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In the wake of last month’s elections, polling showed that a non-trivial portion of Americans aren’t too crazy about Republicans or Democrats, but feel that since the Democrats and Obama didn’t keep their promises, there was no reason to care, much less vote.
Obama’s response: Pull a Bill Clinton and tack to the right — and betray the people who voted for him in 2008 over and over and over again.
Oddly enough, this didn’t cause Americans to flock to his side. In fact, the opposite has occurred — he’s now so unpopular that Mitt Romney, the least-teabaggerish of the GOP contenders and the likely winner of the 2012 Republican nomination for president — would beat him if the election were held today:
President Barack Obama’s approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he’d lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.
The biggest reason for Obama’s fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November’s midterm elections. At the same time, he’s gained nothing among independents.
“He’s having the worst of both worlds right now,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in New York, which conducted the national survey.
“As he moves to the center, he’s not picking up support among independents and he’s having some fall-off among his base. If his strategy is to gain independents and keep the Democrats in tow, it isn’t working so far.”
Only 42 percent of Americans approve of the job he’s doing, and 50 percent disapprove. Worse yet, the poll was taken on December 2 — right after his screw-the-civil-servants plan (aka the pay freeze for Federal employees) was announced; the negative effects of his Poor Tax plan haven’t been felt yet on his numbers, but they will be soon.
And so long as the economy continues to tank for most Americans — a situation that raising taxes on the poorest third of Americans while giving every single millionaire in the US over $139,000 in free money is not going to fix, as John Maynard Keynes (or Jon Walker) could tell him — his poll numbers will continue to go down.
The choice is his: He can continue to act like a Republican and see his numbers tank, or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.
Think hard, Mister President.
225 Comments
Actually, after all the sh** he’s pulled on those who worked hard for him, and the economy dead or slipping into the abyss, I’m amazed that some 40+% actually support the SOB. Bush Jr’s nadir was what? 28-30% approval? Fact is, I think the average cow-faced American still likes the guy. What can you do?
***or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.***
For some of us, he’d have to become Bernie Sanders to even tempt us to vote for him, and then there’s that whole “fool me once” issue. I think there’s a pretty hard core among Democrats who are so angry, there’s nothing Obama could do — and no way he could persuade folks to TRUST him — such that they’d vote for him.
Ironically, most of us who were the most enthusiastic, most energized, most “hopeful” now are equally energized in our disgust, and strong in our vows never to vote for him. That whole “we suck less” and “OMG, imagine what would happen if a Republican were elected” bs has lost its ability to invoke fear, now that we’ve seen what elected Mr. [Supposedly] Non-Republican has brought.
Yup, the “cows” are still ignorant and will amble lazily towards the voting booth in 2012, but the energetic “cowboys” that telephoned, e-mailed and knocked on their doors to get them to come out will be missing.
I wonder how that’s gonna work out.
As Obama Continues to pray upon the altar of the “savvy businessmen”, more and more people will lose their jobs, their savings, their homes, their health, and Obama’s numbers will continue to decline.
His numbers will decline not because of people like us who follow the betrayals closely, but because people will blame him for the plight the find themselves in.
Maybe he thinks that when he has his upcoming CEO conference he can talk the CEOs into using some of their record profits to create jobs and thereby save his ass in 2012. Well if so, after the way he’s used us, it will be fun to see those CEOs walk all over him as he kisses their asses.
“Ironically, most of us who were the most enthusiastic, most energized, most “hopeful” now are equally energized in our disgust, and strong in our vows never to vote for him. ”
There is no hatred like that which flows from betrayal
Obama’s having a CEO cookout and sleepover.
To try to get them to spend the two trillion they’re hoarding.
Really, the guy is clueless.
Obama takes a page directly from the Herbert Hoover Playbook. Or was it Woodrow Wilson?
After reloading the banks with cash, Hoover convened exactly such a meeting of our nation’s leading businessmen. Hoover urged them to please keep their workers employed. Help me get the nation through the economic downturn.
When the meeting ended, the savvy’s went home and fired everyone.
Pigs might fly, too.
It’s demand that’s lacking. Not investment.
“For some of us, he’d have to become Bernie Sanders to even tempt us to vote for him, and then there’s that whole “fool me once” issue.”
You’ve summed it up perfectly.
And he says he has to leave the briefing with Bill Clinton because he has holiday parties to attend? Seriously? I expect photo ops of him clearing brush in Hawaii any day now.
You mean America doesn’t need two Republican parties? Whodathunkit?!?
And Act “RETARDER”!
One to fire up the crazies as they screw over the American people, and the other to pacify the thinkers and the most vulnerable as they screw over the American people.
No, we do not need these two corporatist Republican parties.
Barack Hoover Obama
By Kevin Baker
http://harpers.org/archive/2009/07/0082562
“At the same time, he’s gained nothing among independents.”
You mean independents DON’T want to see their own taxes go up so millionaires have it easier? I’m shocked–shocked!
At least when Clinton triangulated, he got us something… this sh*t? a complete collapse.
“The choice is his: He can continue to act like a Republican and see his numbers tank, or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.”
The choice is between enacting shitty policies that will not much help the economy but appease the big donors in an attempt to stop them from funding the machine that will destroy him, or enacting decent policies that will help the economy and set the country on the right track.
Why Obama and the supposed geniuses surrounding him have chosen the former path from the beginning of his presidency is a mystery…
Once trust is lost,it’s gone forever. Sad, but true. I’m not at all surprised by these tanking numbers because the neutralization of promises which were campaigned on time and again has begun to erode that trust.
This trust cannot be reinstated, sadly. He took one huge crap shoot with the american people and the result has been a total loss of integrity for him. This week was a very sad week, indeed.
He should be working in our soup kitchens instead. Couple this factoid with his arrogant comment about having to ‘go to a christmas party’ when people are dying without healthcare, can’t feed their families due to lack of jobs and it becomes a pretty serious optical problem for this president.
as always a great post pw
one little edit you might consider;
giving every single millionaire in the US over $139,000 in free money is not going to fix,
should read
” giving every single millionaire in the US over $139,000 in money taken from the poorest people in America and the children of everyone who labors for their income, is not going to fix”
I wholeheartedly concur. There is a very fine line between love and hate as we humans know. I believe that this final betrayal of promises made (and campaigned on heartily for years before taking office) have now destroyed any sense of hope, faith, or trust in this man.
….and the Indy support will return when pigs fly.
Sign an Open Letter to Obama .
(Apologies if this is old news here.)
Make that an open letter about Obama.
So much for the notion that he’s coated with teflon.
With the voters bailing on him, it’s a matter of time until the centrists rats that he’s assembled in his administration begin climbing off this political “Titanic”.
We now know that he tacked left in order to win this presidency. I doubt that his actual principles have ever been anything more than a Blue Dog. He definitely campaigned as a liberal and now we begin to realize that the mask is totally off.
He will not be affored a second opportunity to revise this new persona, that’s clear.
So many betrayals. Actually this Administration has given the lefties nothing. This Administration came in with a lot of good will and promises. But Wall Street, war mongers, Homeland Secret Police, and Corporate criminals have been consolidating their power. Obama’s wars impoverish everyone else.
We have repression against the moral people who oppose Obama’s war profiteering genocide. Obama and his Republican accomplices keep violating our Constitutional Bill of Rights. And then the Wikileaks. Our government is controlled by a Mafia. Obama is just the public relations stooge. But Obama himself is singularly inept.
And they will…like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Sad, but true.
Again, these wounds are self-inflicted and self-destruction falls clearly on one set of shoulders – his.
He won’t woo (or scam) the progressives again though.
IMHO Obama’s future meeting with CEO’s is likely to give them a heads up on how he would like his boardroom office decorated.
A friend who is more politically astute then myself told me during the campaign that Obama was a mere annointed ‘shill’ for the oligarchs. Now I believe we can readily see that for ourselves.
