The Dish

From Politifact. John Cole looks back at the year:

There have definitely been compromises, and there have been letdowns. There have been mistakes, and there have been broken promises. I’m not thrilled with the slow pace of Gitmo, I’m not thrilled about any number of things, but I see slow progress. But there have also been unrealistic expectations- Obama was always a risk averse, cautious, careful person- I remember the many discussions we had here regarding Obama as poker player versus John McCain and his reckless love of roulette, and we used to agree that a cautious poker player who studies the opposition and thinks long ball and treats us like adults was desirable.

Andrew Sprung goes line by line.

A reader writes:

The all time, hands down, most depressing Christmas song has to be "Grandma got run over by a reindeer." I mean…a GRANDMA gets RUN OVER by a Freakin' Reindeer! Missing your, family, or a lover kinda' seems a little whiny compared to a senior citizen brutally attacked by an animal. They even say she had hoof prints on her back.

Yglesias is surprised by the GOP's united front:

It’s normally hard for a congressional minority to maintain discipline. After all, the majority can offer actual things—policy concessions and porky handouts—that the minority really can’t offer. Throughout this process I kept making jokes about health reform being amended to include a lobsterman bailout to get Senators Collins & Snowe to sign on, and I really thought something like that would work.

And this applies triply to substantive policy issues. I’ve heard dozens of conservative commentators complain that the bill’s deficit-reduction measures and cost controls aren’t tough enough. And I’ve heard plenty of Republicans echoing these complaints. But where were the GOP Senators saying “I will vote for this bill if such-and-such cost controls are strengthened in such-and-such a way.” The filibuster gives members of the minority real leverage. Leverage they could have used to shape the course of policy. Instead, they gave all their leverage away to Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, so we wound up with some weird freebies for Nebraska.

Steve Lombardo analyzes:

[F]or Obama to realize some kind of January bump from health care reform's eventual passage, he will need to explain to the American public a) what the bill does and b) why it will be a good thing for them personally. Perhaps then, as is typical after these protracted legislative battles are won by a President and his party, Obama might get a modest (three-to-five point) bounce in his approval rating. But that is far from a certainty. Today, Quinnipiac University released another poll that showed a majority of voters disapprove of the Senate's health care plan. It is going to take some work to convince voters that this bill is a good thing. Not impossible, but increasingly difficult.

I don't think this is about a short term five point bump. Here's what has happened: a liberal Democratic president has just passed universal health insurance. No Democratic president has done something like that since Johnson. It is designed to show that government can do something real and tangible for the working poor. And in that respect, its impact on the political culture will be deep and lasting, unless the opposition can stop it, demonize it, or jump up and down enough to make it seem as if Obama is out of step with the times rather than them.

My suspicion is that they will fail in the end to achieve this; and that this new landmark for liberalism will reorient American politics the way Reagan's first year did – profoundly. I may be wrong and I will be accountable for this judgment. But the age demands government action. And Obama is doing as much of it as consensually and as civilly but as ruthlessly as he can.

Why so pragmatic and centrist? Because he wants it all to last.

Julian Sanchez further unpacks his much linked-to post form last week:

[A] populist right animated by ressentiment isn’t going to do a good job of injecting conservative ideas into deliberation in a useful way. This is not, just to be clear, some kind of white-gloved complaint about “tone,” because really, fuck tone. The ascendancy of angry bluster isn’t the problem; it’s a symptom.  The problem is what the anger obscures.

Today on the Dish we continued to keep the spotlight on Iran. Khamenei smeared Montazeri, Abbas Milani honored Montazeri, NIAC touched on the significance of Qom, the Dish honored Neda, and we were all awed by protest footage.

In other news, we saw marriage equality on the march in Latin America, anti-gay rumors on Rwanda were muted, a Dem congressman switched teams, and Palin continued her war on bloggers. Andrew revisited the '90s, Pawlenty blabbered to Newsweek, and Frum disapproved of the healthcare bill.

The Dish aired more depressing Xmas songs from Robert Earle Keene, Paul Kelly, Woody Guthrie, and Judy Garland (again). We chronicled two more Recession View updates here and here. We talked more Laredo here and here. Andrew begrudgingly issued Von Hoffmans here and here. 

And don't forget to vote! 

— C.B.

Laterra Hopkins, photographed by Chip Somodevilla just before Obama's inauguration, is running a strong second. From the comments of the poll:

As I submit this comment it's interesting to note that Protester leads with Hopkins not far behind. Despair and Hope, Grief and Joy, Exhaustion and Energy.

Vote here.

Yes, that's Chuck Schumer and Ben Nelson. Ben Smith explains.