Up with Chris Hayes 3/17/2012 -- Ezra Klein's form of propaganda

Chris Hayes was missing this morning, and Ezra Klein substituted for Hayes. Klein is a clever partisan hack, but his propaganda doesn't hold up well against smart grownups who know the issues. I've seen Klein become prickly as a guest on other shows when his clever partisan tricks don't work against someone armed with facts and the intellectual power to make Klein look silly.

The panel started out discussing Afghanistan and the history of war strategy in that country, with Spencer Ackerson and Elise Jordan leading the conversation. Surge or no surge, concentrating on al Qaeda or the Taliban, focusing on inner cities are cities on the Pakistan border, the real issue is that we should never have spent 10 years in Afghanistan, and we should leave right away. Until we raise the conversation to the level of inteventionism versus non-interventionism, all this smart insider talk about the wars is nothing but chatter which avoids the fundamental problem -- out role as police in  international affairs. The idea that we're still trying to prevent another 9/11 is ridiculous.

Next, Klein talked about his recent NYT's article regarding the failure of presidential speeches to influence policies or inspire the public to embrace a particular vision. This is Klein's contribution to the narrative that congress has blocked progress and a president can only do so much. Of, course, media have prepared the public to associate obstacles in congress with Republicans.

The Left has it set up where they can acknowledge some of the Right's complaints, but they claim the Right is using legitimate problems to attack women and Hispanics, and, thus, they are running off independents. Of course, to win, Obama needs women, Hispanics and independents, but it's just coincidental that these are the groups Republicans are attacking. Strange, isn't it?

At least no one was hurt by dangerous ideas being flung about -- there were no dangerous ideas, just boring technocratic management of perceptions in order to convince people that voting for Republicans will be a blow against women, minorities and clear headed independents.