For whatever reason, this story is big today, with both Liberals and Conservatives joining together and speaking as one voice. I, a self-prescribed liberal, beg to differ with the majority, and I’m taking Fareed Zakaria’s side on this one.
What’s all the fuss about?
On his CNN show, Fareed Zakaria said these words: ” I think liberals need to grow up!” He was referring to the criticism Liberals have hauled on President Obama over the last few weeks, in response to his compromising with Republicans to keep the nation from going into default. Zakaria points out that Liberals seem to think the President’s soaring speeches alone are enough to pass legislation. And also, that because President Obama finds himself compromising with the Republicans, he is to be blamed for the way Washington works.
Both sides of the political spectrum apparently disagree with Fareed. The Conservative Newsbusters said, “Maybe this “recurring liberal fantasy” was fostered by folks like Zakaria that presented Barack Obama to the American people as a messiah. If the public has a Hollywood-like view of this president, it’s because the media put him on a pedestal like nobody before him.”
And the liberal leaning site Crooks And Liars said;
No, Liberals aren’t upset that he doesn’t make more heartwarming speeches. Liberals are upset that Obama’s tactics to negotiate in the conditions Zakaria describes is to start out giving the other side more than 50% of what they want and move further to the right from there. But that’s a much harder position to defend, so Chait and Zakaria create a strawman to make liberals look unreasonable. Further, there is no indication–as Zakaria asserts–that Americans are concerned with jobs AND deficit spending. Americans care about their jobs and the economy vis a vis whether they’ll have a job in the foreseeable future.
And even Mediaite started their piece about the story by saying, “Hey, Fareed, so’s yer face!”
Well, sometimes the truth hurts. No one is expecting a full endorsement to everything this president does, but what these Liberals don’t understand is that the constant beating up on the president when it’s unwarranted serves one purpose only – it legitimizes the daily criticism from the Conservatives, whether they be true or not. President Obama is not a one-man team, and the Constitution did not grant him the authority to make policies. Those powers are given to Congress, and right now, that Congress is divided with one side determined to go against everything the President is for.
So preach on Fareed, someone has to point out to these Liberals that what they’re doing amounts to shooting themselves in the foot.
