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I know everyone is going to yell at me for writing this now. I can hear it now, “We’re trying to win an election! You’re not helping! Criticizing Democrats now is akin to getting into bed with Karl Rove!” Ok, I hope not the last one, that sounds creepy, but you get the point.
The reality is while a lot of people are talking, we’re actually doing something. Along with PCCC and DFA, we are participating in TurkOutTheVote.com. That is part of their larger effort at CallOutTheVote.com to get people who care to volunteer and make calls to turn out the vote for strong progressives. Please help in that effort if you have any free time. Some of the elections are very close and talking to real voters helps tremendously.
Now, the reason I’m writing a piece critical of Obama at this point is because I just saw an excellent interview Jon Stewart had with him on The Daily Show. In fact, I thought it was the best interview of the president I have ever seen (my detailed analysis of the interview is here).
Stewart got him to address real, substantive criticism of his record for the first time. Almost everyone else that has interviewed him has either wildly misstated the case or challenged him from the right. Stewart asked all of the right questions. And the answers were very informative. This is what I learned.
Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t get it. He’s not alone; almost the entire Washington media doesn’t understand what the hell we’re talking about when we say change. Obama said that he got 90% of what we wanted in health care reform and that people are complaining we didn’t get the other 10%. I totally disagree with him on the percentages (I think it was closer to 40%), but that misses the whole point.
We’re not quibbling over legislative compromises. For example, I would have given the NRA exemption and every other exemption that was proposed to pass the DISCLOSE act. We’re not stupid, we understand the need to compromise and the fact that of course you can’t get all of what you want.
The real issue isn’t whether you changed some provisions and didn’t change others; it’s whether you changed the system or not. That’s the change we were looking for.
So, in the case of health care, as long as there was some effort to break the health insurance monopoly we would have all jumped in. We didn’t need single payer, we didn’t need Medicare buy-in for everyone, we didn’t even need the public option for everyone (all of those would have been great, but we were nowhere near them in this political cimate). We just needed something, something to start changing the broken system.
We would have settled for Medicare buy-in starting at age 55. We would have settled for the public option that only applied for 5% of the country, the last proposal. There were no wild demands, no mythical inflexible progressives demanding 100%. We just didn’t want the core of the system to be exactly as it was before. And unfortunately it is.
Yes, we got more coverage for more people. I’m not discounting the good sides of the bill, but at the same time you can’t be purposely dense to what we’re saying. Private health insurance is still our only option, drug companies still have massive monopolies, our premiums are still going up and we are still at the mercy of these corporations.
But health care is just an example; the real heart of the issue is how our elections are financed. The lobbyists are killing us. The Democratic voters hate them and so do the Republican voters. They buy our politicians and corrupt the whole system. That is what the Tea Party protestors are most angry about at their core (73% of Tea Party supporters are against the Citizens United decision that allows for corporations to spend unlimited money on elections). That is what progressives are most angry about at their core (86% of liberals are against Citizens United). The system is broken. Our politicians don’t work for us. Our representatives don’t represent us. That is what we wanted to change!
And what was done about that? Nearly nothing! Yes, Obama administration brought a little more transparency to the process initially (though after Citizens United we’ve taken a giant step backwards – and that’s a part of why that is one of the most unpopular decisions in Supreme Court history). Yes, the administration mostly banned lobbyists for working for them directly. But there was no major piece of legislation to fix the heart of the system.
If we continue to let special interests, corporate interests and lobbyists buy our politicians, there’s no hope on any of the issues. Then Obama is right, the best we could hope for is a little bit of change in the different fields. If you accept that false premise, then Obama did the best he could do within those constraints.
But we didn’t elect him to accept that premise, we elected him to change that premise. That was the change we were waiting for – and didn’t get.
Unfortunately, based on President Obama’s answers to Jon Stewart he still doesn’t get it and has no intentions of pushing that agenda in the next two years. And he will probably be just as flummoxed then as to why people aren’t satisfied with his efforts. Your timidity isn’t based on your specific policy proposals; it’s based on your lack of vision.
If he fought tooth and nail for complete public financing of elections in the next two years, even if he didn’t win, we would all back him 100%. We don’t need 100% success, but we do need you to at least head in the right direction. And we need you to understand what we meant by change.
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117 Comments
I agree. It’s hard to claim you got 90% of what you wanted, when that 10% you didn’t would have actually accounted for fixing 90% of the problem.
Cenk, I’d agree with your post 100% if you hadn’t said we don’t need single-payer, a public option, a Medicare buy-in, and so on. We need one, a combination, or all of these things and more. Otherwise, you’re spot on.
“We just didn’t want the core of the system to be exactly as it was before. And unfortunately it is.”
No, it’s worse. The individual mandate is a step in the wrong direction, not the miniscule incremental change the corporatists have been trying to sell us.
This is pricisely O’s problem. The change we wanted was systemic. What we got was some shuffling around of deck chairs, so to speak.
Yeah, with the HCR, there was about 10% of what I wanted…preexisting conditions can be covered and there are some subsidies availble to some, but the unacceptable system of for-profit healthcare overlorded by the greedy insurance industry was strengthened, even mandated. That’s not real change.
I could quibble with details, but overall I’d say your analysis is spot on. Obama has done nothing to change the system. He has become the system. The Who wrote a great song about this…
Obama is no dummy,
He is using simple debate tricks to conquer his intelligent critics.
For example, the line we got 90% of what we wanted dealing with Health Care, the idea is to make his critics look dumb and irrational
Obama and most politians of today ignore the intelligent class. (intelligent class = voters who know the name of their politicians, understand the issues at hand, etc. a large number of americans think election day is like a football game, most will vote straight dem or republican base on the notion that we always vote for the party of FDR, JFK, or we always vote for the Party of Reagan)
Our current political culture is about brain washing the ignorant masses of the USA. Ever heard of FOX NEWS, or FAKE NEWS to most?
The intelligent class needs to turn their enegy toward programs that educate the masses. (why do you think programs like ACORN are attack by democrats and republicans)
Obama knows that most of his followers are ignorant and clueless about his policies. Obama has numerous commercials he is currently running on radio where he lies about his record, and I assume sleeps very well at night.
