I Told You So of the Day

Posted by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief in Politics.
Jan 25th, 2010 | 12 responses

One of the best newspaper and blog political analyists Dick Polman writes, in a post that needs to be read in full:

On the eve of the November ’08 election, one commentator warned that Obama should not “mistake a solid win for a sweeping ideological agenda,” because, after all, “contemporary America is actually slightly right of center.”

That was me, folks, writing in this space. I’ll stand by that.

Read it all.

12 Responses to “I Told You So of the Day”

1. Andy says:

   January 25, 2010 at 1:25 pm

   Maybe the progressives didn't get the memo?
2. Paul Wartenberg says:

   January 25, 2010 at 2:37 pm

   I wonder if we'll still be a center-right nation when we lose 300,000 – 3 million more jobs while CEOs earn another billion-plus EACH in bonuses.

   I'm sick of this center-right meme the traditional media circle jerks keep flaunting. The only reason why the Republican Party and their ilk haven't been completely discredited is because THEY KEEP LYING and no one holds them accountable for it, allowing those lies to fester and spoil the public discourse.
3. Schadenfreude_lives says:

   January 25, 2010 at 3:27 pm

   Paul – I hate to bring reality into the picture, but the job losses are now on Obama's hands and his failed stimulus bill, as is his administration's handling of the bank crisis. Remember, they approved a lot of those bonuses.
4. Andy says:

   January 25, 2010 at 3:40 pm

   Paul,

   You have a point insomuch as there really isn't a center-right party and increasingly the idea of “big tent” parties is going away. The Democrats are, IMO, center-left, but it's the progressive wing that's controlling the agenda on most issues – at least in Congress. Neither party is able to hold onto the center of the electorate and I think the reason for that is primarily policy-related and not the failings of one party.
5. shannonlee says:

   January 25, 2010 at 4:09 pm

   “contemporary”

   I think you mean redneck.
6. casualobserver says:

   January 25, 2010 at 6:30 pm

   You have been posting up Polman as your quote of the day many times over the course of the past two years at least……..sufficiently so such that for him to now cherry pick one contrarian sentence out of all his otherwise incessant R bashing to now jump off the Obamamobile hardly comes across as credible, much less worthy of self-praise.
7. DLS says:

   January 25, 2010 at 6:31 pm

   Don't forget that the 2006 and 2008 elections were primarily votes of disapproval of the Republicans, not a vote in favor of the Democrats. Among the reasons the Republicans got punished was that they have behaved in recent years like Democrats when it comes to the size of government, spending, and so on.

   There was no vote for a far-left or “progressive” agenda, the pursuit of which is largely why the Dems are in such ill repute currently.
8. DLS says:

   January 25, 2010 at 6:33 pm

   “the job losses are now on Obama's hands and his failed stimulus bill, as is his administration's handling of the bank crisis”

   They've had a year. The stimulus was a sick joke, and since they they have gone too far left, notably offending a public that made its disapproval known to Congress at the time, with the House “climate change” politics-based energy legislation. (After last week, presumably the Dems aren't so stupid as to try to pass the corresponding Senate legislation. Any proposed cap-and-trade scam should be stopped now.)
9. Don Quijote says:

   January 25, 2010 at 8:23 pm

   The stimulus was a sick joke,

   So Krugman could have told you month ago…
   

   I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says “See, government spending doesn’t work.”

   
   

   and since they they have gone too far left,

   They haven't even made it to the center yet…
10. Don Quijote says:

    January 25, 2010 at 8:23 pm

    The stimulus was a sick joke,

    So Krugman could have told you month ago…
    

    I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says “See, government spending doesn’t work.”

    
    

    and since they they have gone too far left,

    They haven't even made it to the center yet…
11. DLS says:

    January 25, 2010 at 8:36 pm

    “'The stimulus was a sick joke,'

    So Krugman could have told you month ago…”

    Of course!  It was Insufficient, and Done Too Late, no doubt.

    “I see the following scenario: a weak stimulus plan, perhaps even weaker than what we’re talking about now, is crafted to win those extra GOP votes. The plan limits the rise in unemployment, but things are still pretty bad, with the rate peaking at something like 9 percent and coming down only slowly. And then Mitch McConnell says 'See, government spending doesn’t work.'”

    It could be indeed as you describe it.  How much more money do we really have to spend, after the enormous sums we've spent already?  Oh, that's what the “need” now for higher taxes is all about.  I see.

    “and since they they have gone too far left, They haven't even made it to the center yet…”

    But now they can begin to redeem themselves, and to recover.
12. Schadenfreude_lives says:

    January 27, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    test

    CNN