Who said that given a choice between a real republican and a phoney republican, that voters will choose the real republican?

It would seem that statement is true.

It’s hard to see this as anything else but a colossal failure on the part of the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress.

It’s certainly a failure in any political sense. They’ll be fine, though. They have their money and they have health care, which is probably the form of success they were really after.

Obama and the Congressional Democrats completely wrecked a once in a generation opportunity to instead dither on employment while giving a corporatist payday with HIR.

OT

Israeli navy commando soldiers who boarded a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on May 31, resulting in violence between troops and activists that left nine Turks dead, “operated properly, with professionalism, bravery and resourcefulness” and “exhibited correct decision making,” according to an Israeli army review of the incident released Monday.

“The use of live fire was justified and the entire operation is estimable,” the statement said.

From CNN.

Who could have anticipated?

I believe it was Truman.

I suppose if the Reps swept every seat in play (not really likely) they could retake the House. This is an early salvo in the Dem GOTV playbook – scare the base into contributing to then working and voting for the corporate party picks. Or Else.

It is sad to see the Democrats just give control over to Republicans like this

Republicans have been laughed at for their tea party stupidity, laughed at for the fact that they have come up with ZERO ideas, and laughed at in general whenever Sarah Palin or Romney talk…..

Yet Democrats still refuse to take the bull by the horns and run with it. They would rather possibly work with Republicans only to get no votes and/or cave to them whenever possible to be looked upon as better

This is an early salvo in the Dem GOTV playbook – scare the base into contributing to then working and voting for the corporate party picks.

I’m not sure they can scare the base. It’s not like the Senate is passing all kinds of awesome legislation now.

I’m guessing they have jobs lined up for them after they lose.

July 2010 Unfavorable/Favorable: 39/49

And in an attempt to capture that “49% favorable Republican” vote, Obama will move even farther to the right.

I think it is scare tactics too.

It’s hard to see this as anything else but a colossal failure on the part of the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress.

And their solution is better messaging…

Democrats as well as Republicans have embraced the free market myths of Milton Friedman. Both parties use generalities when talking about the economy and only become specific on social issues, where the only real differences between the parties lie. More and more Democrats are Reagan Democrats but would never admit it publicly.

Oops. Thanks for catching that — that number’s actually the unfavorable figure.

Fixed.

Hey, when your orders are to behave like armed thugs, of course you’re going to be found to have acted appropriately.

Back to work.

Namaste

I disagree. More and more Democrats are Reagan REPUBLICANS.

It’s heartbreaking isn’t it? I honestly thought the Brown/Coakley debacle would get the Dems to wake up and smell the coffee. Nope. They are still determined to stick with a Republican-lite (aka Blue Dog) approach. How they think that will motivate their base to vote for them is beyond me.

Great job, Obama! Enjoy that corner office at Blue Cross when you move in on January 21, 2013, asswipe.

CNN= AIPAC News Service

They’ve decided that we, their base are so terrified of Republican rule that we’ll come out for them in November, no matter how much they crap on us and nothing can shake that faith. Even if they experience colossal losses in the Fall, they’ll take the wrong lesson from it. Instead of believing that we are principled, they’ll call us lazy and apathetic. It will be OUR fault that they lost big.

Sorry, Republicans, Democrats, what’s the difference? Not much based on what I see. I refuse to support Democrats merely because they’re the lesser of two evils. I’ll be voting 3rd party or staying at home. Yes, we’re going to lose, probably huge.. They will undoubtably get the wrong idea from their beating, but this is not the hope and change I was looking for during the election.

Congress can go down with him for all I care. Yep, things are going to get a whole lot worse, but sorry you can’t pay lip service to your base, give up all your principles and then expect those very same people to support you in the next election.

That’s right.. Only if we had tried a little harder, given a little more money, they could have enacted all the progressive legislation they’ll start blabbering about in a month or so.

Sorry, Dennis, Russ, Alan.. they can all go away now. They betrayed their party with their HCR vote. You are not the progressive candidates we are looking for.

