There's that old two word cliche "game changer" that gets bandied about, often abused. But today, I have to say that the President's appearance on the GOP's retreat (how fitting of a title for them!) was indeed that. Now the momentum is once more behind him.
Unless we want to go back to the conservative liliputians dominating the scene again, with their unsubstantiated stupid attacks, the President needs to continue the offensive. 24 hours ago the President Obama was, for many, looking like the President that was allowing a minority party rule the day. The leader of the Democratic Party with a majority (60 in the Senate until recently) let their agenda get pushed around. Let's be honest, that's whats been happening. The attacks from the right were both cheap in substance and cost. But that changed now. Now those attacks just got a bit costlier.
How? Folks today saw something else besides the President doing what we loved about him when he was a candidate. He exposed the Republican Party and their allies for what they were. Like a Republican friend of mine who also watched said, Barack Obama was a ninja whose coolness was matched by his smart precision attacks hitting exactly where they would inflict the most damage.
Midway
What happened in Baltimore, he said, was no different than the President showing up on Glenn Beck or Rush's show and exposing them for the frauds they were. He went into the den of his enemies, outnumbered and prior to his performance perhaps out gunned. Normally a sitting President making her or his first appearance at a public political event would be greeting with a modicum of collegiality. But this Republican Party was not one of mutual respect, but a gang of superstitious immature corrupt incompetent political hacks. This made President Obama's appearance all the more daring. But as mentioned he not only took them on, he crushed them.
What we have now is the equivalent to Midway, and the President and his crew are the Allies. Momentum is now on his side. The foolishness of the Republicans has been doubly exposed, first on their turf on their terms no less, and on television. Each talking point, all familiar to the right's primary acolytes, was shown for it's hollowness. More importantly, even those who those center-right folks who danced with the idea of perhaps voting for the GOP are now questioning such thoughts. How do I know? Several texts/IMs with friends who in the past voted either way telling me so.
Momentum, the President now needs to make the GOP's attacks even more expensive. There was a part in tonight's coverage on MSNBC where Chris Mathews recalled an event where he had a Democratic ally and engineer in a state where a GOP congressman was giving problems to an infrastructure bill. Mathews continued on how that engineer gave him a list of all the faulty bridges which Speaker O'Neal would later recount before the House. The President, no I would say his entire party need to do this on a macro scale! They know the GOP/right-wing talking points. Continue to expose the hollow nature of these crackpot ideas! Make them prove it!
Go on their turf, armed with the truth and expose the fraudsters. The retreat shouldn't be the only place the President should go. Confront head on the accusations of being (well take your pick). Hell, throw a complete curve ball and have one of the major players (or even the President perhaps?) go on a major show.
Besides the media, the momentum should be taken to the people. While it would be easier to say "look we're building this" and point to some Recovery.gov project. Better to show what would happen if the proper public investments were NOT made. Expose the failing bridges, or schools. Show the effects of Republican-lead trade policy. Put a human face on joblessness. Put a human face on death-by-spreadsheet. Make the Republican Party, no, the entire conservative element defend their positions. Shame their policies and their positions, like what happened today.
Tomorrow folks like Rush and Hannity will go on and attempt to deceive. They will say the President lied or jumbled the facts. They will say "Obama's wrong because he doesn't acknowledge the facts from the experts". Keep in mind, "facts" here are anything but, mere fabrications assembled by corrupted think tanks. Honestly, I wish someone would, out of the blue, call up their show and challenge them. Its obvious most conservative talking heads do not do their homework. And whatever evidence they do utilize is often poor.
Republican Stalingrad
As we speak, folks like Frank Luntz are watching videos of today's performance for some sort of weakness. By Monday or even as early as the Sunday talk shows, the Republicans will attempt to regain the momentum. The GOP can't afford to look even more inane in front of their already disgusted conservative base. The Republican leadership doesn't fear a third party displacing them, but that the leadership itself gets replaced by a tea party inspired partisan insurgency. Such an event would blindside the GOP. Worse, besides juggling their base, they need to cater to those center-right folks who aren't teabaggers. This is the President's opening.
Conservatives, be it the hard right teabaggers or those who are center-right live in this right wing media cloud. They all have their favorite talk radio personality. Most just watch Fox News (or in some cases also Fox Business Channel) as their choice of 24 hour news channel. They are used to hearing from the "opposition" in the form of a Democratic strategist or supposed liberal personality. Often, it's someone in the periphery, many times picked by a show's producer to make the host look "smarter." They know, or at least believe to be the fact, that a major Democratic player won't show up, especially someone from the White House. So they make up crazy crap, like Glenn and that red telephone and his chalkboard.
This is their media safety land, guarded by a wall made up of assumptions that they won't be challenged. It's how they've kept their base both ignorant and ginned up. It's time to change that. They won't know how to respond. Honestly, do you really thing a shlub like Glenn Beck would be ready if that stupid phone of his rang all of a sudden? Yes, they will get a ratings boost, but it will be one they will come to regret.
Exposed, the pillars that hold up the Republican/conservative political leadership will crumble fast. Why? Because conservatives, especially the paranoid tea bag base, loves doubt. They already are suspect of the GOP leadership. Trust me, that suspicion isn't too far from the likes of Rush or Glenn. They may hate Obama, but they hate a fraud as well. You won't get their vote, but neither will those tied to the fraud. They will sit it out. This, this is what the Republican leadership fears tonight. That's why tonight, despite all they could give, this was the Republican's Stalingrad.