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President Obama (White House photo)
In next week’s London Review of Books, David Bromwich offers up a lengthy explanation of how the young Obama’s grappling with racial identity shaped his desire for unity and consensus above all else, and how his self-perception as a transformative “man of genius” created his passive preference for words over deeds.
It’s interesting background information, but it’s beside the point. It’s the wrong answer to the wrong question, because it’s based on the faulty premise that Obama is some kind of flawed progressive.
Obama doesn’t half-ass progressive policies for the love of bipartisanship or because thinks speeches are enough, he half-asses them because he doesn’t want them. He’s not a hapless idealist hamstrung by hubris and decades-old personal drama, he’s a calculating corporate tool following the DLC playbook: Sell out for money, then pretend it’s a pragmatic strategy to attract independent votes and Get Things Done In Washington.
Now, if Bramwich could tell us where Obama’s moral compass went – or better yet, how to get it back – that would be useful.
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Narcissists don’t need no frickin’ moral compasses. Narcissists know everything already. This ain’t hard.
Exactly.
ELI!
Maybe the magnetic poles have flipped, sending Obama right but it’s much more likely that his moral compass always points toward the money poles.
But in the name of Centrism Obama must attract the voters enamored with the teevee programs of “Poo-flinger Island” and “Smell My Wife.”
MARGARET!
There you have it. The man is an authoritarian conservative in all visible aspects of his words and actions. I imagine he ran as a Democrat because he thought it not likely the GOP would nominate him.
The delusion so many cling to that he really really wants to do liberal progressive things has been terribly destructive to the authentic liberal movement. We could have dealt with him much better and certainly held on to our traditional values had not so many bought into the delusion.
One thing I’ve learned recently is that O is (was?) a rock star. Coulda fooled me. (But you didn’t.)
Why on earth would Obama need to court the votes of a bunch of phukking wee todd it degenerate junkies that need drug testing? Clearly he doesn’t need my money or help on the campaign trail.
…Sell out for money, then pretend it’s a pragmatic strategy to attract independent votes and Get Things Done In Washington…
Exactly…! Aloha, Eli…!
“Faithfully Execute…” Jail any Banksters lately?
Aloha CTut…!
I don’t think we need any more Presidents that you’d “like to have a beer with”. What we need is one I’d like to smoke a joint with…
I’d like one who knows how to govern for the people.
Rhetorical comment.
Or one who understands giving foot massages to republicans behind the Winn Dixie won’t gain him votes but will cost him.
Short, not sweet, but to the point. No coming back to the fold he was never in for Obama LLC. Surprised how many otherwise smart libs refuse to believe they and our Republic got shafted also.
But to give Obama credit, his 2008 campaign was a masterpiece of deceit, at least judging by the depth of betrayal felt by his supporters.
I really love this country, and it bothers me its organs are being sold for lunch money, its remains are being sold for soap, the infrastructure is being burned for insurance money and the residents are being fed the ashes, and millions of teabaggers are dancing around the flames in some twisted “Lord Of The Flies” remake.
I think O wants to be excepted by the ingroup. Plus he watched that Clinton film the one with Emma Thompson as Hilary the name escapes me. The African American character wants to get things passed and is sick of fighting for things that have no chance of passing.
Joe Klein wrote the book the film is based on Joe was of course projecting his ideas onto the characters.
But O has taken it to heart.
I never will get why a strategy that has failed miserably over and over is still clung to so tightly. I see two possibilities: one is that it’s a deliberate charade and the other is that they’re just that stupid.
Nobody is that stupid.
Got that right.
What do you love about this country?
Agreed Narcissists love attention as long as the Washington and big business crowd says O looks great in his clothes O does whatever they want O really does not want to hear that he is nakid/wrong.
Or that money is both vital to and more important than winning elections.
The idea of its potential.
In 200+ years, what has its potential achieved?
GREAT read Eli, bless ya, went to my FB wall, for all my festing faux lib pals to read and grok . . . so many folks are all in for him, without knowing anything about the facts of his actions since FISA et al.
N these are well educated people with families and good incomes and mostly white, who LOVE him, without really knowing why the spell is cast.
LeSigh.