I’ve watched in utter disbelief as Obama and his party blithely ignored the accelerating hollowing out of the middle-class, the descent of the working class into poverty and the plight of the poor whose social safety net has been shredded by budget cuts, that many depend on to avoid starvation and keep a roof over their heads.
It’s what Patrick Moynihan called “benign neglect,” but instead of the inner-city poor, the victims are all of us, who are not fortunate enough to be among the elite. If we had spoken up when Clinton sentenced the poor to hunger and homeless with his “welfare reform,” instead of accepting it as an understandable, if harsh, political ploy, the corporatists might not now be coming for the rest of us.
When you are broke and unemployed and your house is being foreclosed on, it really doesn’t matter if your malefactors are nasty, Republican SOB’s or some smooth-talking, genial professor and his hapless political party. You’re just as screwed either way.

Wasn’t that going to be the obvious conclusion in regards to the boarding considering what 4 of the 5 investigators were in Israeli’s pocket? Why’d you even wait for the report, you knew what it was going to say.

Neither “party” and no US politician is going to admit that american capitalism does not work and will work unless it is strongly regulated and the regulations enforced so it is Friedman or nothing.

For myself, I doubt that I’m going to be able to vote in November even if I feel so inclined as I won’t have a stable address and one can’t register to vote from one’s car. Heckuva job Dems.

If Harry Reid can’t change Ben Nelson’s mind on something like UI benefits, he has no reason being majority leader.

I’ll be voting 3rd party,too. Waste or not, I don’t care anymore. The two party system doesn’t work. Period.

Which third party? There are so many.

Oh hell I did not wait for any bloody report I have been a life long supporter of Palestinian rights (well since I was 13 or 14 about 53 years ago). Israel owns america and if you own the big bully you do not have to worry about piddling ideas like truth.

It’s hard to see this as anything else but a colossal failure success on the part of the (conservative) Obama administration and the (BLUE DOG) Democrats in Congress.

Barry’s latest, paraphrased: “The Republicans drove us into a ditch – don’t hand them back the car keys!” It may or may not work, but I repeat, the playbook is to threaten the base with Republican control. And Republicans believe, as Dems in power do not, that executing on your promises is the way to retain power, and will do what it takes.

Except, of course, killing their abortion cash cow.

I just don’t see the difference between Republican and Democratic control any more.

I think the impact in the coming elections is going to be a lot like what we saw in 2000′s presidential election. Democrats may carry the National favor, but because of districting and electoral procedure from state to state, Republicans may come out way ahead.

Shitter’s broke, call a plumber.

Republics did drive us into a ditch.

I think the Dims like the idea of being in power more than actually being in power. I can’t imagine that they f*cked this up so badly by accident.

Actually, Americans hate politicians.

Me either.

The Sock Puppet Party, Mickey Mouse Party, etc. It really doesn’t matter at this point as long as it’s not a dim or repuke.

President Obama rode in on the prayers and actions of PROGRESSIVES large and small who gave him and overwhelming victory and license to pursue with vigor the agenda of those that elected him.

Since then, we’ve been kicked to the curb and rolled over into mush by the proverbial bus. Not by the Christian GOP Goobers that where swept away in 08. No. By the President and his advisers.

And please. Do not sing again that tired story of “look what a mess he inherited”.

Every President since FDR has inherited life and death decisions and every Democratic President has had to try and heal the set-backs and the horrors of the GOP administration before him.

This President has one significant trait in common with “W”. Like ‘W” he refuses to learn. Refuses to adapt.

And now, we will get the most vicious, hateful, Christian hypocrites ever in the long history of our government elected to office.

And if ANYONE thinks these newly elected Christian GOP Goobers will wait a single second to enact their devisive agenda, thinks they will “reach out” to Democrats even once – then they are fools of the highest order.

I personally hold Obama and Rahm responsible. They played their cards with the Washington establishment and left the rest of America out of the game. No wonder no one would bother supporting the Democrats when they continued the same rigged game the Republicans were playing — stack the deck for the wealthy and powerful. Jokers to the rest of us!

For some reason I’m under the delusion that you’re in the Central Texas area. You may want to look for work in San Antonio. While obviously they pay considerably less than Austin area standards, it’s work and hopefully a grade or two above “Do you want fries with that?”

Admittedly the whole military industrial complex is in full-effect down there, but it’s a job.

Voting for the lesser of two evils here in PA-8.

My choice is the former congressman mike fitzpatrick who backed and voted for the unconstitutional AUMF

Or Iraq war hero patrick murphy who voted for the unconstitutional FISA crap.