His problem it that the repubs now own him. If he wanted to make some move to fulfill a vestige of a progressive agenda, they won’t let him. His choices now are gridlock to at least put the brakes on the GOP’s worldview, or capitulation…and since he’s shown practically zero willingness to confront the assholes, I wouldn’t bet on the former.
As people are saying: “One and done.” Next.
After 6 trillion from the Fed and Treasury, you’d think the banks and corporations would invest in our people and future. But nooo. They’re going to sit on the cash, or play at the casino. If demand is lacking, how about hiring and paying some people so all that money circulates a bit. If this tax plan would skew more to working people and less to the rich, that might stimulate some demand too. It’s a good time in America to be rich. The bailouts, the newly printed money, the tax policies, they all favor the rich.
Excellent comment. If Obama were going to leave a press conference, it should have been to go work in a soup kitchen.
You’re exactly right: Obama had a “Now watch this drive” moment.
Obviously, Revroe, a lot of americans saw it differently from your friend, and we were not wrong to believe in that, from the first black person to be elected to the presidency, and one who had spoken articulately of the need to change things.
I don’t see the whole thing as a conservative plot. I think Obama just turned out to be a very weak man, who is practically compulsive about not rocking the boat, and the republicans whom he’s led back out of the political swamp are happily making political capital of his weakness.
We should not waste another nanosecond thinking, wishing, hoping that Obama will somehow “wake up” and start doing the right things. He won’t ever “wake up”. He is absolutely committed to the path he is on, and that path leads to the destruction of all social programs, including his own phony health care “reform”, and the enshrinement of a Gestapo-style authoritarian police state. Obama is America’s enemy in precisely the same way that Cheney and Bush were (and are), and possibly to an even greater extent.
The only useful course of action at this point is to identify the primary challengers we can support in 2012, and to oppose, resist, and defund Obama at every turn. He should be publicly derided as “just another crooked Republican”.
Would you invest your money with Bernie Madoff if he really, truly, honestly, Scout’s-honor, cross-his-heart-and-hope-to-die, honest-to-God promised that he stopped stealing his investors’ money now?
If so, then I imagine you’ll be fine with trusting your Social Security and Medicare to Obama.
Are other polls in the field now? Can we find confirmation that Gallup or Pew is doing a preznit approval poll covering last week’s circus? I can’t wait to see one covering thru Wednesday Dec. 8 when Larry Summers dropped his double-dip doom bomb that even Austan Goolsbee refused to endorse. Howz that gonna fly?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ04WbgI9rg “ALL MY LIFE”
He won’t woo…the progressives again.
Yep. That would be like asking your girlfriend to marry you after you’ve beat the hell out of her.
I just think there’s no way he can correct enough of the shit we’re facing, for him to hang on to enough political capital to run again. Even incumbents need a base, and he’s been so diligently crapping on his that, my 2c, I wouldn’t pee on him if were sitting out in my driveway on fire.
Trying to suck up to the right by bashing progressives is the last straw.
We should get back to this after Howard is on Face the Nation. I wanted to ask why Jane said last week that she thought the chances of a primary challenge were minimal. Let’s see what Howard says in 6 minutes.
The mask is totally off. He won’t be able to revive the progressive populist persona without hearing loud laughter from both sides.
I disagree, however, that he tacked left to win the presidency. He had nowhere to tack from.
The American people elected a complete unknown, Obama having delivered nothing more than flowery rhetoric and empty promises.
grayson disapointed me the other day, he seems convinced obama just needs to be pushed from the left to counter the push from the fight in order to govern closer to his constituents, I think grayson doesn’t get it yet
obama is doing what he wants, not because he’s being pushed from the right but because HE is from the right
He’s good at making arrogant comments:~ Remember
“You’re likeable enough Hillary”
Probably cost him NH…would someone please stand up and primary him?
Once a person is revealed as arrogant, and clueless to suffering,and not responsive….running against them is easier than you think.
And I forgot petulent, pouty, and defensive as well.
All traits most activist Democrats hate to see in their candidates.
I am delighted that his numbers are tanking. I have every hope that he’ll break Nixon’s record, just before he resigned. :o)
I will be ecstatic if the repubs somehow manage to gin up a successful impeachment. But not even they are stupid enough to give Biden a semi-fresh start before 2012.
“The only useful course of action at this point is to identify the primary challengers we can support in 2012, and to oppose, resist, and defund Obama at every turn.”
Agree 100%. The view I have seen repeated over and over — even on FDL — is that Obama can’t and won’t be primaried. Indeed, Colbert King had a Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post entitled: “Memo to the Left: Hands Off Obama.”
This is suicide. This guy has to go. PERIOD.
He has no plans to run again, and the plutocrats won’t need him to.
IMHO, the guy is too arrogant not to run again.
Fool me once. Fool me twice. Nope. Bill Clinton had a booming economy for all based on tax increases on his side. Obama seems to believe the economic booms applying only to the MOTU is good enough. He really doesn’t understand the power of principle and movement.
It will get worse for Democrats. To allay anger from House members the Bankster tax cut bill will get so larded up that it won’t pass. Back to square one with Democrats taking the blame instead of the Republicans.
Perris, no one in a position of power and influence is going to flat-out say that the emperor is buck-ass naked, and that he needs to be retired. It’s too soon for that.
Grayson, despite being a defeated congressman, still has some clout, by way of his frequently confronting the GOP and saying the truth that Obama should have been saying. Down the road, he can be a point man for “One and done” posse, and his criticism of Obama in the 4-way MSNBC discussion with Jane, etc., was heartening to see.
When bullshit rules the land, truth, itself, becomes precious capital. Let’s see who’s willing to spend it, and how wisely.
Impeachment = indictment
Removal requires 67 votes in the Senate. Dems have the majority (53) in the Senate and will until 2013. Repubs were not able to remove Clinton even with 55 Repub Senators. Which 14 Dems do you expect to vote to remove Obama? Since Obama can’t be removed, he won’t be impeached.
This Was The Worst Day Of Obama’s Presidency
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-was-the-worst-day-of-obamas-presidency-2010-12
I don’t think he cares. He’s doing what he was put in there to do: destroy the Democratic brand and maybe democracy itself….certainly Social Security.
Health Care and the Deficit
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a211
he has plans to run all right, and lose and usher in the real crazy. At this point his goal is to get as many people as possible to hate his freakish guts
Think about this horror. In any event we have republicans in control for 6 more years minimum. The last 2 of Obama, and then a first termer in 2012. That means 14 straight years of republican rule. We are only a little more than half way now,
what will be left of this country in 2016?
Obama’s job is to do as much damage as he can in four years. If by some miracle he gets a second term, it won’t be because the people elected him.
“…with democrats taking the blame, instead of republicans…”
Who else to blame? The republicans were never going to be anything but the same old shits protecting the status quo of corporate power.
We hired Obama to change that, and gave him the tools to bury the GOP. Instead, he’s done rehab on them and they’re now repaying him by playing marbles with his political balls.
Palin and her crackpot ilk, as well as Boehner and McConnell, are outrageous assholes, but blaming them for beating on Obama, as some “progressive” bloggers are still doing, when he handed them the pool-cue to use for it, is nothing but red-herring dragging to try to cover Obama’s ass. It needs to stop.
Excuse me. s/b: Which 20 Dems do you expect to vote for Obama’s removal?
Obama was the brand new shiny toy. No long service record to demonstrate his proclivities. And like W’s supporters, everyone liked him.
He is very much like David Dinkins, former mayor of NY who was so lame the city voted in Guiliani.
Well, I see Axelrod is positioning him as the valiant fighter ready, willing and able to take on the left. I guess you compromise (surrender) to the right and fight the left. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
The people and the land will remain.
The wealthy will have low taxes and little or no estate tax and Social Security will be robbed of funding. Oh, I forgot, we got that already.
Ueah, where “take on the left” means cave to the right wing on proposals and issues that are broadly popular with the American people.
Things you might expect the President to say:
Let them eat cake.
Don’t you know I have a cocktail party to go to?
