‘Top Line’ — President Obama’s Blogger Problem
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Disappointment from the “Netroots” has been an early and repeated theme of President Obama’s time in office, with sharp disagreements between the White House and the political left over such areas as health care, gay rights, Afghanistan, Iraq, and civil liberties. Those tensions reached a new blogospheric boiling point over the weekend, after CNBC’s John Harwood quoted an anonymous White House adviser’s reaction to the “Internet left fringe.” The adviser, Harwood said, told him that “those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.” On ABCNews.com’s “Top Line” today, liberal blogger Jane Hamsher (not wearing pajamas) told us that the comment is emblematic of a White House that isn’t respecting the liberal activists who worked to elect Obama president. Many of those same liberals are dismayed to see a White House waffling in its commitment that a health care plan will include a “public option” to compete with private insurers.
“The White House very regularly calls bloggers ‘the left of the left,’ ignoring the fact that the majority of the country, 77 percent, wants a public option. This isn’t some fringe, lefty, loony thing,” said Hamsher, the founder of the liberal blog FireDogLake. “[I]take it as a mark of pride for my profession that we’re being called Cheeto-eaters this morning,” Hamsher said. “We’re an independent political movement. We’re progressives, and progressives in the House are dismissed, progressives online are dismissed. You know, progressive values, progressive groups are only allowed access to the White House to the extent that they’re willing to torpedo progressive legislation.” She added, “It’s not that we’re some part of the Democratic Party that deserves respect. We’ve always had an independent political voice from the Democrats.” Hamsher’s latest venture will test that proposition. Public Option Please is seeking to harness some of the same online energy that fueled Obama’s campaign to insist to lawmakers that a public option be included in a health care bill. Marshall Ganz, a legendary figure in political organizing who helped design the Obama campaign’s field program in 2008, is helping Hamsher and her allies at Public Option Please find ways to make sure their voices are heard inside Washington. “Ganz … said all along that Obama would not have been elected had he campaigned on politics of narrow self-interest,” Hamsher said. “And that that’s where the conversation about health care reform has taken place. We’re talking about bending the cost curve, and what we should be talking about is health care as a human right.” “So we’re reaching out to young people, and trying to reach them through art, through music, you know, through other means to take hold and shape their own future,” she added. “And Obama, you know, sort of inspired that during the campaign, and then got into realpolitiks very fast. So that emotion had no place to go, and so we’re picking that up.” Hamsher also promised to bring more pressure on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to bring a vote on the public option to the Senate floor: “This whole idea that they’re going to water down the public option so that they don’t put Democratic senators in the position of having to actually state that they will filibuster is ridiculous. No. If they’re going to filibuster, make them say so. Nobody will say so for a reason. It is unprecedented. So the idea that we’re just going to sell this out to keep them from that uncomfortable position is not going to happen. And Harry Reid needs to start taking people’s gavels away [stripping committee chairmen of their titles] if it does happen.” Harwood’s reporting sparked widespread anger among liberal bloggers, and prompted the White House to do some damage control today. White House deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer told Greg Sargent, of The Plum Line blog: “That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all, we’ve held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth.” Click HERE for the full interview with Jane Hamsher. We also checked in with Politico’s Ben Smith (another blogger who, for the record, joined us fully and well-dressed), on the insurance industry’s last-ditch attempt to scuttle a health care bill, and tomorrow’s critical vote in the Senate Finance Committee.
We also got into some handicapping of the mayoral race in New York City, where Democrats have been unable to muster much outrage against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempt for a third term — a move that required him to get the City Council to toss out term limits for city officials. Watch tht full interview with Ben Smith HERE.
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This is a core of the base that they can afford to marginalize in an effort to woo the center. These folks think they’re the Limbaughs or Becks of the left in terms of influence, and they’re just not.
Posted by: matt | October 12, 2009, 2:37 pm 2:37 pm
Whether President Obama is himself a liberal or a moderate, he has so far executed the duties of his office as a moderate, which is a good thing. Liberals make up a tiny minority of Americans, so the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens would feel quite unhappy under completely liberal direction. For instance, most people *do not* want gay marriage.
