Tweet
And Obama’s personal march of folly continues.
Liberals want Obama to confront Republicans more directly. Moderates, remembering how Bill Clinton altered course after losing control of Congress in 1994 and won reelection in 1996, want the president to work more cooperatively with Republicans in hopes of avoiding gridlock. [...]
For now, Obama seems to be coming down on the side of those who want conciliation. He is scrambling to round up enough Republican votes in the Senate for an arms treaty with Russia that until recently had seemed like a sure thing. And he has suggested he would consider a temporary extension of tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 annually — a concession he had once vigorously opposed.
Yeah, great idea! Though it’s lucky for Obama he didn’t try this earlier, because otherwise the stimulus would’ve been loaded up with too many tax cuts to attract Republican votes. Boy, that would’ve been a big mistake! And that health insurance bill — fortunately it wasn’t modeled after Republican plans to attract Republican votes.
Because if the stimulus was too small and the health insurance bill did nothing to break up the monopoly of the insurance companies, the Democrats would really be in trouble right now, right?
“You can’t build bipartisanship on preemptive concessions,” Edley said in an interview. “These are bullies who can’t be appeased.”
Edley, who also served on Obama’s transition team advisory board, added: “Too much time was squandered pursuing bipartisanship — far beyond the point of a good-faith effort. Repeating the same hopeful approach would be tragic. They need to be open to bipartisanship, but there needs to be a demonstrated interest from the other side.”
The other side has made their intent clear. To everyone, apparently, but Obama.
105 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
I don’t get it. What is the matter with him?
He is a r and will feel at home with his new friends.
The article says Obama is “torn between competing interests in the body politic.”
He still hasn’t figured it out.
At this point, we can only imagine where we might be if we had a leader in the White House.
Of course, at this point, he ain’t gonna figure it out. He’s a whole lifetime of information absorption and processing behind the average liberal.
Yes, he’s a Republican mole. Once that’s accepted, it all becomes clear.
Barack Obama knows that the Republicans aren’t going to move an inch to the left to compromise.
There’s no fucking way that a person capable of tying their own fucking shoes could possibly be as stupid as his supporters seem to wish the President to be.
Can we drop the fucking charade already? The President is just selecting a narrative that he likes better for himself. He’d rather be seen as the affable bipartisan optimist to a tragic fault, than be seen as the right-wing pro-business Bushian executive that he is. Better to be assumed stupid than an asshole.
Obama is the kind of guy who’d hold out a slab of meat to a tiger and, when he pulled back the bloody stump, wonder whether he should have offered a bigger steak.
And THAT says it quite well IMO.
Quite, quite well.
Thank you.
That’s exactly it.
I would urge others who don’t buy that theory, step back, and look at all of his ACTIONS as President. Don’t read any speeches, quotes, or anything. Just look at every action from Jan 2009 to now.
The man is a Republican. Period. He acts like a Republican in almost every way on almost every issue.
When you accept he’s a rightwing Republican, but trying to pull of an act of being a Democrat, then all that he says and does makes sense.
Try it.
Democrats are so bewildered these days by the actions of Obama. Most of us at FDL have a fairly good understanding of politics and it’s obvious we can’t truly figure out what’s going on. Which means the road ahead is unclear for us and perhaps that is the goal of the PTB. I don’t feel helpless but I do feel as if I’ve lost my compass.
Obama is a conservative who pretended to be a progressive in order to win in 2008. Paul Krugman, who gave Obama the benefit of the doubt for a long time, apparently has given up on him. Today, November 21, Krugman wrote in his NYT blog that Obama appears to accept the conservative/Republican worldview fiction that FDR irresponsibly delayed action re the Depression crisis during his first months in office. Doesn’t Obama know American history? What does this say about his intelligence and ability to reason?
thanks Blue Texan –
whoa, about an hour ago, I re read Birth of a Washington Machine by Ken Silverstein (thank you Jane). Obama had this mindset 4 years ago – it’s all there
of course, that he hasn’t adjusted his thinking or perceptions considering all that the nation been through in the past 22 months is deeply troubling – echoes of the Decider and all that steadfast adherence to Deciderin’
and Professor Krugman comes at the problem from a different angle today -
Obama wants Republicans for cover to do things he wants to do anyway. Like Obama offering the Republicans to take out the PO, but he had already cut a backroom deal to get rid of the PO. Obama is going to to support the same legislation whether the Republicans want it or not, but he’ll use the Republicans as an excuse. Look at how much was taken out of HCR in the name of attracting Republican votes, yet there was no Republican votes.
The verdict is in. Primary challenge, please.
That, sir, is the one gazillion dollar question. I guess this is what it looks like when the guy you voted for tries to be a one-termer. For real.
heh… you’ve come up with the most “reasonable” explanation for this Kabuki show fraud & why it continues. Other than, perhaps Obummer doesn’t wish to be accused of utterly devoid of a shred of truth in “advertising” during the campaign, not to neglect mentioning Obama’s utter lack of a shred of integrity, matchd only by his utter dripping contempt for those who voted for him.
