Obama has compromised "too readily, too early", says co-founder of Campaign for America's Future

[Bluebear]

At an annual conference of grassroots progressives, they said the euphoria and high expectations after Obama's victory had lulled them into a false sense of security, and hopes for his success had sometimes limited their criticism.

That has changed, they said, because of what they called Obama's go-easy approach on Wall Street, ineffectual efforts to reduce high unemployment, watered-down healthcare and financial regulation reforms and escalation of the Afghanistan war.

"It is not our job to make this president or this administration comfortable. It is our job to make him do the right thing," said Darcy Burner, head of the Progressive Congress Action Fund.

"There were far too many of us who thought our job was done" after the election, she said....

"We have to stop waiting for Obama. We have to stop taking the president's temperature. We have to stop being critics and start being actors," said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, which sponsored the conference.

"People are strongly feeling that they need to push more. He has compromised too readily, too early," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6565RA20100607?type=politicsNews

[jaxx]

1. What would really be nice

is that he got to do his job without the backseat drivers.

[JuniperLea]

2. Seriously...

As if he didn't have enough bullshit to wade through.

[Bluebear]

6. A progressive meeting of 1000 attendees is not "bullshit", fwiw

[truedelphi]

13. Sixteen percent of all voters are now Progressives.

Every one of us that I talk to has serious doubts about 2010 and 2012. It is not a secret that that sixteen percent was the driving force behind Obama getting into office. We were the ones phone banking, going door to door, and getting out the vote.

If the Republicans are the Neo cons, and the Dems are the Big Corporate Give Away crowd, it is gonna stick in my craw to have to get up and go out and vote for any of them.

I am too old now to believe that the better of two evils is still not somehow evil.

[jaxx]

15. I helped get him elected too. Do I count?

Or am I being ran over roughshod because I dare to be a supporter? This "we" you toot includes me.

Maybe I just need to get a bigger ego.

[Bluebear]

16. 'ran over roughshod' - OFFS.

[truedelphi]

39. How are you being run over rough shod?

Many of the DLC will be sure to be very extra special "nice" to you during election season.

Besides that, there is always the possibility that you will change your mind.

[Bluebear]

44. Indeed.

[laughingliberal]

23. +1000 nt

[Bluebear]

3. Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes

We should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.

[dionysus]

5. or, we complain about everything, all the time, no matter what! by gum, that's the ticket!!

[William Z. Foster]

19. you cannot be serious

Do you really think anyone gets up in the morning hoping to find bad news?

Many think that we are in a terrible crisis and that it is growing worse. You may not agree. But you have no way to know whether or not they are sincere, and all evidence strongly suggests that they are. The continual insinuations that people's motives are bad, or that they have an evil covert agenda, are unfounded and destructive.

You may not wish to hear the bad news, and the solution to that is to walk away and not read it. But to continually attack the messengers as you do raises questions about your sincerity and integrity, not theirs.

[dionysus]

27. "Do you really think anyone gets up in the morning hoping to find bad news? " yes. a few

congregate here.
:shrug:

[William Z. Foster]

32. ok

If you see that, then you see that.

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

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[Bluebear]

43. lol

:thumbsup:

[Name removed]

31. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jaxx]

10. Honestly I think that's bogus.

[Bluebear]

18. It seems to be your view though. Sorry.

[marmar]

4. Sometimes backseat drivers can offer valuable navigation advice......

...... because they see things the driver might have missed.

[jaxx]

11. Constructive criticism isn't constant criticism.

[William Z. Foster]

36. er...

Constructive defense isn't constant defense, either.

What his wrong with "constant" criticism? What is the right amount? Who decides?

Criticism of the wars will end when the wars end. The wars go on every day, and people are killed, why should not the criticisms of the war go on every day?

Th arguments here are not really about loving or hating Obama anyway.

The people claiming to be "supporting" the president are promoting conservative views.

The people expressing left wing views are constantly accused of attacking the President.

The real debate is between left and right, and not about Obama at all.

I think the "defenders" are doing more to harm the administration that the critics are, anyway. They are just using "loyalty" to the President to push things to the right, and that is the path to failure for all of us including the party and the administration. The critics are expressing the same left wing views they always have and always will.

[truedelphi]

48. How can people avoid constantly criticizing those who clearly betray us at every turn,

Stab us in the back, allow their Chief of Staff to call us "retards" and clearly align themselves with the Corporate Elite.

We saw this first with the appointment of douche bag Geithner, and Rahm Emmanuel. Then we watched as trillions of Main Street's money was given to the Wall Stret Interests who are loaning it out only to each other.

But why would any one want to critique any of that! Must of have been just a bad decision ro two on Obama's part, right?

Then came an entire summer of wrangling over health care "reform." We all heard Obama's strongest speech detailing that "Uh, if we didn't already have a system in place, we would be able to use Single Payer Health Care, as that is the best and most logical solution, but since we do have s system in place, we must attempt something uniquely American, and keep the framework of what we have viable."