So they both betrayed their oath to office and voting for either of these scum is like picking up fresh cat shit or dog shit with my bare hands. What a vile disgusting choice and I will vote for Mickey Mouse who has more integrity than either of these traitors who betrayed their oaths of office.

So I take it that you are not going to vote.

The Republicans may have driven the car into the ditch, but Obama and the Democrats removed the engine, the bumpers, and the tires thinking that they could get a few Republicans to carpool with them while still expecting the car to be driveable.

Don’t they know Republicans do not carpool?!

Robert Gibbs is basically telling everybody the TROJAN HORSE name Obama has accomplished his goal to give the house back to the republicans.

It takes a lot of hard work to make republicans look good, and Obama has been working at making Bush look good from day one.

How Obama brought the GOP back to life

1. Obama supports the individual mandate (Obama champions the Bob Dole Health Care plan)
2. Obama hires the people who crashed the Economy Tim Geither, Larry Summers (thus the current depression continues)
3. Obama kills the public option
4. Obama kills drug importation
5. Obama attacks Unions and taxes their health care plans
6. Obama increases Wars
7. Obama plots and plans to cut social security this fall
8. Obama lets the criminals who messed up the Gulf of Mexico clean up the mess BP. (Obama and the media down play this disaster daily)

Robert Gibbs is not surprise, this is what they wanted to happen, don’t ever judge people by their words just their actions.

This is what happens when you have a corporate/govt media, that allows corporate politicians to wreck the nation.

As Obama would say, “mission accomplished.”

9. You forgot that he has put a program in place to assassinate Americans suspected of being terrorist without due process.

10. You forgot that he supports indefinite detention.

11. You forgot he supports a three tiered justice system for prosecuting terrorist — civilian courts if they have plenty of evidence, military tribunals if their evidence is shoddy, and indefinited detention if there is no supporting evidence to convict.

If that is what the sheeple decide, they deserve it! It just emphasizes the sad state of affairs with corporate-controlled US, a chickenhawk populace, and no sense of social responsibility (or any other responsibility for that matter) or social good.

The democratic party is a corporate controlled failure. We need a real, viable socialist party in the USA like they have in many Latin American and European nations. If we give people a real choice, with public solutions ON THE TABLE (instead of throwing single payer proponents out of the room on the first day like Obama did during health care, or doing everything possible to protect the profits and autonomy of private corporations like BP which are ruining our economy)

Once truly leftist solutions are on the table, I think we can convince people of their merits. But this incrementalist crap is often percieved by average Americans as nothing but big corporate giveaways (ie the bailout, health care). And they’re right.

People need a socialist alternative…

If we had spoken up when Clinton sentenced the poor to hunger and homeless with his “welfare reform,” instead of accepting it as an understandable, if harsh, political ploy, the corporatists might not now be coming for the rest of us.

“THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

Check the “structural adjustment programs”, the IMF world bank loan requirements applied to the third world, with disastrous consequences, and which they now refused to accept.

so, now they are being applied in the first world. why not.

Also, when the “left” party is leading the charge to eliminate the fundamental right of Americans to a free, public education by withholding funding if states do not lift charter school caps (even in states like Wisconsin with one of the best public educational systems in the country!) can you blame Americans for not being able to tell the difference between the parties anymore?

People need a socialist alternative

There already is one.

Obviously, Americans do not hate Republicans. That’s a pretty foolish headline. I thought you were better than that.

I was too young to be politically aware of Clinton’s welfare reform, but this is a great example of how the parties are really indistinguishable in terms of actual policy.

Sure, they seem really different during elections, but once they’re in office they blend together. How could the democratic party gut welfare, a core plank of the Great Society and the New Deal which supposedly are the bedrock of our paty, and still expect to get the votes of leftists in this country?

It’s because people don’t see a viable alternative. There is no large socialist party in the US, actively working to convert private goods to public goods. If we had a party like this, politicians who wanted to be “left of center” would actually have a compass to know where “left of center” is. When the only viable third party in America is the right wing tea party, guess which way the political spectrum will be pulled?

