The Courtier Press

Booman is right.  This is unbelievably stupid.  It is a prime example of the failures of the DC press to see anything beyond process.

Obama had a great quote the other night about Syria and his "messaging" problem.  He said the important thing was to get the policy right, not roll out a smooth product line of war.  In 2002-3, as he noted, the Bush Administration did a great job rolling out the Iraq war.  Top flight messaging.

But the war itself is America's greatest disaster since at least Vietnam.  If Kerry-Lavrov works, then Obama should (but won't) get tremendous credit for being flexible.

Meanwhile, if anyone thinks that the problems in DC stem from Obama's messaging, should come and sit in my wife's US Government course for a year, propped in the corner wearing a dunce cap.

A completely insane, delusional caucus exists with the House of Representatives that is going to shutdown the government.  They worry about being unseated by literally some of stupidest people to ever serve in this country's legislature.  They worry about a challenge from a Louis Gohmert/Michelle Bachman type.  And so they embrace the bugfuck insane stances of the Moron Caucus.

And because of the structure of the US government, the House exerts a virtual veto over everything.  If you refuse to govern responsibly, if you refuse to bargain and deal, you are courting catastrophe.

And there is nothing Obama's "messaging" can do about this structural reality.

For years, the GOP won elections based on appeals to cultural issues: racial resentment, homophobia, abortions and guns.  This "lily white" strategy is going to doom them at the national level.

But the same ignorance that leads people to think that most of the federal budget goes to foreign aid or that people on SNAP are lazy moochers is the same ignorance the GOP is (probably accurately) depending on to let them avoid taking responsibility for crashing the economy in the next few weeks.

Maybe at THAT point, we could talk about Obama's messaging.

This is not a process story, a personnel story or a horse race story.  It's a story about the structure of government and the intricacies of policy development.

Which is why the Courtier Press will be unable to cover it well.