Hell Am I Still Doing in Politics" Daschle, or anyone else in the pocket of the health insurance mafia. But Obama supporters strike me as smart people; there has to be a way to both ensure that our guy doesn't leave us disappointed while continuing to sing his praises in the face of his many enemies -- our enemies. Anything else is the proverbial cutting off of our nose to spite our face.
Anyway, feel free to read some of the comments at Huffington. Decide for yourself who among the commenters gets it and who doesn't -- who makes good points and who's setting themselves up for another Republican resurgence in a couple of years.
The Huffington Post: With Friends Like These.../8.21.09
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