Will Rogers famously joked that he was not a member of any organized political party. He was a Democrat.
And we have all watched - in horror and some admiration as Republicans goose-stepped behind THEIR President in blind obedience. Party loyalty seems to get things done for Republicans.
But now as Barack Obama prepares to take his oath of office, I'm losing my patience with the complaining, backbiting, and especially grandstanding that's going on among Democrats here in Washington and elsewhere.
More after the jump.....
I can understand - and sympathize with the furor over Rick Warren, and some of the other second-guessing as well. But a piece in HuffPo by Jacob Heilbrunn yesterday spoke directly to my growing concern.
Imagine this scenario: president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt is weeks away from entering office. He's indicated that he will offer a sweeping plan to revive the economy, but leading Democratic Senators are already sniping that he's being too cautious or not bold enough. Meanwhile, liberal columnists are piling on to criticize him.
Sound crazy? It's exactly what's happening to Barack Obama. Obama hasn't even set foot in the Oval Office and already windbags such as John Kerry and Tom Harkin are fulminating about his economic plan. Has it eluded Kerry's attention that Obama accomplished something he failed to do four years ago, namely, win the presidency, and not by a small margin?
The GOP must be chortling. Republicans don't have to attack Obama; the Democrats are already doing it for them.
This is nuts. No doubt Democrats have a tradition of tearing down their own presidents -- recall Joseph Lieberman, among others, sanctimoniously denouncing Bill Clinton from the well of the Senate -- but usually it takes a few years. Not now.
This is nuts. Obama won a historic victory that Democrats could only dream about a a few months ago. Eight years of Bush-Cheney, you might think, would be enough to unite the party. During that time, the Republicans displayed tremendous unity, allowing George W. Bush to wreak havoc upon the country, driving it into an economic and foreign policy ditch.
Obama promises to do the opposite. No, his economic plan isn't perfect. But what plan ever is? The fact is that Obama is in the process of laying out a program that forms an excellent starting point, a mixture of tax cuts, including cutting the payroll tax which will immediately help stimulate the economy, and public works and investments that can help to rebuild an infrastructure that has been gutted by the Bush-Cheney regime.
Obama, you might think, deserves praise, not condemnation. And you'd be right. Obama is the best thing that's happened to the party in decades. It seemed like Democrats began to realize that after he thrashed John McCain.
But no. The posturing and preening taking place in Washington isn't alarming. It's nauseating. Who would have thought that Democrats would try to destroy Obama's presidency before it's even begun.
Spot on. The nation is in an economic crisis that is more evident on Main Street than on Wall Street...or at the Capitol. It is absolutely essential that Obama accomplish as much as possible in the first 100 days. He has said repeatedly that he admires FDR, who was not afraid to keep trying things until he found something that worked. Obama's stimulus package is not going to be the alpha and the omega. It will be the first step. There will be more.
All of us have differences with at least a few of the choices that Barack Obama has made so far. But for him to be an effective leader, we must be mature enough to follow, and not to whine, preen, or wound him even before he takes office.
There is a time and place for everything. Now is the time America sets aside for the Honeymoon Period. They are willing to hear out the new President and give him a chance. Democrats should be about supporting him, and not doing the Republicans work of undermining him.
Disagree later. There will be plenty of time for that. But for now, the only people nipping at Barack Obama's heels should be Republicans and the right wing echo chamber.