IMO, far worse than W. At least w/W, there was “truth in advertising.” I certainly knew exactly what we’d get put to us with W.
Cannot express deeply enough the loathing I have for this bought off Trojan horse empty suit. Obama got his, EFF the rest of you jerk-wad proles.
I know what you mean. In many ways Obama is going to the right of Bush, yet his actions are being labeled liberal/progressive. We’ve got an Assassinator-In-Chief who says he’s above the judiciary and now the latest to come from him is that he supports gate rape…it’s just never ending and if you disagree with it, you’re an extremist retard in need of drug testing.
Seeking acceptance is a compulsion, Obama really has no control of it and seems completely unaware of his behavioral disparities. He probably believes he is what he talks. Deluded. Congress is going to have to take the lead if anything useful is to be done. I don’t expect much there, but maybe Pelosi can infuse some steel into the disgustingly malleable progressives who talk progressive and crumble right after. Gridlock may look better and better as the next two years transpire.
Obama was quite smart in getting paid handsomely by the PTB to behave exactly the way he’s behaving, and in that sense, his ability to reason works just fine. He got HIS. Tuff sh*t that you & me & the rest of the citizens who voted for this lousy excuse got ripped off.
I usually avoid presumptious language, but I know this is tied to Clinton and Neo Liberalism – it’s as if they are trying to re create all “the successes” of that era by doubling down on everything Clinton did – but without a second of consideration as to the debilitating effects 18 years of this shit has had on the country
Obama was very upset that he had to compromise with liberals and Democrats in the last Congress. Now that the Republicans have some real power, the liberals will be completely cut out. Expect the kind of rightwing legislation that would have shocked Ronald Reagun.
The Dems in Congress are, IMO, in a good position to start abandoning Obama. They can propose many worthwhile bills and may get some of them passed. If they don’t, the Rs will take the hit. The Ds simply must go around Obama because trying to work with him is impossible.
The only march of folly I see is the continued insistence on taking the Faux Partisan Theatre seriously. When Obama fights with Republicans, it’s for show and does nothing more than distract the American people. Obama has to be opposed as surely as Bush had to be opposed.
Fixed it for ya.
Yep, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Mayhaps it’s time for a Progressive Labor Party.
I dunno, how will we ever get passed the ensuing circle-jerk wherein we spend a lot of time arguing over what to name it, and then fail to do even that?
Well it seems that the “stupid, or just corrupt?” question is now irrelevant.
The most damaging and dispiriting part is a general dampening of political enthusiasm, especially among the younger voters who made 2008 victories possible. Obama’s blatant dismissal of progressives and embrace of the RW agenda is in it’s own way, more of an insult than the YEEEEHAAWWW fratboy Family-crony rule of GWB.
I feel physically ill from typing that…
Just how many times the Republicans have to cram that big red, white, and blue dick up his ass before he “gets it”?
The Trojan Horse Presidency continues…
Once he picked Geithner to head Treasury, Summers as his Eco-advisor and re-appointed Bernancke, it should have been Crystal Clear to even the most loyal ObamaFan that he was a Wall Street Whore, Rightwing Republican.
Anyone who hasn’t figured that out yet is – sad to say – hopeless.
Zero. Zero times is the answer. He’s gotten it since the 80′s.
ahhh,and this is all new?.come on! he’s been mocking moderates from the very beginning,this guy is a big dissapointment,i wonder why still some
people support this fiasco,progressives have been sold out big time,we need to find someone for 2012 primaries,meanwhile not a cent for anyone.
He knows he knows! He sold us out long ago with his vote on FISA bill and he continues to do so time after time. He will not change course imho and we will be in for much worse times all the while the 2% are living the High Life!!
Obama is Keyser Soze!
The Obama Presidency is turning into the brilliant con from the movie the Usual Suspects.
I mean he is exactly the opposite of what he seemed.
BTW: Borrowing 700billion to give tax cuts to the rich should be seen as cutting 700billion from medicare-medicade-Social Security.
Since in order to plug the huge debt caused by tax cuts, they will gut these programs.
While Goldman Sachs uses taxpayer money to shower itself with billion dollar bonuses.
Long live Wall-fare Street!
USUAL SUSPECTS
The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was convincing the world he was a Democrat. And like that, poof. The social safety net and the middle class is gone.
Sorry to say and Mean…IF the Dems Don’t GET Tough Back, I will Not be supporting Any candidate that Fails to “Fight Back” On mine and Your behalf. I had Such Enormous Faith in this man, I still am hanging on by a thread, but President Obama You Must Stop With The Niceties And Get Back In Their Face and Say !!!ENOUGH!!! with the Same Conviction and Determination Candidate Obama Stated It! We Would have his Back If He Only Would!
We, The People SIR….Your People, Have Had ENOUGH!
Get in there and fight with us or get out of our way cuz it seems WE are Way head of you!
