The Nowhere Man: WilliamPitt

[zeitgeist]

Classic Pittstain at his incomprehensible best.

To save time you can probably avoid the strike out text.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x815783

The Nowhere Man: WilliamPitt

Tue Apr-05-11 11:08 AM

Plenty of people here won't like this, but that can't be helped. This is my opinion. No, he's not Bush...but that has come to mean less and less as time has passed.

{photo in OP was here }

President Barack Obama records his weekly address from a UPS customer center as part of the new public-private Green Fleet Partnership, April 1, 2011. (Photo: Pete Souza / White House Photo)

The Nowhere Man
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

Tuesday 05 April 2011

So, yeah, Obama is in. The President of the United States officially threw his hat into the 2012 election ring on Monday morning, and the nation reacted with a resounding, "Oh."

What a mess.

It wasn't even two and a half years ago. Can you believe it? Two and a half years ago, there was a detonation of optimism that echoed across the country once the returns were in on that November night. People took to the streets here in Boston, literally banging pots and pans together as they danced and shouted in celebration. The scene was repeated in city after city and town after town, and even the "mainstream" media gushed from election night to Inauguration Day about the spectacular moment in American history we were all witnessing together.

Hindsight, however, tells us today that much of that optimism was wildly misplaced. The long shadow of George W. Bush still hung low and dark over the land, as it does even now. That was part of it, of course, part of the sense of expiation and purgation so many felt once the deal went down; on that November night, the national nightmare of Mr. Bush's presidency was writing its final pages, and then came January, and he was gone. Despite all the failures and disappointments that have since come, those were two very good days.

And there have been disappointments. A great, great many of them. The words we heard were beautiful back then, soaring and sure, and many believed. How could they not? Here was this new president who could sing the birds down from the trees, who was introduced to the country in 2004 by way of a convention keynote address that blew the roof off the joint. Some years later, along the jagged, wending path of a brutal primary campaign, candidate Obama was carried to the nomination by the power of his words, and yes, many believed, even in spite of themselves.

But then he won it all, and two and a half years later, many of his most ardent supporters now hear his words and taste ashes in their mouths. You campaign in poetry, someone once said, but you govern in prose. The poetry was magnificent. The prose, in far too many ways, has been dreck, and those who believed now find themselves more demoralized than they can easily describe.

He and his fellow Democrats all but folded on health care, leaving us with less than half a loaf. He backtracked on Guantanamo, and doubled down on Afghanistan. He promised to erase Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy, and broke his oath shamelessly, to his party's great lament in 2010. Wall Street stands unmolested at the center of his counsel, while Main Street withers on the vine. He is flipping missiles into Libya while flipping off the American people by racing to "compromise" with brigands and thieves on the matter of how many billions to cut. He has, to be sure, had his share of victories, but in so many critical ways, he has been the Nowhere Man, the absence of what was so seemingly present when he was elevated to his current station.

What galls the most, what infuriates and confounds, is the brazen clarity of the situation at hand. Mr. Obama has not been losing policy arguments to reasonable people. He has been losing policy arguments to people who are, in many instances, absolutely and unabashedly barking mad. He is losing policy arguments to people who sought elected office in government in order to denude and destroy that very government. Listen to them talk and the matter is plain: they got the job to destroy the job, and are so blinded by the fervor of their political catechism that they cannot be reasoned with under any circumstances. They are destroyers and usurpers, but Mr. Obama has time and again bared his neck to them, and we have all suffered with their sundry victories, and his sundry defeats.

They cannot be reasoned with, but can only be defeated, and after two and a half years, it is the President of the United States alone who appears to have not received the memo. Now he's running for re-election - not that anyone suspected he would do otherwise - and the machinery of campaign war is grinding to life in Chicago and Washington DC. Last time around, Mr. Obama's vast campaign war chest was filled with donations from millions of regular folks all across the country. The Obama campaign took money from the big boys, too; lots and lots of money. But what ultimately brought him to victory came from average Americans who could not afford to give but did. That, as much as anything else, was part of that sense of optimism felt by so many at the beginning.

Now?

Well, now is a different story. A great many of those who gave willingly the last time are two and a half years older today, two and a half years poorer, and two and a half years wiser. They will not be as quick to reach for their wallets and checkbooks when the piper calls them to campaign charity with his well-worn cadence. The Obama 2012 brain trust seems to know this, and are preparing a financial strategy far more dependent on big money than last time. They aim to raise a billion dollars this time. Thus, the political DNA of campaigner Obama and President Obama will even more closely resemble the CEOs and bankers that tore this nation to shreds and tatters.

