Comment Rescue: Why I’m Not Quitting on Obama
Okay. I’ve searched my soul and here is why I’m not quitting on Obama.
I watched the election news closely. Very closely. And it always looked like Obama was fucking up. I was always biting my nails and thinking “oh fuck!” What I didn’t know was that there was a master plan underlying all the apparent miscues. The Obama team was working a very long story arc. An arc I could not see with my puny human eyes.
So now I’m thinking, “I’ve been here before.” I’m thinking that what seems like fuck ups to me are really dots of paint on a huge canvas. When the big reveal comes it is going to be fucking straight up kicking the shit out of Republicans, holding them to a mid-term ten seat pick-up in the house and pissing in Sarah Palin’s sweet tea. (Rhetorically speaking)
The reveal is going to be so kick ass. It is going to be like a motherfucking supernova of Democratic cosmic jujitsu. Obama will establish a Democratic majority that will last for 80 years and Obama will be regarded as a better Democratic President than Kennedy and Roosevelt put together.
That’s what I tell myself as I rock slowly in the corner, in a puddle of urine. (Mine and Liberalgeek’s…don’t ask.)
That’s why I’m not bailing… yet.
I see – it’s sort of a secular Rapture.
I’d comment more, but I think this thread will belong to anonone.
this is all wonderful until you remember what hasn’t happened to wall street. What hasn’t happened with the war. What hasn’t happened with torture. What has happened with CIA drones. What hasn’t happened with DADT. What hasn’t happened in Congress.
Duh. That’s why the reveal (rapture if you will) will be so mind blowing and usher in an age of aquariums. It would not be at all mind blowing if the stage was not set with that crap you mention.
Here’s what I’d like to see… Fair criticism combined with fair praise. Why are progressives so bad at standing up for the accomplishments of this administration? Why is everything not enough?
Arms control agreement with Russia? Stem cell research? Tax cuts for 95% of Americans? Lilly Ledbetter? Just to name a few.
Agreed. But I’m not sure fair criticism and fair praise is really possible in the post Bush/Rove, media world of 2010. I’m banking on a secular/supernatural deus ex machina.
Pandora: Because each of us has different priorities. A large number of us, myself included, would put ending the occupations and the Gitmo/Bagram program at the top of the list. I would rank limits on Wall Street at No. 2. In short, I feel betrayed on those things I considered most important. The accomplishments are nice, but they don’t make up for the lack of action on what I consider important.
This isn’t knee-jerk criticism; I ranked these items my top priorities before Obama was inaugurated. If you consider this “unfair,” well, we’ll have to disagree.
My priority was that the Bush tax cuts for the rich are allowed to expire. That still remains to be seen. Obama’s penchant for seeking out compromise with Republicans does not bode well for the taxes.
The HCR bill does raise taxes on capital gains and dividends, but stupidly hands that money right back to private corporations in the form of health insurance subsidies. If you are going to spend political capital on a tax increase, don’t hand the money back to Wall Street.
My priority was that a Republican not follow Bush in the White House. That still remains to be seen.
I have just started reading ‘The Power Game’ by Hendrick Smith which talks about the dramatic shift in the Washington power framework that found its tipping point in 1974 –away from the office of the president to congress and the rise of the subcommittee and their myriad lobbyist interests. It’s given me a fresh perspective on the problem I have with Obama’s baby step compromising of reforms in health care, war, the stimulus vs deficit and finance.
The most lasting legacy Obama is giving us is his amazing SCOTUS nominations. I just hope that he holds his ground on the mid-east wars and brings the troops home and gives Americans what they want: jobs. They don’t care about the deficit or the wars.
My priority was that a Republican not follow Bush in the White House.
We all wanted that… but we were talking about priorities after the election, not before. We were all apparently wishing on the same star, but making different wishes.
Great points Nancy. Here is a link to the NYT review of the book you mentioned.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/24/arts/review-books-how-movers-move-and-shakers-shake.html
pandora, I have praised Obama on occasion, but his presidency to-date is so far away from the “hope and change” that he promised in his campaign which is why he he gets little praise from the left for the crumbs he throws us. On top of that, he lies just as much as Bush did. He cannot be trusted.
His major accomplishment to date, “health care reform” is going to be a trainwreck when it hits because it doesn’t do anything to control health care costs. Insurance rates for non-group plans are skyrocketing (up 20% this year!); just wait to see what the rates are in a couple of years (and what happens) when people are forced to pay them.