I can’t be bothered by all your whiny distractions!
And perhaps my favorite:
Rich people use their money to create jobs.
Anyone who thinks that Obama can be able to run again needs to explain where they think his clout to do it, will come from. Every point that he loses in his approval ratings is going to tough to regain, with the rehab he’s done on the GOP.
They own his butt.
Does anyone on here think that they’ll let him recover from the ass-whipping they were giving him even BEFORE the mid-terms made it official? Is he going to be able to run again because of some swell of sympathy support from american voters? We don’t work that way…and shouldn’t.
We hired him to make some serious home-repairs on the american domicile, instead, not only has he funked the job, but he’s let the assholes who’ve nearly destroyed the house, off the hook, and he’s re-hired them as sub-contractors.
Next!
The “left” is being set up to take the blame for the coming crash. Sharing the blame will be the poor, the immigrants and especially the Muslims.
This meme that he is fighting with the left has to be fought strenuously. He is fighting with the American people.
After Jan. Obama will become a GOP President in all but name just as Clinton did. It won’t work this time though because Obama isn’t going to be the lucky recipient of a revived economy, like Billy was. The GOP isn’t going to help out, neither are America’s CEO’s, no matter how many BJ’s he gives them in private. Obama is toast, but that won’t stop him from trying to gut SSI and Medicare on the way out or fill the coffers of the MIC for 2 more yrs. He’s the worst disaster to befall the Democratic party since Carter.
Vandegrift; I think you’re right. The republicans may TALK a little impeachment, but Obama is going to be political gold sitting in the White House for them to point to, in 2012.
They’d be complete idiots to seriously try to get rid of him.
With Extreme Right Wing Media double framing everything, it may have worked during Clinton years but not today. If he lets the tax cuts expire, it’s raising taxes. If he gives tax cuts to the rich, he is a big time spender when our deficit cannot afford it. Heads Republicans win! Tales Democrats lose!
I’m one of the cow-faced (actually, I prefer “Bovine eyes”) 40% but I supported Hillary. I didn’t cry, scream, act up or act out — I simply preferred her healthcare plan, and believed that after she tried and failed, she knew the ropes and could get ‘er dun.
I don’t feel the same sense of betrayal as many — I was fully aware that he could tack to the middle and as the middle became redefined, so would he. We ALL saw the FISA vote before we voted for him. We read that more inches were devoted to conservative thought in the “Crimson” than liberals or progressives.
He was easy to understand when you stood back. I hoped for better negotiating skills; I hoped for a little more cherry picking on the economy but I still feel like things are a lot better now than they would have been had we all voted for McCain.
I think 2012 will have to be taken in context. It’s a shame to see progressives and liberals and even democrats make up their minds in 2010 deciding exactly what they are going to do in 2012. It concretizes a great deal of negativity that may, in fact, turn around by that time.
Where will you be then, after you’ve convinced yourselves than anyone is better than Obama and you’re facing Palin or Gingrich, Pawlenty, Huckabee?
The old canard that it’s better to look your enemy right in the eye than to have a supposed friend stab you in the back fell by the wayside when we elected Nixon because Humphrey wasn’t “pure” enough.
We’re disappointed; we’re angry; we’ve been betrayed — and he’s right. We’re still better off than we would have been.
What I get a kick out of is how they pretend that he really hates them when all of his “opposition” was in the form of pretty words — when it came to concrete actions, he made sure they were never ever touched.
Yup. What eventually saved Clinton was the tax hike that lowered the deficit and helped kick-start the Clinton Boom. Obama and the Dems could have done that, but didn’t have the guts.
“He can continue to act like a Republican and see his numbers tank, or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.”
O is acting on his beliefs, so he will never move from the right. And, who among us will believe him if he tries?
O is unelectable. Maybe that’s a good thing.
It is more and more obvious every day that Obama is a servant of the plutocrats. He thinks we are too stupid to see it.
agree
Well put.
GDC and Revroe: agreed.
With the people who fought the hardest for him, and who helped him derail Hillary’s triangulation express, bailing on him, is this going to make him more attractive to the “center”?
I will be astounded if that proves to be the case. I think voters, of all political stripe, will be thinking:
“Holy shit! These people are the reason he’s in the White House; the bedrock of the democratic party. If they bail on him, how can he run again?”
No way will the Republican let him either. Added to this, they will investigate the dickens out of him, making his numbers tank even more.
BO is giving me that “Willie Brown” feeling of deja vu.
I enthusiastically voted for Willie as mayor of San Francisco, and even more enthusiastically campaigned against him four years later (and, even later, his puppet, Gavin Newsom).
And I know I’m not alone.
This really says it all:
Good questions, Fractal. I think part of the entire status-quo shtick is going to be trying to hide just how unpopular Obama is getting. Now that he’s outed himself as one of them, they’ll bust tail to keep him from becoming TOO much of a pariah.
It’s the same old republican shit: find the price-point for failure, but not one that will trigger a groundswell of pissed-off voters who demand REAL changes.
“The choice is his: He can continue to act like a Republican and see his numbers tank, or he can tack back away from the far right and back to the center and left, and be re-elected.”
He has nothing left to *act* on. He has given away everything except DADT to the Republicans. All he can do is talk and promise, but that won’t work because he has absolutely no credibility left. Couldn’t get elected toilet cleaner.
Where do they get this stuff? He’s fighting for the corporate elite exclusively with a few crumbs thrown in for the peasants so they don’t revolt. That’s why he’s so critical of liberals and other Democrats because they know he’s a complete fraud.
Christ on his throne! “The President has shown a willingness to learn”.
“This is suicide. This guy has to go. PERIOD.” What buzz said @7:28 am.
Howard Dean was a total disappointment to me just now on Face the Nation. He hammered on the exploding deficit as being the biggest threat. He said Obama would not face a primary challenge from within the party. Nadler was better than Howard, but Nadler soft-pedaled the animosity against Obama inside the House Dems caucus.
Nadler proposed a strategy similar to what Sherrod Brown floated last week. Sen. Brown (D-OH) said Obama should use the bully pulpit, go out in the field and campaign against GOP to force them to extend unemployment ins. Nadler said Obama should go out in the field and ask the people if they want him to give millionaires a taxcut bonus.
Seeing Nadler play it out on the pundit show, the strategy sounded lamer than when I just listened to the audio of Sen. Brown on MSNBC last week. The only one to hit the bullseye was Krugman on ABC — it’s not a real stimulus, it won’t last, it will fade out in mid-2012, Obama will be over the same barrel at re-election time in 2012 as he is now.
Not true. I’d let him clean my toilets. But only if it was free.
But Carter was a decent human being. This president has no redeeming qualities.
“Couldn’t get elected toilet cleaner.”
Clack! 8 ball in the side pocket!
Democracy is dead. Plutocracy rules!
Both parties have sold their souls-and votes-to the oligarchs, its just that the rethugs are far more open about it.
The democrats had their 60 vote majority and did nothing. harry reid allowed the rethugs to stage what I would call pretend filibusters. At no time were the rethugs told to get up-like Sanders did-and actually filibuster.
reid is a spineless weakling, why on earth is he still majority leader?
The democrats-spineless asshats-saw all the polling that told them the public wanted the rich to pay more, but the spineless worms caved to the rethugs once more.
The fall of the US is underway. Our education system sucks-who is going to employ all of the hundreds of thousands of kids who drop out every year?
Who would have thought that the first real stirrings of a police state would come from a democrat? (Janet makes deal with wall-mart to show PSAs telling how everyone should inform on each other) Yep. The new Gestapo has started.
The fbi-fumbling bunch of idiots-has not changed since I was in the FedGov, they still are trapping people and arresting “terrorists”and “criminals” that have to be the sorryiest groups in the country. Meanwhile, the real terrorists keep on doing their thing.(as do the real crooks,and like Boston, they do it with fbi protection. yea team?
