Michael Moore slams Obama press secretary's Left-baiting

Robert Gibbs (pictured with Barack Obama), a White House press secretary, has lashed out at what he terms "the professional left" in the US. He's evidently unhappy at anyone daring to criticise the Obama administration's failure to improve healthcare, close Guantanamo, end the occupation of Afghanistan, and do a number of other things millions of Democrat voters hoped for.

His vitriolic comments have clearly triggered a backlash from what can broadly be called the Left, and generated a fair amount of media discussion. The apparently off-the-cuff outburst - in which he suggests progressive critics must be on drugs, and are wildly unrealistic by demanding such things as Canadian-style health care - reflects the administration's sensitivity to criticism from people fed up with Obama's failure to deliver change. Gibbs' comments also reflect, as Moore points out, the contempt those currently in office have for their own support base.

I enjoyed Moore's comment "I've never heard the Left described as professional before - it implies we're organised", but he also makes more serious points, e.g. about how the current regime has favoured the bankers instead of confronting them, how the Canadian model of health care is in fact perfectly realistic, etc. Insightful, witty and worth watching. 



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