Even Jason is slowly starting to see what a sham Obama is.
There you go looking at the paint with your puny human eyes. tsk. tsk… One thing is for sure. One of us will be proven wrong and one will be proven right.
The metric is the mid-term elections. Here is the bet: If the Republicans take fewer than 39 seats in the house, I win. If they take more than 39 – you win. 39 is a push.
You see, Jason, like the Bushies, you put your party interests over your country’s interests. The “rightness” or “wrongness” of Obama’s presidency isn’t measured in D vs R mid-term election election wins. It is measured in doing what is right for the people of the country and the world, telling the truth, and providing leadership for what is right.
You may not have bailed on Obama. Yet. But he bailed on you a long time ago.
Chicken.
No, not chicken. But it tastes like chicken.
What I find disappointing is awarding more contracts to Blackwater, not ending DADT, not demanding a public option, not being more transparent, hiding behind state secrets and other Bush-era tactics.
Stop looking to please everyone and be a leader. Tell Congress what you want and expect it to get done. I was never a fan of George Bush but he knew what he wanted and wasn’t afraid to let everyone know. Obama has time to make more of a mark, but he shouldn’t wait. I have not yet quit on Obama.
Senator Obomba voted 5 times to fund a war, even though he kinda, sorta ran against it. So why are you Obombaites, ‘disappointed’?
The transition from disappointment to disgust is long overdue.
Perhaps. Ironically, we’ll see in the fullness of time.
Perhaps we can just trash Obama to the point we end up with President Palin, Huckabee or Romney. Because that’s the choice.
That is not “the choice” at all. That is a false dichotomy only meant to scare people into silence.
If you want to move Obama to the left, go after his conservadem pals in the Senate. Obama is allowing a small group of senators to set the nation’s agenda and block progressive action.
A win for Bill Halter would have changed Obama’s tune. It is pretty damning that Obama would rather allow a Republican to win a Senate seat, than support Halter.
That is not “the choice” at all. That is a false dichotomy only meant to scare people into silence.
I’m not trying to “scare” anyone. I am pointing out what the choices will be in 2012. Don’t believe me? How did this tactic work with Nader and Anderson?
We laugh at the fact that the Tea Party is only 20% of the Republican Party. What’s the percentage of Progressives in the Democratic Party. Change those numbers and you’ll change the game.
I agree that we need to change the game by getting more progressives speaking up in the party with the same vocalness as the teabaggers do in the republicking party.
But we won’t do that if Obama supporters keep trying to scare people into silence by saying “the choice” is between Obama and Palin, Romney, or Huckabee. It isn’t.
Gore won the popular vote in 2000 despite Nader, and the election was stolen in Florida. John Anderson was a non-factor in the race between Carter and Reagan.
Comment by pandora @ 12:32 pm:
“Perhaps we can just trash Obama to the point we end up with President Palin, Huckabee or Romney. Because that’s the choice.”
Pandora, Obomba trashes himself. Looking the other way while he does, is not gonna make him straighten up and fly left.
… or convince anyone he’s turned on to vote for him a second time.
I agree that we need to change the game by getting more progressives speaking up in the party with the same vocalness as the teabaggers do in the republicking party.
Actually, we need more progressives.
And I’m not scaring anyone into silence – you’re still talking. 🙂 What I would like is smart criticism. Given everything you (and delacrat) have said I don’t see a way for you to ever vote for Obama again – and if we keep adding to your ranks my 2012 prediction becomes true. Your rhetoric has put your back against the wall.
What we are calling “progressive” these days used to be the Democratic platform.
Except for primaries, I am used to voting between the lesser of two evils, which always means the D over the R. 🙂
But I might not send money this time or do any GOTV.
“I am pointing out what the choices will be in 2012.” Pandora @ 12:55
Well, I prefer to choose what I want, and not get it, than choose what I don’t want…. and get it.
But perhaps “it does not matter.”
“U.S. scores dead last again in healthcare study”
“Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less efficiency and have the least equitable system, according to a report released on Wednesday.”
Too bad we didn’t get real healthcare reform when we had the chance. The Obomba plan does very little to address skyrocketing costs. Basically, it locks in profits for insurance companies and drug manufacturers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M0SU20100623
HCR 2010 = WMD 2003 Obomba lied while real HCR died.