Carping Clowns of Conservatism

Spiro Agnew once called critics of the Nixon Administration the "nattering nabobs of negativism" and "pusillanimous purveyors of pessimism." Agnew wasn’t smart enough to have made up those polysyllabic words all by himself, but I was reminded of them when I watch the nabobs on cable t.v. nattering negatives about Obama’s struggles to clean up the mess made by the previous lessees of his residence.

How can anyone watch his press conference today in London without comparing his virtuoso performance with any by the idiot he replaced. This, of course, is a cheap shot, because W. did not set a high standard for competence, fluency, charm, intelligence, insight, or understanding of economics or any other subject taught beyond middle school. In one instance, Obama referred to "Bretton Woods." I’d bet any amount that W. thinks that might be Tiger’s uncle or the place where Tigger lived.

The media & blogs are fixated on "the first 100 days" - as if eight years of destruction and neglect of virtually every duty a government should have performed could and must be healed in that time. I challenge any historian to find a more productive period for a president than what we have seen so far (@ day 80 by my count).

In their effort to maintain controversy, the cable talking heads trot out the usual suspects, introduced as "consultants", who parrot the talking points they’ve been texted by their think tanks. Allowing pinheads like Pat Buchanan, or even Dick Cheney, to be heard at this time is stretching the Fifth Amendment to absurd limits. As one who is all too familiar with the sound of weak arguments, I cringe at the burden such spinners have to carry. In court, the doctrine of "clean hands" precludes hearing of complaints from these sources.

Congressional critics from the Right have the hardest time carping. Like the fabled defendant who killed his parents and asked for mercy as an orphan, these clowns can only whine about "deficits" and "socialism" and "dictatorship" which gets them laugh time on The Daily Show or David Gregory’s (MSNBC)"hypocrisy watch".

As with any rational president, Obama has his critics from within his own party. The Left is dubious about sending more troops to Afghanistan, more Wall Street bailouts while seeming to leave auto union workers to hang in the wind, suspicions about continuing W’s tactics against "terror", and delaying repeal of "don’t ask, don’t tell".

While I admit some concern about these issues, they don’t come near to outweighing the achievements so far. I will remain, for the time being, an Overtly Optimistic Observer Of Obama Operatics.