Such a disappointment
He has the power to take an agenda and RUN WITH IT with many in this country ready to back him
Yet he still is idiotic enough to try and talk to people who will NOT SUPPORT HIM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
The START treaty says it all…Republicans caring nothing about this country but still not voting for it strictly b/c Obama put it together
I actually support the START Treaty. But the R’s now smell blood. Because the President always capitulates to them, this shows weakness. Everybody including the Teabaggers are jumping into this demolition derby also. So everything this Administration tries is jeopardized. Is this harder than Calculus to figure out?
By not fighting back, the President is strengthening the Fascists. Feature…bug.
I have a must read that fits perfectly into this discussion.
http://www.echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com/
You need to scroll down to the heading “the people barack obama intends to compromise with want to destroy us.” I couldn’t directly link to that article.
Of course by considering Obama’s behavior through the lens of sane governance, we may be looking at it all wrong. At this point it’s possible that these incessant concessions and bouts of olive-branching to the GOP are all just part of the Double Live Secret Re-election Kabukicon.
Big O just has to claim, during the lengthy 2012 ad season, that he’s tried to work with the Republicans over and over to no avail. And therefore a second term would mean Real 100% True Progressive policies, for Real This Time. We Promise!
Thus suckering in a large wadge of now-useful progressive votes as well as a controlling chunk of the apparently all-consuming, most-important-forevah “independents” and “swing voters”.
Too cynical? Too mendacious of a strategy? We’ll see.
The time is coming when We The People will have had enough. Seeing how the First Republic has been replaced with the unsustainable system of the Kleptocrats, it’s time to start thinking about the articles of a Second Republic.
Actually, all it would take is for one person to win a seat in the House under a party name to get the ball rolling. With a hard and fast progressive platform it could spread. Nothing happens overnight, though, which will be the biggest obstacle with gotta-have-it-yesterday Americans. The Tea Partiers won as Rethugs because their money came from billionaire Rethugs. If they’d had enough individual supporter/donors we’d have official Tea Party House members and Senators instead of insurgent Rethugs.
Twain, the only reason that a dim would be bewildered is because of desperately wanting obama to “succeed” as a progressive. The ugly truth is that he is succeeding as a rightwing plant. I knew that he would not be a saviour to lead us out of the w wilderness, but I didn’t think that he would be worse than w. obama has no core principles so you see him fold every time something important to his handlers (big money) comes to the front. I would like to say that any minute he is going to grow a spine and change the way washington works, but you and I know that is not true.
Someone could do a whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com type page listing all the times he’s rolled over for Republicans.
First you would have to have an opposition party to pursue bipartisanship. The Dems are not an opposition party to the oligarchy that controls this country.
I liked comment in the original article that Clinton won relection in 1996 by compromising with the republicans, but do you think the congress people remember who kept control of the house and senate?
Or we can just accept the fact that the labels are bullshit and the fact that he and the Republicans are on the same side.
Republicans are operating like Enron. By artificially causing a shortage of bipartisanship, they are raising the price. Econ 101.
I had so much hope that things really would change but they’re not going to….not under Obama. He’s virtually destroyed the Dem Party and, I think, done tremendous harm to the country.
Agreed. While I assume that he will get a payoff, this farce still seems comically disorganized. He compulsively caves to conservatives, Republicans, business, etc. but they only favor him when they feel like it. His donations have dropped, insurers and banks have turned on him when it suits them. His comments are off the wall. Recently he said that since business/banks considered him unfriendly, he needed to reach out to them more. Huh? I accept that he is basically conservative, but his comments and responses (to me) seem to show a flawed ability to reason and assess people and situations. Just my thoughts. This gives me a headache.
From almost the first line of the LA Times article – it’s all about the re-election. They don’t get it, and apparently, they never will. Obama is done. His chances of re-election are probably now about equal to Gov. Palin’s chances (and that’s a sad, sad thing to say, but there it is.)
He had a chance very early in 2009 to change course and denounce the Reaganism voodoo economic’s Republican agenda, and he choose not to do so. The economy he embraced and helped support sucks for 98% of America, and will in all probability get worst by 2012. He is DONE. He has lost his base support and the independents that though he represented real change. Republicans will not work with him, not support him, and will work their asses off for the next two years making him fail. He is DONE.
Please! I just hope people will wake up to reality. The Dems and Repugs are the same selling out to corporate and special interest, in pay to play DC. Selecting either of them to lead changes nothing.
We need a third grass roots party that will stand for we the people.
I believe “the coming of the time” that defines when we have had “Enough” is no longer “on it’s way”. For me at least, the Time Has Arrived.
I am a 3rd Generation Progressive Dem. We Used To Have Balls and Ovaries!
WTF Happened?
I hope his argument for 2012 is Not going to be so simple as to say “Hey, I Tried”. He may have “tried”, but continued take the “BULL Shiit” Over and Over and Over….When he Did Not Have To!
His Continued attempts to work with (Concede To)”them” when he has Passed up So many opportunities to Fight them on their Own turf and Win, for Us? That, Will be his “Waterloo”.
It’s Not Just the President, It seems to embody the Whole of the Progressive members In Congress, save a few.
