THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION
REUTERS/JASON REED
that met the direness of the situation remains a fatal error.
“The one thing that I learned
when I was at the White House
was that we thought we had everything we needed to govern: Obama,
Pelosi — best Speaker ever — 60
votes in the Senate [Specter would
switch parties after the stimulus
passed],” said Van Jones, who,
since leaving the White House, has
become active in outside progressive organizations.
“Turns out we had a third of
what we needed. You need media
on your side — for-real media, like
[Republicans] have with Fox. And
you need a movement in the streets
like they have with the Tea Party. It
turns out if you don’t have the me-
HUFFINGTON 09.09.12
Sen. Max Baucus
(D-MT) shakes hands
with Sen. Olympia
Snowe (R-ME) after
the Senate Finance
Committee passed
the Democratic
healthcare reform bill
with a 14-9 vote.
dia or the movement, you’ll get beat
to butter on the government level.”
Jones told Huffington he was
stunned to see conservatives
out-organize the White House.
“How was it that for two years
the right wing in America had a
monopoly on both the ground war,
street protests, and the idea war?
That’s almost unprecedented,” he
said. “I mean, how are we going to
get out-marched by the right in an
economic catastrophe?”
BACK-ROOM
DEALS
The mad dash to pass a stimulus
may have forced the White House
to not let the perfect be an enemy
of the good. But the health care bill
it began pursuing soon thereafter
made clear the extent to which the
president was willing to engage in