Monday, February 09, 2009

To Sirota, with loathing

During the primaries, David Sirota established himself as a key Obama cultist and Hillary-hater. Now he has published an anti-Obama column titled Obama's team of zombies. Not many months ago, Daverino was himself among the walking dead.

For example, here's Sirota attacking Hillary -- that's right: Hillary -- for her allegedly double-faced stance on NAFTA. In fact, it was Obama who proved himself the incarnation of Janus. I tell the whole story here.

Even as Obama denounced NAFTA in key primary states, claiming in his literature that he had never supported it and never would support it, he had his chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee privately assure the Canadians that Obama's opposition was but a pose. Then his functionaries filled the prog-blogs with the false claim that Hillary, not Obama, had opened a back-channel to the Canadians. (An official Canadian investigation cleared Hillary and pointed the finger at Obama.) After the primaries -- after the lies had won key states -- Obama admitted that he did, in fact, support NAFTA.

Goolsbee's message to our friend up north was a classic example of weasel-wording:
"He cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans."
In other words, Team Obama believes that lying during a campaign is no sin.

Nevertheless, Dave Sirota accused Hillary -- Hillary! -- of "triangulation" on the issue.

Sirota told other lies during the primaries. This comes from his piece in which he argues against the possible choice of Hillary as VP:
Some say Hillary Clinton's defeat was the victory of sexism — but Obama faced at least as much racism.
Bullshit. Davey cites no poll figures to support this contention.

Fact: At the beginning of this race (as I've noted in several previous posts), a poll indicated that 6% of the electorate admitted that they would not vote for a black candidate. Meanwhile, a Harris poll a year ago revealed that
Just over two in five men (43%) say the idea of a woman serving as President makes them angry or upset while 48 percent of men are upset or angry about the prospect of Hillary Clinton serving as President. As might be expected, gender doesn’t appear to be as serious an issue among women. Only 12 percent of women say a woman serving as President would make them angry or upset...
Only 12 percent? Of women?

And 43 percent of men?

Am I really supposed to believe that Obama's 6% handicap was greater?

Obama's own campaign manager admitted that the anti-black voters were unlikely to vote for any Democrat. Nearly everyone in that 6% votes Republican.

By any rational standard, sexism offers a far greater obstacle to a presidential aspirant than does racism. Forgive the self-quotation:
On a few occasions, I've pointed out that Colin Powell could have won the presidency in 2000 just by pointing at the White House and saying "I'll take it." Not one reader has disagreed with that assessment, even though people love to disagree with everything else I say. Can you name a single woman in the history of this country who could have strolled into the oval office that easily?
Keith Olbermann, in a televised commentary, infamously called for Hillary Clinton to be killed. Can you imagine the (justifiable) outrage -- and the charges of racism -- if he had said such a thing about Obama, or about any black candidate?

I am convinced that being black aided Obama in the primaries, and perhaps in the general. Democrats wanted to see a black person as a standard-bearer. (An understandable desire, that: The party should have nominated a black candidate ages ago.) A white candidate with Obama's lack of experience and shady connections probably would not have won any primaries outside of his home state.

In March, Sirota made the disgusting argument that Hillary was relying on racism to win. The calumnies he lists were all discredited long ago -- and they never made much sense to begin with:
That is one of the twin pillars of the Clinton firewall—a well-honed strategy aimed at maximizing “the Race Chasm."
Double bullshit. Hillary had the majority of the black vote until the Obama campaign engaged in an unforgivable disinformation effort designed to paint the Clintons as racists. Why on earth would she have alienated her base -- and yes, black voters were once her base -- in order to gain a "racist white Democratic" vote which Obama's own campaign head admitted did not exist?

(I asked that very question many times during the campaign. The only replies I received were pure lunacy. Nevertheless, the Obots were wedded to their "Clinton's a racist" scenario, and -- much like their Republican counterparts -- they refused to allow facts or logic to impede a beloved hallucination.)

But now, Davey is changing his tune. Too little, too late. Here are his current complaints about the president he once praised in messianic terms:
Obama's national security team, for instance, includes not a single Iraq war opponent.
Like duh. Sirota may be surprised by this turn of events, but I am not. (Sirota here forgets that Hillary is now Secretary of State, and that her voting record, during the time that she and Obama both served in the Senate, was more robustly anti-war.)
The president has not only retained George W. Bush's defense secretary, Robert Gates, but also 150 other Bush Pentagon appointees. The only "rivalry" is between those who back increasing the already bloated defense budget by an absurd amount and those who aim to boost it by a ludicrous amount.
Does anyone really believe that Gates would hold that position in a Clinton White House?

On the economic team:
Now, this pinstriped band of brothers is proposing a "cash for trash" scheme that would force the public to guarantee the financial industry's bad loans. It's another ploy "to hand taxpayer dollars to the banks through a variety of complex mechanisms," says economist Dean Baker -- and noticeably absent is anything even resembling a "rival" voice inside the White House.

