SALON

Sunday, Aug 7, 2011 10:08 PM UTC

Should liberals have buyers’ remorse over Obama?

Bill Maher asks if Hillary Clinton would have been more progressive. We have no idea

By

Topics: Debt ceiling, 2008 Elections, Bill Maher,

Should liberals have buyers' remorse over Obama?U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, shares a light moment with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa at the Joint Commission Meeting Indonesia-U.S. in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Sunday, July 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)(Credit: AP)

I dodged one of my least favorite questions on “Real Time With Bill Maher” Friday night: Would Hillary Clinton have been a better choice for liberals than Barack Obama in 2008? Neil deGrasse Tyson got me off the hook by quickly answering “yes”; you can watch the segment below.

I ducked the question because I honestly have no idea — and I have no desire to refight the bruising battles of the 2008 Democratic primary. I’m firmly on record questioning the notion that Obama was the clear progressive, compared to Clinton. There was absolutely no evidence that was true. One advantage to Clinton, I thought, was that she knew the extent to which the right wing would go to sabotage a Democratic president. On the other hand, I had sympathy with people who dreaded a sequel to the ugly Clinton Wars, and thought a different Democrat might have a better chance to avert a rerun of ’90s-style partisan warfare. I didn’t agree, but I thought that was a fair and reasonable hope.

One great thing about Obama’s primary victory is now we know that’s not true. This is the modern Republican Party. It turns out they were the ones who adopted Malcolm X’s slogan, “By any means necessary.” As disgusted as I am with S&P’s decision to downgrade U.S. debt, the ratings agency took the unusual step of calling out the GOP in its press release, predicting future fiscal peril “because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.” Sen. John Kerry was right to call it the “Tea Party downgrade” on “Meet the Press” Sunday. They have now made clear they’ll wreck the economy as long as they can wreck Obama’s presidency. And we have no way to know that Clinton’s history with right-wing saboteurs would have enabled her to fight more effectively.

We also have no way to know whether a president who came into office determined to fight the GOP rather than reconcile would have had better success. Drew Westen argues it would have, in a New York Times essay that went viral Sunday. Like a lot of progressives, Westen faults Obama for his lack of “narrative,” particularly his inability or unwillingness to describe the role Wall Street and the Bush administration played in cratering the economy. Today, one party believes compromise is a mortal sin, and the other party is led by someone who thinks it’s a virtue. It’s not Obama’s fault that the Tea Party took over the GOP, but you can argue he’s emboldened them by his concessions. Now you have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chortling that Tea Party extremists in his party “thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting,” which taught the leadership that “it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming.” Obama can expect the GOP to search for new hostages through 2012.

On CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday, conservative Dennis Prager complained about liberals accusing Republicans of economic terrorism and hostage-taking. I argued that since McConnell himself bragged about forcing the president into “ransoming” the debt-ceiling “hostage,” there should be no controversy over Democrats using the same term. It’s exactly what they did. You can see that after the “Real Time” clip below.

Here’s “Real Time,” complete with a flattering freeze frame of me next to conservative filmmaker and Sarah Palin fan Steve Bannon, who made “The Undefeated”:

Here’s “Reliable Sources”:

Joan Walsh

Joan Walsh is Salon's editor at large and the author of "What's the Matter With White People: Finding Our Way in the Next America." More Joan Walsh.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 212 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid “totally different” from Sandy aid
2721 points2722 points | 1258 comments
vote
Anyone Regret Slashing National Weather Service Budget Now?: With GOP-backed cuts to forecasting agency, experts warn future storms will go undetected and more lives lost
875 points876 points | 426 comments
vote
Oklahoma senator wants to offset tornado aid with other cuts
127 points128 points | 41 comments
vote
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook " In Chicago this weekend, prosecutors announced three teenaged boys will tried as adults for aggravated criminal sexual assault after allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl — and posting a video of the attack on Facebook."
22 points23 points | 13 comments
vote
Recent scandals are Whitewater redux, not Watergate
16 points17 points | 2 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations