Joan Walsh: The pernicious myth of Obama’s “incompetence”

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/30/the_pernicious_myth_of_obama%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%9Cincompetence%E2%80%9D/

The pernicious myth of Obama’s “incompetence”
Months after getting the Benghazi and IRS stories completely wrong, pundits write off the president again
By Joan Walsh


Excuse me if I sit out this round of hyperventilating over President Obama’s alleged “incompetence” on matters ranging from the Affordable Care Act roll out to the NSA spying scandal. Because we just played this game last spring.

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That much of the world of punditry, including some liberals, was wrong about the substance and symbolism of the IRS and Benghazi non-scandals (while concern-trolling the White House, though not genuinely caring, about its spying and secrecy) ought to give some people pause. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong about problems with the ACA or NSA; it just means a lot of them have a credibility problem when it comes to assessing the president’s “competence” or lack thereof.

Personally, I’m not without concern about it all. Last week I defended the administration when it came to the ACA web site roll out; this week, I’m finding myself less forgiving of the fact that the president and Democrats continued to use the line “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” even though they knew how much new ACA regulations would increase churn in the private insurance market. Jason Linkins and Jonathan Chait unpack what was fair and maybe not so fair about that claim.

Still, the House GOP has perfected its method of paralyzing the country, and the Obama administration, even though it controls only one half of one third of the government (and that minority is controlled by an even smaller, wingnut fringe): Hold endless hearings that reporters are forced to both cover and lazily use as “evidence” that the administration is in big trouble.

It would be nice if the two parties worked together on solutions to these problems, like they did with Medicare Part D’s troubles, but the Republican Party is no longer interested in governing. Instead we have endless hearings and phony grandstanding – and much of the media playing along. Wake me when it’s over.