They Really Need to Stop The Current Political Ruse of Submission in HOPES of Garnering a Bit of Compromise, It’s Not Working, People!
We wanted) Offense in this country and instead it appears we ended up with a Defense mentality, one who leans toward that which we wanted to move forward and away from.
How Much More Of This Crap Before Pres Obama “Gets It” that You Cannot ALWAYS work/compromise with the Enemy and there comes a time when it is simply an exercise in futility?
Sheesh. “Moderates” want this. “Moderates” want that.
Who are these moderates? Name some freakin names, LA Times!”
I’ll second that. His undoing will continue, painfully.
With a douche like kyle immobilizing any sense of authority, the president not only LOOKS weak but IS weak.
What happened to the Presidency where these political hacks were hauled into the Oval Office and TOLD something?
Some are ‘waking up’ with pathetically cogent observations like, This from Kevin Drum,
‘On Monday, Matt Yglesias chimed in, suggesting that the White House needed to be prepared for “deliberate economic sabotage” from Republicans. On Friday, after taking note of recent Republican attacks on the Fed’s quantitative easing program, Paul Krugman agreed:’
Steve Benen collected these quotes today and added his concurrence: “We’re talking about a major political party,” he said, “possibly undermining the strength of the country — on purpose, in public, without apology or shame — for no other reason than to give themselves a campaign advantage in 2012.”
NO Shit Sherlocks, what do you think all that ‘cash on the sidelines’ for the last two years has been? This has been the plan since BO was elected.
Watching the villagers and scribes griping about obama’s former ‘positions and how he was ‘too progressive’ during the first two years giving banksters a get out of jail and by the way continue to rape the economy some more card, sell us out to insurance companies and form a couple of commissions with republican fig leaves to dismantle SS, is sickening.
The next two years are going to be death by billions of papercuts. There is blood in the water and the republicans know their strategy totally worked, with the complicity of conservadems and corporate media, this country is fucked.
Obama is neither Democrat nor Republican. He is a modern president in the mold of G.W.Bush. He is Emperor of the Holy American Empire. He is our Unitary Executive. He is a Fascist.
He is an asshole.
It’s time to back the moving trucks up to the White House. I don’t think our country can withstand much more of this collossal wimp-coward.
The “moderates” are the Villagers, led by David Broder, that all-American everyman. No one else wants Obama to compromise away the last 2 years of his presidency. And to pretend to say seriously that he even could compromise with Republicans is an outright lie of a level of mendacity only practiced by American media these days.
Yes, a most brilliant political con. The history books – and Hollywood – will be writing about this incredible Pied Piper President and his big campaign lies for decades – assuming that our nation is still in one piece during that time.
Book Salon up with Bob Cavnar’s Disaster on the Horizon High Stakes, High Risks, and the Story Behind the Deepwater Well Blowout hosted by Riki Ott
I believe Anthony McCarthy misses the point. Obama is not liberal or progressive. He is just like the Republicans and he despises liberals and progressives.
He worships power, money, and war. He admires Reagan and dislikes FDR. He is an authoritarian free-market neo-liberal capitalist and corporatist without any social values or principles. He couldn’t care less about working people and the poor and there is no way that he will do anything to create jobs except use high unemployment as an excuse to give more money to the rich.
He’s also a crook, given the way he set-up the Catfood Commission to steal the $2.4 Trillion in social security in broad daylight in the name of solving a budget deficit that isn’t a problem by staffing the commission with people who have been trying to eliminate social security for many years and by mixing in a few other stooges who believe there is a budget deficit problem because they don’t know anything about economics. By design there isn’t one respected and knowledgeable economist on the commission. All this talk about persuading him to stand-up to the Republicans is nonsense because he intends to use them as an excuse for passing bad legislation that he wants to pass to enrich the banksters who own him lock, stock, and barrel.
McCarthy need only look at Obama’s abominable record supporting the slaughter of innocent people with drones, his evisceration of our constitutional rights, and his claim that he can order anyone anywhere in the world assassinated, including a U.S. citizen, just because he says so. These things go far beyond anything Bush did and the Republicans didn’t force him to do any of them.
And then there is his refusal to do anything to help people victimized by (1) the criminal banksters in the real estate forfeiture scam and (2) the TSA screeners in the pornoscan and rape grope scam.
Obama is a republican who doesn’t care if everything he signs is exactly what the cons want. End of the day they are his people. Obama is the biggest con ever!
I didn’t initially think the sloppy, drooling scatological Teabagging bunglers were right about Obama being the new Carter, but that seems to be the case at this point. The man, just a couple days ago in Lisbon, was still trying to play nice with the corporatists who will stop at nothing to destroy this President politically (he made excuses for Kyl shamelessly opposing Russia nuclear treaty for purely political purposes).
You can’t teach someone to develop a backbone or a will to fight. As sad and as horribly depressing as this admission is, it would’ve been better to nominate Hillary. At least she would have fought back, although we still would’ve had to take it from the establishment Wall Street neoliberals. Such a God damn tragedy!
Explains everything rather well.
Yes of course. What was I thinking.