The party that controls the ignorant masses of the USA will win, they always do. Progressives need to start playing this game, people are ready for the truth now, most americans want a new congress with few to no incumbents.
Thus subsidies are a step in the wrong direction too, because they don’t include price caps. That means that the subsidies will cause premium prices to go up faster, not slower.
That’s how demand-side subsidies work, the provider of the goods and services knows to expect that you have the subsidy to spend, in addition to your own money, so they include the subsidy in the price.
This is made worse by the fact that the subsidy increases aren’t indexed against future premium prices, but against CPI + a few % points. Insurance premiums have significantly outpaced the general rate of inflation for years and years, so the subsidies (even if they’re adequate to start out) will fast become exactly nothing except de facto corporate welfare.
the line we got 90% of what we wanted dealing with Health Care, the idea is to make his critics look dumb and irrational
Exactly. It’s important that we itemize exactly what we got in HCR and the value of what we got as opposed to what we really need for meaningful reform. O’s statement once again attacks the D base–the professional left. The f’ing r*tards.
Right, it isn’t that Team Obama doesn’t understand what they have done or why people are dissatisfied, it is that like all presidential administrations they choose to ignore or undermine their critics instead of substantively address the criticism.
Addressing their critics honestly would amount to an admission that there might be flaws in their record. Since they can’t dazzle voters with brilliance they’d rather attempt to baffle us with bullshit.
“If he fought tooth and nail. . . ”
Yes, if only he fought tooth and nail for anything his supporters considered important. But he won’t, or can’t. And he’s not going to learn it either.
Instead, it’s a steady sell-out to the Corporations.
yes, Obama surely does not “get it”.
He is afterall, a “New Democrat”, and believes those of us who are dissatisfied deserve to be discounted and disparaged.
For Obama to “get it”, he’d had to acknowledge his own failings and I don’t see that happening. That would be too scary.
We are indeed in for a very rocky ride, no matter who has the majority of Congressional seats. The problem is at the top, not the bottom.
He did fight tooth and nail. Problem was, he waged his fight against the progressive wing of his party.
“Stewart got him to address real, substantive criticism of his record for the first time. Almost everyone else that has interviewed him has either wildly misstated the case or challenged him from the right. Stewart asked all of the right questions.”
I agree with Cenk. My only big complaint is that Stewart’s questions were characterized by media as coming from the left. No, they weren’t. Stewart focused his criticism on issues where most Americans thought the President could have done more and/or fell too short.
Stewart’s interview was one of the best I’ve seen in American media in quite awhile. We can consider that sad that the jester or heyoka can only do this, but that’s actually part of our society that still works.
Cenk: you talk about needing systemic change yet you frame it in electoral process, i.e. within the system. I am convinced that Change can no longer come from within our political system. I don’t necessarily blame Bush/Obama for the big problems in American government and society–they are in large part the endpoints or products of our system. We need to start seriously considering change either through extra-political means or through loudly demanding a new constitutional convention.
Also, the Real Left needs to start making a better moral case for their ideas, not just a technocratic or economic argument.
“Yes we can, but not any time soon.” Or something like that. Clearly, if the public wants change they can believe in they need to stop trying to make Obama do something he is unwilling to do, like change the system, and kick his ass out. The progressive movement doesn’t need an anchor like him around its neck.
Executive summary: WTF?
Longer version: Who talks about percentages about things like this? By what metric is it 10% or 40% that we’re missing. To me, the thing was just about useless, unless you happen to be one of the people who now qualify for Medicaid and didn’t before. Everyone else either got screwed or got no help.
How about we talk about these things based on how much good they did or failed to do, instead of how many check marks they earned?
You are so right about the majority of Obama’s followers being ignorant of his policies. They really dont know much about what he has done and they dont want to know. I get in tons of debates on my facebook from his supporters who just want us to vote for him and not have a discussion on why we shld. Unfortunately, too many black folks are just happy with having a black president and they cld care less if he is actually doing anything.
“What Obama is Missing”
A spine? A conscience? Human emotions or feelings of any kind?
That seems about right to me. The studio audience cheered that 90% remark. Generally audiences at the Daily Show skew left, but there isn’t any reason to think that would be the case in DC, so this argument seems to be working on the people who can’t hear what Cenk is saying.
I think he’s missing a spine. I think he’s too timid to confront the ‘powers that be’. He’d rather take the easiest route possible, call it ‘change’, and then off to Martha’s Vineyard.
you bet. from the left, of the left, any locutiion that contains the word ‘left’ is a rhetorical trick aimed at changing the subject. (the subject being, what constitutes sound, sustainable policy.) it’s the 21st century version of red baitinng.
What Obama is missing?
He’s not missing much.
The real question is: What is Obama ignoring?
The answer:
A majority of Americans support single-payer healthcare, ending the wars, and the traditional foreign policy approach of knee-jerk belligerence. They support expanding services for the elderly and the disabled, increased funding for educational programs for children with learning disorders, and spending less on the military and more on community improvement and local infrastructure. Public opinion favors more environmental protection, strict regulation of the food industry, renovating, modernizing, and improving schools and children’s programs and related services, and a stop to the bankrolling of authoritarian “third-world” despots. The majority of Americans support energy conservation, ending corporate giveaways, and putting a stop to the out-sourcing of jobs.
A majority even favor increased spending for all kinds of social service support programs for able-bodied but poor adults, as long as the issue isn’t framed as “more welfare”. It’s all about how you ask the question.
The general population is way more progressive than the the vast majority of members of Congress and the current occupant of the WH. The people are way ahead of the politicians, and from the hard left to those who are still sane on the center-right of the political spectrum, they all know it, just as they know that public opinion is routinely scorned and ignored by those in positions of power.
That the Democrats aren’t absolutely crushing conservative Republicans everywhere, across the board, is astonishing. It takes real dedication to fail like this. After what Bush/Cheney did to trash the economy, gut civil liberties, and implement a foreign policy that is beyond satire, the inability of the Democratic party to bury the neo-cons once and for all is an absolute failure of monumental proportions. This failure can be directly traced to the manner in which Dem leadership betrayed its millions of enthusiastic supporters after the election was over and decided to embrace one Bush/Cheney policy after another, from corporate favoritism to warrantless wiretapping, from Wall St bailouts to privatized healthcare, from job-killing “free trade” agreements to extraordinary rendition, from endless Pentagon pork and a dead-end education policy to mindless military agression and perpetual war.
