CNN Panel: Shutdown Made Gov’t Popular, ‘People Realized What Was Missing from Their Lives’
Following the close of President Barack Obama’s address to the press following the end of the government shutdown, a CNN panel performed a postmortem on the political effect of partial halt to government activity. The panel agreed that the shutdown had made most government activity more popular.
“He was essentially describing the cynical political system we now live in,” said CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger noting Obama had attacked activists who “profit from conflict.”
“What he’s saying is, ‘these are people who run against Washington, and yet they create the conflict in Washington which makes Washington look even worse,’” Borger explained.
John King, CNN’s chief national correspondent, recalled that “changing the way Washington does business” was a key theme of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Five years into his presidency, he’s still frustrated,” King said. “It’s not all his fault. I’m not assigning blame. Let’s assign blame to all of them.”
“He also made the case for government,” King observed. “There you had the Democratic president making the case, maybe the American people will agree more with him after these last 16 days.”
“Government, if you look at some of these polls, government has grown more popular,” Borger observed.
“Including Obamacare,” King added.
“Because people realized what was missing from their lives when it shut down,” Borger continued.
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer identified a strain of hypocrisy in conservative tea partiers who, he said, attack government but like most if the services that the federal government provides.
Watch the segment below via CNN:
[Photo via screen grab]
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