Remember it was the Pres. Clinton’s administration, which including Greenspan, Rubin, Summers and Geitner who got rid of the Glass-Stegal act set up after the first depression.
Clinton signed the bill.
Greenspan now says he made a big mistake. Rubin is ahead of Citi Group. Summers goes back to Harvard and tells women they don’t belong in economics schools because they are so bad at math. And, Geitner is still on the payroll.
The verdict is in. Primary challenge, please.
The problem goes beyond Obama himself. The mandarins of the Democratic Party (and the mandarin problem, in turn, goes beyond Rahm Emanuel) have concluded that the party’s survival depends on attracting enough corporate cash to stay economically competitive with the GOP. If attracting that cash means abandoning organized labor, African Americans, pro-choice women, and even the planet itself, they’ll do it in a heartbeat.
Bottom line: we can’t fix Obama and we can’t fix the Democratic Party. It’s time to try something different.
Starting now, I’d like to see the words “Neville Chamberlain” affixed to all such references to Obama’s “tactics.”
He’s compelled to seek acceptance from older white men (grandfather surrogates?). He needs to see this, and get his mind straightened out, before it takes everything down with him.
It’s a perfectly good name.
Or we can go with something like ‘the Highball Party’: drive the effing train over them.
You’re kind to compare him to Chamberlain. I’m thinking more along the lines of Marshal Pétain.
Obama would go a long way to prove to us progressives that he’s not Republican pinata by doing this tax cut thing properly and it’s really quite simple.
Have the House of Representatives pass just the middle class extension. When it gets to the Senate and the Republicans filibuster, pass the tax cut extensions by reconciliation.
When the Republicans cry foul, tell them to F off and do it LOUDLY.
Agent Obama is doing exactly what his corporate sponsors sent him to do and that is preserve that status quo at all cost. The country was hungry for change in 2008 and the banking system was about to collaspe. This had many powerful people concerned that a real change movement might undertake the country and the rich and the powerful interest that have dominated DC for so long might get swept away. They knew we wanted change so they sent us what looked like change a black man with a muslim name but they needed someone slavishly submissive to the status quo. This is where Agent Obama comes in. He was charming and had no problem lying about what he believed in to convince you to support him. Deep down inside the black man with the muslim name carried the convictions of his Kansas republican grandparents. He is a huge Reagan fan who believes the Republican philosophy is the correct course for our nation, the only problem is that his carmel complexion wld never allow him to satisfy his ambition in the Republican party. In his first two years as a ( liberal president) Agent Obama has squashed our goal of Univeral Healthcare, has escalated the war in Afghanistan, maintained or exceeded Bush’s policies on civil liberties and GITMO, bailed out Wall Street with no strings attached, and his final act of obedience before he is sent back to Hyde Park is to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Once he does this Agent Obama can proudly say mission accomplished and retire and live well for the rest of his life. We have been fooled by this man and we can no longer pretend he is one of us when he clearly is not. He must face a primary challenge from the left in 2012 if we want to change the course this nation is on.
Barry Obama is the White Harvard trained Corp. lawyer we really elected back in 2008.
This is the aspect of the problem that I find most puzzling. I agree that the charge of closet conservatism does not come close to explaining Obama’s erratic behavior, even if (as I suspect) the charge is entirely accurate. Surely, at minimum, he wishes to be re-elected; his current behavior is not very promising as a means to that end. The man who seemed to be a step ahead of everyone else during the 2008 election cycle is now the leader of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. What gives?
My current hypothesis is that Obama was not driving the process in 2008, as I had assumed at the time. Either it was truly grassroots and Obama was merely riding the wave, or to the extent that there was a single leader/orchestrator, it was someone behind the scenes, perhaps David Plouffe, the reputed organizer of the famous “ground game”. Any thoughts on this, or other specific explanatory hypotheses?
Maybe not. Upon leaving office he’ll land a sweet spot at Goldman, Wellpoint, or BP. He may see one term as better than two because he gets paid four years sooner.
That just doesn’t sound like the right psychology. There are people who wouldn’t find the Presidency very appealing, but they don’t run for the office in the first place. Has there ever been a U.S. President who chose not to run for a second term simply because he didn’t want the job again (as opposed to those like Lyndon Johnson, who knew they couldn’t be re-elected)?
Besides, if Mr. Obama did prefer four years of corporate salary and stock options over a second Presidential term, I doubt he would pick Goldman, Wellpoint, or BP. Not exactly the most user-friendly places, even by corporate standards.
How embarrassing would it be to get fired from Goldman after being president?
Look at all the horseshit that the PTB has gotten the people to accept in recent years. Latest example: 80% apparently accepting the airport Pic & Grope fest. I’m sure the party bosses feel confident that a 2nd Obama term can be sold to the people. So does Barry; he’s been good to the bosses and everyone has gotten paid.
I’m not so sure the general public has really accepted “gate rape”. The public does have a remarkably poor understanding of the importance of privacy issues, but this has reached what the Huffington Post has called a “tipping point”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/21/tsa-pat-downs-passenger-anger_n_786493.html
Let’s see what the next next poll says.
