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Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Well, what did he THINK was going to happen?

Posted by Jill | 6:33 AM

I know that Newark Mayor Cory Booker is a friend of Rachel Maddow's, which ought to give him unimpeachable progressive cred, but I've always sensed a certain amount of creeping Harold Fordism to him. It's a difficult balancing act, trying to be business-friendly and a strong progressive at the same time, especially since businesses seem bound and determined to hold the country hostage, with threats to leave the US rather than pay one more penny in corporate taxes. Newark in particular needs to attract business in order for this long-troubled city to revive, so I can somewhat understand it. But Booker clearly has his eye on higher office, and he knows that speaking ill of the company that gave him over a half-million dollars during his first mayoral campaign can come back to bite him later on when he tries to attract money for a Senate or gubernatorial campaign.

Still, it was an uncomfortable experience watching Booker, with nervous flopsweat practically seeping through the TV screen, try to backpedal on having equated ads about Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital in terms of job creation with dragging out Jeremiah Wright for another flogging:

It never ceases to amaze me how even smart Democrats like Cory Booker, even after all this time, can still get hoodwinked by Republicans. When a high-profile Democrat calls ads for another Democrat's presidential campaign "disgusting", why is it a surprise that the GOP would do something like this:

I don't know what it's going to take for so-called Democrats to understand how the GOP plays -- or come out and admit that they are on the same side as the GOP and it's all kabuki theatre. After all, this is a party that sends out mailings depicting the Democrats as the Guardians of Social Security only weeks after Nancy Pelosi said she'd support Simpson-Bowles. Today's Democratic Party is either hopelessly stupid or hopelessly venal...and I think we're learning which one it is.

3 comments

3 Comments:

The Wifely Person said...

Choice "C" is that we're all hopelessly naive because we keep putting our trust in politicians promises.

Support 'em, elect 'em, then hold their feet in the fire for keeping their word. Not that it would help, but at least the lying sacks would know we're on to ALL of them.

I'm just sayin'.........

5/22/12, 7:23 AM

BNJ said...

I think Booker was blinking Morse code in that walkback video.

It's sad, because he really *is* the politician that Obama campaigned as in 2008 -- a liberal, sure, but one who's genuinely disgusted by the level of political discourse and the routine demonization of opponents that both sides engage in. He actually lived up to Obama's campaign rhetoric, and was taken to the woodshed because of it.

5/22/12, 7:29 AM

Nan said...

Booker's problem was he was honest -- he called both campaigns out for the tone and/or content of their ads -- and the media seized upon the fact in doing so he'd implicitly criticized Obama. They conveniently ignored the fact that he'd thus also criticized Romney. His initial comments on Meet the Press weren't exactly a ringing endorsement of private equity firms and he never mentioned a specific name, but the media was immediately yammering about his defense of Bain Capital. The MSM has done a really nice job of burying Booker's main point, which was the electorate is already thoroughly disgusted with the way both campaigns are operating.

Do you really need word verification when you're moderating comments anyway? It's taking me multiple tries this morning to guess the letters in the piece of gibberish.

5/22/12, 10:20 AM