Rachel is right

[changemonger]

I've seen a few posts here lately attacking Rachel Maddow for her "Talk me down" segment where she raised her concern about an Obama administration beeing a 3rd Clinton term. I think we must be careful not to make the same mistakes the right-wingers made over the last years by putting loyalty to the party and it's leaders over reason, truth or anything else.I know it's far too early to start beeing cynical about Obama's change agenda, but that's not what Rachel was doing.
There are reasons why most of us voted for Obama over Clinton in the primaries and 2 of the most important ones are: his pledge to end the lobbyists' influence in Washington and his anti-war stance on Iraq. So I perfectly understand why some of his supporters would feel a bit uneasy when his first 2 biggest official appointments so far are John Podesta (one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington) and Rahm Emmanuel (one of the most poweful pro Iraq-War hawks on the Democrat's side). Nobody is judging Obama yet , but the first signs he sent with his appointments weren't reassuring for some of his supporters in the primaries (and Rachel is one of them), who would've voted for Hillary if they wanted a third Clinton term.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Rachel Maddow is brilliant and compelling. I disagree with her on about 50% of all her views.

I find her "Talk Me Down" segment to be endlessly annoying.

[OwnedByFerrets]

18. Well, at least you're correct about 50% of the time.

:P

[Buzz Clik]

19. Correct? It isn't a matter of being correct. I simply differ with her.... and, perhaps, you.

[Larkspur]

2. Agree. I was never an Obama fan

He was better than Hillary and the Republicans and that's the depth of loyalty and enthusiasm he gets from me. He'll have to earn my deeper loyalty and genuine enthusiasm and he has yet to come anywhere close to that.

[Dawgs]

27. He hasn't done anything YET.

Why don't we wait until he's actually President before we attack him for being a terrible President.

[Larkspur]

29. I didn't say he was a terrible president

or would be one. I see him as Clinton ver. 2.0, but am hoping that Obama will be more FDR-like than Clinton-like.

[Jennicut]

31. I'm sorry, after 8 years of crap Obama is like sunshine to me.

Its impossible to ever win over followers of the far left, these same people once voted for Ralph Nader as the two parties are "so alike." Utterly laughable. Who will make people like you happy, Dennis Kucinich? I got news for you, he will never win a general election, let alone a primary. If Obama is called a socialist by Rethugs then he is plenty left enough for me.

[Lumpsum]

3. It's not that the "Talk Me Down" segement is itself bad.

It's that she does the segment in the most annoying way possible.

[FrenchieCat]

4. I believe that your post is premature speculation.

That is as dangerous as what you wrote about.....

After 8 long years, we must have patience in reference to the Obama administration.
Exactly one week after the election is just too early to start wringing our hands.

Sounding the alarm in efforts to undermine an administration prior to it getting off the ground
is what is dangerous, as well as a move patently unfair to those voters who read Barack's books,
and supported him with our eyes wide open.

The bottomline is not who is handling his transition team (and it makes every sense in the world to have someone who's already done it do it again), or even who will be his emissary to Congress (and yes, we need a take-no-shit-motherf*cker in that position); but rather, the issue is what ends up being the policies offered and whether they are enacted or are not enacted. Everything else is bullshit, and illustrates further guilt by association based on the perception of a few.

In short, you are jumping the gun.

[bunnies]

15. +1.

This is happening a lot around DU lately. :eyes:

[AtomicKitten]

5. Rachel is kvetching, thinking out loud.

I think she's fabulous and support her 100% (even though I don't agree with her 100% of the time).

[BeyondGeography]

6. If she can't see they are different people than I can't help her

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. Most Americans were happy during the Clinton years and would welcome a '3rd term'

[Lumpsum]

11. Then we would have voted for Hillary, no?

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Obama is more like Bill than Hillary is

Both are smooth operators, who were able to work from the middle to accomplish their goals.

[Lumpsum]

16. I suppose.

But when you campaign on "Change" that shouldn't mean reverting back to 1994. Yes, times were great economically under Clinton, but Obama also has 2 wars and civil unrest in areas where homosexuals can no longer marry or adopt. I don't think simply turning back the clock will fix all of these issue.

[Mz Pip]

25. I would have voted for Hillary

if she was the nominee. Saying an Obama administration will be like a 3rd Clinton term like that's a bad thing seems pretty silly.

Clinton did some things I didn't like, but I can't argue with 8 years of peace and prosperity. If Obama can return us to peace and prosperity I'll be more than pleased.

