From the White House press briefing today, on what the president thinks of the state of the race in Massachusetts:
And, then there’s this exchange with ABC’s Jake Tapper:
Gibbs: “It’s a heavily contested election.”
Tapper: Does the president think that the fact that it’s so close is a reflection on his style/agenda?
“We’ll have a chance to get into…There’s a tremendous amount of upset and anger in this country about where we are in this economy. That’s not a surprise to us. In many ways, we’re here because of that upset and anger…”
“That’s not to talk about any previous administration except that for quite some time, the middle class has thought that Washington was looking out for Washington and the big special interests and not looking out for them…”
“I have no doubt that people are gonna express anger and frustration about where we are.”
It’s interesting to see the voter angst in Massachusetts described by the White House press secretary as a continuation of the sentiment that brought Barack Obama into office. We’ve been told all year that citizens critical of the Obama/Democratic agenda are “manufactured” “Astroturf” (in the words of Gibbs himself), “evilmongers,” “brownshirts,” and “political terrorists,” who are all white and mostly racist.
Now, voter discontent with Obama’s overreach has reared its head in ultra-blue Massachusetts, and Gibbs must acknowledge it as a sentiment that goes beyond backwoods anti-government trogolodytes of the administration’s nightmares. So, what Democrats used to call Tea Party race-hatred is transformed by Gibbs into a vicious still-active Bush hangover, like that which lifted Obama to the presidency in the first place. Certainly, Bush hatred was a part of what lifted Obama to power, but he and his movement are usually wont to talk about it in more pristine terminology.
Gibbs did not give Brown supporters the benefit of the president’s 2008 rhetoric today. He did not call them pure purveyors of hope and agents of change, instead emphasizing their anger, but the equation with the pro-Obama movement of 2008 is telling.
Politicos have noted that, in this race, Brown was able to “wrest the mantle of change” from Coakley. In these comments, Gibbs seems to be handing it over.