That's not an oversight. From former federal officials like Robert Reich and Brooksley Born, to Nobel Prize-winning economists like Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, to business leaders like Leo Hindery, there's no shortage of qualified experts who have challenged market fundamentalism. But they have been barred from an administration focused on ideological purity.
Reich, at least, would have had a voice in a Hillary White House. I am sure that Hindery would have had one as well. Maybe even Krugman.
Obama also said he wants to crack down on the financial industry, strengthen laws encouraging the government to purchase American goods, and transform trade policy. Yet, his economic team is not just promising to support more bank bailouts, but also to weaken "Buy America" statutes and make sure new legislation "doesn't signal a change in our overall stance on trade," according to the president’s spokesman.
But Davey -- weren't you the one assuring us that Obama was going to upend the prevailing culture of free trade fundamentalism?

No mea culpa, no shrift. I won't forgive Sirota for his despicable, deceptive behavior during the primary campaign until he asks for forgiveness -- until he admits that he misled his readers.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you. Someone has to document this slime.

Unknown said...

Great post. I know what you are talking about because I stopped reading Sirota during the primaries. It's good to know that Sirota feels betrayed. My schadenfreude is a gift that will keep on giving.

Anonymous said...

Well said, Joseph, well said.

djmm

Anonymous said...

Spot on. Yeah, he's right in this recent article, but that doesn't (A) undo what came before and (B) does us no good now. Anyone paying attention at all, could have predicted this. Come to think of it, plenty of us did!

Sirota can kiss my ass.

Anne said...

No mea culpa, no shrift. I won't forgive Sirota for his despicable, deceptive behavior during the primary campaign until he asks for forgiveness -- until he admits that he misled his readers

Good for you Joe. Sirota needs to preface all this with a big " Me too" ....does he think no one will notice he was a Barry drum major not so long ago?

Anonymous said...

Well done, Joe.

Guess the perks aren't so hot on the O train, afterall, eh? Does Sirota have any principles? Does he think we are all stupid? Is Sirota that arrogant, desperate, self aggrandizing and opportunistic to think he can just come back to the fold after he TRASHED Hillary and shilled for Barry?

Needless to say, he is like the kid in high school who didn't want to hang out with you because the kewl kidz said you weren't worth it, only he comes back to be friends because they dumped him. Or because he figured out they were a bunch of jerks. If it's the latter, his apology had better be damn good. (In fact, that apology had better you know what my you know what, too.)

Now that he sees through the Messiah's New Clothes and writes about it, I'll pass. There are plenty of great journalists being sacked who are not backstabbers and opportunists.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have dear friends who bought into that unforgivable "Clintons are racist" bullshit.

If anyone has had success in deprogramming any of their loved ones, please share.

Oh, and Joseph...very cute subject title.

Anonymous said...

"A white candidate with Obama's lack of experience and shady connections probably would not have won any primaries outside of his home state."

Stonewashed Edwards finished third in his home state.

Admit it, it's been exciting.

Anonymous said...

I think Mr.Sirota is one of the 43% of men who get angry or upset when thinking about a woman in the White House and is also, perhaps, in the 48% who get upset thinking about Hillary Clinton, in particular.

Obama's campaign worked against Clinton because of his race. Men could indulge their misogyny (and I am stunned at the amount of it still floating around) while keeping their progressive street cred in order by supporting the cool black guy who is going to do everything that is progressive and cool. LOL

Heh. Sick fucks.

Anonymous said...

When Ferraro said that if Obama wasn't black he wouldn't be where he was, she was lambasted...even after it was pointed out he had admitted as much way back in March of '07, saying, "If I were white, nobody would even know who I was."

Sergei Rostov

Anonymous said...

I e-mailed Mr Sirota to remind him of his previous attitudes and remarks regarding all things non-Obama. I reminded him of the error and shallowness of his judgment and perhaps he should not write about public affairs. I also suggested that he always take someone with him when he went to purchase anything to insure his own safety and ours. I doubt he comprehends what he has done.

Anonymous said...

Hey Joe, Davey says "STFU!"

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11498

He has decided to double down

I'm very proud of the reporting I did during the campaign, and of the work I'm doing with the team at OpenLeft. We don't carry water for individual politicians - we're honest and straightforward about trying to do our part to build a movement. And that means there's going to be praise and criticism - all at the same time. That doesn't make us the hypocrites in American politics - not even close. Indeed, the real hypocrites are those who insist they care about the future of this country, but either disengage or actively work to undermine a president because their favored candidate didn't win.

I cussed at him on my own blog. Your turn!

Anonymous said...

"Indeed, the real hypocrites are those who insist they care about the future of this country, but either disengage or actively work to undermine a president because their favored candidate didn't win."

This used to be called "speaking truth to power". Now its called "undermining a president". Sirota's remarks about "building a movement" are particularly troubling; what "movement" is he referring to?

I used to believe that it was a progressive movement and even had this sign from MoveOn on my wall until I got wise during the primaries. It said REGIME CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME. Little did I realize they were talking about some kind of progressive autocracy.

Joseph, keep up the good work exposing these frauds.

[FembotsForObama]

Edgeoforever said...

Thanks for the memories (I think). Frankly, I was cheered to read that our "I told you so"s get to them.
it was also interesting to see Sirota sounding like the GOP 2000 (sore loserman), when not painting a self portrait and projecting it on us. here's my take on it