Could someone please pass the cranberry sauce?

Nice blog Lis... It made me think of this:

Perfect and beautifully written.  Even from the distance of blog land, it is clear that you are a national treasure.

Lovely story, Lis.  I like that couple.  I'm guessing that since they're so compatible their politics are similar, too.  It seems likely they would have talked about politics somewhere along the way and she wouldn't have been pussyfooting around about her family being "different" if her politics were similar to his.  The sensible thing for her to do would be to warn him about possible dinner conversations.

 If they weren't compatible politically, that would be a different story.  It's not going to last anyway, so he has nothing to lose by going after that bunch.  But I think they are together on this, so my vote would be for him to just bite his tongue and maybe hold his nose as they're talking, just so they know he's not going along with that garbage, but he's too smart to let them drag him into the abyss while there's still dessert to look forward to.

But since this is a parable about Obama, I say unless he's got a dog in that fight, let it go.

Leaving aside the obvious fact that not all women are, or aspire to be ‘ladies’, I don't even get your piece as a 'how to meet the in-laws' piece. 

I would wonder why ‘Beloved’ had low-balled her family’s political views, or the degree to which his might have been contrary to them.  Their table, their views rule; I would have held my tongue, as would most guests.  But I sure would have reminded myself that I would be marrying her family, as well as ‘Beloved.’ 

 “And she warns you that perhaps the family isn't at all like you. She warns you that perhaps you're going to meet some members of her family who not only burp loudly at the dinner table, but they have no problem arguing about stuff that makes no sense to you.”

 So “she” finds the stuff they talk about incomprehensible?  If I were Beloved, I’d wonder at the degree of her…cluelessness and lack of curiosity, or cognitive skills?   So what does he find at the table?  Jon Kyl and John McCain and/or Glenn Beck politics?  You never say what politics Beloved holds or espouses at the table, nor how we discover that ‘her’ relatives hate his politics.  He’s already let the cat out of the bag?  Then why would he smack ‘em around and leave the table?  Don’t get it.  You do seem to think that he should have gone upstairs for some covert hooking up with ‘her’, where they could giggle a bit over the craziness of his soon-to-be-in-laws!  (Picuring Obama and Gobbs or Rahm ‘giggling in the Oval?

 Now the point of this blog, I think, was to argue more fully an argument you were making for bipartisanship on Genghis’ blog.  Which seemed to have evolved into an argument for bipartisanship for its own sake, I think.

 But in no way is your family scenario analogous to Obama and Congress, IMO.  Nor is Obama’s famous call for bipartisanship analogous to a Miss Manners Dinner Party, as AA suggests, then takes off on the subject of politics and verbal brawls, and loving conflict more than making political points.

 Unless you, as many, buy into the criticism that he does in fact want the love of the opposition party, which would be a crying shame.  Our government is not a family, LisB, and Obama should not be courting the opposition, which doesn’t rule out initial decency or argument without swear words or insults, for instance.  He should be standing up for principles and policies he espoused during the campaign (and no; I don’t think we all should have read his books and decided that what he campaigned on wasn’t who he really was).

 I tried to run a few scenarios for you, but I deleted them; my heart’s just not into it.  But you see, what I have trouble reconciling is the emergency nature of the problems besetting the nation, and the degree to which Obama keeps punting.  Or negotiating with himself before negotiating with Republicans.  Or making one promise, only to actually do something else. 

 After two years now, I believe he’s getting almost exactly what he wants, and has used the bipartisanship shtick for cover, as many in Congress do, especially the now-gruesome Senate.   Come January 3, he may wish he hadn’t been quite so acquiescent:  there are some bad plans afoot from the Republicans, including some of the heads of various committees that can make life awful for Obama and, even worse, US. 

 His economic team blocked most of the good fin-regs every step of the way: they didn’t lose the battles, they won them.  Sad for us, sad for the future of the economy, and horrid for us in the future.  I’m pissed.  I wanted someone to stand up for people, not banks, jobs, not bank balance sheets, real health care reform and cost-cutting, not just…well…what we got instead.  Nancy Pelosi’s still waiting to hear from him on a middle-class tax cut; where is he?  Making deals for ‘temporary extensions to all’?  Feh!  Can we make enough noise to prevent it?  Or convince him that deficit reduction right now is just plain crazy??  I dunno.  But good Lord, I hate to think what he’ll do when the Republican committees really roll out the evil dreck they’re planning.  Could he finally get pissed enough to do battle on behalf of our lives and our kids’ and grandkids’ lives?  I hope to God he doesn’t ‘mind his freakin’ manners’.  They’re trying to turn us into serfs, Lis.  And so are plenty of the Dems.  We need to start differentiating them.

Families are nuts!!

This is why I now bring shoes to all family gatherings.

And Presidential press conferences.

After reading this several times, along with the comments, I have to say that the analogy isn't working for me, lis.

If the family is the American people, there would have been some like-minded people at the table, and therefore should have felt free to make his points, knowing that nearly half the people would have his back.

It sounds to me more like the family is the republican party, which changes the dynamic. In that case, you cannot just shut up, because you need to be able to convert at least some of the moderates, and you can only do that by discussing the issues. No way can you storm off.

At risk of straying OT, what has happened to Obama, in my opinion, has happened for several reasons, some of them Obama's fault, some beyond his control.

First, the repub party was in total disarray. The "pundits" were saying that it would take 20 years for the repubs to be relevant again. They had nothing to lose by becoming the party of no. They chose to actively attempt to destroy this President as their one and only plan for America, country be damned, and in spite of the fact that many of the things he wanted to do had repub support at one time (ie, john mccain being in favor of repealing DADT, and now actively working against it.) And it worked. And the reason it worked, again, my opinion, is because he is black. (And I believe the same would have been true if it were a woman, but that's a whole 'nuther discussion.)

Second, in normal times, I believe the moderate republicans would have worked with him, just as moderate dems have worked with repub presidents. But somehow, the repub leadership was able to convince its members to hang together, no matter how bizarre their tactics became, no matter how outrageous their behavior. As much as I despise what they have done, I am in awe of their ability to present a united front.

Third, and this IS Obama's fault, he used the tactics he said he would work against to get the health care issues resolved (ie back room deals w/ big pharma) and broke a cardinal rule of negotiating by starting too far to the right. Instead of asking for the moon, the stars and most of another galaxy and settling for the moon and the stars, he asked for the moon and the stars, and got a few stars.

Fourth, Obama, AND the whole dem party, aided and abetted by the msm, allowed the repubs to win the war of words. The repubs were able to come up with a bumper sticker campaign of lies and distortions that resonated with a large portion of the un/under-informed citizens, the ones I like to call stupid people (sorry, I know that doesn't advance the discussion, but I'm just being honest here among friends.)

Now we've got a mess of epic proportions, and it is anyone's guess how it is going to shake out.

I don't know if Obama can pull it out or not. But I do know that I am becoming less and less enamored of the dem party. I have really hated the idea of becoming an independent, but I left the repub party in protest to what the repubs did by giving the world sarah, so it seems fitting to leave the dem party in protest to them being weenies. But, I'll give them awhile. If they can grow a pair, I might stay. If not, adios. If I'm going to be eunuch, I might as well do it as an independent.

And, yes, I'm depressed this morning. I might change my mind when I'm more myself. Am I going to hit send, or hit select all/delete? Let's see...