I remember once when the fbi claimed the arrest of a spy. The only work they did was call the papers and yell, “We did it”. Meanwhile, the govt agency that did all the work, kept their mouths closed because publicity was(and is) the last thing that was desired-and the fbi knew this. Made them look good at budget time. Its a good thing that there actually are a few members of congress that are sharp and know the truth of what really goes on to keep at least one agency going.
He’s done. He will continue on his fools errand of bipartisanship, history books will judge him harshly. The country was at a tipping point when he was elected, Americans were screaming for something dramatically different. His entire term looks like nothing more than an internship for the nations biggest corporations and banks.
So Dean has drunk the Kool-Aid, too? Not surprising. He probably figured since there was no hope he might as well start lining his pockets, too.
And that little fact is not going to be lost on the congressional democrats whom, in 2012, would like to have some chance to hang onto their cushy jobs and juicy perks. I think he’s going to be so far down that if he tries to run again, there will be one hell of a democratic mutiny.
“The only one to hit the bullseye was Krugman on ABC — it’s not a real stimulus, it won’t last, it will fade out in mid-2012, Obama will be over the same barrel at re-election time in 2012 as he is now.”
I think David Dayen has a really good handle on this. The forced spending cuts in 2011 and 2012 will undermine whatever stimulus there is in BOTH years.
This is so prescient, it is just scary! I think you all should go read this immediately, if you haven’t.
Mitch McConnel said his top priority is to defeat Obama in the next election, and that’s just what he did. By offering a deal which would alienate the president from his base, a Republican victory is assured.
We need a “Boys From Brazil” type cloning project using FDR’s DNA. A more likely scenario than America ever seeing a true progressive President in my lifetime, at least.
Nobody’s got the balls or brains in this country to take on neoliberalism.
He’s pretty much out of options. It isn’t like the GOP is gonna allow for more stimulus. His only hope is he can appeal to the 2% that he’s giving a sweet deal to since the rest of us are pretty screwed.
What is really, really important here is that KO and TRMS don’t cave. Their devastating statements last week — validating our longstanding complaints — really got to Obama. I think that’s really what caused his meltdown at the presser.
If we lose KO and TRMS — if they cave in also — it will be much more difficult to fight this clown and eventually dump him.
right. that is based on Zandi’s analysis showing that the economy will be in the same condition in 2013 whether or not the bullshit WH deal is passed.
Yeah, Howard is yelling “deficits, deficits” — Democrats do Republican messaging so well!
Nadler and the rest of the browbeaten progressives will PRETEND to opppose the bill before they pass it.
PRETENDING is not DELIVERING. Not a one of them deserves any credit for PRETENDING.
Al Franken is on local TV this morning waffling all over the place.
Worthless. Unless we scare the hell of them nothing is going to change.
Obama has conducted a flawless clinic for two years ending with last week’s backboard shattering slam dunk.
On how to fuck-up a wet dream!
Some people will support the president no matter what hse does. It isn’t smart, but it is automatic for them. (And there are some who think that it’s important to support only a president of their [official] party affiliation, regardless of hir actual views.)
Obama campaigned on changing the way Washington works, and he has made good on that promise.
In Washington DC, they generally listen to the constituents of their political party, or at least throw a bone once in a while. Obama has changed that. He is dismissive of the constituents of his political party.
In Washington DC, one opposes a proposal not necessarily because the proposal deserves it, but because it was proposed by the other political party. One voices opposition to score political points, so that one’s own party can garner support from the public. Obama has changed this. He opposes his own party’s proposals in a vain attempt to score points with the other political party, while subverting his own political party and its voters.
In Washington DC, when you screw up, your return to your base by shifting to the left or right (depending on where your base is). Obama’s constant movement to the right make it clear where his base is. That is another change…Washington Democrats used to be on the left.
He does help at a homeless shelter or a food kitchen. It may be a photo op now, but he does it every year. One of his few good points.
It wasn’t a meltdown. It was calculated political theatre.
He could care less about KO and TRMS, except for their value in triangulating.
sorry to nitpick, buzz. It was a horrible, horrible week, so we tend to blur all the bad days together. But the sequence was: (1) WH leaked probable deal Sunday night, Dec. 5; (2) WH announced key elements of deal Monday evening, Dec. 6, just before prime time news; (3) Internet exploded Monday night and Tuesday morning, Dec. 7; (4) Obama gave unscheduled presser Tues. afternoon Dec. 8, punching the hippies; (5) Internet blew up again, laughing; (6) WH triggered full-court media blitz Weds. Dec. 7, including gaggle with Larry Summers where he dropped the double-dip doom bomb, and “white board” lecture from Austan Goolsbee; (7) House Dems. caucus denounced deal Thurs. morning, Dec. 8, amid continuing Internet panedemonium; (8) Sen. Bernie Sanders filibustered bullshit surrender to the oligarchs all day Friday, Dec. 9; (9) Twitter exploded with attention to Bernie Sanders; (10) in abject panic, Obama dragged Clinton into WH press room to drown out Bernie Sanders.
Keith’s & Rachel’s denunciations were Weds. night, Dec. 8, after the lame Obama press conference and before the House Dems revolted.
the next 2 years – after the puke sells us out on millionaire welfare –
it MIGHT be Perils of Pauline??
“Oh – look what I’m trying to do for you, I love you man!, and the mean mean meanies aren’t being nice … boo hoo! save me!!!”
f’k him. it started with rahm & dean & summers – I’ve been done for a long time.
rmm.
I see him going to one of those conservative think-tanks instead. More his style – he never seems to have aimed for a business job, and most boards want some kind of business experience.
On a couple of other threads some have said that “Obama ought to change his party designation to ‘Republican.’ That’s what he is, anyway.”
Funny thing is, I don’t think the Repubs would take him at this point, even though he’s been better for their “causes” than anyone with an R next to their name.
nice and simple. see? even a 4th grader could understand.
Not sure what you’re nitpicking.
Thats not good enough.We did not vote for better than McCain.I voted for what obama campained on.Health Care not forced health insurance.Obama single payer his choise and led us to nothing less than a Public Opption that he gave away.Had to save wall street so thay could invest in China,Korea,ect…In 60 years this was the first time the stock market went up and liveable wage jobs went down in The USA.Cuts started in the 1970′s and the working class has been under attack.The jobs are under attack
If you don’t think he cares about what KO and TRMS are thinking, you’re smoking some strong stuff.
Shorter Primrose:
“Support the dems; the republicans are even worse.”
It worked SO well, 6 weeks ago…
The base was already alienated, after two years of being sold out.
This just told us that everyone who isn’t wealthy is off his radar, regardless of party.
Shorter of my 8:37 am:
Last week’s sequence: (1) WH leaked deal Sun.day night, 12/5; (2) WH announced key elements of deal Mon. evening 12/6; (3) Internet exploded Mon. night-Tues. morning 12/7; (4) Obama presser Tues. afternoon 12/8; (5) Internet blew up again, laughing; (6) WH media blitz Weds. 12/7, including Larry Summers’s double-dip doom bomb, and “white board” by Austan Goolsbee; (7) House Dems. caucus denounced deal Thurs. morning 12/8; (8) Sen. Bernie Sanders filibustered all day Fri. 12/10; (9) Twitter exploded with attention to Bernie Sanders 12/10; (10) in abject panic, Obama dragged Clinton into WH press room to drown out Bernie Sanders Fri. 4 pm 12/10.
Perhaps the nightmare scenario is with a possible primary challenger or a strong independent. Obama may need to tack back to the left again. In other words he would be all over the political maps, and no one would believe or trust him because he really stands for nothing at all, except winning elections.
shit all the dates are wrong
I no longer believe this President is capable of thinking hard. We need a new Democratic leader and fast!
I bet the homeless are hand picked where obama helps out.
