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“The Tea Party rebellion was, perhaps, a necessary corrective to the sloppy, inconsistent Republicanism of George W. Bush’s presidency”

What exactly has been “corrected”, Mr. Klein?

Do your readers remember the 2006 Boston Tea Party?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/a-tea-tray-in-the-sky/

“but broke down each time. It was a rare moment. It gave emotional heft and validity to the Republican victory. It suggested that Boehner might be different, wiser and more reasonable, this time. ”

It suggested to me he might have imbibed in several alcoholic bevareges leading up the results. Not that he wasn’t feeling heartfelt feelings, but I’m pretty sure he has more control than that. But of course, it plays in to the whole meme that Obama is too “cool”.

chupkar, I was thinking the same thing when I watched it. He’d had a few cocktails. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (I had a few and was crying Tuesday night, myself!). But it is annoying that the press will hold this up as comparison to President Obama’s “aloof” nature.

“Why on earth would a political party enact major pieces of legislation and then refuse to take credit for them?”

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You are seriously asking this question? They ran from it because it is junk. If something is simply bad, why would you want to take credit for it, Joe Klein?
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You see Mr Klein, despite what you may think about Americans, they can easily understand something that is nothing short of a pig in a poke. They can quickly realize when they are lied to. They quickly understand when something is wrong.
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No matter how much you and the rest of the lame stream media attempt to ignore the facts, the Dems lost this past Tuesday’s election because Americans understood what happened, and what Dems did by passing the worst law in our nations history.
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There are admittedly a few components of the law which are indeed good for us, and one could argue will in the end be accepted by most voters. But, overall, this law is crap. It is legislation passed by ideologues. Passed by far left extremists who had temporary control of our government. They no longer have that control. We the People now control what will happen going forward. Spin it all you want, but going forward, Americans are now awake and aware.

Republicans ran away from themselves and their belief in small government, lower taxes, etc between 2000 and 2006. The tea party drove a huge shot into the Republican party basically saying “if you aren’t going to stick to what you say you’re going to do, we’ll find people who will”. To that extent, it was an appropriate corrective action.

“No matter how much you and the rest of the lame stream media…”
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OH, I get it now. You’re one of Palin’s ghost writers.

Classy, actually this is a ‘weakness’ the speaker has and is troubled by. He gets emotional when speaking of family and country. It’s real. It’s authentic. And I think engaging. The contrast with the robotic Obama isn’t a good one for Obama.

“They certainly did better than Bill Clinton in 1994, who lost both houses of Congress”

Bad spin Joe. Obama did far worse in the House and in the states where he had the worse results since 1928. Moreover this being a redistricting year even his timing is far worse than Clintons. This alone might cost him the election in 2012.

We know the blue states could lose 7 to 10 electoral votes to red states. Texas is due 4 at the expense of places like NY and MI. But savvy redistricting could cost another 7 to 10 or even more. Redistricting in CA has been removed from the hands of political hacks so the GOP cold even gain house seats from CA. They won’t get CA electoral vote but Texas and FL are in the bag. Given the disaster in Ohio it’s hard to see how Obama wins Ohio and he can’t win without it.

This election was much worse than 1994.

doddeb, excellent insight and deliciously ironic isn’t? The really cool thing is this isn’t Clintonian acting. John really does get upset with himself. He can’t help it. It’s authentic. At the same time Obama really is a stiff. He can no more change his personality either.

Can you blame Obama? When one is seen as the Messiah you have to float above it all. Engage with mere mortals? Are you mad?

Forgottenlord,

Smart observation. As a conservative I felt I had to make a deal with the devil because Bush was the guy best suited to beat Gore yet was not a small govt conservative. Whatever you want to say about George he did not run as a fiscal conservative. So I don’t think republicans so much ran away from core principles as much as make the smart decision. The choice wasn’t Reagan V Gore. You play the best hand in front of you. Agree completely with you on the tea party. I think they will control several election cycles and they will get spending down to reasonable levels as measured as a percent of GDP. The move toward Europe will be fully reversed.

I love this selective memory about the glory of Reagan – Reagan raised taxes numerous times, and he blew gov’t spending out the door, leaving us with a huge deficit. Please…Reagan was a disaster, presiding over the beginning of the decline of the US into 3rd world status.