Welcome to the banquet of “Lesser Evilism”.
The menu may shit, but there’s plenty of it.
Obama is missing accountability and respect for the people who supported him most and voted for him.
“based on President Obama’s answers to Jon Stewart he still doesn’t get it”
Cenk, I’d say based on this piece that *you* still don’t get it.
Obama isn’t missing the point. He’s telling you what he did was what he *intended to do all along*.
If one wants to bring about any real change, the first step is to stop seeing the world and the players within it as one would hope they’d be, and instead see them for what they are.
In this case, Obama’s just told you that all along he was happy to seduce the public to achieve his own ends of acquiring power and preserving the oligarchy.
And after two years of him consistently behaving in exactly that way, and now coming right out and saying it – what do you think you’ll achieve by continuing to deny reality and hoping Obama is something he’s not, and has no intention of ever becoming?
As I’ve said here (often), Obama 2008 used two phrases, and he meant them:
“Hope” : Because it was important to make sure the public didn’t *verify* or *demand assurances and a plan*. It’s the equivalent in a mathematics proof of “and then a miracle occurs.”
“Change We Can Believe In” : Because anyone who was really paying attention and not swooning like a moistened schoolgirl would have known the always-unspecified amount of change we could *really* believe in was going to be “Not Much.”
I really support your intention to make things better, Cenk. But the only way to win a rigged game is to learn not to play.
It’s time to play a new game.
give President Obama more time and let the economy improve. also, you might want to think of other alternatives once you see those repugs running the House.
The idea that Obama doesn’t “get it” is absurd. He is a corporatist (polite term for Fascist). He gave the health insurance companies (polite term for extortionists) access to our pay checks. What Obama “wanted” was the mandate. He got it. He got the gold mine – we got the shaft.
Obama is a liar, a thief, a war criminal and a traitor. He should apologize and resign.
what obama is missing, is what everyone of us is missing. Our heart and our soul. Do what is right…he missed the point, do what folks want… he missed the point… be a man of the people… he missed the point…
so when does president get the point?
november six, I guess…
I’m very disappointed with Obama and I’m sick and tired of the people who are obsessed about any criticisms of the man.
How are we to hold him accountable if we can’t freely criticize him?
Regarding health care, a easy to understand example of how screwed-up this mess is: Orrin Hatch got his $250 million for ‘abstinence only’ education included in the bill and he still didn’t have to vote yes.
Don’t get me started about DADT and other LGBT issues.
No, Cenk; not everyone is going to yell at you for posting a thread critical of Obama. :o)
Some democrats; a growing number of us, it’s fair to say, are glad you did it…even if you did get wrong, the part about “Obama not getting it”.
A little late for that premise, with this “centrist” political hack who’s sold us down the urinal at practically every turn.
I just got an email from someone named “Jim Dean, Chair for Democracy for America.”, who wants me to send them $10 to help democrats in trouble. The pitch was that John Boehner is saying that repubs aren’t going to compromise. What a shock, huh? Who knew???
Jim Dean, trying to fire up the recipients, defiantly replies in the email:
“We have news for you, Congressman Boehner; we’re not going to compromise, either!”
My reply to Mr. Dean, is reflective of two facts:
“Dear Jim, With a preznint who, after a historic landslide, has already compromised the democratic party straight into the shitter,
and with the ass-kicking that we’re about to get, the notion that “we” aren’t going to compromise, is laughable.
Is this the best ju-ju fear-doll that you can come up with, to try to get us to help Barack Obama and the democratic “leadership” continue to hose progressives cross-eyed? I mean, I knew two years ago, almost to the day, that the republicans weren’t going to compromise. With Barack Obama having done wondrous rehab on the assholes, and with his sustaining many of the worst of George Bush’s policies, and with the american electorate froth-at-the-mouth-disgusted with Obama for doing it, what possible incentive could the GOP have for compromising?
In closing, you ARE right, in a way: I have no intention of compromising with Obama while he has wasted the historic opportunity for change that we gave him. He, and the “leadership” can go shit in their hats. They’re worth more to us now as sacrificial goats to demonstrate what happens when you win a landslide victory based on a promise of a largely progressive campaign, and then turn around and sell out to the assholes, for political pennies on the dollar. So; thanks anyway, Jimmy Dean.”
(By the way, Nease’s makes better sausage, too. :o) )
The invisible hand will fix everything – this is what Obama has done to liberalism.
The Whitehouse is leaking the information that they will be doing “bi-partisan” after the election by doing a bunch of trade treaties to please the GOP – http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64B60U20100512 gives a heads up from last spring.
I doubt that they are up to speed on MIT’s Paul Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009 – first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics) article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives on why free trade does not always benefit both countries http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/09/29/rethinking_free_trade/
and indeed I am not even sure they are aware of the fact that the Clinton proposed and passed modifications to NAFTA to make “free trade” fairer (two supplements, the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC)) were not all that effective in keeping manufacturing jobs in the US and Clinton has said that his “free trade” was also wrong because it led to the destruction of third-world agricultural sectors and a huge migration from rural areas to urban cities (there are studies that dispute this but Clinton himself disagrees with the studies).
I suspect in Obama we have more of a free trader than we ever had in Bill Clinton –
and of course Hillary in the primary wanted a time out for any new treaties but we knew she was “DLC” and so in bed with the right \s
Oh well – we have our “progressive” Obama for at least two more years.
Ding!
Gary: “Don’t get me started….”
No. Screaming. Shit.
The list of Obama’s feckless shit is as long as your arm.
And the democrats who are ignoring it are the ones who’ve helped Obama drag us into the political shithouse.
Who then turn around and scream at the loyalists that we’re “hurting the party”.
Obama missed the absolute necessity of pulling back on the Executive powers seized by Bush-Cheney. Obama seems to think this was optional, but in fact it was necessary in order to save the Republic.
We might have expected better from a Constitutional scholar. Obama’s inaction has guaranteed that the next Republican President–probably Jeb Bush, in 2012–will have dictatorial powers. I’m surprised progressives aren’t expressing alarm at this (instead of apologizing for daring to citicize the man, which is weird).
