Obama's Got A Good Rap But No Stomach For Battle; We Need Democrats With Both

Yesterday Peter Daou was at HuffPo discussing why it seems as though conservative Republicans retook the House and Senate and McCain's crusade for 4 more years of the Bush agenda was triumphant. "Things have changed" he assures us. "But the dynamics and tensions of the past decade remain firmly in play: right-wing noise machine (albeit denuded) versus progressive activists, old-school pundits and politicians versus online powerhouses, netroots versus DLC, frustrated outsiders versus back-scratching insiders, partisanship versus bi/post-partisanship, media versus bloggers, and so on. This isn't entirely surprising: political mechanisms change, human nature doesn't.

The assumption that the new presidency would transform the political process, usher in an era of unprecedented citizen empowerment and decimate the old conventional wisdom-making machinery, has been undermined by the reality of entrenched power structures, deep-seated rivalries, die-hard habits and Beltway business as usual.

..Obama's Internet savvy cannot overcome the CW Machine. The grassroots infrastructure his campaign built may be able to influence some of the commentary, alter portions of the debate and mitigate some of the effects, but overall, the CW Machine, composed of myriad online and offline components, will grind away and do its business, larger than any one candidate, leader, party or movement.

Ultimately, the grand political battle in the coming years will be the same as it's always been: a contest over the shaping and reshaping of public perceptions-- both with respect to politics and policy. For Democrats, taking comfort in Obama's online successes during the campaign is a losing bet: in recent days, Republicans have demonstrated that despite being in the minority and clearly behind in the Internet game, it's possible for the CW Machine to work in their favor.

If hindering the Democratic agenda by exploiting missteps is a core mission for Republicans, Democrats would do well to note how effectively Republicans have done just that in the nascent days of the Obama presidency and how unpredictably the CW Machine has operated (or how predictably for those who are less sanguine about the fungibility of a web-fueled grassroots campaign).

Perhaps the best strategy in light of all this is simply to govern based on solid Democratic principles and let the results-- and history-- trump the CW Machine.

At roughly the same time Daou was figuring this out, ThinkProgress was counting heads-- literally. They were counting talking heads... on TV. Who was speaking about the Stimulus Package and influencing the conventional wisdom? It should surprise no one to read that "Republican members of Congress outnumbered their Democratic counterparts by a ratio of 2 to 1.

And even when I see Democrats on TV, half the time they're the Democrats who don't understand the issues or can't express themselves or who agree with the Republicans or want to split the difference. We need more Democrats like Donna Edwards (D-MD), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Phil Hare (D-IL), Jared Polis (D-CO), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Eric Massa (D-NY) on TV making the progressive case. They know what they're talking about and feel it in their gut. I can't show you a video-- because there isn't one-- but read what Massa e-mailed to his constituents yesterday about the Stimulus Package:

The fact that we've just seen 598,000 jobs cut in the month of January is unacceptable. Our recession is deepening and we need real action right now. If passed, the economic stimulus package would create and protect 3-4 million jobs, lower taxes for working Americans and creates a new standard of transparency and accountability in the process.
 
Our friends, neighbors, and families are suffering because of 8 years of failed economic policies from the Bush administration. I was elected to help the people of Western New York and that's why I voted to pass the economic stimulus package.
 
If this bill is signed into law, it's been projected by the Governor's office that nearly $400 million will be spent right here in New York's 29th Congressional District. This money will be used to rebuild our roads and schools, keep teachers in the classroom, and create good jobs right here in Western New York. We need to take direct action to slow the recession and lower our unemployment figures before this recession deepens.
 
I call on the Senate to put partisan politics aside and pass the economic stimulus package so we can start strengthening our economy.

And then there's the race for the Illinois congressional seat that was given up by Rahm Emanuel. There are some decent enough Democrats running, but only one, Tom Geoghegan, is an innovative and dynamic leader who can craft and push forward a worthwhile message for a progressive Democratic Party and a progressive America. Watch him-- and imagine that he's the one on TV instead of... Ben Nelson. There's no way that Tom Geoghegan would ever agree to cut out a million and a quarter jobs from the Stimulus Package just so he could run around pounding his chest and saying "Me Bipartisan" the way Nelson just did.