What? Either we need reform or ewe don't but anyone that parses the logic of that statement realizes that here is one sick Puppy of a President - cleary beholden not to a good solution, but to Corporate Interests.


So even now as the Corporate Elite attempts to poison an entire body of water, fill the atmosphere with oil, kill off species, destroy an entire coastline of occupations and businesses, Obama doesn';t seem to realize that he could with one swipe of an Executive Orderk, nationalize BP and force it to to actually emply those who have the knowledge of the wters and the desire and ability and committment to get the job doen.

If the only solution that Obama can come up with over the last 47 days is BP's unwillingness to enlist those who know how to repair the damage, and also his continued dependence on Coast Guard Commandant, Thad Allen, and if there is no way to IMMEDIATELY get something happening, we are going to see a type of Catastrophic Climate Change that even Al Gore did not have in mind.

This is not hyberbole -- It rained rain that smelled and tasted like OIL last week in NEW MEXICO.

Take the time to watch the video in my "sig Line"


And maybe then you will realize why I am so upset. The woman in that video really lays it out that BP is simply so self-consumed as a purveyor of drilling, and what not, that the real answers are being ignored. And probably that is all deliberate, as there is never any penalty for those, like BP, who are really in power. (Obama, like Bush before him, is just the token spokesperson that is there to make us feel like we had a say in our lives. We don't.)

[immune]

7. Too bad the back seat is loaded

with lobbiests with big enough pockets to buy the entire congress.

[rug]

9. Sometimes it's necessary.

[glitch]

12. Dumb analogy. We have responsibility as citizens other than voting.

Or are you forgetting Obama's words: "make me do it"?

[William Z. Foster]

21. not to mention....

I can't count the number of times I heard "eyes on the prize. First we need to focus on ousting the Republicans. After the election we can hold their feet to the fire." That, apparently, was a lie.

[bobbolink]

28. Your good memory for lies is gonna get you into hot water here.

:hi:

[Bluebear]

33. And how.

[laughingliberal]

22. Yeah, that whole 'of the people, by the people, for the people' thing pesters of a lot politicians.

:)

[donco6]

26. in other words, STFU. n/t

[roguevalley]

38. I would say that his watering down shit and giving away shit to get

one single republican to vote on a seriously important bill to make it 'bipartisan' was incredibly stupid. Assuming that anyone of those asswipes would agree is simple mindedness. He can do better.

[jobycom]

40. In a democracy the backseat drivers are the government`

The president is just the guy we hire to get things done. Criticism is mandatory.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

46. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dinger]

8. KNR

[Capitalocracy]

14. Here's a way to send a message:

Sorry if I'm breaking the board's balls with this, but I think it's a good idea:

BP STANDS FOR BALLOT POISON

Pledge not to vote for any candidates receiving campaign donations from BP in 2010.

Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/bp2010/petition.html



Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=113423272036102

Twitter: @bpballotpoison

[branders seine]

17. Well, on health care, he spent at least six months negotiating with himself,

and lost on every point, before any bipartisan debate even began.

[bobbolink]

29. !

:rofl:

[truedelphi]

47. That is almost an impossible thing to accomplish!

But he somehow managed to do that!

[BzaDem]

50. Replace "himself" with Lieberman

Lieberman was the 60th vote and he would have happily killed HCR if it had any public component. Obama actually wanted to pass a bill, as opposed to many here, who just wanted him to talk about a bill (i.e. get 59 votes).

[katandmoon]

20. K&R

[besdayz]

24. a

the genius of obama was making the people forget that he is a politician....which means at his core he really isn't devoted to any specific policy just a desire to win and maintain power....although he is doing poorly in both respects come midterms....

ron paul said it best when he said the best way to influence obama is to change the minds of the young people that are devoted to him.....that's us....

while i'm not a paul supporter, he correctly identifies obama as a gifted politician not a messianic transcendent figure...

[laughingliberal]

25. K & R nt

[depakid]

30. and too often

Makes people wonder (and rightly so) what if anything he and his administration actually believe in or would be willing to stand up and fight for.

Perhaps this last preemptive concession on oil drilling will prompt a reassessment of that "strategy."

[rapturedbyrobots]

34. compromised?

he hasn't compromised any progressive policies. to 'compromise' you have to initially support progressive ideas.

the genius of the obama campaign (its no wonder they won marketer of the year) was to borrow the progressive rhetoric of the left to sell a neoliberal candidate.

they sold everyone a turd wrapped in tin foil as diamond ear rings. now that we're wearing them everyone's starting to realize they smell like neoliberal shit.

[amborin]

35. K&R

[lib2DaBone]

37. I'm watching the re-play on C-SPAN....

..they are making some VERY constructive comments and criticisms. (not just bitching and complaints)

I've had not heard of this group before? I think way more than 16% of the public is progressive.

Ilyse Hogue, speaker from Move-on.Org is an excellent speaker, I hope we see more of her.

[Skittles]

41. gee, they're just now starting to notice?

[avaistheone1]

49. K&R

These people are the real patriots in my opinion.