Posted by: knowerseeker | October 12, 2009, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm
“those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.”
I’d hardly call that a boiling point comment. That comment indicates that the Whitehouse is listening to them, wants to make them happy, and is frustrated that they are not going to be able to. Frustration and respect are not mutually exclusive. I hope the netroots keep pushing for the ideal world and the Whitehouse keeps accepting that ideal while governing from the reality based center.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 12, 2009, 2:51 pm 2:51 pm
Does anyone know where the 77% figure comes from? I hear it repeated by those who most strongly advocate for the public option but I have never seen any poll that actually finds more than 30+% strongly favoring a public option with the remaining support tepid at best. Continually I see Gallup measuring those strongly against the public option in the 40% range with those who are against it, really strongly against. What did I miss?
Posted by: bct | October 12, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
knowerseeker – Who are you trying to kid? Obama is about as far left as they come and the little bit he has accomplished in office thus far shows this.
Posted by: Shane | October 12, 2009, 3:24 pm 3:24 pm
So many people IMAGINED that Obama thought exactly as they did.
They voted for him, as he was the CLOSEST candidate to their beliefs. It doesn’t mean that the President has an obligation to vote their opinions.
It’s their own fault for falling for the lies of a slick pandering politician.
Posted by: e-man | October 12, 2009, 3:28 pm 3:28 pm
Peace, harmony, and unity in the Dem party has never been anything but a myth perpetrated by the drooling MSM. There is inadequate evidence for claim “boiling point”. They’ll kiss and make up. After all Obama is really one of them anyway.
Posted by: keys2truth | October 12, 2009, 3:54 pm 3:54 pm
oBAMA IS A CROOK, only to willing to lie to what ever side to try to get what he wants…. a big government where elitist like him divide the country into the rulers and the peasants. This health scam is only a way to tax people more and kill the middle class, while allowing obama and his corrupt friends to skim it into their pockets. Socialists/Marxists are elitist like Obama who want to rule over the wage slaves making very little at the bottom.
Posted by: PotatoeGater22 | October 12, 2009, 4:23 pm 4:23 pm
“It’s their own fault for falling for the lies of a slick pandering politician.”
Yeah, we could have fallen for the lies of that other slick pandering politician …..
“For instance, most people *do not* want gay marriage.”
Who says most people don’t want gay marriage …. that’s a rather broad statement.
Posted by: Linda | October 12, 2009, 4:43 pm 4:43 pm
Matt did you ever think that most of us think for ourselves and do not want or depend on Obama to do it for us? We vote and watch all news not just the right you will claim. Sound judgement is this president does not know how to lead. take my time to decide to war or not?? Lets see what the polls say? Oh heck I won a prize for ??? Not sure? Peace where? what a joke
Posted by: Jim Rod | October 12, 2009, 4:58 pm 4:58 pm
Ever wonder why the heavy majority of the 50 richest Congressmen are Democrats? Its all about filling their pockets while pretending to be for the common person.
Tax and spend…tax and spend…”Lame Party of Blame”
Posted by: free_dude | October 12, 2009, 5:04 pm 5:04 pm
Obama is a bad joke played on historically and constitutionally ignorant Americans. Everybody was braying for “change.” Nobody bothered to ask what this would look like. We can all “hope for change” in 2010 in Congress. There’s going to be a backlash from patriot Americans the likes of which has never been seen. It took this disaster in the White House who has never successfully run even a Dairy Queen to wake everyone up.
Posted by: Valkyrie1966 | October 12, 2009, 5:15 pm 5:15 pm
“In my opinion the only thing don’t ask don’t tell meant is do not pursue the attraction for the same sex outside of the Gay Community.”
Roy Goins | Oct 12, 2009 4:47:30 PM
Your opinion of DADT is disconnected from reality. People were kicked out of the military for everything from going to a gay bar off base in their own hours to merely being picked up from a deployment by a long term partner with whom they own a home together.
