The headline sounds straight out of The Onion. Alas it was BuzzFeed that reported on Tuesday that Rachel Maddow, Al “Resist-We-Much” Sharpton, and fellow mouth breathers Ed Schulz and Lawrence O’Donnell were invited to the White House to confab with the president in re the fiscal cliff.
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, released a statement after the fact confirming:
This afternoon at the White House, the President met with influential progressives to talk about the importance of preventing a tax increase on middle class families, strengthening our economy and adopting a balanced approach to deficit reduction.
Influential progressives? The White House must have arrived at that presumption based on the network’s market share, which is larger than CNN’s, though that is still not saying much.
Is this really who the president wants to be seen in the company of, let alone be described as conferring with? Is he not aware of O’Donnell’s having challenged Mitt Romney’s son, Tagg, on air to go mano a mano with him after the younger Romney spoke (admittedly inappropriately) of taking a swing at the president for calling his dad a liar? Is he unaware of Sharpton’s long and dishonorable history as a race huckster, provocateur, and anti-Semite?
Presumably Obama has no problem with Ed Schulz telling his audience that the Republicans want to see them dead because Obama has come close himself to crossing the line in his disparagement of “ the enemy.” (As for Maddow, all that really needs to be said is that she is wrong once a day, unlike a stopped clock, because that’s how frequently her show airs.)
Nevertheless, is this really the best the president could do in the interests of appearing serious about snatching the nation back from the precipice?
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