Saw MTP this morning for the first time in months. Nothing has changed. Its still nothing more than open mic night for republicans.
Given the fact of the democrats having won the election going away on the very issues that are being "debated" today, you'd think the press would at least show some of the "balance" they hold Obama accountable for. Instead, David Gregory and company carry the GOP's water in their attempt at rewriting recent history and essentially invalidate the 2012 election, the way republicans are featured in the media.
Kicking off the festivities, Bobby Jindal trotted out the GOP's latest attempt at avoiding being part of the solution with its greed of Wall Street vs. greed of Washington line of bullshit. The stupid are supposed to hear that and go, oh yeah, hey Moe, we mad at Wall Street last time, now we can be mad at "Washington" cause they greedy too! No, Curly, Wall Street's greed was all about the 1%, "Washington greed" is about the 1% paying their fair share of the things the 99% said they want paid for in the last election; that includes you numbskull!
The good news was Jindal had Deval Patrick to contend with who, unlike most "democrats" they have on the show, was not only well prepared but gave a good, fact-based defense of Obama and democrats without being apologetic for it. He was smiling and polite while doing it, so they won't be able to dismiss him with the angry democrat/black man trope. Jindal was clearly out of his depth, and a couple of times Patrick made him look foolish. He even leveraged Jindal's points to show how today's GOP is so extreme they're even at odds with positive things the party once supported Bush II on. Patrick was so well prepared, had such a good grasp of the facts that he made Jindal, and by extension the "conservative agenda" appear clearly the problem and not part of any solution the country needs. And he made it look easy.
At one point Patrick even said, quote, "republicans need to be called out" on the fact that they have obstructed the President in his first term vowing to make Obama a one term president, and now by doing all they can to sink the economy. The host David Gregory, seeing how Patrick wasn't toeing the Villager line and making sense as a result, gave Jindal big assists, at one point throwing in the falsehood that the sequester is Obama's idea right at the end of a break so Patrick couldn't respond, and another time giving Jindal several minutes to wax unchallenged about the superiority of supply side economics under the guise of asking him about his presidential aspirations. And once again, Jindal showed that no, he is not of presidential material. But after this, I don't think Patrick will be back on MTP for a while.
The "round table" portion was the worst. This was Village culture at its finest (or worst). You had Peggy Noonan, CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, Jim Cramer, NPR's Steve Inskeep and Harold Ford Jr. You could tell how Villager sentiment and culture was driving this, when the so-called "democrats" Ford and Inskeep went out of their way to agree with Noonan, and her insane interpretation of reality. Ford especially made a point repeatedly of saying, literally, how much he was in agreement with Noonan, "as surprising as that might be." No, clown, no one is surprised how much you agree with her, and judging by the obviously pleased look she had every time Ford open his mouth to grovel at her feet, you could clearly see the dynamic, of Noonan being a key Villager, with Ford doing his damnedest to make sure he remains in good graces and on the Georgetown guest lists.
In the end, it was an affirmation of GOP alternate reality: the sequester is Obama's idea, that there is no agreement is Obama's fault because he's not leading, and that Obama is engaging in "scare tactics" by talking about the impact of the sequester, which really will have no impact at all. At least not on their world. But what else is there?
