During the primary I supported Barack Obama despite the fact that his views on some issues were not as progressive as my own.  What concerns me now is the fact that he is backing down from his own positions (on FISA and NAFTA) and cowering in the face of the Right Wing Noise machine (vis a vi Gen. Clark) whose smears he once fought.  His earlier positions and tactics garnered him support, not just from left-wing Democrats but also from independents, and I believe he is risking that support now.

I was watching The Daily Show and for the second time tonight I heard Howie claim that the national media played a critical role in turning public opinion against the war during 2005-2006.  This is nothing less than revisionist history, and it's easily refutable revisionism at that.  Howie admits the media screwed up in it's pre-war coverage selling the Iraq War to the American people, but he's also trying to claim that it has  redeemed itself by turning the people against the war.  This is utter nonsense.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

Today the the right wing noise machine pushed the United States Senate into a fight with MoveOn.org.  By Gandhi's math the netroots is 3/4 of the way to victory.

Many in the media, as well as on Capitol Hill, and a few on this site have tried to justify the Democratic collapse in the war funding battle by comparing it to the Government shutdown of 1995.  This defense rests on the idea that when funding stops the people blame the Congress not the President; even when he vetos the funding.  Well I am calling BS on this argument because it is complete and utter crap.  

Why do I say that?  Two reasons: the first is that the circumstances today are completely different than they were twelve years ago.  The second, is that the argument itself ignores a basic fact about human nature:  when things go wrong the people don't blame those who are responsible, they blame those they don't like.

I wrote the body of this post as a comment to this delightful diary by Miss Snarkypants, but I've been meaning to diary these thoughts for a while so I decided to repost them here.