What better way to spice up one's Wednesday evening than to swing by Leftyville as the only conservative guest on MSNBC's The Ed Show? Stick with this clip to witness the quadruple interruption near the very the end. Good times, my friends:
In my view, both premises around which the segment was built were bunk, as I explained on air. Democrats held large majorities in both houses -- including a filibuster-proof majority for the better part of a year -- for the first half of this president's term. Obama and his allies used that stretch to pass a terribly ineffective and expensive "stimulus" bill, and an unaffordable, unpopular healthcare law. The White House and my fellow panelists would prefer to conveniently pretend that 2009 and 2010 never happened; such revisionism is required if you're going to caterwaul about "Republican obstructionism" as a 2012 election theme. Plus, many voters revolted in 2010 specifically in order to obstruct the Democrats' agenda. And as I mentioned in the clip, Democrats have faced real problems whipping their own members' votes to back the president's no-new-ideas jobs fantasy he'll "reframe" later this afternoon. On the "blame Bush" front, it'll be awfully difficult for Democrats to make that argument stick when there are quotes like these floating around for all to see:
President Obama's campaign speech on the economy today will be delivered in the same spot where Bill Clinton delivered a 2010 campaign speech Obama might just as soon forget. In September 2010, Clinton told his Cuyahoga Community College audience in Cleveland that Democrats deserved two more years to fix the nation's economy. "The Democrats are saying something like this: 'We found a big hole that we did not dig. We didn't get it filled in 21 months, but at least we quit digging,'" Clinton said at the time. "'Give us two more years. If it doesn't work, vote us out.'"
And -- ta-da! -- it's...two years later. Clinton might argue that his suggestion no longer applies because Democrats didn't receive the extra unfettered term he'd implored voters to supply -- but that admission would only serve to highlight the failure of the Left's "just give us more time" argument that The One is resurrecting today. Finally, the Romney camp is circulating this classic video of a smug, brash Obama in 2009. The irony is even richer than usual:
"My administration has a job to do as well. That job is to get this economy back on its feet. That's my job, and it's a job I gladly accept. I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, "Well this is Obama's economy." That's fine. Give it to me! My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and carp and gripe. So, I welcome the job. I want the responsibility."
Well, you've got it, champ.