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From Media Matters via AlterNet:

Obama: Fox News Destructive for Country

We’ve been saying it for years: Fox News is not a news organization, it is a political outlet. It seems that the President agrees. In the latest Rolling Stone, President Obama is quoted as saying Fox News is “part of the tradition” of media outlets who, like William Randolph Hearst, report with “a very clear, undeniable point of view.” He added, “It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

More here.

Okay, we're nearly two years into the Obama presidency, and look where unity and bipartisanship have gotten us: nowhere. Sure, the President's gotten some major legislation passed, albeit watered-down and tailor-made so as not to offend powerful oppositional interests, but without any support at all from those powerful interests. It remains to be seen if health care reform really will have much of an impact. It remains to be seen if BP really will clean up its mess in the Gulf. It remains to be seen if Wall Street will use the trillions in bail-out money it's received for the good of the nation. And odds are that the corporations will win out in the end. Meanwhile Obama has been subjected to at least as many attacks from the right-wing noise machine as was his Democratic predecessor, President Clinton. Actually, it's probably been worse, what with Nazi, Communist, Nigerian anti-colonialist, not-really-an-American, and straight-up racist labels being stuck on his forehead.

In short, the Democratic presidency and majorities in Congress are a wasteland battlefield, pocked with craters and dead bodies. And the Republicans, who, as a political party, continue to poll very badly, are poised to take back at least the House of Representatives. Obama's easy going, let's all get along game plan is a total failure.

This was an obvious eventuality to any and all honest political observers before the President was even elected. I was saying that he needed to roll up his sleeves and start punching out Republicans and corporatists back in 2008, that it was the only way to proceed given the current political reality. I was saying it after he was elected. I was saying it during the health care battle. I'm saying it now.

The President needs to name names. He needs to call people fucking stupid. He needs to be a total bastard. This is the only way. Obama has to understand that all the right wing wants to do is destroy him. I mean, they've been perfectly clear about it, but he doesn't seem to take them seriously, which has allowed his opponents to, well, destroy him.

I'm really glad that he's calling out FOX for what it is. But he needs to do this all the time, and with much harsher language. This country's not ready to play nice. We have to fight.

Or we're fucked.

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