Perry, I’m not expressing alarm. I was doing that when Obama larded his administration with all those Clintonistas, and did rehab on Joe Lieberman.
Now, it’s too late. We need to be expressing revulsion and anger, not alarm.
“Unfortunately, Obama doesn’t get it. He’s not alone; almost the entire Washington media doesn’t understand what the hell we’re talking about when we say change!”
Like this kind of change?
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/25542058/detail.html
Funny thing is, before the interview, I read comments here that said Oh, Stewart’s just going to throw him some soft balls. Oh, yes, that’s what I was reading here. Anyone else remember reading that? I’d like to see people step back from their knee jerk, just once in a while.
Thanks, Cenk. You do good work.
“I know everyone is going to yell at me for writing this now. I can hear it now, “We’re trying to win an election! You’re not helping! Criticizing Democrats now is akin to getting into bed with Karl Rove!” Ok, I hope not the last one, that sounds creepy, but you get the point.”
Yes, *they* are trying to win an election. Winning means more money in their campaign and PAC accounts and a whole lot more money in their anonymous Swiss accounts. What that “we” excludes is all of us non-wealthy who will be deprived of education and health care along with other necessities of life so that these fucking monsters can profit monstrously.
As for “What is Obama Missing?” … an honest, caring heart. He should go down in history as “The Great Hypocritical Speechificator”. Is he as bad as a Republican? Invalid question. He is a Republican. Fucking monster.
Most people no longer feel Government works for them, but instead caters to monied and connected interests. If the next 2 years were spent exclusively arresting, charging, prosecuting and jailing fraudulent banksters and defense contractors that feeling might change.
Yes.
This, too.
I’m not yelling at you. You ask some pertinant questions. Just finished listening to portions of a speech the president just gave. The tv’s on while I’m cooking. He just pisses me off. I’m not one who likes to be Preached at anyway, but iwth the current situation, it was more than I could take. I’m cooking. He’s not!
Saying “Obama doesn’t get it” shows a lack of comprehension on the observer’s part. Obama gets it alright and is doing exactly what the duopoly wants. He’s a corporate whore whose intention is to undermine progressive reform and increase voter apathy. He’s playing his role perfectly, pretending that he’s on our side while doing the opposite. It’s like saying the Chimp was an unsuccessful president. He did precisely what his backers wanted and the 2% adore him.
“We need one, a combination, of all these things and more.”
Boy, do we evermore need them. Or, I should say, DID we evermore need them.
Now? Gone, baby, gone. Back to square one.
Next applicant for Pennsy Ave.?
I don’t like to play games with anyone. But, especially not people who come off as know-it-alls. Get it? Tell me how it is, you big, bad boy.
I absolutely agree. Until progressives realize this,
we are wasting valuable time and energy.
What we’ve got is the Republicans trying to defeat Obama and Obama trying to reelect Obama. No where in there is anything remotely related to serving the American people. It’s going to be a fight for which side can sell out the most Americans for the most money.
I’ve been a Democrat all of my nearly 60 years and I’m no radical but institutions have not been this corrupt in this country surely since the robber baron days of the 19th century. The party can no longer change from within. It is pervasively corrupt. If you want to invade the precinct caucuses and try to change it from the ground up, good luck. But whether it’s a third party or some other type of cohesive reform movement a counter a force is needed because there is nothing happening out there today that’s happening for the good of 98% of the country. To make a bad situation worse, the corrupt and clueless Dems have enabled the right to co-opt populism so it’s not going to be pretty trying to get anything going. The only hope I see is that there still are sane and sensible Americans out there who are sick of being lied to and treated like marks in the game.
Cenk,
I for one, could not disagree with you more. Obama is little more than a corporate hack who used all the right syllogisms wrapped in quaint slogans to massage progressives into thinking that we would have “change that we could believe in.” Obama’s appearance with Jon Stewart was classic Obama; rationalizing his positions and telling the audience that their expectations were too high. Obama doesn’t get it? Yes he does.
“I’m cooking. He’s not!” :o)
He cooking, alright…his own political goose, and ours, too.
On November 3rd, we’re going to hear some outragous bullshit from the loyalists, by way of explaining what happened to us. It’ll be koolaid of the caliber and vintage of anything that came from bushCo.
But there’s going to be a bottom line that they will try mightily to ignore:
The same electorate that, two years ago, hired Barack Obama to mount the salvage operation after 8 years of savage idiocy from Bush and the GOP, and gave him an historic mandate and the tools to implement it, are about to begin the process of firing him.
All those “good voters” weren’t kidnapped by Venusian spaceships, leaving the voting to the “bad guys”. They’re still right here, looking at Mr. Centrist and his “reaching out”, and thinking:
“This guy could fuck up a two-car funeral. Next!”
I have no problem with their consistency.
jeer9 – Hey, my thoughts exactly. The man is probably a sociopath, who knows exactly what he’s doing, and doesn’t care if he visits misery upon untold millions. In this regard he’s no better than Bush II, the infamous W.
I would have expected a post with this title to have been much longer …
Let me offer up a few things that I am convinced Obama is missing, which concern me much more than my superficial disappointment in his administration:
* This isn’t a business-cycle recession, it’s a credit cycle depression, with different causes and different solutions.
* We can’t recover to the previous economy, it’s dead. We need to usher in a new, powered-down, more sustainable economy.
* The natural resource base will not support any sort of recovery to the previous economy, either here or in the rest of the world. Growth is over.
* The Earth can’t take any more capitalism.
* We absolutely can’t afford the military we have.
* The wars we are involved with are pointless. There is no victory to be had, just turn around and leave.
* The threats to America aren’t overseas, they are right here at home – big business and the wealthy.
* Saving the auto companies is nice and all, I guess, but civilians won’t be able to buy fuel in 10 years, so it’s sort of pointless.
* High-speed rail is nice and all, I guess, but the intent is to compete with regional air travel, and there won’t be any regional air travel in 10 years, so it’s sort of pointless. We should focus on conventional (cheaper) rail while we still can.
* Climate change isn’t going to play out over hundreds of years, it will play out over (several) hundreds of months. This is an extinction-level threat, and nothing else compares.
