Obama's challenge: Making it clear that were lucky to be alive (as a society) -- and he helped

[LuckyTheDog]

If the captain of the Titanic had managed to steer the ship in a way that made the collision with the iceberg less devastating and then managed to limp back into port, then the whole event would have been far less memorable. Chances are, the captain would not have been as remembered by history. But for the folks on the ship, the outcome would have been better.

That's kind of how I feel about Obama. Only in his case, he never got the wheel until AFTER the collision course was laid in.

It's like Bush handed him the wheel of the ship and said, "hey, good luck with that iceberg straight ahead."

Now, all half the country understands is that we hit the iceberg and that, three years later, the ship is still not moving full speed ahead.

For too many people, the whole "but we're not at the bottom of the ocean, either" thing is not really sinking in. People don't care, in part because they never fully appreciated the danger we were in back in 2008.

I don't think Obama's campaign can spend too much time dwelling on the past. Elections are about the future. But, they cannot allow the GOP to keep repeating that "Obama cannot run on his economic record." Obama can, sure as shit, run on his economic record. And he should.

[Enrique]

1. we should keep in mind that a disaster DID happen

a lot of people went overboard and a lot of them will never come up again. And like the Titanic, the wealthy were spared.

You're talking about Obama vs. Romney, fair enough, especially when they're blaming him it's important that he tells the truth about what happened, but they should never tell Americans that we are "lucky", or minimize the clusterfuck that happened (and could happen again). And we should all remain angry about it and remember there's a ton of people that still haven't been saved yet.

[MuseRider]

2. Nicely said.

We are beyond rainbows and slogans. We need honesty and action for those who have not been considered yet.

[LuckyTheDog]

4. And this is what happens when people try to praise Obama around here

You get slammed or ignored.

No, Obama was not able to do everything he wanted to do or that we would have (under ideal circumstances) wanted him to do. He might have even missed certain opportunities -- though even, that is hard to say given, that none of us really have all the information he has had about specific situations.

But Democratic Underground should be a safe place for those of us who appreciate the president's efforts and want him reelected. It isn't really all that safe for us.

I am not saying your comment was particularly a bad one. I did not take it as mean-spirited. So my intention here is not to pick on you.

But yours was straw I encountered when camel's back snapped.

It's gotten to the point where I think that the best way to get flamed around here would be to post "Obama/Biden 2012!" and leave it at that.

[LuckyTheDog]

3. You are twisting my words

I never said hitting the iceberg was a stroke of luck. I said that, given what happened, we are lucky we are not at the bottom of the ocean. Had different leadership been in place, we very well could have be there right now.

That is the point.

The focus for a lot of people (and I see this coming from both the right-wing and left-wing critics of Obama) is on the damage to the ship. Obama has gotten too little credit for what he did to mitigate that damage and keep us from sinking.