At the same time, false optimism does make more sense to me psychologically than Obama not really wanting to be re-elected. Still, optimism under present circumstances really supports cate@48‘s point that the President is exercising poor judgment.
Why is that a given? What difference does it make if he gets re-elected if he’s able to accomplish what he wants to in only one term?
You make some good points. What bothers me is that his ability to express himself appears to have deteriorated. He was eloquent in the campaign and was able to speak coherently and movingly in those days. Even those, like me, who were bothered by such things as his FISA vote, etc. were willing to take a chance on him because he sounded somewhat progressive. Now he is different. When he speaks without a teleprompter or prepared notes in front of him and in some interviews, he rambles. His thoughts and speech seem disjointed and circular, so that I find it difficult to follow him. He looks good but the superficial appearance of a well-educated, pleasant and eloquent man is gone (to me at least). His contempt for us is obvious but is not presented in a sharp incisive way. Even if he had been guided somehow when campaigning, he did have a better command of language. I can well believe that he is a puppet of sorts and is definitely a conservative/Republican type, but something is wrong with that simple picture. The idea of him being a greedy corporate tool, I think is partly right, but he is so disorganized and he and his immediate circle are so like the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” as you said, that I am puzzled. His compulsive behavior, caving, etc. is to one group only. But it appears to be uncontrollable.
I agree with your assessment. It is almost like he caught some weird wave back in Illinois and rode it all the way to the WH. He never had to prove himself. Now that he does his consistent failure is very telling.
Obama is an accidental president.
I’m not sure Obama’s going to make it again. Maybe in 2016 or 2020.
Wasn’t GW Bush, too, an accidental president?
GW Bush was a handy tool who was appointed. I guess you could call that an accident.
I think he was surrounded by a number of very good one-trick strategists. They realized that it was very easy to play the Democratic primary system in that it gave almost half the delegates to one of the remaining two candidates. You just had to deliver some tough blows in the beginning, and then just continue to show up.
So they knocked Hillary Clinton out early, and then had it good up until about September. But Obama really wasn’t out ahead. It is clear they were relying on minority voter turnout to flip some of the Southern states and make the game more competitive than Bush-Gore and Bush-Kerry.
Then, came Lehman Shock. John McCain just wasn’t credible, and that helped Obama a lot. Sarah Palin was a circus sideshow / entertainer from a politics perspective, which she remains to this day. So it was enough to flip the voters who would have voted one way or another to choose Obama. This plus the increased minority and traditional Democratic turnout really did it.
What was everyone voting for in the man? Well, a guy who made great inspirational speeches and who was smart. You know, like how everyone has been looking for a Kennedy over the last 50 years.
I think the biggest problem is that he was a Senator, and the other Senators sit there and think he’s just one of them, so what’s he doing in the White House. The Republicans realized they had to take him down from Day One, and so they just set at it, Southern-style. (Southern-style means have my way or we take the ball and go home. Southern-style is bring guns to public meetings and make other outrageous bluffs of sorts. This is why you see talk of shutting the federal government down and letting the U.S. bonds default.)
What’s painful to watch about Obama is that he isn’t drawing lines in the sand. And when he does, the next thing you know is he is erasing it and drawing one closer in. I remember seeing that in one of the Warner Brothers cartoons, but the aggressor gets tricked in the end. He really should just keep saying, “give me what I want, because I have the veto pen.” This is what Ford did in 1975, and it really enhanced his credibility as someone to be negotiated with.
All the Republican Presidents really draw the line with Congress. Carter never did. Johnson owned them. Clinton only started doing it when his back was to the wall with the Republican Congress. GW Bush just acted tough after 9/11 and that was enough.
Obama has yet to act tough, and that’s a lot of the problem.
That reminds me of another hypothesis I’ve considered about his erratic behavior. Another clue is found in the observation by cate@81 that
Here’s the hypothesis – just a hypothesis, not an assertion:
Back in local Illinois politics, there were indeed moderate Republicans who were willing to engage in genuine dialogue, compromise, and bipartisanship. Obama had innumerable experiences of successful cooperation with them – the kind of experiences that form unshakable, partly subconscious assumptions that appear, to the person who believes them, to be merely common sense. Obama learned to dismiss those who advocated more confrontational strategies as naive, irrational, or impractical. As a busy, tireless organizer, he formed the generalization – again, unconsciously – that even listening to the confrontational, radical Left was a waste of time, a luxury he couldn’t afford. Later, in the Senate, he got to know Joe Biden – a man who cannot believe that even Jesse Helms was truly evil. And, using these same assumptions, he made his way to the White House. His inauguration at an initial peak of exalted popularity appeared to confirm everything he believed.
Then he ran into Mitch McConnell – the Zombie Bulldog of Kentucky, the “Human Roadblock”. Later, he ran into the Tea Party and the professional liars funded by the Koch brothers and the US Chamber of Commerce. And the country suffers as he wanders about in a daze, with his subconscious trying to rewire his most deep-seated assumptions, and his conscious mind telling him to stay the course, to stick with what always worked before.