Reagan cut marginal tax rates from 70% to 28% and won the cold ear banishing socialism to the ashbin of history. Obama hasn’t figured that out yet but it’s what happened.

And why we saw Obambi in Ohio 13 times in about a month.
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So goes Ohio, so goes the Nation

Yes, he reduced the top marginal rates as you said, but he also increased taxes twice, and increased the deficit substantially. At least he increased taxes – just imagine the mess we would have been in if he hadn’t. Just another “conservative”? Please.

From Jeremy Jacobs at National Journal:

Republicans picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures — an all time high. To put that number in perspective: In the 1994 GOP wave, Republicans picked up 472 seats. The previous record was in the post-Watergate election of 1974, when Democrats picked up 628 seats.

The GOP gained majorities in at least 14 state house chambers. They now have unified control — meaning both chambers — of 26 state legislatures.

We won the Cold War because we essentially drunk spent the USSR under the table.
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They went bankrupt first. The process was good for business overall and the Russians served our need for an adversary quite well. It’s what Gorbachev meant when he said he was “going to do something terrible to us – deprive us of an enemy”. He understood what the dynamics were.
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When they left the scene, though, they left us without an “enemy” to justify all of the defense spending.
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“Thankfully”, we now have “world-wide radical Islam” to fill that role for the forseeable future (for good or ill).

rdw56: Some veterans and other elected officials might find they deserve some credit for ending the cold war. The Marshall Plan was not a minor event in history. Reagan just outspent the Soviets. He also was an advocate of detente, something the neo cons hated.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4RNTN_enUS329US329&q=john+boehner+crying#q=john+boehner+crying&hl=en&rlz=1T4RNTN_enUS329US329&prmd=ivno&source=univ&tbs=vid:1&tbo=u&ei=_g7TTJjiAo3AsAPnx-ioCw&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDUQqwQwAw&fp=7f28e5cc39e7461d
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Just a few videos of the weeping Boehner.
Glen Beck, of course, has him beat.

rdw: Here is Obama reacting to the death of his Grandmother. What a stiff!

“Why on earth would a political party enact major pieces of legislation and then refuse to take credit for them?”

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Ah, let’s see…because they lied about everything that was in the bill and how it would reduce costs, lied about how it would bend the cost curve. Put crap in it like forcing businesses to file a 1099 form for every transaction over $600. Forcing people to buy insurance or face a fine. Maybe they finally figured out, a little too late, that the majority of their constituents didn’t want this bill.

Give it a rest, april, showing some emotion is a good thing from a physiological standpoint, you should give it a try sometimes. Being angry and feeling superior seem to be progressive key marks. If so, then your plumage is on full display. Liberalbirds in full squawk!

apr2653,

you are of course quite correct and RR would be the 1st to agree. He also stood on the shoulders of those Presidents who went before him especially Truman It was a blog post. I only had 3 sentences.

He was more than just an advocate of Detante, he was radical left on nukes. He talked more than Obamaon the need to eliminate ALL Nukes and hoped to negotiate it.

BTW: Conservatives were not against detante but wanted to make sure there was no capitulation involved. Carter was a sap.

pobo1,

You lost that narrative a long time ago. He was as Obama explained a transformational President. He’s already listed as one of the great ones.

You can take shots at Beck all day. But the speaker is a genuine guy. Joe known this is an asset because it is authentic and that’s going to make his job harder. People are going to like him as they get to know him. Conservatives are supposed to be stupid and racist and all that. It’s funny that Joe and Al and John Kerry all called Bush stupid. They also called him Mr. President.

His Ohio problem is even worse than most are aware. John Kasick is a very glib and upbeat governor and major fiscal conservative. Several of Obama’s bills imposes costs on the states and Kasick is going to be a bulldog attacking him. At the same time their new Senator Portman is a major budgetary wonk and will have a key spot in all budget negotiations. He will also hammer Obama on behalf of the citizens of Ohio. He is deeply unpopular and shows no signs of reversing his course so it’s not likely Ohioans are going to reverse their vote of 2010..

“They enacted their fantasies, starting with health care reform,…”
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Not “dreams” but “fantasies”, huh?
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Joe, Joe, Joe…