Oh Andrea
by digby
Here’s Andrea Mitchell this morning:
Of course, the Republicans are pouring money — both sides are pouring money in– and that’s where the battle ground is, with Republicans trying to nationalize [the election] and Democrats trying to localize it.
Maybe the feel good factor, the marginalized factor is that the markets are up. That does seem to translate rather quickly as people feel that wealth effect.
It certainly doesn’t translate from their houses and that’s the other big hazard out there for Democrats, the foreclosure issue. That’s why they’re have a big crisis meeting at the White House (giggle) … as though they could do anything about it in this short term.
Where to begin? First of all, there’s no acknowledgment that the Republicans and their allies are pouring in rivers of cash compared to the Democrats small stream. Seas of cash. Mighty oceans of cash. Her reflexive “both sides do it” in this context is beyond misleading.
Secondly, the slight uptick in good feelings about the economy is highly unlikely to be a “wealth effect” unless they are only polling people with six figure incomes and above. Working people in this country do not feel a “wealth effect” from the stock market. They feel a wealth effect from the job market and the housing market, both of which are still stuck in the mud.
But the final comment is what made me re-run the segment: is it beltway CW that the foreclosure issue is a “hazard” for Democrats? I’m guessing that Mrs Greenspan thinks so because Democrats are the ones stepping up on behalf of all these deadbeat American citizens while the Republicans (and yes, some Democrats too) are the ones doing the “responsible” work of protecting the banks and Wall Street from being held liable for their crimes. Certainly, that’s what you read in the Wall Street Journal. And that’s what you hear from all the Very Serious People in the media.
But whether or not those silly billies in the White House can reap political rewards from the foreclosure fraud epidemic before the election, they are still responsible for running the government and maybe, just maybe, they think that miles of fraudulent foreclosure documents and the prospect of a legal battle royale between Wall Street and the banks over who is going to be left holding the bag for it might just be considered a pretty real damned crisis. Whether they will do the right thing is still unknown. But for gawd sake, is it too much to ask that the press takes this as seriously as they do that tweeting cretin from Alaska?
What made me see red was the dismissive attitude about the foreclosure fraud crisis. It’s a perfect reflection of the villager mentality: they see people who were foreclosed upon as deserving whatever they get. And the ones who are being wrongly foreclosed upon are collateral damage. (“It’s only a small percentage” dontcha know.) They worry incessantly about moral hazard among the plebes — people might just get the idea that they don’t have to be responsible, that they will be bailed out, that they will not be held accountable for breaking contracts and breaking the law. And never once do they turn that scolding, moral tone on the malefactors of great wealth who are ripping this country to shreds purely so they can save a couple of percentage points on their taxes.
But then Mitchell and the rest of the beltway press are part of the wealthy ruling class too, aren’t they? And when the media are part of the ruling class, as William Greider asked almost two decades ago, who will tell the people?
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