Welcome to the big leagues, Barry.
I agree that Obama does not understand how to stand up for what he believes and wants. He is not tough. He is a wimp. But what is it that you think that Obama stands for? What does he value? What is he against? Does he care about jobs, Social Security, civil rights, etc? Almost without exception, his policies, statements, proposed legislation, appointments, etc. have been right-wing, conservative, shortsighted, poorly conceived, pro-industry/wealthy/Wall-street and anti-Senior, middle-class, minority, poor, etc. etc. etc. Obama despises FDR and is grossly ignorant about the Great Depression. Read Paul Krugman today in his blog. Acting tough is pointless if Obama stands for nothing but caving endlessly to the Republicans and business like a mindless robot.
Very good points. I’m originally from the South myself, and I know exactly what you mean when you write:
I agree entirely that you have to just stand up to these people. It’s also important to denounce them publicly and unequivocally as the scoundrels they are – to show what game they’re playing and why they’re playing it. To me, one of the most disturbing incidents of the entire 2008 campaign was Biden’s comment during his debate with Palin (which otherwise went well) that we should always assume that our enemies are merely clueless, and we must never attribute evil motives to them. That’s a recipe for disaster – the kind of disaster we’re experiencing right now.
I also agree that the 2008 race was much closer than people now tend to remember, and that Obama was helped enormously by a myriad of unforced errors from McCain and Palin. (One encouraging sign is that the pace of unforced errors from the Right is not only continuing, but accelerating; otherwise we might have lost the Senate as well as the House this time around.)
I hope that isn’t all there was to it. The impression I’m getting is that not only Obama, but the Left in general, is making a mistake by trying to “flip” Republicans, or even to court independents. The only thing that will make a real difference is to mobilize those who already agree with us, but don’t vote, or don’t vote consistently. They’re already the majority. Conservatives in the second half of the 20th century were convinced that they should appeal to the Silent Majority. Now we have the Silent Majority!
Everybody’s got their two cents, but my own gut feeling is that Obama does not want to appear confrontational because of what confrontation signifies in the black-white relations of America. I blog more about that here:
He’s got to be a lot more confrontational. Only then will people who are wavering in their support for him feel that they know where he stands on the issues. He’s playing down confrontation. I think he’s doing it because of racial concerns, and I think it’s a big mistake.
Yes, he’s tried to “reach out” to the Republicans. But Obama’s attitude going forward should be, “look, you just made me waste part of 2 years reaching out to you. Now you reach out to me.”
It would be more like the attitude Baracus would have.
The Republicans are going to give him a number of opportunities to draw lines in the sand. The ’70′s Democrats did that with Ford, and Ford took advantage of it. So did 1995 Bill Clinton. Hopefully December and New Year 2011 Obama does too. Then all these FDL debates about right-winger or left-winger will be a lot more nailed down.
This is a really good point. The Democrats also have to emphasize what they deliver to people who fashion themselves as “anti government conservatives”. A lot of those people log on to the conservative websites after they look to see if the social security or earned income credit check hit the online banking.
I just don’t think he’s wired that way. He’s an intellectual who probably thinks that he can approach the Repubs with logic and reason and rationale.
Whereas, the Bullies are blind, deaf, and dumb to anything but their own agenda. They care absolutely nothing for our Country or the average person. They only care about enriching themselves and power, and will stand in the way and oppose anything our President proposes.
They have shown such disrespect to President Obama, it makes me literally ill.
Much or all of it, IMO, has its root in racism. They are outspoken about wanting him to be a one term President. They want him unseated and OUT.
They don’t mince words. It is the only truthful thing they have ever said.
Thinking it over, I wonder whether his apparent acceptance of right-wing views isn’t just part of the same compromising mentality. If Obama had really wanted to be a right-winger, he could simply have been one. But there’s another explanation for his apparent conservatism. One of the worst things about continually seeking compromise is that you spend so much time trying to find common ground with your opponents that you’re tempted to exaggerate the extent of the common ground, and to take your opponents’ word for things that you ought to learn from scratch for yourself – like exactly how FDR really handled the Great Depression.
Again, it looks like parochialism. Obama has spent so much time playing the game by the rules that he’s forgotten that it’s possible to redraw the gameboard and rewrite the rules. That’s unfortunate, to say the least, now that he’s in a position where he could really do those things if he tried.
That doesn’t, however, answer the question as to how we should react. As I see it, there are basically five options, in increasing order of radicalness:
(1) Keep trying to persuade O to see the light and play in the big leagues.
(2) Write off O as hopeless, but don’t primary him – instead, work on persuading the Democrats in the Congress, in the hope that he will follow their lead, if they act decisively.
(3) Primary the President, and also primary any Democrats in the Congress who actively or passively cooperate with Republican obstructionism.
(4) Start a third party and try to replace the Democratic power structure with something more tractable.
(5) The fifth option is best expressed by the words of the Internationale.
