Obama acknowledged we tortured detainees, but instead of prosecuting anyone, we just moved along. You'd think the intelligence community would be grateful, but they repaid him by totally missing the rise of ISIS. I guess no one we kidnapped and sent to Gitmo ten years ago knows anything about them.
(I could have told the same story about Wall Street, but this version is, to me, more trenchant.)
There are so many reason for today's massacre, but one of them is that Obama and the Party let each other down. The connection to 1980 is below.
The accepted narrative, by now, is that Jimmy Carter didn't have a chance against the juggernaut of Saint Ronnie, but that oversimplifies that election. In the closing days of the election, his campaign collapsed and the election turned into a rout. And one reason for that is his execution was feckless. I'd say he wasn't responsible for the embarrassing failure of the Iranian hostage rescue mission, but in a way he was, not just because he is titularly Commander-in-Chief. One tactical reason it failed was the way each service insisted on having a role in it. The result was incompatible radio frequencies. He didn't have to accept that plan, and, to give credit where due, we reformed our armed forces so that we wouldn’t make that blunder again.
We underperformed recent polls, and while there are many reasons (I highly recommend this diary), Obama's Administration has started to look more like Carter's. What stopped Obama from announcing that (1) Ebola was not a threat to Americans anywhere other than Fox News and (2) how we were going to protect medical workers who have gone to fight the disease in Africa, where it is a threat? It's no excuse that we lack a Surgeon General. How many voters know we don't have a Surgeon General because of GOP intransigence, and, more to the point, why would they care? They want services. (Republicans want them without paying taxes, and only for themselves, but no matter.)
If we are going to be the party of government, we need to do it well. That means understanding the contracting systems that allowed Obamacare's debut to be a shambles. That means no more pretending economic recovery for the top 1% is significant when median wages are stagnant. That means holding the Intelligence Community accountable for their failures, not pretending turning over our cellphone calls is what they need.
And if we want to win, we have to campaign well, too. That means telling Democratic candidates to support Obamacare, because when candidates run away from the party—I'm looking at you—Alison Lundergan Grimes), whatever teeny advantage you get, and in your case, it wasn't enough by 15 points, is outweighed by damage to the Democratic brand as a whole. Not only didn't you save yourself, you helped take neighbor Kay Hagan down.
Well, two more years of working for more and better Democrats.