Going after Thomas Friedman is like shooting fish in a barrel, so I'll just recommend that you go and read his silly column today and I'm sure you'll recognize every stale, centrist point in it for the nonsense it is. Let's just say that rallying the nation around the idea of the Grand Bargain with its "shared sacrifice" and "skin in the game" isn't up there with "Happy days are here again" or "Morning in America" as politics' most inspirational slogan. Somehow I doubt that Average Joe's are going to be energized by the idea that wealthy people are going to be asked nicely to kick in some tip money in exchange for them giving up their financial security. (But hey, it's probably better than WTF.)
On Morning Joe today, Howard Dean said Thomas Friedman is writing "opinion page blather" and blames Wall Street for being miscreants. Watch the Villagers turn on him with the ferociousness of rabid dogs:
Right. The only thing wrong with Friedman's column was the comparison to Tiger Woods. The rest of it made very good sense. For millionaires anyway. (Just listening to Harold Ford defend Wall Street is enough to ruin my lunch. Is there a bigger whore anywhere on the planet? ) But at least Andrea Mitchell was there to step in and help us understand Tom Friedman better from a personal perspective. He's an exceptional golfer, you see. That explains everything.
The good news is that they all agree that what the President has to do is go to the country with the Grand Bargain and sell it as hard as Kevin Costner golfed in Tin Cup. Or something.
All these wealthy TV celebrities know that the only thing that matters is that we clear this debt as quickly as possible. And some of them undoubtedly feel very righteous and pure in their willingness to pitch in and endure the necessary "shared sacrifice" to get that done. It's quite inspirational to see people so willing to do their part. Now if only all those millions of old, sick, poor and struggling people would get with the program and be as patriotic we could lick these problems and move on to something interesting, like war or blow-jobs.
You'll notice that none of them mentioned the 800 pound unemployed gorilla in the room. But then they all have extremely well-paying jobs, don't they?