On we trudge, rcc’d if the button was there . . . ;-)
That’s why I’m so much less disappointed than some other voices on this blog. I knew the guy was DLC all the way early on and to be fair, the people who were fooled by his bullshit were listening to that bullshit to the exclusion of all of the clues. People who supported Obama over Clinton would often cite Bill’s ties to the DLC as a reason to not support Hillary but they were misleading themselves as much as they were being misled. Dunno if Clinton would have been any different policy wise but nominating either top tier candidate would put the DLC and their alumni in the driver’s seat.
He is doing his best but he does not seem to realize that the 30% who think he’s a Muslim born in Kenya will never like him.
He is to dumb to realize that calling O Muslim and a Kenyan is really just GOP code for I don’t like O because he is black.
O will never get those voters even if he keeps selling us out to win them. He reminds me of the kids who would sell out their friends in highschool to be popular.
I wonder if thats what O was like in highschool?
OUCH!
*G*
Sorry to punk out on the conversation, but getting sleepy time.
There are too many “intellectuals” who, after Chimpy, could portray OBummer as a a man of moral integrity and depth. He’s taught us a lot about America that they never could.
N we don’t even get to see him work the pole and strip . . . ;-)
That is such a great question. When I worked with teen girl ‘probates’ who were ‘dating’ really abusive and inappropriate young men, I’d ask them to tell me what it was they ‘loved’ about their guys. They usually went mute…. or came up with the stupid. “He loves me.” “He needs me.” Nonsense.
Heartbreaking.
A slow methodical plodding toward more freedom, not less. From murdering thieves planting flags and slaveholders to civil rights. From private Government and public citizens to open government and private citizens. Now, we have backslid considerably in the last thirty years, but that is our problem, not the founders.
You’re assuming that that’s the reason that he’s selling us out.
Love it . . . used it on my FB posting, did not attribute . . . hope ya don’t mind, I only attribute authors, and comments I lift I leave anon to protect both the innocent and the guilty.
*G*
Yes he will do anything to be in the in crowd and part of the group. We need a Leader with the Right ideas not some guy acting like an abused wife desperate to hold onto a marriage. Given what the GOP says about him, lies about him and treats him he fits the profile.
A friend of mine said its the wife who normally bailsout the abusive husband.
I am forever the optimist.
*G*
I’m reminded of my need for the pony with a horn on its head and shats rainbow sparkles out it’s butt.
*G*
You win the internets for a week with that one.
*G*
It’s a stupid strategy. Republican voters will not. Vote. Democratic. No matter how wingnutty one gets. It isn’t the policies involved so much as the letter after the name. Conservatives like to keep things simple so to them, “R” always = good and “D” always = bad. Th
Well, my dad’s dad worked carrying sacks of cement in a factory in Indiana, my dad did some of that, went to war, and came home and got an EDD, raised 3 kids including me, took us overseas to SE Asia where we all learnt life aint’ what the USA was telling us it was, went broke twice, and ended up doing well for his wife and kids after reinventing himself a few times.
I’ll take it. Not waving any flags, but . . . you asked. ;-)
I agree money is one reason. I am just pointing out an other reason. O could have easily said Government needs to create jobs and gotten rich investing in companies that get Government contracts to create jobs ahead of time.
He could have had the banks invest in these companies ahead of time to create jobs and have the banks give him political campaign cash.
Instead he choose a way to make money that was suppose to make him popular with the 1%. O is acting like an unpopular highschool freshman.
I guess maybe he has never been unpopular before and never learned the lesson? Or seen 80′s teen movies.
I have to agree with Eli. All signs point to Obama signing legislation contrary to Democratic principles because it is the policy he wants to sign. Sure, he gives lip service to “not getting every little thing he wanted” diminishing attacks from his left flank as unreasonable, and “this is what compromise looks like,” diminishing attacks from his left flank as unreasonable. Rahmbo’s installation of the Veal Pen was the tell.
Ouch! Harsh, Eli. And absolutely true.
AJ= Cy Yung.
Had an interesting discussion with my 94 year old dad today. I asked what his friends at ‘the home’ were saying….they’ve all lived through so many votes from The Great Depression to the Great Disillusion. They are all, apparently, continuing their party lines. I said that it doesn’t seem to matter to me….that if Obama wins, he will answer to his overlords and if Romney wins, he will answer to his overlords……and the overlords are all the same. My dad didn’t disagree.
Well heck. I’ll just walk around and kick the furniture for awhile. Kidding. Thanks for the flowers. Sometimes you just gotta hitch up whatever mule will pull the plow, nowhatI’msayin’?