* The coasts are toast. We need to quit wasting resources on cities below 200 feet.
* There is no security without food security, and climate change nukes food security.
I would love to believe that Obama is getting this information from his advisers and is proceeding with undisclosed plans to address all this. I’m afraid that it doesn’t fit the mold of Friedman Free-market Fundamentalism, and so is a non-starter. If he fails at this stuff, the rest of it is pretty irrelevant.
Yes you are correct. Government is to respond to the needs of the governed. Instead government does the bidding of corporate interests which exploit Americans. The American people have been “used,” while the “corporate interest” profits at the expense life and liberty. We have seen this before in American’s history.
But, my cooking will yield something that’s satisfying, filling and pleasurable. Him? I don’t want any of his goose.
Well, he either gets it or he doesn’t. Either way, he’s fucked — and we’re fucked. Either he’s not going to change because he’s getting want he wants or he won’t (or can’t) face the fact that he’s wrong.
IMHO, it’s all irrelevant because this guy has no idea what he’s in for. He may have thought he was playing chess, but after Tuesday it’s dodge ball — and Rs have all the balls. And the Ds will be cowering in the corners, leaving him exposed in the middle.
Those who say that it will be easier for him to “work with” a republican House are fucking delusional. The Rs are going to cream this guy. Oh, they’ll let him dismantle the social safety net to curry their favor. But then he loses the middle AND the left.
The guy is TOAST. He will NOT be the D nominee in 2012.
Cenk,
Good post and good job on Dylan Ratigan over at MSNBC. I like your command of the facts.
Anyway, I agree that we wanted to change The Twinkie System from an assassin of good clean energy into a system that nurtures long life for good American values.
I think this thread shows how layered comments don’t work as affectively has straight ones do.
For a site that has many threads running, every hour or so, I think regular commenting works better. For a site that has only a few threads running a day, the embedded comments might work. Just saying and trying to share to the powers here.
Stewart’s interview of Obama brought into sharp focus my frustration with the president. In person,he appears confident with a sharp sense of purpose.In actual governing,he appears weak and unsure.His ‘trying to please everyone’ is bad leadership and that filtered down to congress.As someone said,’he is the system’ and that’s his true failure.
for those interested PBS is airing a rerun “Obama’s Deal” on Frontline tuesday @ 9:00pm about the HealthCare debacle.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamasdeal/
The “best” characterization of what we faithful supporters have received from Overseer Obummer is “Chains we can believe in”!
LMAO! Who do you mean by “everyone”? BOTH of them?
Cenk,
You may want to look at my diary about progressive Congressman John Yarmuth’s remarks regarding Obama’s economic team. Yarmuth said that Obama and the White House believe in Reaganomics. He actually used that word to describe Obama’s economic policies. “As long as Wall Street is OK, the rest of the economy should be OK,” according to Obama, Summers, Geithner thinking. So Obama never had any intention of really bringing about systemic changes in U.S. economic policy. In other words, Obama lied about “change.”
I’ve long believed the core problem is the party not Obama, but you’ve hit it there about his desire to please everyone. That personality type is a bad fit for the job. He either has a total lack of self-awareness or he’s comfortable with deception because you cannot run on “change” if your only instinct is to comfort the status quo.
These are intelligent and right on comments to an intelligent and right on piece of writing.
I especially appreciated and agreed with the comment of 4cdave. The political “debate” in the U.S. is so divorced from reality that, if I could interview the elected officials and candidates, my first question would be: “What is the color of the sky on your planet?”
I wonder how much liberty has been squandered right out of our collective exhaust pipes. The fact is America does not realize the cost of energy has gutted US! Like the drunk who fails to realize his addiction to booze undermines his liberty. The biggest tax on life is the cost of energy required to operate an alleged mature enlightened society?
$147.00 per barrel oil under Executive oil has done America well. It preceded the economic meltdown. No cause and effect here as we have seen time and time before? Societal Alzheimer where the true cause and effect relationships which effect all of America are ignored for the benefit of corporate power.
Hey, Clinton has made it fashionable to dump Democrats. If he can try to get the “D” erased on the Senate ballot in Florida why complain about us? Once again he has lead the way! If a Democrat is a drag on the party, get rid of the guy. It’s not too early to find another candidate for the 2012 Presidential ballot.
I agree, Demi.
(now back to the outside chores)
Then again, it’s probably not too early for Bill to be thinking about replacing Obama with Hillary. But she should not be our only alternative.
The system isn’t exactly as it was before, it’s undeniably worse. You have the mandated the purchase of health insurance from private companies and all the attendant troubles of unaffordable co-payments and deductibles that go along with it.
Ditto Cenk…. What Dred said. Right on point in my book! America does not get value anymore. We get “gamed” for our money!
Obama would have to perform miracles of acrobatics for me to support his lying ass again. I don’t think that “fierce advocate” means what he thinks it means and that’s just one issue. Then there’s Wall Street vs Main street, banks vs homeowners, the Health Insurance Company and Pharmaceutical Welfare and Giveaway Act, Telecom immunity, (before his election), Guantanimo Bay, two wars, covering for illegal torture, no prosecutions for war crimes and lying, BP vs the American people…..Do I really need to go on?
Dred, Just bookmarked your link! Seems like Citizens United protects corporations the same way Scott vs Sanford protected the slave-owers!
Deja Vu to you……
He wants folks to believe that “The Left” is his problem. WRONG. He has lost “The Middle.” We can’t let him continue to blame his problems on “The Left.” He’s lost women, for god’s sake.
(Now I happen not to believe that there is a “Middle.” They are all leaners. So when you play the middle, you displease nearly everyone.)
His approach to governing is FUNDAMENTALLY flawed. By 2012, he will have no support. Oh, he may be “liked.” But he will be seen as weak and totally ineffective.
Feel like a slave?
Change you can believe in.
Question: Am I doomed to die in the traces of plutocracy servitude? Why or why not?
So which one is the President most like?
Scarecrow
Lion
Tin Man
Wizard?
Dorothy?
Toto?
A premium on “life” as people where once considered property! A corporate wet dream!
Hillary would be just as bad a Obama and worse in her saber rattling.We need a brand new team,not more of the same crap.
