The Case for Obama: Why He Is a Great President. Yes, Great. (Jonathan Chait)

[swag]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/10/barack-obama-is-a-great-president-yes-great.html

. . .

The Republican strategy is perfectly clear and not even very well hidden. Yet many of us don’t accept it as a reality because it does not feel true. We instinctively hold the president, not Congress, responsible, another finding political scientists have measured. The hunger to attribute all outcomes to the president is so deep that the political elite take it on faith. Bob Woodward, who is justly famed as a reporter but whose opinions are interesting only as a barometer of Washington establishmentarianism, blamed Obama because Republicans turned down an extraordinarily favorable budget deal. “Presidents work their will — or should work their will,” Woodward declared, “on the important matters of national business.”

How can a president “work his will” in such a way as to force autonomous members of the opposite party controlling a co-equal branch of government to sacrifice their own calculated self-interest? It is a form of magical thinking, but a pervasive one. Which is exactly why the Republican strategy — making Obama’s promise to transcend partisanship fail by withholding cooperation — has worked.

Whether this strategy succeeds in its ultimate goal — returning the GOP to power in 2013 — depends on the election. In an unusual way, the success of Obama’s first term hangs in large part on his reelection bid, as a President Romney would probably kill his grandest achievement of providing health insurance to those Americans too sick or poor to acquire it in the marketplace. So any evaluation of Obama’s term before the election must be provisional.

What can be said without equivocation is that Obama has proven himself morally, intellectually, temperamentally, and strategically. In my lifetime, or my parents’, he is easily the best president. On his own terms, and not merely as a contrast to an unacceptable alternative, he overwhelmingly deserves reelection.

[Schema Thing]

1. Could not agree more.

[judesedit]

2. Thank you. I totally agree with you.

[BlueNoteSpecial]

3. He's not done, either. Not by a long shot. We HAVE to have his back, America.

[judesedit]

4. Obama may yet be remembered as our greatest president in future years. All odds were against him

Obama has still managed to accomplish many, many things. None trivial. One blogger listed 200 changes made since Obama took office. All in spite of the GOP's $$$$$$, stalling and obsession with trying to have Obama fail. God bless Obama and his family. May a righteous wind continue to support him in his fight to help this country and it's people.

[xtraxritical]

16. Here's a grip of the President's achievements.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=obama+achievements&qs=AS&form=QBLH&pq=obama+ach&sc=8-9&sp=1&sk=

[yodermon]

5. Presidential politics in America is fundamentally Unconstitutional.

The candidates, the media, DUers, your grandma, the pundits, the President himself, .. the entirety of the body politic... hold the President accountable for things he is constitutionally proscribed from doing. It's been like this for decades, maybe centuries. The very concept of a "campaign promise" is unconstitutional. The very idea that the President will "implemement" "policy" is unconstitutional. The only policy position for a president/candidate that matters is "what will I veto" since that is the only legislative power s/he has.

The frustrating part is that the President always goes along with this model. Even now Obama can't say "well the fucking republican obstuctionists in congress fucking blocked me" because that makes him seen "whiny" and "ineffective".

Well no shit sherlock, congress *better* have the right to block you because that's the way the constitution is written. Why don't you point it out and put it in their fucking laps??? oh that's right, it's because the electorate wants a king, the media wants a king, and you run for king, you get criticized by the media on your *performance* as king, but this little thing called the constitution forces you to actually be a President.

/useless pissin-in-the-wind rant off, sorry

[1StrongBlackMan]

7. I completely disagree with the declaration, below ...

The very idea that the President will "implemement" "policy" is unconstitutional.

If you had said, "The very idea that the President will 'ESTABLISH' policy, is unconstitutional", I would agree; but, "implementing" the policies established by Congress is exactly what the Executive Branch of government is Constitutionally charged to do.

[yodermon]

8. you are right, i meant "implement" in the sense of

"i'm campaigning on issue x/y/z/ and will 'get it done'" whatever that means, without really acknowledging the role Congress has to play, and thus setting himself up for criticism when congress tells him to shove it.

"Establish" is a better word; of course the executive implements the laws that have been passed.

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. Great OP ...

I could not agree more, if I had written it myself!

I particularly liked this part:

Bob Woodward, who is justly famed as a reporter but whose opinions are interesting only as a barometer of Washington establishmentarianism, blamed Obama because Republicans turned down an extraordinarily favorable budget deal. “Presidents work their will — or should work their will,” Woodward declared, “on the important matters of national business.”

How can a president “work his will” in such a way as to force autonomous members of the opposite party controlling a co-equal branch of government to sacrifice their own calculated self-interest?

And I would suggest many a DUer to reflect on the question!

[lovemydog]

9. That's the big picture,

without equivocation.

President Obama is the best president in my lifetime.

I look forward to his second term.

[Bill USA]

10. Media Toadies refuse to talk about the GOP's 'War on Obama'. Since Obama entered the WH

'filibuster' seems to be a taboo word in M$M (they can't mention that word because of the connections to the GOP War on Obama which has involved the GOP setting records in filibusters of legislation and presidential appointments).

Woodward has established himself as a craven cowardly sycophant of the GOP with his fraudulent, fantasy rendering of what actually went on in the 'Grand Bargain' negotiations. Charlie Rose, GOP Toadie in chief, had Nancy Pelosi on his show and he read her part of Woodwards bullshit ...I guess he thought he was going to force Pelosi into a corner or something.

Pelosi said pretty of matter-of-factly about Woodward's fantasy account of a call by the President to Pelosi and Reid, saying that the she received the call in her office with Reid there too. She said that she and Reid told The President,when he said he would not be able to get all the revenues the Democrats wanted and what was their reaction to the offer from the Repubs. Pelosi said that both she and Harry Reid said: "Take it." Even if it doesn't have the revenues they wanted in the deal, he had to take it to forestall an economic bomb which would take down the recovery and the severely damage the economy (the GOP forced default on U.S. debt).

This is NOT The way Woodward recounted the event. Pelose told Charlie Rose: "You know it's odd, since the conversation took place in my office that Mr. Woodward never came to me and asked ME what happened before writing about this in his book." It's also NOT the way Matt Bai or the New York Times saw it either: Obama vs. Boehner: Who Killed the Debt Deal?

Yes, absolutely the M$M is throwing an invisibility cloak over the GOP strategy of Obstruction of everything Obama tried to do, so they could campaign saying: "Look Obama's policies have made things worse! Elect us?"

[Dalai_1]

11. K& R

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. Yes he is...more importantly, great person, husband, father.

[HoosierRadical]

13. Put Obama on MT Rushmore!

[Candozier1]

14. The Ed Show

Ed said some great things about him on his show last night too and I think Gov. Christie scared Romney off! lol I think that's why he came to Kettering OH instead of New Jersey!




Candy

[q_e_d]

15. Spot on!

Recommended.

[hifiguy]

17. I have had my share of policy disagreements with the POTUS

but Chait's article is a superb distillation of why he deserves to be returned to office in a landslide. His calm, rational temperament and obvious intelligence place him with JFK in terms of his innate suitability to hold the Presidency.

[Quantess]

18. Kick!