Counterpoint

This is the denouement for Obama's HRC speech Saturday night -- really a response to the march yesterday. Didn't take long, did it?

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As you might imagine, the reaction in the gay community is not positive. Both John Aravosis and Pam Spaulding were right on top of this one, and neither was being very nice.

FDL has a transcript of the relevant portion, but I'm going to zero in on one comment:

LESTER HOLT: John what we saw in that protest today, was it simply frustration or does it represent a serious problem the President is having with an important part of his base?

JOHN HARWOOD: As a practical matter Lester I don’t think it’s a serious problem. we’ve seen and certainly Bill Clinton learned that they Democratic President can get punished by the mainstream of the electorate for being too aggressive on social issues so for now I think the administration feels that if they take care of the big issues — health care, energy, the economy — he’s going to be just fine with this group. (Emphasis added.)

It appears that the White House really is stuck in 1993. It's this kind of thinking that informs the entire HRC, "wait-and-see" wing of the movement, and it's this kind of thinking that gets Obama a pass for not producing. And let's get a little real about this -- it's not the mainstream that Obama -- that is, Emanuel -- is afraid of. It's the rabid right. Jim Burroway has done us the signal service of rounding up some of the more coherent initial reactions from the Neverneverland set.

Digby sums it up nicely:

It's Goldilocks punditry: since the gasbags had to admit that the teabaggers are a bunch of loons, they also have to dismiss the LGBT community and "the left" as loons as well. That means the village is juuuuust right.

Also keep in mind that John Harwood is one of the biggest putzes in town.

Unfortunately, it's the putzes who are getting the air time. (And this is new exactly how?)

The big problem with the Obama administration to date, as I see it, is that it took no time at all for them to become establishment politicians and adopt the Village mindset.

Update:

From The Plumline, the White House is denying, denying, denying the "internet left fringe" slam:

Asked for comment, White House senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer emailed:

“That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all, we’ve held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth.”

Now, of course that "administration advisor" is safely anonymous, and I will grant that the administration does seem to be interested in keeping the blogosphere in the loop. So was it Harwood just stirring shit, or do we have a case of plausible deniability here? I, and most other commentators I've run across, have taken those remarks as being directed against the gay blogosphere in particular, and given the circumstances -- nice campaign speech to HRC, complete indifference to the March for Equality, an "anonymous source" and a swift denial -- I'm not sure I'm convinced.

As always, actions speak louder than words, and actions have been in pretty short supply.