Rachel Maddow weighed in today after the passage of the bill to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. First there was this tweet:
Then there was this statement:
This is a difficult promise kept. It’s not just a promise that was kept. It was one that was hard to keep, that cost a lot of political capital and a lot of work and this is the President’s victory today and his base will reward him for it.
Commentator: Rachel, what’s your reaction now to six Republicans voting for the repeal of Don’t Ask, Dont Tell.Rachel Maddow: You know, a lot of people said that once it was clear that it was going to pass that it would open the door to some unexpected “yes” votes. And I always am, I always tend to be a little cynical about these things so I’m not sure that I believed it. But it’s true. To see Richard Burr, in particular, move on this, to see John Ensign move on this — John Ensign indicated that he might move on this — it just shows you that the politics of this are unpredictable and that people who will try to denounce this as “a traditional right-left issue” the way that John McCain I think in particular has tried to demagogue it, it’s just, they’re just wrong. They’re talking about something that might have been true 20 years ago and isn’t true now.
I think that politically, though, the thing to not lose touch of, to not lose touch with here, this is the President’s victory. The President took a lot of criticism, a lot of abuse, a lot of skepticism from his otherwise most loyal supporters on this. But this is an issue on which the President did not waver. He continually insisted that this was possible. That it would get done.
It, in fact, was not possible for the President to do this through Executive action. This is something that had to happen legislatively if it was really going to happen in a definitive way.
The President did not waver. He DID work on the Senate to get this to happen. He insisted that this was possible against a lot of people, including me, saying it was not possible.
This is a difficult promise kept. It’s not just a promise that was kept. It was one that was hard to keep, that cost a lot of political capital and a lot of work and this is the President’s victory today and his base will reward him for it.
I feel pretty certain that Rachel Maddow did not mean to imply that this was the President’s victory alone. She, more than any other pundit, has highlighted this struggle and the players in it from the beginning. She has held the feet of those working against to the fire on countless occasions and that certainly includes President Obama.
But, being probably the most fair and balanced commentator on television right now, she also can admit when she is wrong and give credit where credit is due. And, today, she gave credit to the President. Much-deserved credit, in my opinion.
It is a great achievement for everyone. And that includes President Obama.
I’m just sayin’…
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