Duncan makes a great point as usual:
I really do wonder what it would take for the Villagers to realize people don't like Republicans and their stupid shit anymore.
I almost doubt they ever will. I finally heard Chuck Todd on MSNBC say that Obama should not engage in as much bipartisanship to get his policies passed. I'm paraphrasing but he said that Obama probably learned a lesson this time around. He refused to really get to the truth of what he meant, which was that the Republicans played their usual political games during the stimulus debate and tried to control the messaging, hoping to weaken Obama in the process and have Americans take their side on the old tax cut argument. We had a two year election to decide this and Republicans got hammered, but we know full well how the media operates.
As I've written a few times, I was hoping Republicans would do just that so President Obama would get upset with them and step back from his bipartisan approach and move his agenda forward without their approval. Because Obama visited Republicans in Congress before the debate really got started it allowed the Villagers to feel free in giving them unfettered access to the media outlets and they were able to peddle their talking points to the people.
The Democratic Party has a huge advantage in the House and the Senate for a reason, but by the coverage you would never know it. However, it did have an initial affect and Obama had to use his bully pulpit to really shift public opinion, but remember, Republicans were telling the Villagers that Americans didn't support the stimulus plan at all. If we look at the original polling 52% supported it, but what Villagers never reported is that only 38% were against with 11% undecided. That's a 14 point swing and not really that close, but the media didn't inform us of that unless we looked at the polling. In early polls support was much higher, but clearly the American people were behind the plan even if they were given a huge dose of republican stupid talk for two straight weeks.
Once President Obama went on the offensive the polling rose to 59% for and 33% against, a significant jump, but I expected that. It's not rocket science.
Digby opines on Duncan's point:
Who are these "people" he speaks of, I wonder? The Villagers are the representatives of Real America, especially when real Americans refuse to live up to the values and expectations the villagers have assigned to them. They decide for us who our candidates should be and then they decide whether or not what they do once they are elected is popular. We don't need to worry our pretty little heads about all this except to watch their shows and be impressed by their vast knowledge of everything. (In fact, if it weren't for that ridiculous nonsense about requiring that actual "people" vote in elections, we could dispense with any real participation at all and just turn Washington into a reality TV show and a web site.)
Catch the new show on FOX: Villagers Know Best.
The Sunday Talk shows are featuring David Axelrod today (MTP, FNS) and on THIS WEEK they will have an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on giving us the same tired arguments we've heard for a month now. It's not a stimulus bill, but a spending bill and it won't create jobs. Government never creates jobs. Blah, blah, blah. How about we just hear from the party that won in a landslide for a change? As Think Progress noted, Republicans have had a 2-1 ratio in air time to feed the nation lies and more lies and we understand the method to their madness. They want fighting and friction between the parties to make it more dramatic it would seem and to hell with the voting public. They are killing us slowly.