No.You sound like me.
OFG, Not. Why? Because we are Americans and we will fight a die for what is rights, even if gutted. Give me liberty or give me death! Servitude is not a fucking option…………
I am so disappointed in Obama I can’t even find the words. Talk about squandering the opportunity of a lifetime! He had the country at his back and he caved it all away and insulted us all along the way. Lately, I have been thinking about who we would like to run in 2012. It will have to someone unique because the GOP nominee will appeal to the country simply because he won’t be Obama, and Obama will be a sure defeat for the DEMs if he tries for re-election. In just two years he has too much baggage and no message-imagine in four years what the opposition can do to him. When I go over the slate of known names, so far I can only think of one. Bloomberg used to be a Democrat. The Right would never welcome him because he isn’t a extreme right lunatic like the ones in charge of the GOP these days. He would be viewed as someone that would be good for the economy and he is liberal on social issues. I thinks the DEMs could sway him over. I would be interested to hear what others think.
It’s worth pointing out that this is, in large measure, a reprise of the argument about Bush:
“Is he really this stupid, or is this all part of the Machiavellian plan?”
I think some of both.
And the same thing with Obama. After getting an historic landslide win, I don’t think he set out to commit political suicide. I think he has as much ego as the next prez, and would like to have gone down as a good, if not great, president.
But, it wasn’t stupidity that made him lay down like a cur dog, in those meetings with the health insurance robber barons, and then try to hide the meetings, just as did Bush, with Enron and the energy hogs.
“Not getting it” didn’t make him tell Reid to kill the Dorgan amendment for re-importing inexpensive generic foreign drugs.
Can’t blame “dumb” for his telling Pelosi to quash the effort by some dems in the House to try to strip the exemption from anti-trust laws that Wellpoint, Humana, and Blue Cross, etc., currently enjoy.
Of course, you COULD make a case that at a time when he badly needed a win, he could have gotten one there, and easily, by embarassing the repubs into opposing something which most americans wwould look at for 10 seconds and say: “WTF!? Those assholes don’t deserve THAT!” You could call “stupid” but by then, I was already so cynical that I was sure, and am now, even more, that it was part of the Great HCR Trojan Horse sellout.
It wasn’t stupidity that led him to put Alan Simpson in as co-chair of the Catfood Commission (Jane should get royalties, for that…) from which lofty, bi-partisan, perch he could further the GOP wet dream of getting their hands on Social Security…
It wasn’t stupidity that led him to help BP low-ball the shit out of the gulf catastrophe, when he told NOAA to ignore the hard-science that was coming out about how serious it was. Nor, just before the well blew out, to open up even more coastal drilling.
Was it stupidity that made him send another 30,000 troops into the Afghan clusterfuck? Is he so much of a dumbshit mark for the warbots that he really believes that misery is “winnable”?
Just to play the other side of the street, it’s accurate to say that in three days, he’s going to become the poster boy for a failed president. And that IS stupid of him…so, like I said of Bush: some of both.
Next!
Oh, I hope, hope, hope you’re right & he won’t be the nominee.
The best thing Obama could do on Nov. 3 is announce that he won’t run in 2012 and let the Dems start looking for a real candidate.
Thank you, cabeachbum. You’re exactly right on both counts:
1) Obama is a coward and a liar; and
2) Jon Stewart’s questions were weak and unchallenging.
Mandated health care. Bankster bailout bonuses by ironclad contract, but UAW contracts must be busted. Estate tax repeal creating a generational Gentrification class of trust fund babies funded by taxpayer paid ironclad bonuses.
The United Feudal States of America. Wealth and power in the hands of the very few and a weak and terrified everyone else.
An army of teabagging idiots, bred in the shallow end of the gene pool and suckled on the fell meats of racism, fear and hate–protected by a mile thick diamond hard ring of stupid is driving the engine of this vision.
I too agree, demi.
I hate the “nested” comments and several of the other changes brought to “myFDL.”
Oh, Hillary isn’t my plan, but it may be Bill’s plan. Don’t think the 3rd Way/DINOs/DLC won’t be willing to dump Obama if it’s in their interest to do so. (This will come as a shock to Obama). But their candidate might not be Hillary either. Another faux change candidate perhaps, they seem to be interchangeable. No matter how you vote you get the same thing.
Not just dumb and irrational, but more importantly, to make them look *extreme*, so it could be spun as standing up to the radical demands of the “professional left”.
Asselelphants, beholding to corporate power at our expense!
Cenk, Keep up the good work!
“Your timidity isn’t based on your specific policy proposals; it’s based on your lack of vision.” – Cenk
His broad rhetorical vision seems ok to me. It’s just that I’m not sure he believes it himself, by his actions. Also his sense of timing is OFF.
Apparently in Obama’s mind incremental change is sufficient. In some situations it might be. In our country’s it is not. While he is waxing poetic about the arc of time and justice he is getting his clock cleaned by his avowed enemies, and our country is getting flushed down the toilet (or drowned in the bath tub as it were). He claims he will never give up and neither should we, that we should keep on fighting. I’m sorry, I’m not sure the word fight means what he thinks it means. He has no sense of urgency except for two weeks before the elections as far as I can see.
Dude, your mother is in the emergency room and she has been stabbed in the back multiple times. She is bleeding profusely with damage to her vital organs. The arc of time is working against her. You can’t stop the bleeding with little bandages here and there. You’re the only doctor in the house, try something else.
What he and others are missing is that Americans have identified Big Banks as a threat.
The job of the commander and chief is to neutralize threats, not rescue them.
I couldn’t agree more!
As a “feel good” candidate Obama has been the best there has been for a long time. For a racist country to confront its long painful history and not allow the lesser of us to defeat him with their racial taunts all up to and almost saying the “N” word on several occasions.
Now the Right doesn’t even pretend, some true are Center Right and disagree along with us that bad policy is bad policy there’s no way to spin it. But the ultra Right is racist, ass-backwards, fully funded by the Koch brothers, others with deep pockets and controlled by the RNC.