I agree its stupid I’ve seen enough 80′s teen movies to know what happens to the person who sells out their friends to become popular. I’ve seen enough of life to know its true.
But it seems like a theory that works to explain O’s actions.
Once O gets rejected he then gets shown up big by us and then either comes running back (not saying we will take him back life is not a movie).
Or he stays with his group and sullenly watches us become the new IN group.
Yanks could probably use him right about now. But of course he would just turn into a pumpkin again. Remember Javy Vasquez?
That’s why I finally stopped grappling with whether or not to vote for the guy. I realized it had nothing to do with whether I was “throwing my vote away.” Or my being pissed about the guy taking my vote for granted. I finally realized this guy is not behind what once was the core of the Democratic party– unions, social security, medicare, health care. Core stuff. So fuck him. The fucking unions are supporting this guy and he doesn’t give 2 shits about them. Fine for them. Not me. He abandoned-or was never with- what’s been the heart of the party for about 70 years–and the fucking party is following him. That core is bullshit to all of them.
You are being to logical reasons change desire remains the same O wants to be liked.
O is a fixer he needs damaged people to fix the more damaged they are the more tightly he clings to them no matter how abusive.
Eli “standing and clapping!!!”
The RICH deserve MORE money,
and The Working class & The Poor should pay for it!
—-co-signed by President Obama & the “Centrist” Dem Leadership
Oh, and Eli, good post. Now I haven’t read David Bromwich’s Dr. Phil psych 101 drive-by analysis of Obama, but he does show passive defense mechanisms, sort of like playing racquet ball against the drapes. Anything signed is considered a “win” if he proposed it, no matter how bad Boner and Mitch mangled it. The only time he throws an elbow is for some brief applause line on the campaign trail.
Depends on which elbow.
My Parents both first generation put up with tons of crap from the church and neighbors. My Dad got soured on the neighbors my Mom on the church.
But yes they tried maybe not as hard as O but they did try. With the exception of my sister me and my 2 brothers kinda gave up on both.
Oh, you mean he is a passive-aggressive control freak?
Depends on who he’s talking to.
Great Post !!!
Who Owns Obama? the same people Own the GOP!
Obama’s top 20 list included:
Goldman Sachs ($1,013,091)
JPMorgan Chase & Co ($808,799)
Citigroup Inc ($736,771)
WilmerHale LLP ($550,668)
Skadden, Arps et al ($543,539)
UBS AG ($532,674), and…
Morgan Stanley ($512,232).
McCain’s list, meanwhile, included (drum roll please):
JPMorgan Chase & Co ($343,505)
Citigroup Inc ($338,202)
Morgan Stanley ($271,902)
Goldman Sachs ($240,295)
UBS AG ($187,493)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher ($160,346)
Greenberg Traurig LLP ($147,437), and…
Lehman Brothers ($126,557).
Obama’s list included all the major banks and bailout recipients, plus a smattering of high-dollar defense lawyers from firms like WilmerHale and Skadden Arps who make their money representing those same banks. McCain’s list included exactly the same banks and a similar list of law firms, the minor difference being that it was Gibson Dunn instead of WilmerHale, etc.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/iowa-the-meaningless-sideshow-begins-20120103#ixzz1icl0E0pm
O seems to want acceptance and seems to follow the first generation who is also successful path of denying that they are not accepted despite being successful.
Is that the clinical term:) Fixer is easier to spell.
Actually, I think you words are more better.
Who was the Emperor of Austria who had Russia help him then when Russia needed a favor said something about shocking the Czar with ingratitude a move that showed Europe he was not Russia’s puppet?
I’d look it up but I can’t remember enough for a google search. Point is people can be bought but once they get to power real leaders don’t let anyone control them.
Why do you assume Obama ever had a moral compass? I don’t see any convincing evidence.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/27/grim_proving_ground_for_obamas_housing_policy/
And this presages the criminal mess the administration has made of the mortgage business.
Yours have more respect from the Psyche Community and lend seriousness to this post. We need serious.
Not sure any of us here thought he ever had one now. Granted when he was a candidate yes but after the Healthcare sellout I changed my mind.
I’m thinking they are talking about needy Banksters and Hedge fund managers. He clings tightly to them even though he hurt their fee fee’s by calling them bigshots.
For the umpteenth time — Obama’s not a centrist.
I used to be a practicing skyhighatress.
