The Olbermann Conspiracy: Replacing a Liberal with a Socialist?

Yeah, I'm as happy to see Keith Olbermann go as the next guy, but - at the risk of sounding as crazy as, oh, any host of any MSNBC program - I think it's pretty obvious that the long arm of the Obama administration was at work here.

Let's connect some dots:

* The Comcast-NBC/Universal merger/sale just recently approved by a heavily politicized, Democratic-tilting FCC
** Obama names GE (parent company of NBC/Universal) Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt to head his "economic advisory panel" (because talking about creating jobs for six months is so much easier than actually doing something to create jobs)
*** Keith Olbermann fired by MSNBC

Now why would the Obama administration want to lose Olbermann, who's been one of the most outspoken and staunchest supporters of the liberal agenda? The charitable explanation is that Barack Obama realized he isn't exactly being helped by the support of an incoherent blowhard, whose rhetoric leaned "hateful", and was mocked by more people than he was actually viewed by.

But the charitable explanation is oft not the correct one; it's the one which appeals to our sense of reason and fair play, very little of which has been in evidence during the Obama administration.

So why the change? Professor Jacobson gives us a clue:

MSNBC is replacing Keith Olbermann in the 8 p.m. slot with Lawrence O'Donnell, who only recently moved to the 10 p.m. slot, and now will be the face of MSNBC.

As hard as it is to imagine things getting worse at MSNBC, O'Donnell takes MSNBC to a new level of attack mode. For whatever else he was, Olbermann could be very funny.

O'Donnell has all of Olbermann's mean streak, without the sense of humor.

The Professor has a link to his favorite O'Donnell meltdown clip, this for me is the most revealing, where Lawrence confesses his true political affiliation - one that puts him squarely in line with President Obama:




Here's the money quote:

I am not a progressive. I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals, okay?
However, I know this about my country. Liberals are 20 percent of the electorate. Conservatives are 41 percent of the electorate, okay?...You can sit there and pretend that liberals should run more liberal in conservative districts...The only way, the only way you have a chairman Barney Frank, there's only one way, that's by electing Blue Dogs. It's the only way. That's the only way you have a Speaker Pelosi."

So how do you push socialism on to an American public hostile to the concept? By nominating/electing Democrats in conservative districts that will walk the moderate line, but will still vote the party line.

And that's how Obama achieved socialism's biggest victory in American history: ObamaCare.

MSNBC is no longer fronted by a man who would (only) occasionally give a nod towards journalistic standards, American exceptionalism, and the American ideal, but instead by an unrepentant socialist who will use his airtime to attempt to dupe Americans into thinking Obama's policies and party members are all about "moderation", when in fact it is all about achieving the European social welfare model in the United States.

Ironic that Olbermann becomes a victim of the very conspiracy theories he would espouse; even more ironic that he has gotten the boot for not being far enough to the left.

Maybe the scales will fall from his eyes and he will do a "Dick Morris", migrating to the Right.

Maybe. And maybe if I stand on my head, fireworks will shoot out of my ass....