Digby:

The left has been pushing Obama hard from the moment he took office

Digby must be thinking of TalkLeft commenter Andreas and his organization, the Worldwide Socialist Web Site. The rest of "the Left," me included, not so much.

Speaking for me only

Markos:

Of course Obama and Clinton had similar platforms. They're both mainstream Democrats!

They'll say that now. During the primaries? Not a chance.

Speaking for me only

If you are not getting the joke, there is a Game of The Decade/Year/Century about 3 times a year. That said, the Alabama/Florida game has been the most anticipated game of the year since at least early October. It is of a higher magnitude for a lot of reasons. Florida is seeking to defend its national championship. It is going for its first undefeated season. It is the next to last game of the Tim Tebow Era, an era that goes beyond Florida football. Tebow has been the most recognizable figure in college football I can remember. He is the most polarizng PLAYER I can remember.

Despite having won it all last year, the pressure remains squarely on the Gators. Losing is misery - failure, for the Gators. It should not be this way, but it is. It reminds me somewhat of the Gators basketball team' second run for a national title in 2007. It was not joyous - until the end. When they had done it. But these Gators have been a tough minded team. They have responded well to pressure. It may even help them now at this point of the season. More . .

(Update - by way of contrast, let me tip a non-disingenuous "policy guy" who disagrees with a lot of us on the value of the "reform" provisions but does not pretend to be the font of the "revealed" policy truth) -- Once more I must call Ezra Klein on his disingenuous arguments about the health care bill. In his latest bit of disingenuous sophistry, Ezra writes:

I'm a policy guy, arguably to the point of myopia. The public option compromises that are on the table at this point aren't really compromises worth having. It's my job to say that, I think. Pointing this out has led a lot of longtime readers to give up on me as some sort of establishment dupe, and I see where they're coming from. Here's where I'm coming from.

[. . .] The achievement of this bill is $900 billion to help people purchase health-care coverage, a new market that begins to equalize the conditions of the unemployed and the employed, and a regulatory structure in which this country can build, for the first time, a universal health-care system. Thousands and thousands of lives will be saved by this bill.

This is disingenuous clap trap. Ezra Klein KNOWS that the 900 billion dollars to help people purchase health insurance is entirely unrelated to the the "reform" provisions of the bill he is championing. It is less than honest to pretend that the health assistance portions of the bill are inextricably intertwined to the pet projects that Ezra holds dear. They are not. Reconciliation does NOT threaten the health assistance portions of the bill. Ezra knows this and is less than honest about it day after day after day. More . . .

Strange headline of the day from Jane Hamsher:

Ha Ha. F**k You, Harry Reid. Kicking Your A** is Going To Be Fun.

Jane then highlights a Mason Dixon poll showing 2 Republicans beating Reid in a head to head matchup. Unless Jane became a Republican last night, how precisely is she proposing to to "kick Reid's A**?" Is she now a Sue Lowndes or Danny Tarkanian supporter? Or does she have a secret primary challenger we do not know about?

It's fun to write "Right now, Harry Reid is doing what he always intended to do — take the public option out of the bill. You’re just the last to know." But what does that mean for a** kicking?

I'm all for preemptive activism, but the structure of Hamsher's post does not make sense to me. Promise him hell if he betrays you - but do not predict he will betray so you can give him hell. I like my activists to be uncompromising. But I also like them to make sense. This post from Hamsher does not have logic on its side imo.

Speaking for me only

Kudos to Chris Bowers, who says he is still fighting for the public option.

Good job.

Add Steve Benen to the Village bloggers who are thrilled that Netroots stalwart Chris Bowers has capitulated on the public option:

In general, the netroots have not looked kindly on "Public Option Pragmatists." It was interesting, then, to see Chris Bowers, who has as much netroots credibility as anyone, embrace, with some apparent reluctance, the Pragmatists' line.

This is the upshot of of Bowers' actions. He provides cover for those who have been arguing against the very policy and strategy Bowers championed all year. If Bowers had "netroots credibility," he certainly no longer does. Imagine watching Bowers rally support for a progressive initiative on anything? Why listen to him? He'll be caving in the end anyway.

Speaking for me only

In a number of posts yesterday and today, I have been highly critical of Chris Bowers. On some points, I was over the top, and I think I owe Chris an apology. I should not have mentioned his past connections to the Sestak campaign. Chris is a sincere person who acts in ways he thinks is best. I accept that his support for Sestak had nothing to do with the position he took.

That said, I strongly feel that Chris' actions are indefensible for an activist. This is an old argument for me. I had it with Chris' old blogging partner Matt Stoller - when you take on the mantle of activist, you can not wear the hat of pundit. To me, Chris has changed his hat from activist to pundit regarding the health care bill. In my view, it is a hat change that can not work.

Of course, I also disagree with with Chris' punditry. But my larger point here is about understanding the role of the activist, the blogger activist, in this case. It is to help shore up the Left Flank of the Party. I am no activist. And I am hardly Left. I do not whip people to call their Congresspersons or frankly, to do anything. I am in the peanut gallery. What activists do matters. What I do does not. Yet, I care very much that the effective activists, like Chris, not lose sight of their mission and not compromise it in order to engage in meaningless punditry. There are enough of us out here wanking. Stick to the important work.

Speaking for me only

Joining fellow Village blogger Matt Yglesias, the disingenuous Ezra Klein also throws bouquets to Chris Bowers for his public capitulation on the public option.

There are two aspects to Chris' position which are indefensible. First, Chris was one of the foremost proponents of arguing for the public option as the vehicle for establishing progressive influence in the legislative sausage making. Day after day he urged the Progressive block to hold the line and criticized those who showed signs of breaking ranks. His about face NOW is simply inexcusable. If a progressive ACTIVIST cannot hold the line, how in blazes can that same progressive activist ask pols to do it?

Second, Chris has now adopted the Village Blog style of pretending that it is the "reform" in the health bill that provides insurance coverage for 30 million uninsured Americans. That is a bald faced lie. It is indeed the favorite lie of the Village Bloggers. The provision of insurance assistance has nothing to do with the Exchanges and the individual mandates, the provisions considered sacrosanct by the Village Bloggers (now joined by new Village Blogger Bowers.) It is the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and federal subsidies to the less well off for the purchase of insurance. Has it not occurred to Bowers that he can support health insurance assistance without supporting the individual mandate, the Exchange and the regressive excise tax? More . . .

Tiger Woods made a terrible decision today. He publicly apologized for "transgressions" against his family.

Whatever Tiger needed to say to his family should have been said only to his family. It is outrageous that he shared their issues with the public.

The ironic thing is Tiger thinks that will end the instrusions into his private life. What Tiger has done is issue an open invitation. What a terrible and indefensible decision.

Speaking for me only

Ezra Klein can not get away with writing this:

As the Internet becomes more and more pervasive and job applicants have a longer and longer paper trail, prospective employers are going to have to overlook a public record containing opinions that, in previous eras, they would never have seen, and would never have tolerated. Come to think of it, my presence at The Washington Post is probably a good example of this, too.

Ha! One thing for sure, nothing Ezra has written since he joined the WaPo has given Fred Hiatt a moment of concern. The Village is safe from Ezra's pen. Indeed, it has a potent new weapon - the Village Blogger.

Speaking for me only

While they complain about Jon Meacham, what would the Village Bloggers do without him? I mean waving poms poms can only hold their audience for so long. Meacham provides them catnip.

This is an Open Thread.