It's no surprise that a Very Serious Person like Milbank was not pleased by the President's speech yesterday. This is not a surprise. The President's pointed retreat from "postpartisanship" is not going to please the Dana Milbanks and David Brookses of the world. If he liked the speech I'd be concerned. What he should do is get some new reading material.
He could start with Kevin Draper's "Do Not Ask What Good We Do" to get an idea of how vapid it is for Milbank to expect the President to give us another rendition of Kumaya. Here is Milbank, cue up the sanctimony:
"President Obama began his second inaugural address with a reminder that this ceremony, like the 56 inaugurations before it in U.S. history, was a unifying symbol.
“Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution,” he said from the West Front of the Capitol, his voice echoing across the Mall, where hundreds of thousands of people waved American flags. “We affirm the promise of our democracy.”
"Thus ended the warm-courage-of-national-unity portion of the proceedings."
"What followed was less an inaugural address for the ages than a leftover campaign speech combined with an early draft of the State of the Union address. Obama used the most visible platform any president has to decry global-warming skeptics who “still deny the overwhelming judgment of science.” He quarreled with Republicans who say entitlement programs “make us a nation of takers.” He condemned the foreign policy of his predecessor by saying that “enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-preaching-to-the-choir/2013/01/21/f37223a8-6421-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html
Sure. I mean that was so well received. I mean did Milbank actually see the events of the last 4 years? Did he not notice that Obama tried all this Kumbaya stuff? So 4 years ago we got a much more conciliatory speech from the President:
"I wonder where Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan had dinner last night."
"Four years ago, while Democrats danced at inaugural balls, Reps. Cantor and Ryan dined at The Caucus Room, a Capitol Hill steakhouse, along with other top Republicans, including Rep. Kevin McCarthy, and Sens. Jim DeMint, John Kyl and Tom Coburn."
"Barack Obama's presidency was by then all of eight hours old. At midday, the man who rocketed to prominence in 2004 by declaring America to be not red states or blue states, but the United States, had told the nation, "On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."
"With those words, and the applause of 1.8 million Americans on the National Mall still ringing in their ears, some 15 GOP leaders discreetly gathered in the restaurant's private room to decide what to do with the olive branch the president had extended."
"As we know from a new Frontline documentary based in part on Robert Draper's book, Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives, the Caucus Room caucus decided, in Draper's words, "to fight Obama on everything -- this meant unyielding opposition to every one of the Obama administration's legislative initiatives."
"No matter what was on Obama's agenda, even if it was identical to Republican proposals, they planned to attack it. No matter how many times Obama met with them, sought common ground or negotiated with himself, their strategy was to keep the number of Republican votes he got for anything whatsoever as close to zero as possible."
"This happened before there was a Tea Party, before there were 87 far-right GOP freshmen, before the birthers had migrated from the lunatic fringe to the party's mainstream. The economy was in crisis; a second Great Depression was conceivable. Also conceivable was actually working together on behalf of the country. But from night one of day one, the Republicans decided to torpedo Obama, a sentiment echoed the next year when Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said publicly that denying President Obama a second term was his top priority."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/the-postkumbaya-president_b_2523425.html
Yet. Milbank wants more of the same? I sometimes wonder if the VSP are actual human beings much less actually live in our country and observe our politics, or they're some very well-meaning pod people from a planet far, far away, As well-meaning as they are sanctimonious and clueless.
Thank goodness the President has learned something in 4 years even if Dana Milbank hasn't.
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