I’d like to see a President get impeached.
obombya is an intell operative. just as was his mother. and his father.
he was the creation of the u.s. intell community[specifically the cia].
and he is the current one in a long line of presidents with similar ties to the cia and its surrogate, the lcn.
ronald reagan was the first in this recent chain. and all who followed him were also all “spooked” up.
and the media cannot, will not discuss this because all the journalists are still part of that continuing operation, mockingbird.
I agree!
Obama is clearly a follower!
Every sane person knew 2008 was a FDR moment, and the USA needed a leader, not a puppet!
History will not be kind to OBAMA
Obama blew his chance at being a great president, he will now be another Bush.
For the umpteenth time — Obama’s not a fucking centrist.
He does claim to be one. He excuses all his policy sellouts by claiming he is a centrist. But yes on the issues voters care about most jobs, ending the wars, taking the rich O is to the Right of the majority of voters.
Still to address O we must point out first that his center policy is not center, not popular with the majority of voters and is rather a desperate attempt to win the love of racist 30%ers who think he is a Muslim born in Kenya.
O wants the one thing he can’t have the racist Klan girl as his Prom Date. I don’t think even cheezy 80′s movies had a plot so far fetched.
Life is stranger than fiction.
Good Info!
The USA died when JFK got shot
O is just saying what he has to to get elected he hopes the hedge guys know he doesn’t mean it even as he hopes that we will buy his line again.
The Planet started to die when JFK got shot.
I couldn’t really care less what Obama claims. Obama claims all kinds of crap.
Yep Leaders lead diplomats look for compromise. We need a leader who has ideas and is motivated by wanting to help others even if it means being unpopular.
We don’t need a leader who risks being unpopular just to be popular with the IN crowd 1%.
Nite
Sorry, I was being obnoxious. A centrist, like David Brooks, Tom Friedman, David Gregory, et al believes that no matter how batshit insane rightwing policies and beliefs are, left wing policies and beliefs are exactly to the same measure and degree, equally crazy. The “both sides do it” mantra. That leaves the “Centrist Position” which is an exact equidistance from both extremes the cushy place where pundits occupy to make millions of dollars from both parties ad dollars. I mean, if they told the truth, there would be no competition and no money for them, right? There is no spoon. There is no center.
Yes it did
the USA military with their Banker ie Gangster friends took over the USA GOVT.
Most americans view War as video game! the so call Media never shows the death and destruction of War anymore.
the 4th state “the media” is a complete joke
Walter Cronkite would never have called Obama a Democrat! Obama has nothing in common with FDR, JFK, LBJ, etc.
What Obama does not understand, the 1% would not exist if was not for 99%
How many 1% fight for the USA? none
How many 1% died in WW2? not many
Obama will learn the 1% is not the best USA has to Offer
When one looks at the history of the USA, the 99% has always led the USA
Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. etc. were not started by rich people?
Hitler would have loved fighting the 1%, it was the 99% that won ww2
Most folks do not agree.
Gallup shows 84% of Democrats approve of Obama. Only 11% of Republcans do.
When Americans were asked by Gallup to asssess Obama’s ideology they resounded as follows:
Dood, it is our job to push the Overton Window way, way to the left.
Obama is to the right of Reagan. Or put another way, Reagan was more liberal than Obama.
Amnesty
Cut-n-run in Beruit. (surrender monkey)
Raised taxes eleven times
A victory for the mighty right wing wurhlitzer.
Oh, I forgot. The answert to the question posed is “collaborator.” Simple.
Who supports no cuts to Social Security? 80%
Who supports Medicaid? Over two thirds.
Who supports Medicare? Over 70%
Issue after issue the American people are liberals. But when asked less than 20% self identify as liberal. Conservatives have made it a dirty word.
Great conversation. I’m out. *poof*
Old Gold?
Do you think Obama is a Democrat?
Obama is currently working on a trade deal some say that is bigger than NAFTA, that will send more USA jobs offshore.
Would FDR, JFK, Hoover, done a NAFTA type of deal in a depression?
Do you think Obama is a Democrat?