Last week’s sequence: (1) WH leaked deal Sun. night, 12/5; (2) WH announced key elements of deal Mon. evening 12/6; (3) Internet exploded Mon. night 12/6-Tues. morning 12/7; (4) Obama presser Tues. afternoon 12/7; (5) Internet blew up again, laughing; (6) WH media blitz Weds. 12/8, including Larry Summers’s double-dip doom bomb, and “white board” by Austan Goolsbee; (7) House Dems. caucus denounced deal Thurs. morning 12/9; (8) Sen. Bernie Sanders filibustered all day Fri. 12/10; (9) Twitter exploded with attention to Bernie Sanders 12/10; (10) in abject panic, Obama dragged Clinton into WH press room to drown out Bernie Sanders Fri. 4 pm 12/10.
Dates are the least of our problems.
only had one espresso so far. Keith and Rachel denounced deal on Wednesday, right?
Does anyone know if Bernie’s remarks [or portions thereof] are up on YouTube, and if so, how many hits they’re getting?
This to me is the value of Bernie’s speech: laying out the points that the MSM won’t, and reaching over their heads to deliver to those who need to hear it.
This, in a way, is what Obama did in 2008. I’d sure like to use this technique to bite him in the ass.
Fractal, see my question above in response to your initial comment.
Do you have any info on this?
I think it will get larded up, but I also think it will pass. There will be some speechifying about taking a firm stand against this or that, but it will pass, and will do the opposite of what they say it will do.
Critical policies that Bush enacted have not been overturned. Promises that candidate Obama made have not been kept since he was elected. Promises made means that we will hold him accountable for his actions as an elected official.
Attacking his base will earn him no good will in 2012. If he thinks and acts like a Republican then he will be treated as one in the 2012 campaign.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have continued.
The same economic team has offered no substantive solutions to the economic crisis that is still with us.
GitMo has still not been closed.
As has been documented President Obama has consistently smeared FDR’s Social Security program with conservative talking points. I can believe he may have made a “mistake” once but not twice. This points to a willful disbelief in the history of Social Security and the purpose of FDR in instigating such a program.
What does President Obama have to gain by such talk? Nothing. Unless he believes that Social Security should be fundamentally be done away with as a social safety net program.
You and I will never agree about politics, but perhaps we could reach an agreement on the direction of time. KO and TRMS took after Obama on Tuesday evening. The press conference featurin the supposed “meltdown” was Tuesday afternoon.
The most sinister and least discussed aspect of the “Obama Comptomise” is the suspension (2%) of the payroll tax. Stealing $200 billion dollars from the Social Security Trust Fund when it is already running in the red is alarming. Especially when it’s sanctioned by a Democratic president. This tactic is a transparent maneauver to completely gut the program in the long term. Once the SS system begins to rely on general fund monies to make up any payroll tax shortfalls the Congress will first make the money and then the entire program disappear. Peace
“Moving to the center”, the McClatchy article says.
No — Obama has been swinging hard to the right. His positions on the bankster scandal, health insurance ‘reform’, oil drilling, social policy, secrecy, warrantless spying, rendition, war, and tax policy are indistinguishable from his predecessor.
If you are asking about your question at 8:51 am about Bernie being on YouTube, me dunno.
Or in other words, the packing of the Catfood Commission with rich assholes itching to break out the long knives against Social Security and Medicare was no accident or reverse jujitsu political move.
It was on purpose.
right oldgold. that’s what I was nitpicking about. Keith and Rachel mocked Obama’s Tuesday press conference performance. Not sure whether KO & Rachel did that Tuesday night or Wednesday night, but it was after the Tues. presser.
really sorry for screwing up these nested comments. like I just said to oldgold at 9:03 above, I only wanted to say KO and Rachel reacted to Obama’s presser on Tues., not the other way around. I thought KO and Rachel did their rants on Weds. night but oldgold thinks it was Tues. night. Either way, they mocked Obama in large part because of the lame shit he said at his Tues. afternoon presser.
It’s a good thing. He’s shown himself to be undeserving of our trust. He’s really not even that good a politician. BV$H was a terrible person and was hated by most people , but he never wavered in support of his base did he? Obama has no base.
Obama’s mind-boggling economic ineptitude aside, how can anyone support a President who has claimed the right to kill any citizen at his whim? This is an absolute atrocity.
I question the values of any progressive who still supports this Administration.
Rep. Jerry Nadler nailed that on Bob Schieffer’s show on CBS this morning.
matt gonzalez was a great candidate for mayor of sf. He was surprisingly holding his own against newsome when at the last minute clinton flew in to support newsome and then it was all over. These turds stick together.
This is really eerie how prophetic it is, published in July 2009. Obama has become Herbert Hoover II.
“He (Howard Dean) said Obama would not face a primary threat within the party.”
Wait until Obama’s numbers get into the low 30′s…he’ll be singing a different tune. :o)
So we should vote for Obama out of fear rather than out of hope. Weren’t the Republicans accused of fear-mongering to win elections or is it OK to fear-monger as long as it is a Democrat who is doing the fear-mongering?
No real progressive still supports Obama. Only idiot moderates calling themselves progressives still support him. And most of them are paid agents of the oligarchy. Peace
I agree.
What is the argument re: why Obummer can’t and won’t be primaried? I don’t get it. This guy is dangerous.
If Nadler weren’t a pro-Zionist he’d be more credible. Peace
Yup.
His leaving Clinton at the podium the other day because he had already kept Michelle waiting a half hour, probably for some fancy pants DC holiday bash, and the picture in yesterday’s Times of him walking away tells it all. Today in an article about Biden’s growing influence in the administration, he (Obama) gestured toward Biden in a meeting when James Baker asked him who the point man was on the Start Treaty negotiations.
To put it simply, the guy is phoning it in and also has an incredibly thin skin. His comment about the Bush tax cuts fury among the left as akin to the public option debate is telling. He thinks he’s too perfect for words.
The next two years will be hell. Fasten your seat belts.
“He could care less about KO and TRMS, except for their value in triangulating.”
Let’s see: 6 weeks after the democrats had their asses handed to them by the voters, the most loyal, hardest working, section of the party is now starting to dogpile on him like 4 Rottweiller’s on a Chihuaua, he’s just playing political games?
I don’t think so. :o)
That is, unless he’s eagerly looking forward to being the historical poster boy for a failed president.
So true. He did his ‘internship’ on the backs
of the middle and working class.
That he’s our first black president only makes
this a more bitter pill.
turns out the Marist poll cited by McClatchy DID include several days of the WH trying to sell its bullshit taxcut bonuses for billionaires:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/10/105105/poll-obamas-losing-support-romney.html
article said the Marist poll covered FROM 12/8 THROUGH 12/8.
“The poll was taken from Dec. 2 through Wednesday, as the president proposed a two-year freeze on federal civilian workers’ pay and cut a deal with congressional Republicans to extend expiring tax cuts — even those for the wealthy, which he’d opposed.
Overall, just 42 percent of registered voters approve of how he’s doing his job, while 50 percent disapprove.”
Nate Silver over at 538 says take it with a grain of salt cuz the margins of error are 5.5% among Dems and 7.5% among liberals:
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/poll-suggests-risks-for-obama-if-liberals-feel-taken-for-granted/
Nate Silver also wants to wait for the Gallup tracking poll
Very prescient and insigtful of you, Primrose. I saw warning signs, too. Arne Duncan & his for-profit military academies for Chicago school children was one of them. Also, there were interviews with his colleagus from the Law Review that sounded warning bells. But I really, really wanted this guy to be what he said he was. I repressed, suppressed and denied everything that told me what he really was.
The feature of is thinking that still astonishes me is his bitter anger at the left. It’s hard to believe that a rational being would not have fully expected how his supporters would react to betrayal.
Let’s just save a lot of mental energy and simply call Obama a Republican. Now we can better focus on voting him out in 2012 in the primaries.
Ding!
The crap sandwich bill will pass, and I think we know it.
What burns me most about it is the feigned concern, the fake lines in the sand, and the utter garbage being spouted to convince people that this is a good deal. This is a terrible deal, done in the 11th hour as usual, and Obama is mad only because he got caught. It won’t stop him from ramrodding the bill through, but at least this time he had to drag out Clinton and call in a bunch of favors to get pundits and talking heads to “support” it.
