The Republican's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2013
According to most pundits and the White House Press Corp, the big story right now is that 2013 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for President Obama. Of course they have facts like the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov and his low poll numbers to back up that claim.
But one way to demonstrate the distorted lens through which the media tends to look at things like this is to think about how 2013 looked for Republicans. Their primary goal lately has been to see Obamacare fail. They were given an assist on that when the web site launched so badly. And BOY, did they run with it!
As anyone who is interested in more than a few days of our frenzied media market knows, a web site can be fixed...and it has been. Now what? They can freak out all they want over Pajama Boy, but the reality is that come January, millions of Americans will have affordable health insurance. And there's nothing they can do to stop that.
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Looking forward to 2014, we have the prospect of an all-out civil war in the Republican Party with the teapublicans promising a blood bath in the primaries for mid-term elections. So tell me, other than a botched web site, what is it the Republicans have to show for all their efforts this past year?
Without the patriarchal lens of only looking at one authority figure, the whole notion of who had a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year" in 2013 looks a bit different. That's why seeing the big picture is so important.
Read the rest here:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-republicans-terrible-horrible-no.html
GOTV2014 
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is that their relentless focus on HIM, HIS poll numbers, and HIS legacy totally excludes the role that Republicans have played in obstructing him at every turn (and to the extent that it IS mentioned, practically blames President Obama for it) not to mention prevents them from asking the Republicans to outline THEIR agenda and ideas (of which they seem to have none). There is almost no apparent focus on Republican shortcomings, their dismal poll numbers, and obvious lack of talent/leadership/vision. The Republicans have basically sought- since 2009- to profit politically almost solely off of President Obama's mistakes, missteps, shortcomings, and failure to overcome their obstructionism and the MSM have tried their hardest to help them do just that. Thankfully, for the most part, they have failed though embracing the fringe of their party helped them do well in 2010 but they are still going to try to make the 2014 and 2016 elections about President Obama and his (they hope) "failed legacy". Their relentlessly negative coverage of ACA seems to be one of the ways the MSMS plan on helping Republicans electorally in 2014 and it makes me sick to my stomach to think that the public- at least enough of them- is going to buy into their never ending repeal campaign despite their complete dearth of viable ideas to replace it and the negative impact it is almost certainly going to have on the millions of people enrolling into private plans and/or Medicaid through it.