Obama speech to the Tea Party,
all the statements below are TRUE
I Obama endorse the Bush agenda of spying on and killing americans
I Obama will attacks Unions
I Obama will double downs on Bush Wars
I Obama will attack Teacher Unions, I hate public education
I Obama will always worship WALL STREET, let the Bails out begin
I Obama will fight to pass the Bob Dole Health Care Bill
I Obama will kill the Public Option
I Obama will kill Drug Importation
I Obama will APPOINT an insurance executive to manage ROMNEY CARE/OBAMACARE
I Obama will not APPOINT progressives like Dawn Johnsen and Elizabeth Warren, I will used them as part of my KABUKI CHESS GAME! Now you see them, Now you don’t
I Obama will hand pick the cat food commission to destroy Social Security
I Obama support phony dems like Blanche Lincoln,Bean, Ben Nelson they are like me, trojan horses
I Obama will keep Guantanomo open for business
I Obama will renew the Patriot Act
I Obama will continue the renditions
I Obama will re-appoint Bernanke
I Obama will support ideas that send more USA jobs off shore
I Obama will target Americans for assassination
who needs SARAH PALIN, when you got Old Obama?
Old Gold do you think Obama is a Democrat like FDR, JFK,? do You?
Obama messed up big time! and he knows it!
the Obama nightmare
Dems win house and senate and lose the White House,
History will agree with me, Obama = Hoover
the USA needed a Leader in 2008, not a puppet
This really is ammunition for my end-of-March diary!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/30/1079054/-What-if-Barack-Obama-weren-t-a-leftist
If ten people have 80 billion dollars and 1000 people have $2.00 guess what
in today’s society the voice of 10 will be greater than the 1000.
Walter Cronkite may have talk about the article below? unlike the clowns who call themselves news people today.
Although the sudden high rate Arctic methane increase at Svalbard in late 2010 data set applies to only a short time interval, similar sudden methane concentration peaks also occur at Barrow point and the effects of a major methane build-up has been observed using all the major scientific observation systems. Giant fountains/torches/plumes of methane entering the atmosphere up to 1 km across have been seen on the East Siberian Shelf. This methane eruption data is so consistent and aerially extensive that when combined with methane gas warming potentials, Permian extinction event temperatures and methane lifetime data it paints a frightening picture of the beginning of the now uncontrollable global warming induced destabilization of the subsea Arctic methane hydrates on the shelf and slope which started in late 2010. This process of methane release will accelerate exponentially, release huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere and lead to the demise of all life on earth before the middle of this century
http://arctic-news.blogspot.ca/p/global-extinction-within-one-human.html
Oldgold can Obama saved us from this?
No! Obama supports drilling in the ARTIC
Why did the elites create Obama?
What is his mission?
Yes, President Obama is a Democrat. His ideology is in line with Democratic Presidents back through FDR.
Nate Silver, who writes the excellent FiveThirtyEight Blog for the NYT, did an analysis of Obama’s ideology in response to charges that he was a moderate Republican. Silver’s analysis concluded:
” It is almost certainly an exaggeration, therefore, to conclude that Mr. Obama’s positions are similar to those of a Republican of the 1990s. His DW-Nominate scores are considerably to the left of even the most liberal Republicans of the 1990s — and slightly to the left of most 1990s Democrats.”
To do their bidding. To ignore the US Constitution & the Rule of Law. To turn the USA into a third world country. To legitimize torture & indefinite detention. To facilitate the demise of the middle class by giving his pals on Wall St & in the banks free reign to rip us all off. And so on…
Yes. Collaborator & in league with the Bush crime syndicate.
My roommate had LoDo on MSNBC. I saw about 1 min with LoDo waxing lyrical about the huge differences bet Zero & Rmoney. Kabuki Show. Just seemed fake phoney & like even LoDo was bored. A frickin waste of time money energy & effort. Whoever “wins”… the same gangsters’ll be in charge. Where’s Tony Soprano when you need him??
It really does discredit your position that you seem to imagine that there is some sort of ideological continuity between “Democratic Presidents back through FDR,” and that you can’t see the fundamental disconnect between the ideologies of a Bill Clinton who nullified Glass-Steagall and signed the Welfare Bill and a Lyndon Johnson who waged a War On Poverty and instituted Medicare and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Do you imagine that you’ll persuade anyone by pretending that there’s no such thing as neoliberalism?
Do you really believe what you are typing? really?
Obama is to left of FDR? really? LOL
We must always judge a man by his actions, not his words.
I could list over 200 things Obama done that was to right of Reagan and Nixon!
Nate Silver says Obama is a Liberal, and that makes it so? really! LOL
Oldgold?
Let me let you in on a little secret that Elites and Obama ignored!