Maybe, just maybe, we can force Obama to use up every favor he has, expend every last dribble of political clout, making him impotent for the remainder of his term. That way, we only have to fight the Republicans instead of having to fight both the Republicans and the White House.
I wonder if Paul Krugman could be persuaded to run for President?
The point is that the oligarchy owns both political party’s so it really doesn’t matter for whom you vote. Obama is a creation of the oligarchy. And the rest of us stare at the cardboard images thrown by the fire onto the wall of the cave. Peace
“The next two years will be hell….” depends on if you’re on the side of the Sons of Light or on the side of the Sons of Darkness doesn’t it? Peace
Have to post this exchange:
Coming home from the store, our newly adopted 6-yo son sees old GOT HOPE? sticker stuck to the front window.
Son: Is that a joke?
Mom: Well, yes, it was quite the joke.
It doesn’t matter when they did it, because they were more-or-less back to cheerleading the very next day.
While Matthews pissed on liberals, while O’Donnell thrusted his nose ever higher in the air, KO and RM placated the base, but for one night only.
I say fuck ‘em both if they can’t do anything except waffle for ratings. They are being used to buy time, to make progressives decide to wait for more information. In the end, the bill will pass, and KO and RM will have helped buy Obama the time he wanted to force the crap sandwich upon us.
Essential reading!
Note that comparing Obama to a man of Hoover’s accomplishments is like comparing Reagan to FDR. Hoover took huge personal risks for others and achieved successes. If Obama ever put anything above the advancement of Obama, it’s lost to history.
“The biggest reason for Obama’s fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center”
We don’t like his”moves toward the center”?
I WISH he was anywhere CLOSE to the center.
The reality is, his starting position is already RIGHT-of-center, and he has capitulated to the extreme right wing on many critical issues, WITHOUT EVEN A FIGHT!!!
That’s closer to the truth than the quote above.
What we’d like is a DEMOCRAT in the White House.
He can be primaried. Given the likely level of support he will receive from the black community and the DLC, it’s unlikely that the challenger will be successful and the action may well be the kiss of death for the challenger’s future,
Let’s look reality in the face. Underneath it all, what we’re saying here is that getting rid of Obama is worth four years of the pain of a Republican president, quite possibly with a Republican congress. They will do massive damage.
Chemotherapy is dangerous too. The patient often dies. But our democratic republic will die without it.
“I was fully aware that he could tack to the middle and as the middle became redefined, so would he.”
The middle? He started out on the right and continues to move in that direction. The SOB is governing to the right of Reagan. He is killing people at home and in the bogus wars.
You cant run on an alternative stream of time and history platform primrose, like,”if the south had one the civil war” or “if godzilla had lost to rodan”. etc., etc., But since thats your best argument i’d ike to point out that nothing is often better than obamas beloved “something”. NO HCR would have been better than what we got from Obama, and Mcain most like would have provided NO HCR. With dem majorities anxious to badger a republican president its unlikely that the OBAMA tax cut would have passed either. With a Mcain presidency we wouldnt have lost so may Rep’s in the house. There are many other arguments ive heard made.
Maybe he thinks he can sweet-talk them into bringing all their off-shored jobs back home.
Of course, if he does, instead of removing govt incentives to offshore and getting laws passed that encourage on-shoring, he will
Yon nailed it.
But don’t forget the corporate media’s role as “stirrer of the pot”.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here– would things have been much worse under McCain? I can think of one area– we might be at war with Iran. That is a big risk, I grant that, and that would be horrific.
But, domestically, could McCain have gotten this tax deal through with a Democratic majority? I don’t think so. A lot of the Dems are being pressured now to shut up. They wouldn’t have under McCain. Any cuts to SS will be made possible because there is a Democratic president.
So, in terms of foreign policy, we’d be worse off with McCain. But domestically, I think the jury is still out. We’ll see what lies ahead.
Phoenix Woman,
Great post, but I have to disagree for now. Yes, it warms my heart that Obama is STARTING to sink in this poll, but I am not convinced that the rank and file Democrats have abandoned Obama, not yet anyway. Remember, one of the internals of that poll shows Obama with 69% liberal support. Yes, it dropped from 78% support, but Obama still is getting the lions share of his support from liberals.
Seems folks like myself who want to primary Obama are only at 31% or less.
I think this liberal reserve of good will toward Obama is premised on the belief that Obama could not possibly have lied to the base with such blatant disregard during the campaign. As for me, I don’t need any more convincing about Obama’s ability to lie like a rug. Unfortunately, Obama will need to perform more outrageous acts of betrayal before he really starts to sink like a stone with most liberals and the rest of the Democratic Party.
My money is on huge budget cuts in Social Security. When the Republicans extort Social Security cuts for an increase in the debt ceiling, watch Obama cave on that one. And watch his lingering liberal support disappear.
Oh, the rank and file hasn’t left him yet, but they’re in process of it.
And any “internal” poll that shows him with 70% support from liberals has about as much credibiity as the one that, early in the 2008 primary runs, was released by Hillary’s people showing she was popular with GOP women.
Come on. He wasn’t arrogant when he said that to Hillary. He was responding to her ATTACK on him and doing it in a nice way.
I don’t support him now. But sheesh! The only folk who were upset with that remark were the Hillary supporters who were angry that anyone was challenging her entitlement to be the nominee.
Stop with the Hillary wanking. She’d be WORSE.
Not so.
He campaigned for a very specific kind of presidency. One that was organized based on bottom up grass roots activism. He specifically painted himself as the rallying point for a mass movement of People change that would be done by the People. That was not vague at all.
Thus he has BETRAYED us by immediately jettisoning that way of being president, in fact doing so during the transition.
I voted for him because I believed his rhetoric that he’d operate bottom up. I rejected Hillary because I didn’t want a top down presidency. I might as well have supported HRC.
No. He’ll start a foundation. Give million dollar speeches. Write multi-million dollar books. Finally, he will eventually take over the podium from some even more hapless future Democratic president.
Many would.
Don’t you think they knew Clinton couldn’t be removed, yet they impeached him.
They will impeach him. I’d invest in that wager.
Good post.
They say the truth hurts, this time the truth made me laugh!
by then it will be too late. It may already be too late. We are going to challenge him in primaries and warn him over and over for the next ten months that we are cranking up the primary campaign engine.
That last paragraph should be:
Of course, if he does, instead of removing govt incentives to offshore and instead of getting laws passed that encourage on-shoring, he will offer the CEOs more no-strings-attached tax cuts.
I know I can’t stomach the thought of hearing him tell us “Yes we can” ever again………………. I’d rather let the real Republicans run the country into the ground.
And this was completely predictable once the Catfood Commission couldn’t reach consensus and cough up something for Congress to vote on. It’s obvious that a deal has been cut, and that Social Security is in the cross hairs.
I think freaky ideology has made idiots out of most of them–that kind of stuff rots your brain.
But 30% is huge already. What percent liberals had lost faith with LBJ by the end of 1966? Hmm… that reminds me he has at least two wars that are likely to be worse in 2012. The big thing for him that he appears to be clueless about is that pretty soon no one is going to have his back.
I don’t know–I dislike both Clintons intensely, but I found that comment rather unpleasant.
I disagree with the Obama premise that you can betray your base and they are sheep who have no alternative so it matters not. If liberals and progressives accept the Obama theory we have zero voice in this nation and it will continue to move to the right so that there will be soon no distinction whatsoever between them.
If you buy into the Obama theory, the movement to become republicans is enabled and will grow stronger.
However, I can no longer accept that theory for it enables the worst in our so called representatives who are in fact representing us less and less as they bargain our lives away for the burgeoning greed of CEO’s, corporate donors and their own personal finances.
Thus, I must voice my objection including in the next election. So be it. I will be independent and ONLY support those who do NOT vote for the greed of the CEO’s, who do NOT rape and pillage our seniors, who do NOT endorse the dwindling of our civil rights and the further aggrandizement of a military industrial complex.
