When I want to check the weather vane how liberals are thinking, I don’t bother with the blogs. I watch Bill Maher on HBO.
For one thing, Maher is smarter than most liberals. At least his perspective and insight is clearer. Maher doesn’t mince words.
In case you haven’t noticed, Maher is challenging President Obama with the same zeal he reserves for conservatives and right-wing religious groups. He criticizes the president for not standing “up for the 70 percent of Americans who aren’t crazy.”
The comic/satirist is doing the media rounds toting the start of his eighth season of “Real Time” on Feb. 19. Obama will be fair game.
Here are a few excerpts from his interview with Politico:
* “He’s (Obama) just a president and like any president you have to hold their feet to the fire.”
* He even compared Obama to Lindsay Lohan: “[W]e see your name in the paper a lot, but we’re kind of wondering when you’re actually going to do something.”
* “I don’t know why he doesn’t just demand that the House pass the Senate (health) bill, and then tweak it in reconciliation and tell Glenn Beck to shove his tea bag up his a**. Could he do that?”
* “He’s not the first black president anymore that the left wing feels a need to coddle. “I’d like to see results,” said Maher. “I still don’t see him completely backing what a lot of us would like him to back, with the full force of his office.”
* Maher thinks Obama needs to stop worrying about Republican support entirely. “I’ve been trying to tell the president over and over again about the right wing: They’re just not that into you. He’s the wrong party, the wrong age, the wrong color and no matter how much he reaches out, they’re just never going to vote for him.”
Actually, nothing Maher said in the above quotes I haven’t written in my columns. He just says them better.
Where Maher and myself part ways is that I believe the liberal agenda, while worthwhile, sometimes is too far out for a majority of Americans to accept. Especially in times of 10% unemployment and fear of losing one’s job and paying for their health insurance. Thanks in no small part by Obama, they haven’t made their case with the American people.
And, that’s sad. I can live with it but apparently Maher and most liberals can’t. Says Maher:
“And if none of his signature legislative goals get accomplished — health care, cap and trade, banking reform — if none of these things really get done, he’s going to look very ineffectual,” seeking a second term in 2012.
I concur with the comic.
Jerry Remmers worked 26 years in the newspaper business. His last 23 years was with the Evening Tribune in San Diego where assignments included reporter, assistant city editor, county and politics editor.