A black guy who runs as Democrat, BETTER do what his Base wants and Demands! Period
Clinton could attack the Left, Liberals, Progressives, etc. and get away with it, OBAMA can not!
Oldgold Obama had to bend over for the Gay Community
Oldgold Obama had to bend over to Hispanics
Why? because they were not going to vote for him
It is funny watching this White House, wake up to the reality, that a lot of Progressives, Liberals, etc. will not vote for Obama, but are going to vote Dem.
Black candidates have to be very careful, especially those who screw the people who voted for them.
see come November a lot of blacks, hispanics, women, etc. will vote for Obama however, this may not be enough.
what may happen is progressives voters combine with minority voters may help dems win the house and senate and lose the White House. How? Progressives inform voters who hate Obama don’t vote for him.
I repeat Obama trying to do a Clinton, has resulted in a complete disaster for his political team.
did Gallop tell you, that some Dems may say they are voting Dem, however, they may not vote for OBAMA? LOL
If I was Obama I would not take much stock in those Gallop Polls
Oldgold, you already know this? don’t you! LOL
We had this conversation a long time ago, Obama will come crawling to Left, Unions, Progressives, Liberals, begging for us to vote for him, and we will Whisper No
I repeat Obama trying to do a Clinton, was Stupid
Good News! I think the Supremes will keep the Individual Mandate in Obama Health Care Bill, Why? it makes their masters Richer.
Do real Dems like Individual Mandate OldGold? No
Oldgold who likes the Individual Mandate?
Romney may get some good news tommorrow,
Romney may get to run against his Health Care Bill? “you got to love the USA what a country” Romney runs against RomneyCare and wins the White House! LOL
Romney is going scream from every mountain top how he hates the Individual Mandate, what is Obama going to do?
Is Obama going to say he loves the Individual Mandate? LOL
Old Gold Keep this in Mind!
Black candidates cannot give progressives a reason not to vote for them. I think the individual mandate may be a reason a lot of progressives and liberals don’t vote for OBAMA.
welcome to the games. OLD GOLD
I guess that was Good News? LOL
Now the GOP wants to impeach him for failure to enforce DOMA and the immigration laws. Have at it!
Are you referring to the FDR that interned 110,000 Japanese-Americans?
Are you referring to the LBJ that led us into Vietnam Nam?
FDR and LBJ got more progressive legislation passed because the Democratic majorities in the Congress were much greater than Obama had to work with. For instance, in 1934, 74 of the 96 Senators were Democrats.
The problem with this post is that it’s a misreading of the Bromwich diary. Did anyone actually click on the link? I think Eli was reacting to Keynes description of Woodrow Wilson:
I’ve been reading and listening to Bromwich for quite a while and heard him describe Obama as a man devoid of humor and, as suggested in this piece, strength of character, but never as a ‘generously intentioned man’ or ‘flawed progressive.’
Here is a Hugh’s list of 304 Obama scandals going up into November 2011. They are very well documented.
Hitler fought the Red Army, and lost. The Western front was merely a holding action.
Since you lost the argument about domestic policy, you prevaricate, and shift the topic.
FDR and LBJ fought wars they believed in. Neoliberal wars such as what you saw from Clinton (Serbia) and Obama (Cheney’s “war on the world” amplified) were and are gratuitous wars, meant to justify a continuation of the military-industrial complex.
This assumes, wrongly, that Obama really wants to pass progressive legislation. The ACA, for instance, was designed to keep the health insurance industry alive against its own tendency to price itself out of its own markets. See e.g. John Geyman’s pre-ACA analysis of the economics of health insurance, “Do Not Resuscitate.”
That’s the intellectual fun of it all — trying to figure out why Oldgold types messages in which nobody believes.
Silver’s also concluded:
“The system is essentially blind to the content of legislation”
So Obama scores big by passing a Republican health care plan, what a lefty.
albertchampion@72 is correct. It is the only thing that makes any sense.
Or he could be in it strictly for the money. That would explain his relentless anti-populism. If he wins a second term, he can rack up more IOUs from the .01%. If he loses, he gets paid 4 years sooner.
Glad to see that not many at FDL have the wool pulled over their eyes.
Some really fun and decent comments (if only the subject matter were not so tragic.)
When one considers that Obama listens only to the elites then this story looks a bit different. Even the most ‘liberal’ people with a seat at the table in the Beltway adhere to the narrow confines of every conventional wisdom it makes perfect sense that what Obama does fits neatly within them.
