Obama derangement syndrome has hit the left and it's starting to bother me.
The left is in an uproar over Elena Kagan's nomination. Nevermind the fact that most people know nothing about her other then she is a democrat and she has never rendered a court decision in her life.
So what does the left do? We take a few things she has said and wrote over the course of the last 30 years that we may not like and a couple of associations over 30 years we may not like at first glance and render a conclusive decision about her. Do we let her tell us about herself so we might get a sense of her? No. Do we let her answer some questions that we may have about some things that on the surface may seem troubling to progressive's? No.
What do we do? We render a conclusive judgment on her and then go ape shit on the blogosphere. And why are we so quick to rush to judgment on her, well according to Cenk Uygur it's because Obama picked her. Wow!
Cenk Uygur has concluded that Obama is a submissive, accommodating, non progressive failure after 1 year and 3 months. That's right, One year and 3 months.
How can he make that judgment in such a short time. Cenk Uygur unwittingly exposed himself with his football anology. Eddie George was a border line hall of famer and his team won a ton of games. What's wrong with 3 yards a play if you score a touchdown. The problem with Cenk Uygur is he lives in a 24 hour blogosphere bubble where everything has to be instantaneous.
First of all let me debunk this Bush got a lot done myth. Bush came in to office with 0 wars, a booming economy and budget surpluses. On the domestic policies front the first thing he did was enact tax cuts with the budget surplus. That was tough. The second thing he did was pass a prescription drug benefits bill without paying for it. That was tough. Remember when he tried to pass Social Security reform? How about Imigration reform?
On the foreign policy side he used one of the most shocking foreign attacks in America history to push his policy on a public scared shitless and still somewhat on edge.
Bush had 8 years to do his damage and he and his party were ultimately repudiated.
On the contrary, Obama has been in office for a year and 3 months and was handed a disaster: an economy in free fall, a banking system in crisis, a auto-making industry in crisis, a huge budget deficit, TARP, 2 wars, a lethal terrorist threat and the most partison divide since the civil war. He has had to deal with a republican party that wants to deligitimize him, oh and by the way he has the pressure of being the first african-american president which has caused great anguish to a certain part of the population.
Just think of what Obama has had to deal with in the last 2 weeks: A failed terrorist attack in Time Square, the biggest oil spill in American history, an immigration war, a European financial crisis, some of the worst flooding in Tennessee history and a stock market that dropped a 1000 points in a couple of hours.
Yet in the backdrop of all this Cenk Uygur wants Obama to take on every facet of American Entrenched Power all at once and will settle for nothing less then it's total defeat. Oh, and all in less then a year and a half.
With that being said I think I'll give Elena Kagan and President Obama a chance before I render my final conclusion.
(Update)
I understand that you are not supposed to call out a diarist but I thought there was an exception for a public figure, which I consider Cenk to be. Secondly my headline was meant to be a play on his headline not an attack on him personally.
(Update 2)
I have made no conclusions yet on Elena Kagan, I just feel I need to know more. But for those who say Obama should have picked a proven progressive with a judicial track record like progressive warrior Diane Wood, leaving aside the fact that she may not be confirmed, consider this: The Court is now 4 liberals, 4 conservatives and one swing vote, Justice Kennedy. Do you think that Obama might have tried to pick the nominee he thought might sway Justice Kennedy and there is something about Kagan that makes her more persuasive for someone like Justice Kennedy who is not a progressive, just a thought.