Apparently President Obama has been bugging the J&M Tavern, and the talk among my lefty friends there has been bugging him. Because when a reporter implied at yesterday's press conference that he's weak for making legislative compromises with Republicans, Obama went on a controlled rant that we made our Vital Speech of the Week.*
Now, if that's the standard by which we are measuring success or core principles, then let's face it, we will never get anything done. People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves and sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are, and in the meantime, the American people are still seeing themselves not able to get health insurance because of preexisting conditions or not being able to pay their bills because their unemployment insurance ran out.
That can't be the measure of how we think about our public service. That can't be the measure of what it means to be a Democrat. This is a big, diverse country. Not everybody agrees with us. I know that shocks people. The New York Times editorial page does not permeate across all of America. Neither does The Wall Street Journal editorial page. Most Americans, they're just trying to figure out how to go about their lives and how can we make sure that our elected officials are looking out for us. And that means because it's a big, diverse country and people have a lot of complicated positions, it means that in order to get stuff done, we're going to compromise.
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These days, it’s apparently a reporter’s job to incite a reaction rather than – as it used to be in the halcyon days of our hero Walter Cronkite, sigh, how we miss you Walter!!! – to cover the news in an objective fashion.
That should not distract those of us on the receiving end of this brand of journalism from refusing to simply swallow down such nonsense.
Those of us who truly want to be informed on an issue MUST go find “the other side of the story” and not simply accept one reporter’s or one publication’s perspective. Because in today’s environment, there is no such thing as an unbiased media outlet. They all have an agenda [usually a bottom-line, ratings points one] that determines what stories they cover, and from which angle.
I keep praying that people will choose to look beyond one single source to become truly informed so that we can all discuss important issues with something more than a knee-jerk reaction created from accepting whatever partisan story they happen to read first.
Hey! It’s the holiday season, and they tell me miracles happen at this time of year, so you never know – it COULD happen!!
An NPR commentator suggested there weren’t enough Republican votes in the legislature to get it passed, giving the Dems the upper hand in ongoing negotiations. I’m partial to the idea that Obama was positioning his party. Then again I wasn’t so partial to him before he won the nomination, so I didn’t have too many expectations waiting to become disappointments.