Without Rahm and the rest of the inside inside players Obama would not be here. The idea that Obama was going to govern as some kind of outsider is absurd. Actually the idea that any president can now escape the centripetal forces of the institutionalized elites is absurd. There is nowhere to go because there is nobody to staff an administration available. There is nobody there to do anything but serve the institutional interests.
Really enjoyed this, Eli. Thanx.
All of my correspondence to the WH during the last three and a half years has gone unanswered. Now they are sending me solicitations for money. I wad it all up, include a caustic note, stick it back in the envelope and send it back. Fuck ‘em.
“Great read, Eli…”
It IS, Larue!
Dropping trou and taking an honest journalistic crap right in the middle of the liberal mousketeer “Obama sucks less!” meme, is God’s work. :o)
Don’t stop now, Eli. I’m getting to where I like it. :o)
(did I mention you are now on the Daily Kos shit list? :o)…and a few others…)
“…If he loses, he gets paid 4 years sooner…”
Three sentences—Clack! 8 ball in the side pocket!
…Randall gets this week’s cut-to-the-chase post, platinum turnip. :o)
Eli! Do you realize how many people you’re driving away from The Lake, talking shit about Obama? :o)
At this rate, we won’t have enough readers left to enjoy a good, hard-hitting thread about how Andrew Breitbart requested that he be buried without any underarm deodorant; the sleaze! :o)
Bottom line, or one of them:
The idea that poor, brave, Obama walked into the Oval Office with a 79 seat majority in the House; an 18 seat majority in the Senate; and the clearest mandate for real change since FDR…only to be hamstrung by the big, bad, republicans, is black-humor hilarious.
The Republicans never vote for any of his legislation so you can’t blame it on bipartisanship. Obama’s a fraud. That’s part of the job description as President when you’re required to shill for the wealthy oligarchs.
I think we go astray when we think of Obama as Bush Three. Look at Eli’s photo. That’s Cheney.
Sure, the money is a perk. But it is the sheer power that’s the driving force.
We can speculate how he got this way. But two things are very evident.
He is this way.
He has his way.
I remember an interview back in the campaign with Michelle. Her sweet and gentle demeanor slipped slightly as she said vehemently “We had to work twice as hard just to be accepted, we had to excel just to qualify.” Words to that effect. In a different way, the bitterness of Clarence Thomas is there as well.
Like Cheney, Obama is one of a kind and he has made his compact with force. He’s not weak or dumb. He’s not Bush. And maybe too, he’s not even Cheney. He’s gone beyond them both. He’s gone beyond either political party. Beyond any state senator or representative. Maybe beyond the Supremes as well.
And while we the people may not want him to continue in office, those who feed off his power do. They may just have their way.
“He’s not weak or dumb.”
Would you like to specifically list the accomplishments of this strong, smart, preznint?
Agree. I’ve often compared Obama to Cheney, and my *suspicion* (based on nothing that I can link to) is that Obama is BFF with Cheney.
When or if I (speaking only for myself) refer to the reign of error that is Obama as Bush III, I am personally meaning it in the sense that O is running is Admin in the same way that Cheney ran Bush’s Admin. The thing is Bush was putatively the POTUS, so the term of office was Boooosh.
Hence, this is Bush III, but as with W, run in the manner of Dick Cheney.
Just saying….
Obama came into office to do exactly what he’s done. No more, no less. Neither Obama or the Democrats (with a very few exceptions, possibly dennis kucinich) are “weak” or “scared” or whatever. THIS is what THEY wanted. They just engaged in Kabuki Show to *pretend* that there are allegedly two “distinct” political parties with “different” agendas.
Some decades ago, there were two “distinct” parties, but those days are long gone. There is one party of the Oligarchs. It has two branches, both of which play a game of pretending to “serve the needs of the 99%.” Neither branch of the Oligarchy party serves anyone’s needs except those of the 1%, and really mainly the needs of the .0001%.
The end.
Whether we get Rmoney or Obama in November, it’s only shades of grey difference these days.
Obama NEVER was a liberal. He was run as a “Democrat” bc only Democratic voters would be willing to vote for an AA as POTUS. Republicans wouldn’t do it. In the end, it doesn’t matter what race the POTUS is from. They’re all in thrall to the 1% and get paid handsomely to shill for them.