Posted by: jhw539 | October 12, 2009, 5:17 pm 5:17 pm
Another middle finger from Obama to his base, when will it END… Oh right, when they grow a pair, stay home, and the Messiah gets his comeuppance when he loses… But thanks to the electronic voting machines with no paper trail I’m sure the trend will continue and Obama will be rewarded for his failures…
Posted by: jafo | October 12, 2009, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
The MAINSCREAM media tanking is so much fun that ABC rarely posts any of my stuff, but countless GOP drivel they leap upon…
Posted by: daddyblue | October 12, 2009, 7:53 pm 7:53 pm
“Does anyone know where the 77% figure comes from? I hear it repeated by those who most strongly advocate for the public option but I have never seen any poll that actually finds more than 30+% strongly favoring a public option with the remaining support tepid at best.”
October poll results showing support for the public option…
CBS News: “The much-debated ‘public option’ –a health insurance plan like Medicare administered by the government –- still gets majority support.”
GOV’T HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN
Favor 62%
Oppose 31
Quinnipiac: American voters “support key parts of the plan, including 61 – 34 percent for giving people the option of a government health insurance plan that competes with private plans…”
Pew: “Would you favor or oppose… A government health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans”
55 Favor
38 Oppose
Ipsos/McClatchy*: 53% said it is necessary to create a public health insurance plan to make sure that all Americans have access to quality healthcare. 42% said access to quality healthcare for all Americans can be achieved without having to create a public health insurance plan.
Even Rasmussen**, choice pollster of conservatives, said: “46% favor the creation of a government-sponsored non-profit health insurance option that people could choose instead of a private health insurance plan. Thirty-seven percent (37%) are opposed.”
*Tied with CNN as most accurate pollster in 2008 Presidential election results
**Choice pollster of conservatives
Posted by: Numeros | October 12, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
It is so fascinating reading these comments in the thread. The far-left is President Obama’s base? REALLY? See, I am shocked, because if that is so, that means that all his soaring rhetoric of bipartisanship and healing the divides of this country were all lies. His pledges to unite rather than divide, to offer an open hand rather than a clinch fist, and to rise above the petty partisan politics that have ravaged this nation for the last decade would all be an ingenious deception; a ruse to capture (not earn) the votes of millions of Americans that believed his words. I see now, the far-left conspired to get him elected -that they represent his true base. And, all the while, they have sat in their pajamas saying to themselves, “Suckers!”
Posted by: jraglan | October 12, 2009, 9:52 pm 9:52 pm
I’ve voted Democrat my whole life. Seeing the attitudes of the new party and the way they have led so far, my moment of change has arrived.
I’ll be voting a straight Repub ticket in 2010.
Posted by: james432 | October 12, 2009, 10:06 pm 10:06 pm
I’ve voted Democrat my whole life. Seeing the attitudes of the new party and the way they have led so far, my moment of change has arrived.
I’ll be voting a straight Repub ticket in 2010.
Posted by: james432
————
Out of the frying pan into the fire.
Posted by: Good for the Goose | October 13, 2009, 5:31 am 5:31 am
So voting for Republicans in 2010 will show the Democrats huh? That will work. If those of you who really believe that the GOP will be the answer, you are in for a rude awakening. And the Dems are no better. I’m not saying that. The GOP will tell you to vote them in to ” save our country” but they will end up doing the same thing. Without a doubt. Both sides are crooks. Both sides have their own self-interest in mind. But go ahead. Vote the Dems out. See what will happen
Oh, and I voted Dem last election. And no, I’m not an angry liberal blogger. I’m someone who wants people who can represent us. And I have yet to find that candidate. I most likely never will. Not by electing all thes efat cats who try and act like they are for the common man.
Posted by: ind2010 | October 13, 2009, 8:06 am 8:06 am
Why would the Democrats keep pushing for a health care formula that they know can’t possibly work? It’s because they couldn’t care less about real health care. It’s all about control and they see this as a way to get it.
