Obama *is* exactly who he said he was; a SUPER majority wouldn't matter one iota

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

I'm finally in agreement with those Obama supporter with whom I've butted heads the past two years. You guys are right. Obama is exactly who he said he was. Nothing more. We only wish he was the next FDR. He never wanted to be the next FDR. Even with a SUPER majority, things wouldn't be any different. Not at all.

A Public Option? Remember, he never wanted a PO. Besides, it would piss off big business interests.

Throw the book at BushCo? Never.

Prosecute Wall Street crooks and banksters? :rofl:


It's a convenient rationalization, but nothing more. Actually, those who continue to excuse Obama simply because he never had a SUPER majority are the same people who wish he was the next FDR.

[hfojvt]

1. Didn't FDR have a super-majority?

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

2. He did...

For two years people have been saying Obama would have governed differently had he the benefit of a super majority.

I'm saying he would not have had he the benefit of a super majority. His dance partners are big business, Wall Street, and banksters. Sometimes he throws us a bone to pacify our cries.

[Avant Guardian]

3. FDR was about hope and change

Obama will never rise to that level

[Rex]

4. A business suit from Chicago. Had no plans of real reform. Loves Reagan

and Poppy Bush. I had hi hopes for him, oh well there is always 2012.

[LWolf]

5. Obama is exactly who he said he was. I never thought any different.

Which is why I adamantly opposed his nomination, had no hopes for his administration, and have been repeatedly proved correct since the day he started appointing people to his administration.

[Horse with no Name]

9. I agree n/t

[Little Star]

20. Sad to say, I agree too. I had very much hoped to be wrong...

I wasn't.:(

[luvspeas]

6. Keep up that attitude. The Right loves you...

Start practicing now...President Palin, President Palin cuz that's what we're gonna get out of your attitude. the right is depending on your displeasure to create inertia.

Obama was handed the biggest pile of shit in all of human history. 2 illegal wars, a economy that had collapsed and was hidden from the American people by an enormous pillaging of our tax dollars, and a government system completely sold out to corporate interests unlike anything previously known. Accomplished under the guise of fear and pusedo-patriotism.

Obama wasn't loved. He fought a hard battle against Hillary (who would have been much worse IMHO). Then once he was elected, when he did have a democratic majority, they did not support him! That's where most of the blame lies.

Seriously, you tell me, when has a president ever gone after the previous administration for an offense? If we started doing that, every election would become crazy violent in no time. It was up to Pelosi and Reid before Obama was elected, and as you recall - "Impeachment is off the table!"

I don't agree with every decision he has made. But I think he is aiming for a bigger picture and sees getting part of his agenda preferable to not getting anything done at all. He works on getting things done, not looking like the good guy from an ineffectual bully pulpit. As slow as government moves, I think he has been able to move through a lot of things faster because he has been willing to compromise.

So please stop complaining because Obama didn't come get your kitten out of the tree, or that he didn't stop it from raining on your birthday party, OK?

[RainDog]

7. If he was handed such a big pile of shit - he shouldn't have maintained the status quo

because it is not working.

That, in fact, was what made FDR a great president. He went against the interests of his own class and the powerful in D.C. because they had made such a mess of things we couldn't continue on as we had been doing.

He was hated by the right wing for this. so what. he did the right thing.

Great leaders do the right thing.

People use the false equivalency - oh, you want him to be like Bush - well, no, we wanted him to undo the harm Bush did, and the harm Cheney and Reagan and Gingrich and all of them did. Because they did so much harm. You have to believe there is a right and wrong, of course, to accept this notion - but if you look at economic history, it's not too hard to figure out.

The joke is that the Republicans continue to behave in ways that ignore the wishes of the majority of the population and fuck over the American people... and yet, still, we're supposed to think that Obama's "bipartisanship" is worth anything? It's not - unless you want to move ever further to the right.

If people are pissed off about this, saying.. welcome President Palin is about the most worthless response someone can come up with, unless they want to entirely alienate Democratic voters.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

12. "welcome President Palin is about the most worthless response someone can come up with"

That, too.

:thumbsup:


Sounds like Gov. Walker: If you Dem. Senators don't come back, I'm going to lay-off 1,500 government employees. More like a threat than a counter argument.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

8. Nothing you said is inconsistent with anything I've said.

What I've said is that his rhetoric raised the expectations of many of us. But today, I'm in complete agreement with you. He is accomplishing all that he wants, nothing more, nothing less, just not what we had hoped for. He's in part, if not completely, responsible for raising our expectations.

It's called a reality check.

