Premature Conflagration? We'll be talking about this more over the course of the week. But if you look at various polling data, it seems there's a pretty decent chance that Congressional Republicans got well ahead of themselves in their collective August freak-out. A number of polls have shown that over the course of August -- well in advance of the president's relaunch of his health care push -- opposition to reform peaked and support began to rebound. What's more, the president's approval rating -- and particularly his approval on health care reform -- has started to rise. And in what could be a critical development, the latest polls are showing a growing number of Americans beginning to credit the President's stimulus package with helping to revive the economy. --Josh Marshall
Josh Marshall is the editor and publisher of Talking Points Memo, TPMmuckraker, TPMDC and TPMCafe. He has written for numerous publications across the United States and abroad, including The American Prospect, The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The New York Times, Salon and Slate. No bias here.
fox news and glenn beck are behind the rallies that you're defending, but you don't have any problem with their biases?
Why are we even considering anarchists to be left wing protesters? Anarchy is a logical extension of right wing anti-government hysteria.
Did you even read the list? Have you read the Financial Times, the New Republic or the New York Post? That's like Glenn Beck writing editorials for The Nation or the SF Chroncicle.
Please go back in this thread alone. I said Beck is a force in the Tea Party movement for good or ill. I never said he was correct in every aspect. I did say that Fox is too far to the right, but to be fair, did I not decry the media for not being fair, whether too far left or right? Post #30 ..... 2) Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, for better or for worse, are forces in the tea party movement. Some of their points are valid, but they often push them to the extreme, much in the same way Keith Olbermann or the Daily Kos does from the left. Extreme, closed-minded positions are never instrumental in forging dialogue or compromise.
I think your problem--and perhaps that of the whole tea party "movement"--is that you don't even come close to having a coherent position. You decry Obama's policies, but fail to articulate the impetus for your indignation. Your alternative policy proposals are poorly thought out--token responses to shield you from the charge that you are against health care reform. The biggest irony of all this is that you and your "movement" claim to represent Americans from a wide range of the political spectrum, but the only message coming through is one of a paranoid right-wing fringe.
He also has a Ph.D in American History from Brown University and a 2007 winner of the Polk award (one of the most coveted honors for writing on Politics). In my option he has a much better grasp of the current political scene than does a member of the tea baggers who posts on a basketball BBS.
Although it wounds my soul to say so, your observation is valid. As I have said, I don't know enough about health care to provide a solution pleasing to all. I have articulated (read my reply to Major) some generalities that should be addressed. (Please see my "new shoes" analogy -- no, no, no, no, maybe, no....until there is a yes!). Where I fault your reply is in that I am not against health care reform. I am very much for it, but I want a sound, comprehensive, cost-effective plan.
Thanks -- I think. I still feel badly for forwarding that tripe, but I was so astonished that someone could think like that I thought you might like to know what vile stuff there was out there. My even bigger mistake was the insufficiency of the note explaining my "thinking." I enjoy our give-and-take and hope you have forgiven me.
