Howard Fineman Joins the Village Freakout

Surprise, surprise - Howard Fineman [1] joins fellow Newsweeker John Meacham [2], Wall Street Journal sycophant Peggy Noonan [3] and other elders of the Elite Media Village in freaking out about an Obama presidency and how it might actually mean real change:

This is the engine room of a novel grass-roots machine that may soon have another purpose: to help Obama govern the country. If he wins, it also could cause him headaches...'His supporters have sky-high expectations and expect to be involved,' says Will Marshall, who studied the Obama organization for the Democratic Leadership Council. 'They are loyal but not easy to control.'...

It could also cause Obama problems. Much of America may be gung-ho about putting more troops into Afghanistan, but it's not clear Obamaworld is; he could run into opposition if he seriously pursues it. On the other hand, initiating talks with Iranian and Venezuelan dictators enjoys more support on his e-mail lists than in the rest of the country. If the Democrats win bigger majorities in the House and Senate, they (if not Obama) may well be eager to exact vengeance on Republicans, or at least cram Democratic ideas down GOP throats. Obama supporters might prefer more reaching-out. As Marshall sees it, most of them want a "transpartisan" approach that jettisons the old labels. "These people feel a close, personal tie to Obama, just as conservatives did to Reagan," he says. "But if and when he starts governing, he is going to start disappointing them."

Fineman's take is a bit more honest than other Villagers - he does correctly note that Obama's grassroots organization could end up pressuring a President Obama. Where he veers back to the Village, however, is in how he casts that possibility.

To the Village, it would be horrible - catastrophic even - if Obama supporters dared to expect Obama to actually pursue a true progressive agenda. Obama supporters are therefore depicted as a wild-eyed, bewildered herd of lunatic leftists that, as the corporate-backed DLC says, are - gasp! - "not easy to control."

This is a portrayal designed to press Obama to immediately shun his base, capitulate to conservatives (in the spirit of "transpartisanship"), reject "cramming Democratic ideas down GOP throats" (even though Obama campaigned on Democratic ideas), and bow down to the Serious and Respected Villagers after the election. Of course, these are the same Villagers whose neoconservatism got us into Iraq and whose free-market fundamentalism drove the country to the bring of economic disaster - all under the guise of "transpartisanship." Now, these same Villagers are making it clear that the Serious and Responsible thing for Obama to do is deliberately "disappoint" the people who elected him.

This Village freakout is only going to get more vocal after the election - and we better be prepared to fight back.