I'm rather saddened and wholly perplexed, but not at all annoyed, by some readers' reactions to my recent criticisms of the Obama administration's inept or misguided navigation of the fiscal cliff. Inept or misguided happens to be my characterization of President Obama's actions to date because inept or misguided is what I believe his actions have been.
This site is called "p m carpenter's commentary" for the immensely unoriginal reason that I, P.M. Carpenter, hold forth with my commentary here. I am not a hack, I am not a flack, I am not any kind of hired gun for anyone. I express my opinions as genuinely and honestly as I possibly can. And I should think all readers would far prefer honest commentary from me rather than my pandering to what I know would be the easier, more popular route of uninterrupted, pro-Obama flackdom.
Nonetheless some readers, it turns out, don't want honesty at all. They want soothing, comforting reinforcements of whatever it is they happen to believe, which of course they have every right to believe. They should, however, at the very least lighten the hell up, for I have the selfsame right.
What's tremendously ironic about all this is that criticisms of the Obama administration, especially at this decisive juncture, are perhaps the most valuable assets the administration could acquire. Only the deliberate absence of honest assessments of wrong paths taken, or of those under consideration, would represent a dereliction of civic or journalistic duty. And I respect the Obama administration far too much to stay quiet or to aid and abet what I regard as its potentially self-destructive paths.
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