[anonymous171]

8. Obama isn't even president yet.

[Cleita]

9. I think her talk me down segments are brilliant and democratic.

She's giving the opposition their opportunity to try to change her mind on her stands and on issues and her research. It's an informal debate technique I used to see when I was a bartender. The place I tended bar was near a large and prestigious university so many of my clientele were academics and most of them liberals. I also used to get a large clientele from local business community who were conservative for the most part. As this was the time of the meltdown of the Nixon administration, the TV was always turned to the news around happy hour. Inevitably one of the business guys would make some stupid statement about the "witch hunt". Usually one of the professors would challenge him and then ask him to convince him otherwise. Of course the freeper business type usually had their asses handed to them with this technique as they tried to spin their way out of their premise.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

10. You're example and arguments are solid. I'm very much an Obama

supporter, almost from the beginning and I hear what you are saying. I think we need to be patient and see how all of this affects policy. I know that I'm going to be disappointed by some of Obama's choices. I think Clinton, by and large was a good president, but some of his policy choices stink to high heaven. The most favored trading to China is my pet piss-off of his. I'm hoping and I don't think that Obama will disappoint me quite that much though.

[katandmoon]

12. Agreed. Unlike Bush, Obama appears to encourage dissent. So I think it's the height of irony

That so many posts I read here encourage Democrats to be, essentially, good Republicans.

[hlthe2b]

13. little chance of that... DUers are no sycophants...

As anyone who has been here since 01/2001 can clearly attest....:rofl:


Consensus among Dems like herding cats--indeed!

[bunnies]

17. Yeah. Fuck it. Lets just impeach him now.

I mean... its obvious that he'll be a sucky President so... why waste time letting the man do his job for a bit before we criticize how he's doing?! Time is ripe for jumping all over President ELECT Obama.

Sure has been a long couple of months not ripping him apart on DU. :eyes:

[quickesst]

20. During the Clinton years...

We bought a house, paid for two new vehicles, and in eight years, faced one two-week layoff between ending, and start-up of a new construction job. Yeah, it was a terrible time until w saved us. Don't know if I would have survived another Clinton presidency:sarcasm: Good thing Gore embraced the Clintons and the eight years of prosperity, he might have lost the...oh, wait.....On that note, HRC lost the primary, and after a short time, I realized that Barack Obama could, and in my opinion, will rise to the occasion. I am not ready to judge a man on his performance before he even starts the job. I plan on waiting until he has actually done something that is proveable to be against our best interests. Worrisome speculation will only result in heartburn. Thanks.
quickesst

[WI_DEM]

21. he has been president elect for less than a week, why don't we wait to see what kind of president he

will be.

[JohnnyRingo]

22. Maddow was a godsend for me

Because before her I'd watch Olbermann and face programming choices that ruined the buzz I got from Countdown.

I could watch Abrams goung on about some annoying legal wranglings
Or on Larry King I could see interviews with people I thought were dead
And on Fox I could watch Colmes dodge Republican onslaughts like a one armed Jedi.

With Rachel I get to ride the high all the way to ten o'clock, when I can find a non-news related show.
I'm a lot easier to get along with now.

[mmonk]

23. Rachel reminds one to keep one's mind clear.

[CreekDog]

24. i thought we primary voters who chose Obama didn't want a 3rd Clinton term

and that goes for Obama himself too.

yes, Rachel is brilliant, but she is no Jimmy The Greek. :hide:

[bunkerbuster1]

26. Rachel at her stupidest is better than most of us at our brightest

I cut her a lot of slack.

and her TV machine show is grrrreat.

[zulchzulu]

28. So who should Obama hire that has experience in DC?

Carter made the HUGE mistake of going to DC and hiring his own Georgia flock and faced complete failure. Clinton went in and hired a bunch of his Arkansas pals and had to climb out of a huge political ditch and lose the Democratic majority in 1994.

So who should Obama hire to help set up his administration? People who don't know the lay of the land in DC?

Can we at least trust Obama on the setting up of his administration before finger-pointing and wringing our hands?

As for Rachel, she faces a dilemma. Be an adoring Obama supporter and lose viewers or bring in something to keep you wondering and attain more viewers... she needs eyeballs for her show.

[apnu]

30. Rachael is fine doing what she is doing, here is why:

1) Its her show, she calls the shots and lives or dies by that.

2) She is one of the few nationally accepted progressive (or just "left") voices in the MSM. That, alone, huge. Additionally, she is out of the closet and a symbol of acceptance for people who are GLBT.

3) Every intellectually engaged human being calls into question all things. In the questioning we find the truth and correct course of action. Rachael is doing a very important job of helping to keep Obama honest to his promises.