Obama needs to be challenged from the Left, the Huff post reports a recent poll saying Dems want him to be challenged in 2012. I fully support that and we should find somebody. On Thom Hartmann’s Big Picture Show (ha!) he had Mr Nader on and he floated the idea of Micheal Bloomberg. I have my own issues with Bloomberg as I’m sure most of you do but I agree with Nader that we need to fight big money with even BIGGER money.
Bloomberg, Soros et-al have very DEEP pockets. We can’t count on a population with close to 17% real unemployment to fund a campaign big enough to stop whatever moron the RNC puts out in front of us.
I personally think a purge on the Left was needed all along. The media often calls us the “Far” left when they can’t be further from the truth.
We supported Single Payer Health Care, short of that a robust Public Option was the next best option, we get neither and the WH is upset we’re not happy? The Right is basically mad your going to make them purchase a shitty product when they know it sucks. That’s why 70% of the country doesn’t like it overall, its not because “We tried to do too much” its because “They did so little” to change anything and make it a “new day”. Its the same old crackers, just as stale as they were the day before, nothing has changed.
Financial Reform was Wall St’s come-up-ins, fell flat on its face because a few Dems with deep ties to Wall St, didn’t want to the banks to suffer. To be honest I think most of America would have been happy with a series of Golden Parachutes just to clean house, but to keep these “Master’s Of the Universe” in power doing “God’s Work” is just flat wrong. I have a feeling Congress will paper over the Fraudclosure problem, maybe THEN that will make the public mad enough to demand a primary challenger.
I don’t know enough about Bloomberg to comment,other than he seems to be an establishment pol.Better to have someone in the Fiengold mold who isn’t afraid to stand up in the boat.
More time? With even narrower majorities you really think they’ll grow a spine in the Senate? The problem isn’t the House, policy would be even more liberal if they didn’t have to water it down so it had some chance to make it through the Senate.
The problem has been for a long time that I can tell going back to LBJ has been the Senate! We were happy with 60 Dems? LBJ had 60+ Dems in the Senate that’s how much of the Great Society got passed.
So you’re talking with maybe 55-57 seats and much of the “trash” removed, we might get something useful out of the Senate but I wouldn’t put too much hope into it.
Ding Ding, though a little harsh you’re right.
This is actually a superb question. There is a substantial body of thought that believes in the Wizard of Oz, Baum wrote the kind of Populist allegory that might be expected of a guy from South Dakota.
http://www.amphigory.com/oz.htm
If you believe Wizard IS a Populist allegory, the obvious answer is The Cowardly Lion. Why? Because the Lion is supposed to represent politicians who talk a good talk but run and hide when the money boys show up. Baum modeled his Lion on William Jennings Bryan but it does sound a LOT like Obama.
The ‘blame it on the left’ meme won’t work. The vote count will prove it will be the middle who is fed up with corruption and ineffective legislation.
The Stewart interview was Obama’s tank ride. There will be two 30 second ads pulled from it that are titanium nails in his political coffin. ‘Heck of a job’ larry and ‘Yes we can, but’ pretty much say it all for those of us who watched his administration sell the country down the river. He tried to use the congressional sausage making as a fig leaf while he cut deals with Pharma, suffocated the public option, turned the page on war crimes and wall street fraud.
There he was being questioned for the first time on his economic policy and he actually told the truth, Larry ‘did a heck of a job’
then realizing he was laughed AT for the first time in his presidency, jumped for cover saying ‘pun intended’, so is Larry ‘brownie’. Stewart then quietly admonished him about his choice of words and the President became a ‘dude’.
Then ‘Yes we can, but’….again the audience laughed AT him.
No teleprompter or florid language is going to absolve this regrettable selection we made.
In the end, we were all teabaggers those of us who voted for him were punked by the same corporate kleptocracy that is now herding the right to vote against their interests.
“Yeah, with the HCR…”
One good, no-bullshit paragraph… both ears and the tail, amigo. :o)
You did have migration into the cities…. It happen in Haiti. Haiti was ground zero for much of the effects of NAFTA. Mexico was the next most visible sign of the problems with NAFTA and now Mexico is trying to protect its cash cow by funding the no on Prop 19 campaign.
A CNBC Reporter said that Congress during this lame duck session or right afterwards is going to paper over the Fraud-Closure problem by changing some laws around.
The Federal Government is officially captured by big business.
The only way out of this is to force change from the State level.
“We need a brand new team; not more of the same crap.”
What Dave said. :o)
But its true…
Ferrari has a waiting list for its new 458 sportscar. Porsche has sold out of the last couple of special edition 911′s and the first run of 911 GT2 sportscars. Bentley is looking to expand its offerings.
This is not an auto industry that caters to the Top income earners looking to rein things in, they are looking to expand! That’s all you need to see that the Rich two years later have not suffered ONE BIT.
Those who’s wealth was built on a House of Cards, did fall and are broke. That is not the majority however.
Bail Outs for the rich and as you know they’ll have to re-authorize unemployment benefits again I think during the lame duck session and if Republicans take control, that should prove INTERESTING.
They are somewhat enlighten when not starring into their Iphone or Ipad, but most of them see that Peak Oil has happen already and that in the near future energy prices are going to rise despite whatever BS energy companies spit about going green.
Buy Plug-In, EV, Clean Diesel. Support rail expansion and High Speed Rail.
Lucky for me much of this is already happening in California. For those that depend mostly on coal to keep the lights on, I feel for you and you have a much tougher road to hoe.
There some reasonable rebates and tax credits available for Energy Star products, like new windows. Better get them now before the Republicans cut those programs looking to cut something but the Military budget and staying away from entitlement programs as long as they can.
I totally agree we need a wholesale house cleaning!
I think some “founders” would agree with you! Wealth extraction is a game for some. Life and death for others…….
Well, you said you’d be interested in hearing others… :)
No, I’m not much interested in Bloomberg. Liberal on the social issues doesn’t impress me. On the social issues we do still seem to be advancing (albeit too slowly), but at least we aren’t retreating. In fact, I firmly believe that in the not too distant future gay marriage will be legal and convenient in all 50 states. Don’t know who could’ve predicted that 50 years ago, or even 20.
It’s the social issues that I agree with the naysayers on that we are still making progress. Two steps forward, one step back sometimes, but overall, progress.