The feeble fiction of the Democrats vs. Republicans paradigm has been falling to dust for a long time now, inexorably being replaced by a simple truth. There is but one paradigm in this reality, one core fact to be reckoned with: the struggle in America is between the Have's and the Have Not's, between towering wealth , towering greed and everyone else. It is about a class struggle that has been three centuries in the making, and even those who are today moderately comfortable will not be able to escape calamity. When it comes down, it will come down on all of us...all, of course, except the fortunate few who caused it all in the first place.

But who knows? Mr. Obama could choose to steer back into the wind, challenge his demented opposition with a will, and prevail in a way that inspires those who have waited all this time for the man they gave to and voted for to show up. The odds of re-election favor him in any case; it is hard to defeat an incumbent, and when considering the ludicrous carnival of nonsense that is the presumed Republican field, Mr. Obama's chances only improve. In many battlefield states, demographics favor the president in ways the GOP is not prepared to deal with. The 2012 election campaign promises, above all else and with absolute certainty, to be one of the most deranged political affairs to be seen since time out of mind.

It is tempting to comfort oneself with the notion that there are worst things in the world than a second Obama term, and there is a fat, cynical dollop of truth in that. After all, given the array of challenges this administration has faced since taking office, it is daunting to imagine the sorry condition we would be in under a President McCain. Now imagine watching Vice President Michele Bachmann, tapped by the Republican nominee in two years to shore up the Tea Party vote, taking the oath a heartbeat shy of the biggest chair in the country. Think it can't happen that way? Want to bet on it?

I don't.

Two and a half years ago, it was all about hope and change. Remember that? I am, personally, waiting with baited breath for the next battery of slogans to be deployed by the Obama campaign. No, seriously, I am. Nowhere Man 2012: Because Everyone Else Is Worse. That'll send them racing to the polls.

Yup. Here we go.

Again.

http://www.truth-out.org/nowhere-man 

First post out of the box is crying out for "That's Racist"

815816, No, he's not Bush
Posted by Autumn on Tue Apr-05-11 11:11 AM

but it's going to be a long 5 years. "Nowhere Man 2012: Because Everyone Else Is Worse." I think it's spot on.

Opps that was the second post.

816297, Bush was the white guy, right?
Posted by russspeakeasy on Tue Apr-05-11 12:07 PM

816530, Bush was the previous President.
Posted by Autumn on Tue Apr-05-11 12:31 PM

I doubt their race has anything to do with it. IMO it's the continuing policies that are the problem.

816678, Resident.
Posted by EFerrari on Tue Apr-05-11 12:46 PM

"the two time unelected scion of the Bush mafia"

 

Amazing 

816909, That was my point.
Posted by russspeakeasy on Tue Apr-05-11 01:11 PM

 
819268, Nothing to do with race except marketability

817738, Are you serious, or just pretending to not get it?
Posted by RaleighNCDUer on Tue Apr-05-11 02:46 PM

In all those places it is not so much Dem vs Repub, but workers vs owners. There are plenty of Republican union workers who are standing up for their rights to collective bargaining. They aren't suddenly turning Democratic - they are acknowledging that what benefits the 2% is inimical to the 98%.

This is not about 'may as well stay home'. It is about Know Your Enemy. 

   
816406, Why people are disappointed is covered very clearly in the OP - as well as in countless other OP's
Posted by Edweird on Tue Apr-05-11 12:19 PM

here on a daily basis.
The disappointment is real and justified whether you choose to accept the reality of it or not.
I dare you to accuse Pitt of "being an Obama hater" or that he "never really loved Obama" or "probably didn't vote for Obama in the first place".
I double-dog dare you.

 
816559, Why are you putting words in Jaxx's mouth?
Posted by emulatorloo on Tue Apr-05-11 12:33 PM

That's just silly.

We are allowed to disagree with WillPitt's opinion. I think he is a good writer. I do not think this is one of his best pieces.

"The disappointment is real and justified whether you choose to accept the reality of it or not."

I think it is worth noting that the opinions expressed on DU does not necessarily reflect the opinions of non_DU'ers

For what it is worth, in the real world it is conservative Democrats who give Obama the lowest numbers.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/124922/Presidential-Approval-Center.aspx

Obama Job Approval March 28 thru April 3rd, 2011.

Among Democrats 80%
Among Liberal Democrats 83%
Among Moderate Democrats 77%
Among Conservative Democrats 61%
 
816642, What words did I put in 'Jaxx's' mouth?
Posted by Edweird on Tue Apr-05-11 12:42 PM
 
816671, 'I dare you to accuse Pitt of "being an Obama hater"'
Posted by emulatorloo on Tue Apr-05-11 12:46 PM

et cetera.

I think that is an absurd statement to make, given Jaxx's rather calm disagreement with the premise of the OP.