If I allow Obama and the Democrats to become republicans, what future is really left? Our retirement age already is higher than most nations. Our health care costs are higher than most nations. Our income levels are dropping. Banks provide no interest on savings but will rob you blind on other matters. And with no habeas corpus, with a dwindling of journalism and a government ready to stigmatize and jail journalists how much of a reason is there to retain US citizenship. In other nations your taxes at least provide for health care, provide for unemployment with no term limits in a bad economy.
Our politicians by failing to listen to their would be base, by denying citizens a voice are indeed turning the US into a 3d world nation with a wealthy governing class and paupers elsewhere. What reason are they giving us to be proud Americans, what reason to remain citizens of a nation so in breach of its promise to its people?
Yes, outstanding article. And absolutely prophetic, it reminded me of that Dave Chappelle skit about the Tupac song, written “way before blackberry pagers”. :o)
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=71416&title=tupac-is-still-alive
Thanks for the link to that great article. Kevin Baker hits the nail on the head.
McCain wouldn’t have made it past the first year; he’d have been shoved out because of ‘health problems’ and we’d be stuck with President-for-whatever Palin. Who would most certainly have been worse than McCain.
The Rethugs will, indeed, try to impeach Obama in the House. It will be very useful to them: They will learn who, if anyone, is still willing to support Obama anymore. Even though they are not likely to oust him as President, if they succeed on an impeachment resolution in the House, they will humiliate him and further tarnish his image as an impeached President who still maintains office. And the Teabaggers will wail that an impeached President who still clings to office is automatically doing so illegally and unconstitutionally, and all that.
This is the Rethugs’ insurance policy to guarantee that their nominee in 2012 will win. You can bet they will try.
He can give inspiring speeches. He’s a lot better than Bush43 in that area.
What was Seidenberg promised? Control of the Intertubez?
It’s moving to the center, if you think the Rs aren’t falling-off-the-edge right. Which covers most of the media: they tend to buy the ‘center-right nation’ line without ever talking to real people.
The most centrist D I know has now given up on Mr O.
I congratulated him on seeing the light at last.
I know someone who has given up on O because of the tax non-cuts and the unemployment non-benefits.
Where in the world is Osama Obama? Better yet, why the heck does Osama Obama have any credibility with average Americans, i.e those who make $40,000 year give or take $40,000?
p.s. I have no doubt Barack Obama is no Osama Bin Laden or vice versa. Then again Osama Bin Laden had more credibility with his Arab brethren than Barack Obama has with Black Christian brethren.
“I still feel like things are a lot better now than they would have been had we all voted for McCain.”
Why? I mean granted McCain is a half senile flip-flopping moron, but what do you think he would have done that was worse? Escalated Afghanistan? Kept Gitmo open? Extended the Bush tax cuts? LOL!
“is it OK to fear-monger as long as it is a Democrat who is doing the fear-mongering?”
It always has been: anybody planning to change now?
“She’d be WORSE.”
I didn’t like any of the three of them, but I’d have voted for Hillary over McCain if she’d gotten the nomination. You really think she’d have been worse?
The rank and file will disperse once they realize that they’re the ones whose taxes will rise while the billionaires will coast along tax free.
Individuals who make $20,000 and families who earn $40,000 will have their taxes raised. It’s there but little is being said about it. Another one of those ‘hush hush’ sneaky little screwjobs.
Then in January when the Rethugs use this new “obama Tax Cuts for the Rich” to the tune of $700 billion as a weapon to begin slashing education and social security, the young people and seniors will be screeching, too.
This new bill, immediately dubbed THE OBAMA TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY AT THE EXPENSE OF SOCIAL SECURITY will be strike 3 and there will be no way he will recover for re-election at that point.
Far too many voting blocs will be involved and hurt by his backdoor deal. It will be impossible for him to re-establish one iota of credibility with people who once supported him.
right on
Obama – no balls; no principles; no votes. The coming mantra for the great “Caver.”
“Think hard, Mister President.”
More and more I think the problem is he has thought hard, and for a long time about this. Too me I see it as more of a stretch now to believe Obama is simply that blind or incapable as a liberal; so much as he campaigned as a progressive precisely to discredit the left with his failures. Surely would explain why re-election chances don’t seem to factor much into his thinking.
Run as a Progressive, govern like a far right Neo-Con/Neo-Lib (aka present day Republicans and most present day Democrats), and let Sarah Palin blame the coming disaster on his leftist Socialism.
Could be he just wanted to be an “ex-president” – big money speaking fees, books, etc. Also possible pay-offs from Fox, Wall Street, etc. Seems like ca$hing in is the name of his game.
Great speaker – too bad it was all BS.
One significant thing: The U.S. Supreme Court would have two new very conservative members, and a generation (at least) of horrifying repercussions would follow.
I’m in no way defending the Prez, and I agree with what you’re saying.
But the centerpiece of the rebuttal to your statements is the Court.
Significant? Yes. Significant enough . . . ?
Curious. Who is calling the Obama moves? What god-awful people set his policy terror and to the political clock? Can you imagine the insiders meeting and the discussion-who is on the team- really? Do they speak of the dire consequences to America as their goals? How international is it? How is it coordinated- which special interest leads? Is it US or European? This elite needs to be discussed- the ones who gave him to us.
Too many lies and no consequences. It is our country. It is our money they seek. We need to say no. We need a true leader to stand with and we need to stop the looting of our country.
I have a new bumper sticker: Obamacon-man
“The U.S. Supreme Court would have two new very conservative members”
Would it? You think the Dem majority Senate would have approved such nominations?
I don’t see Mitt Romney coming out as the GOP nominee. At all. How the hell would he ever get out of the Republican primaries? Obama’s health care bill was his Waterloo, aside from the fact that he’s a Mormon running for the GOP.
I feel like Sally Field in reverse: “You DON’T like me” — bewildered — why did he ever say he did?
I second this. The whole thing makes no sense. How did we get here? Is he doing this on purpose, to channel Bush and get a bipartisan accounting of the past 10 years? Is he trying to get impeached on purpose to put impeachment back on the table after the GOP ruined it with Clinton?
Part of me suspects that a lot of what we’re seeing is his inner community organizer pushing the Bush policies to their breaking point, such that folks who said nothing when Bush did it will now balk. But most people here would say that I’m in denial about his true nature. The bottom line is, we won’t know what he’s doing until we demand some answers.
I’m always interested in hearing these individual stories. I hope you’ll provide more info in another post.
That’s not true. Olberman has a new countdown announced on Thursday at the beginning of the show – 697 days until the 2012 election. (!) KO knows who the enemy is.
Maddow ended her Thursday show declaring Obama has reversed the gandi declaration and is speeding his way towards irrelevancy.
First you win.
Then they fight you
Then they laugh at you
Then they ignore you.
She might crawl back on the party line train, but I’ll bet you money KO doesn’t.
What gets left out of the assessment is the Y2K bubble, which Clinton barely missed. Greenspan was his Fed Head and refused to raise the interest rate or cool the market.
half and done more like it. This guy has blown the first 2 years so miserably that you’d a thought it was his LAST 2 years of 8! I never could have imagined such a blowout. People keep telling me “its just his first two years.”
I’d like Americans to tell their creditors that they are behind only by “two years.” I’d like to see how American children will be able to survive on two years of no food or housing. I wonder what you tell the troops who have not been home in 2 years that “its just two years!”
This nation will be extinct as we know it, if it isn’t already, in two years. The past 2 years have been WORSE than the 8 under Bush. We are now accelerating faster and faster with greater momentum, into a freefall. The Reagan years were the slight nudge. The Bush I years were a gradual slide. The Clinton years were a steady descent. The Bush II years were a tortured slide, but at least enough of the electorate and elected were grabbing at the cliff face with every last ounce of strength. WE were aware that the cliff edge was coming up, and we were desperately clinging to slow the slide.
