Announcements

Of course, what was just said will be lost on some.

There will be some, whether Democrats or Rovian dirty-tricksters, who will overlook "We are not going to stop people from posting good-faith criticism of the President's actions as President."

What we say and do sometimes affects our Senators and Representatives. Not always, but sometimes. When we criticize Administrative policies of which we, or some of us, legitimately disagree with, our legitimate criticism can sometimes influence the actions that they take. Recently, for example, 68 House Democrats sent a letter to the White House to object to the provisions being negotated in the latest free-trade agreement by which the long-standing "buy-American" preference in contracts for Federal goods and services would be eliminated (even prohibited). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/obama-trade-congress-buy-american_n_1475277.html?ref=politics#comments

It's unlikely that President Obama personally negotiated for the elimination of the "buy-American" preference, or that he personally acquiesced to it, but someone in his Administration did. The support of the actions of progessive House Democrats at the present or other times should not be misinterpreted as Obama bashing or relentless Obama bashing. None of us can directly criticize the Administration official who acquiesced to the elimination of the "buy-American" preference because we don't even know their name. But when some noise is made in opposition to policies which appear to be contrary to traditional Democratic policies, that noise may be called to President Obama's attention or at least someone higher up in the Administration that may also be opposed to the non-traditional policies. Sometimes, the references to President Obama in the DU posts are references to anonymous officials within his Administration. We know his name. We don't know theirs.

There are, of course, Rovian dirty-tricksters who post on DU who pretend to have thin skins. And, of course, there are some bona fide Democrats who genuinely have thin-skins. (I can remember my great-great uncle who would not let anyone criticize any action taken by the Roosevelt Administration including interning Americans who happened to be Japanese descendants.) But in the absence of those two extremes, the rest of us probably fall somewhere in the middle who can tolerate and sometimes even enjoy the give-and-take with others.

Skinner, you should also be thanked from time to time for adding the "ignore" button. It sometimes, but not often, makes my day.