 
816730, I don't see it as being the least bit absurd. Do you deny those personal attacks
Posted by Edweird on Tue Apr-05-11 12:52 PM

have taken place when less 'well known' DU'ers have expressed similar sentiments? 

Lots more posts this is a long funky thread.  The dump is in full melt down mode lately.   

[GOBUCKS]

I am, personally, waiting with baited breath

"Baited" breath? Did Pitt get so drunk he started eating nightcrawlers? Will he next begin to "tow the line"?

I remember, way back before the morbid, chronic alcoholism took control of DUmmy Pitt's life and corroded his brain, when Pitt had a decent vocabulary. He was always comically stupid, but he would never have written about "baited" breath. That's an error that Pam, or even Beth, wouldn't make...well, maybe Pam would.

[Texacon]

"Baited" breath? Did Pitt get so drunk he started eating nightcrawlers? Will he next begin to "tow the line"?

I remember, way back before the morbid, chronic alcoholism took control of DUmmy Pitt's life and corroded his brain, when Pitt had a decent vocabulary. He was always comically stupid, but he would never have written about "baited" breath. That's an error that Pam, or even Beth, wouldn't make...well, maybe Pam would.

If your refering to pitt mis-speling some thing you kneed to make su're you know what your talking about.  Hes a published arthur.

KC

[jukin]

Sorry DUches, it's ABO (Anybody But Obama) in 2012.

Right around late summer that year, unemployment will still be horrendously high, no matter what fudging the regime does to the denominator.

Gas is going to be well over $5/gallon.

Food is going to be eating up a huge portion of a families budget...and going noticeably up each week.

Inflation is going to be up in the low double digits.

The middle east is/has turned into an islmaic theocracy.

This time Obama will have a track record. A track record of failure and incompetence. A track record of huge deficits and misery. Calling sane people racists is not gong to be enough this time. The MSM going 110% in for the nude emperor will not be enough this time. Even the dumbing down of Americans will not be enough.

There will be only two donks happy on the evening of the first Tuesday of November 12;  Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

TRANSLATION: The man who takes 3 weeks to organize a week's worth of socks is an idiot and it's everbody's fault except for the people who voted for the done-nothing neophyte.

[BlueStateSaint]

There will be only two donks happy on the evening of the first Tuesday of November 12;  Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter.

There will be two others, secretly so:  Bill and Hillary Clinton.

[Chris_]

Classic Pittstain at his incomprehensible best.

To save time you can probably avoid the strike out text.


First post out of the box is crying out for "That's Racist"


Opps that was the second post.
Amazing  



Lots more posts this is a long funky thread.  The dump is in full melt down mode lately.  

To paraphrase LBJ: If OblaBla has lost Pitt, he's lost America.  

Ok, maybe that is a bit of a stretch, OblaBla ain't no LBJ.
 

[USA4ME]

WilliamPitt

Nowhere Man 2012: Because Everyone Else Is Worse. That'll send them racing to the polls.

Among the kook left like those who dwell on Skin's island, DKos, etc.... it most certainly will.  Of that there is no doubt.

I have to admit a bit of admiration of Dem leaders and pols in their ability, from election cycle to election cycle, to maintain the votes of the whackos like WmPitt.  These rank and file fools continually complain about not getting their way and how this president or congressman or governor is a sell-out, only to cast their vote in the general election for the very ones about whom they decry, and all it takes is "the other side is worse."  They complain their elected officials don't have the courage to stand up to the Republicans or that they too easily compromise or fold, and yet by casting their votes for those same pols they demonstrate their lack of courage in the exact same thing.  Point it out to them and they'll deny the obvious.  The short rope to which the Dem leaders and pols keep these kooks tied and yet allow them to believe they have some manner of control over anything is something that is inspirational in it's own way.

.

[NHSparky]

I should see if anyone has pointed out any plagiarism in his posts of late...

[DumbAss Tanker]

To paraphrase LBJ: If OblaBla has lost Pitt, he's lost America.  

Ok, maybe that is a bit of a stretch, OblaBla ain't no LBJ.
 

He could reinstitute slavery and still count on 95% of the Black vote, the full backing of the MSM, and 80% of academia.

[GOBUCKS]

I should see if anyone has pointed out any plagiarism in his posts of late...

It's doubtful that he's copying much lately, after the humiliation of being caught with the "Hitchhiker" theft. Some of it, sure. No way an habitual plagiarist can quit cold turkey, because it's just too easy, and it's vastly superior to anything a hack like Pitt could honestly produce. But it would be tough to find an instance of an actual professional writer making the "baited breath" mistake. That's almost certainly the intellectual product of Pitt's comically gin-soaked brain. DUmmy Raven must be so proud. After all, she's the one who pays his bar bills.