But the Obama years? IN just two of them we are practically in free fall mode. The shut down of the Internet, the utter failure of a Health Insurance Bailout a la Romney Style, the gutting of Social Security, and the beginning of a Regressive Tax regime, the gutting of labor standards, the cowardice of the EPA, and the massive escalation of police state surveillance, escalation of the GWOT, and the increase in “Terror Theater (TM)” antics in just 2 years verifies this. We are all pondering 2012 as if its nearby.
We need to recall how painful the past 2 years have been. And then we can remind ourselves that 2012 is THE SAME AMOUNT of time away! There won’t be a 2012 at this rate. What will be left of this nation by then? I fully expect exponential declines in sanity from D.C. over the next 2 years. A complete breakdown of society. This will be the pretext for a Palin “rescue” to step in and remake the nation in her handlers’ image. When people are starving and desperate they will be grateful for the Oligarch that tosses them a crumb. This is the plan, I think. And Obama is their man to do it. He could care less about his reelection. His job was to trash this place in as fast a time as he could. He’s only half done. Buckle up and watch what “bipartisanship” REALLY looks like in the next 2 years.
Concur. I like your analogy. THis is CHEMO time. WE either amputate now, or the gangrene kills us outright.
Triage. Call it whatever we need to. The message needs to be made that we either vote for the GOP villain we know, or we risk losing the Republic altogether. At least the GOP scoundrel can be handled. We know how to do that. We can’t stop Obama. Not when the Democratic Machine is shutting us down for even questioning him. Its like an autoimmune disease. We are destroying ourselves because we can’t identify the real problem as a party.
The party is so blind in its loyalty to Obama that it has forgotten the concept of loyalty to Party Principles. Literally, the Democratic Party has destroyed the Democratic Party Platform to save the man, Obama. I can’t think of a better example than your immune system destroying itself trying to get at the real problem. It can’t tell what the real problem is.
We need the Chemo and we need it soon. Even if it might kill us. The alternative WILL.
You’re half right.
Reagan 1980 to 1988
Bush “HW” I 1988-1992
Clinton 1992-2000
Bush “W” II 2000-2008
Bush “Obama” III 2008-2012
Bush IV 2012- does it matter anymore?!?
There has already been 30 years of Republican tyranny.
Brilliant! I’ve been wondering how best to interpret that whole “Change Washtinton” promise he made. I knew it was in there somewhere. But you painted it well.
By the time he is done, in 2012, we may be able to add this:
America used to be a democracy, but after OBama changed the way D.C. works, it is now officially a Plutocracy, without even a curtain or smoke or mirrors to mask that reality!
You’re probably right though Merlin. I posted elsewhere that the majority of “democratic” voters are really just non-thinking “Brand Loyalty” voters. Just like most “republican” voters. They vote against their own self-interest 9 times out of of 10 (the other 1 time out of 10 is when they just pull the straight ticket and get lucky).
We were deceived, during the Bush II years, when we saw such national outrage at Bush’s schemes. We felt emboldened that maybe the average American voter was wising up. Not so. They were just brand loyal “democrats.” That’s all. Not outraged based on principle or virtue or idealogy. Just outraged that a Republican was doing something.
Now that a “democrat” is doing the same things, only worse, they all applaud and say “Yay Democrats! Obama Obama He’s our Man, if he can’t do it, nobody can! RAH RAH!” Because that is how school spirit and patriotism work. You cheer and support the brand you have identified with.
All of us on this board are being called “flip-floppers” and “Traitors” to the Party. But you know what? We are the loyalists to the Platform. We didn’t betray anything. The sheeples of this nation don’t get that. They no longer think with any critical capability. They merely follow the branding campaign and do what their tv toob tells them to do.
I didn’t use to think this level of nefarious purpose was realistic, and instead just figured Obama was being manhandled. Then, I began to think it was just his attempt to win campaign cash for himself in 2012.
But the more he does, day after day, the more I am thinking like you and some others are. What the heck is he doing?!?
Cutting Social Security taxes, raising taxes on families making 40k or less, and LOWERING taxes on those who already engage in tax evasion offshore (and got amnesty for it)?!? THis isn’t just Reaganomics.
Ronald Reagan, to his credit, at least got things passed that helped Americans! Reagan didn’t pass NAFTA. He passed the EIC. Reagan, for all his military spending, did at least get an end to the Cold War for all his efforst. AT LEAST THAT! HE had something to show for it all. He had a Space Shuttle program BEGIN under his tenure. Not fail and end in a slow death!
I have no idea what Obama’s end game here is. I don’t see how KORUS or the other trillion-dollar burning ideas can reasonably benefit American interests at all. Reagan’s trickle-down theories didn’t result in a blowup of the economy until 20 years later. Or more. Obama’s policies are blowing up in his damn face and his response to that is to add fuel to the fire.
Reagan never turned on Conservatives and called them “Fucking Retards” and didn’t set about to become a “Champion Slayer of all Things Conservative!”
Reagan, for all his warts and pains and bad ideas, was at least TRUE to his base. He gave his voters what they wanted. He won a landslide 2nd term.
OBama has literally shoved a poker up our rearends from DAY ONE and has the gall to laugh in our faces and flip us off and tell us to shut the fuck up while he rams it up harder! What the hell? Bush I and Bush II didn’t do that. Clinton was the Best Republican Ever… and even HE maintained a charade of being a Democrat.
Obama doesn’t even pretend.
Obama’s appointees are corporatists.
Sorry, but he was a total unknown in 2008. You voted for a guy with no record of accomplishments because you like the sound of his voice and were too easily won over by empty promises. There was no evidence to prove that he could get anything done, much less that he would keep any of his promises.
You might as well have voted for George W. Bush in 2000.
I agree.
Let’s fight now and not renominate the SOB and show him a true grassroots progressive movement.
We don’t have anything to lose. We have everything to gain.
“I’ll take John Boehner at his word”.
I don’t know which aggravated worse, having Pres. Obama call me “sanctimonious”, or hearing a President who’s NOT a brain-dead moron blather “I’ll take John Boehner at his word.”
Never underestimate Republican stupidity, and here in Texas, there’s plenty on display.
The one thing we know about Republicans is that they ALWAYS overreach, and every once in awhile, they get slapped down, HARD by the public.
Three examples
1. Terri Schiavo
2. Elian Gonzalez
3. Trying to suspend minimum wage laws for the Katrina clean up and reconstruction, an action so odious that the GOP quickly reversed course even though it held all the levers of power on Capitol Hill.
Since far too many Democrats exhibit all the spine of a jellyfish, without the nasty stingers, it’s up to us to torment the GOP as often, and harshly, as possible.
And that goes double for Pres. Obama, as, unlike Bush Jr, Obama is definitely “the decider” when it comes to implementing his industry-friendly policies at the expense of everyone not already at the top of the economic, social and political ladders.
As income from sponsors and donors (rich and poor) shrivel the DLC won’t have anything to do with Obama.
IT’s over. He will not run. The Dims won’t let him, nor will the rich oligarchs who claim Dim Party . . .
Who knows, maybe HRC survives the wikileaks leakin . . . I don’t think so but I gotta agree with someone up above about O’s 2 years ARE worse than the whole 8 of BushCo, even as a continuum . . .
SO, all bets are off, and HRC & A General are back on the table for the Dim Party . . . Warmongering posing as security for us all as they eliminate civil liberties and the economy tanks hard in ’11/’12.
Until Democrats, Progressives, Liberals wake up, these DLC bastards (Obama, Clinton, H Ford Jr, et al) will continue destroying the American Dream. But we can’t stop there, every Democrat that voted for these tax cuts need to be Primaried and defeated.
Actually, wouldn’t you rather have Hoover, the man, in charge right now than this corporate toadie Obama?
Endless, miserable ironies.
Move to the center?
Is that person on drugs?
If you’re on the edge of a cliff, the other person is standing in the air daffy duck/wiley coyote style a mile away from you with only delusions keeping them from falling to their death, then moving to the center is still moving off of the ****ing cliff!