Thursday, December 17, 2009

David Axelrod vs. Ed Shultz

In this Morning Joe video, David Axelrod takes on Ed Schultz, who gets snippy.
Schultz, earning his cred with the left most, says the insurance companies are playing a shell game. Why is it that the left and the right always argue "shell game" without explaining what exactly the shell game is.
The entire insurance industry is just pretending to hate healthcare? How is the insurance industry playing a shell game? Why would the industry bother? Did all the insurance leaders gather and plot to deceive?
It's a lazy talking head kind of accusation, one that doesn't include any kind of reporting that would prove that.
Axelrod talks about Lieberman and Dean.
I always forget that Howard Dean is irrelevant in one way--he's not in Congress. He can't vote. But his opinion matters.
In her tsk tsk voice, Peggy Noonan asks Axelrod: why are you losing the left, right and center? Axelrod has a really good answer. The administration doesn't think of the nation in political terms. I'd say Obama has lost the left and the right.
Progressives and wingnuts are unmovable as far as ideology. If things aren't done their way, they pull their support. They don't compromise much.
I don't think Obama's lost the center at all.
Most Americans aren't political. If you've ever seen Jay Leno's Jaywalking, you realize that we need annual civics refresher courses. Most people only have a surface level understanding of politics and government. Last night, Leno had a group of 20 somethings on who couldn't even name the vice president. That kind of ignorance is dangerous.