The Politician of the Year
Matthew Yglesias
The Daily Beast
Everyone hated Harry Reid, but Matthew Yglesias says today he proved himself a hero by squeezing 60 votes from a cranky, uncooperative Senate for historic health-care legislation.
There are some politicians who are more hated than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but few are less loved. The national numbers recorded on Polling Report are dismal. A recent Research 2000 poll has him at a 32/53 favorable/unfavorable split. An October NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that just 2 percent of the public had “very positive” feelings toward Reid. To the right, he’s the menacing, uncharismatic face of American liberalism, paired with Nancy Pelosi as the real architect of the Democratic legislative agenda in order to bypass Barack Obama’s still-considerable personal popularity. But to the left, he’s the face of repeated sellouts, of ineffectuality, of corrupt bargains and unsatisfactory compromises. Even the people of his home state of Nevada hate him. He’s losing in the polls against both possible Republican opponents, and his 38/49 favorable/unfavorable rating is disastrous for an incumbent.
From where we sit today, it looks an awful lot like the low-key, unassuming, unpopular senator from Nevada is going to deliver on the most significant piece of progressive legislation in over 40 years.
His unpopularity at home, however, only underscores the real truth about Reid—his performance throughout 2009 has been nothing short of heroic. Faced with epic political problems at home and major national challenges in Washington, he’s done what all too few senators do: Put his personal concerns aside and thrown his time and energy into said challenges. And daunting as those are, the intellectual and policy problems involved are minor compared to the political and logistical problems involved with leading the modern Senate. The anger and disappointment liberals direct toward Reid, in particular, is almost entirely misguided and would be better channeled into support for reforming the world’s most dysfunctional legislative body.
(More here.)
The Daily Beast
Everyone hated Harry Reid, but Matthew Yglesias says today he proved himself a hero by squeezing 60 votes from a cranky, uncooperative Senate for historic health-care legislation.
There are some politicians who are more hated than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but few are less loved. The national numbers recorded on Polling Report are dismal. A recent Research 2000 poll has him at a 32/53 favorable/unfavorable split. An October NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that just 2 percent of the public had “very positive” feelings toward Reid. To the right, he’s the menacing, uncharismatic face of American liberalism, paired with Nancy Pelosi as the real architect of the Democratic legislative agenda in order to bypass Barack Obama’s still-considerable personal popularity. But to the left, he’s the face of repeated sellouts, of ineffectuality, of corrupt bargains and unsatisfactory compromises. Even the people of his home state of Nevada hate him. He’s losing in the polls against both possible Republican opponents, and his 38/49 favorable/unfavorable rating is disastrous for an incumbent.
From where we sit today, it looks an awful lot like the low-key, unassuming, unpopular senator from Nevada is going to deliver on the most significant piece of progressive legislation in over 40 years.
His unpopularity at home, however, only underscores the real truth about Reid—his performance throughout 2009 has been nothing short of heroic. Faced with epic political problems at home and major national challenges in Washington, he’s done what all too few senators do: Put his personal concerns aside and thrown his time and energy into said challenges. And daunting as those are, the intellectual and policy problems involved are minor compared to the political and logistical problems involved with leading the modern Senate. The anger and disappointment liberals direct toward Reid, in particular, is almost entirely misguided and would be better channeled into support for reforming the world’s most dysfunctional legislative body.
(More here.)
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