Yes, but look at that atrocious website… they have less funding the FDL… of course they aren’t seen as a viable alternative… as long as people keep giving their contributions to the DNC and other pieces of the democratic party machine, we won’t have a truly viable socialist alternative. People who think the way the people in this thread do about the democratic party need to COME OUT of that party, and start working for an alternative… the democratic party is beyond hope and holds captive all the money and time that could be being spent by leftists building an uncompromising socialist alternative

WHy don’t you join the SPUSA?

Isn’t it a place to start and for you to help build into a viable alternative?

Really? Maybe he should change it to the “Majority” of Americans…

Instead of effecting change….the bastards are delaying change. Taney’s decision led to a civil war in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott_v._Sandford. Now the 14th Amendment settled the issue of constituional protections for slave. Look how long it took for civil right? 100 years!!! So America will wait what 100 years for protections form “CORPORATIONS” which have gutted protections designed for people from both government and corporations running foul like the King of England and his relationship with the colonist? What a deal for Americans Protect corporations as slaveowners and segregationist where protected. A consumer driven economy where the consumer has no money or power and is left in a state of servitude?

If they can get a candidate on the ballot for the national elections, I’ll vote for him/her…

Here in New York we also have the Working Families Party, which runs some great local candidates who can actually win that I’ll be voting for next time around

Or “Intelligent” Americans
Or “Compassionate” Americans.

What I would like to know is WHAT led you to ever believe that Obama was/is a progressive? He has talked out of both sides of his mouth to get elected. Voters in the general voted for him because they thought he was MODERATE.

Whatever he is, he is NO leader.

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post available: Whether Burrowed Inside Bureaucracy or Appointed to Commissions, Social Security Cutters Circle

Which is why we have the Tea Party movement on the right putting up candidates in GOP primaries. Will progressives form their own version of the ‘tea party’?

Do any of them ever get elected?

Colossal, stunning, mind numbing, hurl inducing…
This administration is so incompetent it is beyond my ability to understand any longer.

They are well funded.

Hmmmmm, that’s probably not true either.

Yes, at the very local level… from the WFP website:

“Letitia James was elected to the New York City Council, Luci McKnight was elected to County Legislature in Albany, and Wayne Hall was elected mayor of Hempstead, Long Island, all solely on the WFP line.”

It pains me greatly to admit that Democrats have been a huge failure – the Republican machine that ruled congress from 1994 to 2006 was despicable and horrific – but they got the job done for their party and for their president. I so wanted Obama to be a leader – I’ve never saw him as anything but a Reagan democrat (prochoice, however) – but what we have here is a ship without a rudder, bouyed about by the eddies and currents of the right-wing media and their amen chorus on the internet and tea party lynching clubs…
makes me want to puke in my mouth…

It’s not much, but it’s a start, and, as they say, all politics is local

“1. “Obama supports the individual mandate…. ”

He sure did pull a 180 on this one. Not what he said during the primary debate. Obama does need to be spanked on this one! He lied and needs to be called on it! This single KOWTOW to insurance was bought and paid for! See if you can’t own people i.e. slavery you can usurp 13th Amendment protections by placing a individual mandated insurance premium on life, under fear of coercion, a punitive tax penalty, monetary in nature. The backdoor constitutional fucking is what Jefferson warned of. It is clear here. The IRS enforces the mandate!! WHAT KIND OF FUCKING unconstitutional HORSESHIT is this! Leverage servitude to corporations under fear of tax penalty! Seems to have more in common with “fugutive slave laws,” passed by a compromised congress? Protect the slaveowner/corporation!

Bullshit!

Barry doesn’t care he’ll be much happier working with the GOP the next 6 yrs. Of course the very first thing they’ll do is Impeach him if he doesn’t show them his Birth cert. He’s an idiot and the people around him obviously don’t care as they all have nice BIG fat pensions and Corp. jobs already lined up , plus a book deal. As for the rest of us once again we’ll face a Dem. pres. who will do whatever the GOP Congress wants and tell us he had to or be seen as a do-nothing Pres. What a disgrace the D’s are. Barry deserves to be Primaried in 2012.

The Coffee party which is a failure.