No, what we need are ECONOMIC LIBERALS. Good old fashioned UNION LOVING, WORKING MAN RESPECTING, liberal on economics. THAT’S where no longer progressing. That’s where we’re going backwards. And contrary to all the right wingers claims about the evils of homosexuality ending our country as we know it, the economic path we’re on really WILL end our country as we know it.
I want an old fashioned, New Deal, economic liberal, unabashadly and unapologetically so, that not only won’t extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, WILL INCREASE THEIR TAXES even more. Will look to government regulation and law enforcement to hold the excesses of capitalism accountable for the havoc they wreak. And who will ALWAYS, ALWAYS, put the economic needs of the middle class ABOVE those of the rich (the rich are doing fine, they need no help).
FDR was that man, although he failed in other ways. He wasn’t socially liberal at all by today’s standards, and there is still no way in hell interring those US CITIZENS was Constitutional. But he was dead on right on the economics aspect. THAT’s what we need, IMO. Although preferably this economic liberal would also be liberal on social issues as well.
The country was ripe for such a move. It had learned that economic conservatism didn’t work. It had voted in the party, in big majorities, that was famous for it’s economic liberalism, because they were ready for that change.
And these Democrats, lead by this President, unequivocally FAILED. Period. They kept up the same old failed policies. And they will now pay the much deserved price for that.
Until members of the party stop listening to the naysaysers that keep insisting this country won’t support liberal agendas, they will never reap the benefit of public popularity when the public lays out in no uncertain terms that they’re damned ready for a new direction.
Keep believing the naysayers, and you keep getting Republican lite. We can do better. THe people will support us when we do better. And by doG I know damned well we all deserve better.
Well said, Cenk. But of course the Obama apologists will accuse you of whining because you didn’t get your pony, or of being on drugs, or just say you are a effing retard.
They would indeed.
“Banks are more dangerous than standing armies.”
–Thomas Jefferson
“We don’t need 100% success, but we do need you to at least head in the right direction. And we need you to understand what we meant by change.”
In my father’s house, there are many rooms – surely there must be one without an elephant in it?
For a “change”, how about we discuss his oath to defend and uphold the constitution and the rule of law? Shall we discuss torture past and present, Gitmo and Bagram, homicides and assassinations, unconstitutional “kill lists”, JSOC death squads, CIA illegal combatants, ex post facto “war crime” kangaroo courts that might well be war crimes themselves, cover-up by “state secret” and undue influence on a DOJ that remains as much of a roach motel under Holder as it was under Gonzalez and Mukasey? Shall we discuss collusion between Fed and Treasury, without legal foundation and in violation of explicit congressional decision and legislation, to channel trillions of toxic debt generated by systemic fraud to the GSEs, at taxpayer expense?
Hostis humanis generis. Bygones Habeas Obama, just like Bush before him, is a torturer, a war criminal, a liar, and – pace Horton and Greenwald – a tyrant. I for one am glad for any “timidity” such a person might exhibit during his tenure close to various red buttons. I find it deeply disconcerting that even Obama’s critics seem to be unduly preoccupied with what reads like peasants’ petitions to royalty. Nobody would ask an arsonist to fix the gasoline stains on the wallpaper while he proceeds to burn down the entire house.
You are the sovereign. It is the privilege and the duty of The People to recognize and end the crimes of their elected leaders, lest they and their children be held responsible for them. There is nobody else. The buck has stopped right here a long time ago, even if all the prosperity has moved up and out.
Yes. This. The missing 10 percent (though I dispute the President’s notion that it is in fact only 10 percent) was the part that represented actual reform. The rest was just tinkering around the margins of a broken system…and then cementing that system into place.
As they say on sports boards, that’s a +1.
Obama said that systemic change would be too disruptive to the system. Well…duh. That was kind of the point.
“Corporatism is in fact fascism because both want the corporate interest to be backed by the power of the state.”
–Benito Mussolini
He oughta know. Obama’s health care “reform” does exactly that with its mandates to buy private insurance with no cost controls and no public alternative to compete with the insurance companies. And no one can tell me that those insurance companies are driving their prices down with competition. Oligarchy at its best and in our face.
If the GOP comes to town..Obama had better have his legal team all warmed up..because these guys are serious about sending him straight to h— in a hand basket..Americans might as well forget about any legislation..these guys got 2 years to lyn– him and that’s what they plan on doing..Did you ever think that the southern reds would ever let a black president finish his tour..never..it was an embarrassment to them to have been beaten in the first place.
Bravo! Well said.
Outstanding reply tanbark!
Haiti was the treaty cited by Bill Clinton in his speech as the place that proved to him that the studies of NAFTA and Free Trade Treaties in the 90′s were wrong when they claimed no harm to local economy, local agriculture, local standard of living, and that there was only limited forced movement from the land into the cities.
Funny how down thread folks laugh at Hillary’s comments made during the primary that in effect support their views on trade – perhaps it is because they rejected her and chose Obama – and now that the Obama choice is seen as an error they need justification for their rejection of Hillary so they can be at least half right. Interesting responses. In any case Bill and Hillary now agree with the left and with MIT economist Paul Samuelson on trade – but Obama does not.
Great Article.
But I wish Jon Stewart had continued on further with the point that he raised and asked Obama point blank:
Why did you just rehire back Bush’s War Secretary after winning the Election? Isn’t that doing the same thing, with the exact same people?
How many “Heckuva jobs” would then have come out of Obama’s mouth, had Stewart ripped off a whole list of the “stay the course” status-quo hiring decisions that Obama made (Gates, Geithner, Summers, Clinton, Holder, etc.) and just how tied to the policies/corruption of the last 10-12 years these people all are?
I wanted to see Obama trapped in the big lie..
And what’s most revealing, is that Obama gets more intense and combative when responding to criticism from the Left, then he does from totally baseless slander from the Right. He has zero loyalty to anything the Left cares about.
Health Care could have been so simple. Lower the age of Medicare to 50. Simple. No new program. No new administrative costs. Just real RESULTS for (millions of) people. And there were 51 votes in the Senate for that, if a real push was made, with clarity of message.
But Obama is not capable of that leadership. There is no passion with him – except for keeping the same (corrupt) people and the same status quo in place, while condemning the truthtellers (WikiLeaks).