While I generally think you are spot on on most things, on this one you're betraying a blind spot. Most of progressive dissent toward Obama is not progressive. After the debauched disaster of the Bush years (indeed, American history since Reagan's rise), progressives have not even begun to consolidate their gains. Which they need to do BEFORE they do anything else. Those gains haven't even been identified, let alone quantified! Beating up Obama because he doesn't embody their perceived perfection of whatever form of progressivism they are espousing is as self-defeating as it is self-destructive. This is a process, a long one. It is only beginning. If Democrats act as Democrats always have--holier than thou even to their own side--then this will be an especially short revolution. And the swingback will be something for all of us to really regret.

Let's not lose sight of the big picture. We don't have to march in lock step, but we should be marching for now.

A fully accurate account and analysis of what transpired last night. Thank you, Mike.

I think there's at least one pretty simple reason why the Washington-based press corps is so out of touch. At one time, the press were just working stiffs like the rest of us and could easily relate to what everyday people were thinking and experiencing. Now, they're all six figure prima donnas who do little real research and--apparently from their performance over the last nine years at least--even less thinking at any depth. They're mostly just going through the motions and behave like a pack that lives and breathes Washington right down to those cushy dinners and parties.

The repetitious nature of the questions last night and the self-reverential "gotcha" form of many of them show that they do very little listening. It's your one chance in a month to ask the POTUS a question and this is the best that you can come up with? And then once answered, you go with a variation on the same question you just heard? Pitiful! The most insightful and serious questions came from the Latino media, AFP and Ebony magazine. NBC's Todd is--with every passing day--showing how great a pollster and analyst he was and how awful and out of his depth as a correspondent he is. (Economic distress = war? Really? The premise of the question was ridiculous so what chance did the question that emerged have to be otherwise?) Ed Henry looked like a pompous fool. (The answer to his question is that Cuomo's only job is policing Wall St. for the most part; he can very much afford to be indignant-- and only indignant. The President has a few more things and a wider focus and constituency on every topic to deal with. If I, a lowly public servant knows that; why doesn't Ed Henry?)

It's vanity journalism that we get from CNN, Fox, CBS, ABC and NBC... more important that the hair is in the right place than the mind. I-- a news and politics junkie-- am it finding harder and harder to watch (or read) anything other than C-SPAN, journal articles, The Week and unfiltered news footage. The "analysts" in the MSM are in no way intellectually vibrant or well read... they're mostly political hacks and has beens who mouth the same tired old bromides over and over again, but are apparently friendly with the network managers. (How else can Tom DeLay or Bill Bennett still be sought out by anyone for their less than unique and wholly predictable perspectives?)

Obviously, the White House Press Corps hasn't changed with the times. The attitudes and perspectives are still deeply rooted in the thinking (if one can call it that) that captured them nine years ago and still holds them tightly. The budget deficit questions that were never asked when they should have been (i.e.: three years into the Bush Administration) should still be asked today; but not without a recognition on the questioner's part about the difference between productive investing in ourselves and "investing" in war contractors and ill-defined foreign adventures. To this crowd, a deficit is a deficit. Group think is de rigeur. And past misdeeds and abdications of responsibility on their part are to be ignored and unacknowledged.

It's clear that it's going to take a long time to turn this ship around... and the White House press corps will be part of the problem until they spend some time in honest and rigorous self analysis and assessment. In sum, they need to demand much more of themselves than just achieving "ratings" and selling more soap.

This is another indication of the narrowing of the Republican constituency. Only a certain kind of Republican need apply. The concept of a big tent isn't yet even on the table. Indeed, it seems a pup tent is sufficient today. So, the point of view which says that Republicans need to retreat to their core base is apparently transcendent. This implies that their only chance for "redemption" in the wider polity is an utter failure of Obama and Democratic majority policies. One wonders though if a majority would end up embracing such a intellectually constipated and socially restrictive philosophy under any circumstances. One thing is for sure, though. If it did, it could be the end of the American experiment, to be replaced by something more akin in attitude to mid-1930s Germany.

That's right. They're only supposed to appoint Presidents.

Looks like we're in for another overstuffed helping of right-wing hypocrisy.