Barry is the ultimate “Manchurian candidate” from the Right. He’s a white Harvard Corp. Lawyer wrapped in a Light brown wrapper. He’s what we used to call [Edited by Moderator. Do not go in that direction]

As we get closer to the next election cycle, sites like FDL watch the poll numbers with some dismay. At the same time other sites like the great orange satan, which used to brag about watching polls and focus on elections has taken a hiatus and now just has a bunch of stories on the badness of all things R. Gibb goes on the tele tube to explain that the Rs may retake Congress helping to cast the die. For the true believers in team politics the identified problem is the actions of the Rs rather than the lack of differences in the policies of Rs and Ds. The fact that Ds and Rs poll badly is mostly because the polls are not addressed at their constituencies. Much has a supervisor’s employee evaluation is fairly important, a poll of politician job satisfaction has very little relevance without understanding how their bosses, the corporate lobbyists and fat cat donors, feel about their performance.

The problem for the Ds is that the were so busy collecting cash from lobbyists that they failed to do more than lip service to the goals of their base. The hope of Team Obama, that they could use the specter of Rs coming back to power to maintain the status quo, first requires that the voters approve of the current corporate owned process. The lack of obvious differences between the Ds and Rs is due to the fact they both have the same people paying their way to reelection. Promises to voters are becoming simply the products they sell in order to collect cash.

If it was true that Americans will do the right thing after all other options have been tried first that was when voters could still make changes via the ballot box. Now the power of corporate campaign contributions means that even self-defined socialists act little different than any other office holder.

Agreed. Problem is, the same people who were behind the wheel of the economy when the Rethuglicons drove us into the ditch are still behind the wheel now. Their names are Ben Bernancke and Tim Geithner. Obama is still in the back seat, and the drivers never surrendered the keys. Basically, you could say the same for the bulk of the AG office. Still have mostly Rethug AUSAs. And DOD hasn’t changed much either. I wonder, don’t most other President’s manage to get AUSAs changed within a year + of their taking the oath of office? How long has it been since a Dem Prez retained a Repug SecDef for over a year?

Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasy
Listening for the new told lies.

Boy, do I agree with you!

What reward should the electorate bestow on Democrats and the White House for:

An economy that is, at best, marching in place with stagnant growth and minimal improvement in the jobs picture, or at worst, headed for a double-dip recession;

Health care reform in the shape of the Senate HCR bill (surely, nothing more needs to be said about that here at FDL);

The apparently imminent passage of a financial reform bill only because it meets with Republican freshman Senator Scott Brown’s approval;

Really…what should the voters tell Democrats in November?

Hmmm…

I’m guessing it probably won’t be “thanks for everything”…

I can’t help but note the foul and odorous link between the Emanuel/Clinton pro-Wall Street Congress and the Emanuel/Obama pro-Wall Street Congress.

But Obama chose that path, and stayed the course regardless of his flailing policies and majorities. And Emanuel, Reid and Hoyer are apparently perfectly willing and able to gut their platform and lose elections all for the sake of self-preservation, just like in the old days of the 90′s.

I honestly don’t think Obama knew the price he and this country would pay when he gave Emanuel full access to the homes and hopes of the American worker.

“… this is not the hope and change I was looking for …”

The powers that be in the democratic party treat me as if I were a member of the democratic gang and that I somehow owe them alliegence no matter what they do. They seem to think that politics in America has degenerated into the sharks vs the jets or the crips vs the bloods. I am an issues voter and I will find somebody to vote for who stands with me on the issues.

I will not vote for a bunch of thugs just because they think they control my side of the street

That’s been going no for a long time.

” Journalist, T. V. personalty, lobbyist, speaking tour, think tank, their next job. Isn’t this fun?

Here, little trolls, look toward the light below the exit sign. Go into the light.

A dead giveaway is that without his/her tongue planted firmly in his/her cheek, our dear newcomer Indie quotes Michael Barone. Please do not feed.

At least Republicans take the TEA Party seriously. I don’t think we can expect perfection from any elected Democrat 100% of the time. But the only way to get respect is to establish some lines that elected Democrats dare not cross. The only way to establish those lines is to make sure the worst offenders lose. Voting 3rd party may not even be enough. I’d vote for a Republican to get rid of some of the worst blue dogs.

This is new for me. I used to tell people that GREEN stood for Get Republicans Elected Every November. I screamed at Nader voters because Al Gore would never have invaded Iraq. But Obama is going to get conservative legislation passed that Democrats would have opposed if it were brought forth by a Republican. I can’t take it anymore.