[Citizen Worker]

17. "He's in part, if not completely, responsible for raising our expectations." This is why I very

reluctantly, and against my principles, voted for Obama. My feeling then as now was that Obama's election would raise the level of expectation among the voters and if those expectations were not met people would be in the streets demanding change. Well, take a look around the country. People everywhere are demanding change and the national political class remains silent. Their silence is to our benefit, we don't need them to lead, their time has passed. Of course, the citizen actions we see taking place around the country were inspired by citizen uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Libya, etc., but just as significantly by the stepped up attacks on working people and our Unions and the ever increasing inequality in the distribution of wealth, a growing army of unemployed who have exhausted their meager benefits, and no jobs to be found, more people in poverty, homelessness, while the rich receive enormous and obscene tax breaks and the banks and investment companies rob the treasury aided and abetted by congress and the white house. Nothing for the people, everything for the rich and powerful.

A quick review of O'bama's failed expectations:
Trillions of dollars spent on bailing out the banks and investment companies while homeowners are foreclosed in record numbers.
The appointment to key administration positions of the very people who caused the banking crisis.
Failure to fight for single payer health care even though Obama campaigned on single payer.
Gitmo still open for the business of torture.
Expanded wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Instead of ending the wars as he promised O'bama has expanded them with no end in sight.
Senator Byron Dorgan secured pledges from 60 senators, a filibuster proof majority, to vote in favor of the government negotiating pharmaceutical prices on behalf of Medicare. Obama peeled off several senators and the bill died and Dorgan announced he would not run for reelection.
Continuation of tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires while those who have been unemployed for 99 weeks or more were left out in the cold, literally.
Suspension of habeas corpus continues.
Quick congressional action on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act while needed legislation to aid people languishes or is not introduced at all.

There is much more but you get the picture. The People have had enough and they're speaking out and demanding change we believe in.

[Horse with no Name]

10. That shit is not going to work anymore

You had one election cycle to use it--it is old and worn out.
Give it a rest.

[roguevalley]

18. ah yes, the if you don't hold Obama's purse you are sleeping with

John Boehner argument. Nice.

Why don't you just take your vitriol away? We get it that you will never see what we see. Obama is a suit who likes other suits. he will tell you pretty words and in the end you have nothing. That medical reform is crap. Read it and see that its just crap. And how many banksters are in jail? None. Guantanamo closed? Probably never now. Wars? Check.
Reagan love? Check. Tax cuts for the rich and evisceration of the poor's safety net, all paid for by the slowly sinking middle class? Check. Jobs? None. Check.

Keep dreaming. If this is the change you want, good luck. I'm just glad I'm fraggin' old. I only have to suffer this shit one tenth as long as you.

[GeorgeGist]

21. Face it sweetheart ...

Obama is a Coward.

[thotzRthingz]

11. a convenient memory, or just not informed... Obama certainly did campaign on a P.O.

here's just one reference, there are others "out there" if you don't like TPM:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/obama-demands-the-bill-i-sign-must-include-public-option.php

Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest - and choose what's best for your family.

- U.S. Senator and Presidential-candidate Barack Obama

IOW: this stuff is not just "made up" by someone, OBAMA said it!

[emilyg]

13. Thanks for reminder.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

15. Oh, I know what he *really* said, repeatedly...

But the fact is, he never wanted it. That's all I'm saying, and many of his supporters have said as much.

I don't really want to go into this. I think many people recall this old, tired discussion about what Obama said versus what he wanted, or more accurately, what he didn't want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UZeHLxsvI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSdU4zKOgjs

[Puregonzo1188]

14. All one has to do is look at his campaign platform, Senate record, and the creeps he surrounded

himself with (Summers, Geithner, Clinton, Emmanuel, Gates, etc).

I was never impressed with him as a Senator or a candidate and when he started appointing the neoliberals and the militarist who caused the mess I knew we were in trouble.

Though FDR really was only FDR because he was forced to be by mass militant labor movements,a lot of them associated with the Communist or Socialist parties. He had a whole bunch of left critics and it forced him further to the left (though not as far as they would have wanted). With Obama we got the exact opposite--we were all told to fall into line or else we'd have President Palin or some other nonsense and we got a rightwing President.

All Presidents represent the interests of the powerful, but sometimes they're forced to make concessions. Nobodies forced Obama to do anything.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

16. "All one has to do is look at...the creeps he surrounded himself with"

That's where he lost me.

[upi402]

19. Yes, he was a know corporatist

It was frustrating trying to inform people of that little factoid. Still is!