Posted by: Kazooskibum | October 13, 2009, 8:25 am 8:25 am
According to Hamster: “The White House very regularly calls bloggers ‘the left of the left,’ ignoring the fact that the majority of the country, 77 percent, wants a public option. This isn’t some fringe, lefty, loony thing,”
Where has she seen this data? Os she talking about that % among her hard core insane leftists? No poll has come close to that number! More of the typical lefwing nutz spreading the fertilizier to see what will grow!
Posted by: WallyG | October 13, 2009, 8:54 am 8:54 am
Boy, are you guys inconsistent. You go from BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) to *Yeah, we could have fallen for the lies of that other slick pandering politician …..*
WHAT???? Now he’s a SLICK pandering politician? You guys on the left thought he was stupid and couldn’t talk his way out of a paper bag. And pandering? I beg to differ. Part of the reason his popularity fell so low is that he IGNORED popular opinion. If you’re going to be a lefty, at least be consistent at it.
Posted by: Ron Plante | October 13, 2009, 11:08 am 11:08 am
The lefties are only able to propagate their drivel due to the exertions of men/women better than themselves in defending their freedom to do so. Follow the lefties’ prescription for this country, and we are circling the drain. Just look at California if you want to see the lefties’ lab in living color.
Posted by: mimi13 | October 13, 2009, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
Interesting, but why isn’t ABC focused on the larger issues, like the lies about earmarks, lobbyists, signing statements, bows to kings, transparency, tax cuts, rendition, Iraq, spending, GITMO, etc?
Why isn’t ABC running in depth reports on the corruption of ACORN, and it’s connection with the President?
Why aren’t we seeing the study on the failure of the Stimulus Package?
ABC could be doing a far better job in the realm of journalism.
Posted by: William | October 13, 2009, 12:24 pm 12:24 pm
The problem with your strategy is two can play at it. Go ahead and pass your health care we will LIVE at the hospital and file as many malpractice suits as procedures given. You don’t think Saul Alinsky invented this do you? He learned it from us! And he’s not very good at it!
Posted by: Mr. Louis | October 13, 2009, 1:20 pm 1:20 pm
According to Hamster: “The White House very regularly calls bloggers ‘the left of the left,’ ignoring the fact that the majority of the country, 77 percent, wants a public option. This isn’t some fringe, lefty, loony thing,”
Where has she seen this data? Os she talking about that % among her hard core insane leftists? No poll has come close to that number! More of the typical lefwing nutz spreading the fertilizier to see what will grow!
Posted by: WallyG | Oct 13, 2009 8:54:04 AM
The 77% figure comes from a SurveyUSA poll conducted in August.
Posted by: Numeros | October 13, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
PotatoeGayer22:
California, not the most conservative state around, voted twice to make gay marriage unconstitutional. Twice.
Most Americans don’t want Gay marriage.
Posted by: Saylor | October 13, 2009, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
So what is the Messiah going to do about those horrible bloggers? Shut them down? Don’t be surprised if that will be the next move…. to regulate the internet. This guy thinks he is King of the world and you better love him or else. Fox News doesn’t kiss his behind so now he is out to get them. I despise this person.
Posted by: Colorado | October 13, 2009, 2:07 pm 2:07 pm
BHO is no friend of gays. Look at his actions. Vote Conservative – at least you know where they stand and they will no lie to you.
Posted by: Elijah | October 13, 2009, 2:36 pm 2:36 pm
For those considering dropping out of the Democrat party and voting for Republicans remember this, Republicans are just as bad. Consider just voting out anyone that votes for this gargage and any of the other crazy spending programs that have and will come down the track. I’ve been a registered Republican for 40+ years and have no intention of voting for anyone based on party, strictly on their performance, or lack thereof, while in office.
Posted by: Jim02351 | October 13, 2009, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
It is hard to believe that the American people fall second in line for the Flu shot.. right after the criminals from Guantanamo Bay. Ok, they are not really criminals they are terrorist. We are protecting animals that would bomb, rape, slaughter, mutilate any and all of our citizens. What the hell is going on.. I am not sure what we are supposed to believe in anymore. I used to stand behind my country but now.. I am just hoping that our leaders don’t get us all killed.
Posted by: Rose | November 2, 2009, 10:04 pm 10:04 pm