I agree that Obama may have learned to compromise while working with moderate, flexible Republicans in Illinois. His thinking apparently was even then conservative. But even then he seemed to prefer to compromise unilaterally and without expectation of reward from the other side. There and later in the Senate for some reason he chose to compromise or give in to his opponents at the beginning of negotiations. This is what fascinates me. He compromises when he doesn’t have to and without apparently doing so for a reward or to win. He just does it – but only with conservatives. That’s why I only partially agree that he does everything for a reward. If he were so greedy and corrupt, he would plan and not botch so many things. Instead, he acts like a robot whose buttons can be pushed by groups who may or may not choose to reward him later. He makes it obvious that he can be used.
Why he would consistently dismiss the confrontational strategies of the Left as naive while reaching out to confrontational conservatives? Is confrontation the problem or something else? As a human to analyze he fascinates me. As a President he really, really scares me. Enough, I am getting tired and my writing shows it.
Clone Harry Truman. We need him back.
What’s the matter with him? A) He is just not a very good President and he is a terrible “leader” because he is scared of his own shadow. B)His exceedingly poor judgment is fueled by the fact that he essentially does not believe in what Democrats are for: his beliefs are much more in line with the Republican Party.
Well, here are my additional 2 cents. I truly wish what you say is true, but that, I think, means that he has no core values and beliefs that he considers worth standing up for. I supported and voted for Obama. With high hopes. Which have crashed. Assuming that Obama is a moderate or somewhat liberal man compelled by circumstances and race to give in to the Republicans, then why is he also demonstrating such ignorance of history (FDR, the Depression), law (statements and actions re Bush policies, etc.), unemployment, Social Security, which has nothing to do with the deficit, (no one coerced him into setting up the deficit commission, which Congress had voted down, and appointing Bowles and Simpson), and his very obvious contempt for progressives? To me this shows contempt for all Americans of every race.
Quite true – a lot of people’s “anti-government” feelings are a mile wide and a millimeter deep. My comment that we shouldn’t worry too much about persuading Republicans, or even independents, was a broad-brush generalization, and wasn’t intended to apply to “conservatives” who can with minimal effort be brought to realize that they are in reality no such thing. Similarly, there are many “independents” and “moderates” who like to describe themselves as such only because of a disenchantment (obviously shared by many of the Firedogs here!) with the two-party system, but whose real beliefs are firmly liberal, not borderline. Likewise, persuading these people that the above applies to them can be well worth the trouble.
Even for persuading these borderline cases, however, one of the most potent tools is likely to be the mobilization of people who already agree with us about almost everything fundamental, except whether their vote can really make a difference. Seeing them come around can have a potent effect on those who need a few other mental roadblocks cleared as well. They are our true base, even if they’ve never voted before, and say they don’t plan to.
By contrast, as an ex-wingnut myself, I can testify that the task of bringing around the other side’s true believers, while not altogether hopeless, is prohibitively slow and expensive as an electoral strategy.
Recently I saw Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC saying that in a midterm election, the people whose opinions matter are the ones who voted. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people who didn’t vote are the real swing vote of the future. Not voting is also a choice. And it’s a choice that is made anew each time. It is not a fixed character trait.
It kills me. They let Republicans add crazy amendments, and they don’t even vote for the bills. Tell them to f..k themselves, preferably on national TV.
I don’t think you can have a good President who has already served in Congress. That process is “poisoned”.
JFK was fine, until they killed him.
Extending tax cuts for the wealthy is going the same route as the public option. Obama first will take a public position contrary to what he actually wants to happen. He will then do nothing to support the position he presumably advanced. Then in the end when he signs off on the tax cuts he will say they made me do it or he didn’t have the votes. That way he gets what he really wants but he’s not accountable for the legislation because he’s on record for supporting the opposite and more popular outcome.
Agreed. He’s certainly on the absolute wrong side of history. The sad thing is the backlash from this is we’ll probably elect ony wealthy right-wing conservative white men with name recognition as President for at least 50 years.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Obama is basically a pragmatist and a centrist. I don’t expect anything from him now-it’s painful to watch him still trying to seel this bipartisan hooey.
Compromisers who feel that their position is weak would naturally tend to react differently to confrontationalists on their own side versus on the other side. Confrontationalist allies elicit mostly annoyance (unless they succeed on their own!), and tend to get ignored. Confrontationalist opponents elicit alarm and (often excessive) efforts at conciliation. This behavior can give the impression of a bias toward the Right, when it’s really a bias toward giving in to the other side – whatever that other side might be.
Amen to that.
Which is another reason to focus on other strategies – like getting the new, liberal Silent Majority out to vote, or persuading the Democrats in Congress to grow a spine – and not on psychoanalyzing Obama. It would be dangerous to assume unequivocally that he is on the other side, and that’s why I’ve advanced various hypotheses that give him the benefit of the doubt. But trying to bring him around wouldn’t be a good way to focus our energies either. Better to work around him – not with him or against him. If it’s possible at all to get him back on track, it’s probably best done by letting others take the lead. Sad to say about the President of the United States, but I think that’s where matters stand.