Fool Us Twice? Can Obama Get Reelected?

[Karmadillo]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/05-9

Published on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org Fool Us Twice? Can Obama Get Reelected?
by Ted Rall

NEW YORK--Usually I don't care about political horseraces. Yet I am fascinated by Obama's reelection bid. Never mind what's good for the country. I'm dying to hear him make his case for another four years.

I don't pretend to be able to predict the future. But I have a rich imagination--and I still can't begin to guess how the president can convince a majority of voters to choose him over the Republican nominee whether he be Mitt Romney or she be Michele Bachmann.

Obama is good with words. But what can he possibly say for himself after this first fiddling-while-Rome-burns term?

The president only has one major accomplishment to his credit: healthcare reform. However--assuming Republicans don't repeal it--it doesn't go into effect until 2014. Which, from Obama's standpoint, actually helps him. After people find out how it transforms the First World's worst healthcare system into something even crappier and more expensive, they'll be burning him in effigy.

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[mdmc]

1. I really don't see a way that he can lose

even if the economy continues to tank, I think he will still look good compared to the gop

[robcon]

2. I think his victory will be by a greater margin than '08

The president has better numbers with Independents - whose votes usually decide elections.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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

[and-justice-for-all]

4. He has passed some really good bills....

even though the speed and methods to which he has used are lacking, I still prefer Obama over Bachman or any puke.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. Of course, he can be reelected..........

There are only two viable wings of the corporate party that CAN win in this country and he heads up one of them. Depending on the competition, he could EASILY be reelected.

As pissed off as I am about Obama's wasting a REAL mandate in '08 (to use the bully pulpit if nothing else), what? I'm going to vote for a Republican? Not for a bribe and I'm unemployed now, so the money would be welcome. So yep. He could win.

[cali]

6. yes ted, he can.

you're utterly out of touch. as usual. what a fuckwad.

[mike_c]

7. Reagan did it-- it always amazed me that he was able to get himself elected...

...during his first campaign as a fiscal conservative who contrasted his fiscal policy with the "tax and spend" democrats, then ran up the (then) largest national debt in the nation's history, yet when he ran on the same, demonstrably failed fiscal policies the second time people believed his bullshit AGAIN, even when they had four years of experience with Reagan-omics to draw upon. It's like buying an absolute clunker from a used car salesman, then coming back when it falls apart before even getting off the lot and buying another lemon from the same proven citrus seller!

That's where we are with Obama. The only demonstrably positive thing one can say about his presidency-- which has failed by just about every one of his own measures-- is that he isn't a republican. Maybe that should be his new campaign slogan-- "Change you can believe in, this time. Really, this time we mean it. And besides, he's not a republican."

[opihimoimoi]

8. Barring a major f*** up...he will win....easily....

[BOG PERSON]

9. americans always seem to think america is rome on fire

and they always seem to think the president is a fiddling nero

[madrchsod]

10. yes he will be reelected

the republicans have one would that can match his intelligence. plus he`s courted the very people the republicans can`t get. big corporate donors.

[MineralMan]

11. Not only CAN he be re-elected, he WILL be re-elected.

Anyone who things otherwise is seriously deluded. Who's going to run against him? Will you vote for that person?

There it is.

[Little Star]

22. Well, well, well! I agree. He WILL be re-elected! .......

We have no where else to go.

[BzaDem]

12. I'm not sure what all this "fooling" nonsense is all about. Obama convinced the electorate in 2008

that he would be a better candidate than John McCain. This remains obviously true today. So he didn't fool anyone once, let alone twice.

I guess people who don't understand high school civics and think that elections are about "sending a message" or "making you feel good" (rather than picking between the viable candidates, and nothing more) might be fooled, but anyone with a passing understanding of civics couldn't possibly have been "fooled," since there was no fooling going on.

[Kurmudgeon]

13. How did Dubya make you feel?

Personally, I feel like Mr. Obama got handed a bad deal and has been doing the best he can, also included is the idiot hostile Congress the American Voter gave him in their stupidity in 2010.
I remember the last elections, "Gore is boring", "Kerry isn't likable".
That's the kind of thinking that got us the Idiot Nazi Son.
If you feel you don't need to give him your vote, remember people thinking just like you put Dubya into office.
And if this election is in anyway close, you think the GOP can't steal one again?
Even if you don't like Mr. Obama, it's your privilege and your duty as a citizen to get out there and vote your conscience and do the best you can with what you're given. Setting at home just turns the choice over to someone else> Look at the lives lost in the Middle East and 9/11, no one should ever want that to happen again. Just be glad Cheney was too old and sick to run. I thought no way Dubya could be worse than Reagan, do you really want to take the chance the next right winger is worse than George W. Bush?
Oh well, you can always set at home....again.

[Bluebear]

25. Doing the best he can to do what exactly?

[Raine]

14. The fix is in, he'll be re-elected

the corporations have already given their OK.

[enough]

18. Absolutely. He doesn't need "us."

[L0oniX]

24. +1

[Dash87]

28. You're pointing to a glaring hole in Democracy.

It's not a perfect system. The idea of Democracy is to give the average person a voice, ideally. The problem with this idea is that you need power to get the money to run for office, and you need money to get your name out there. Therefore, the average person isn't represented at all.

Democracy isn't a perfect system. It's flawed like all of the others. The best we can do is try to improve it over time.

[ozone_man]

15. Could Bush be re-elected?

The power of incumbency often allows really bad presidents to win a second term, Obama included.

I think it will come down to the economy, which I believe will be getting much worse, and whether the Republicans can field a credible candidate. If yes to both, then Obama will probably lose. Of course, if a credible independent were to run, that could alter things too.

One thing that seems evident to me is that Obama has positioned himself to gain conservative votes from his pro-war positions, bailouts of Wall Street, his attacks on social security, which he calls "entitlements", backing nuclear power, allowing off shore drilling, and a host of other non-progressive positions. Whether he was always this conservative, or is just playing politics, it makes little difference. Unfortunately, this is at a time when we really needed a progressive leader like FDR. It still may happen eventually, just not with Obama.

[eridani]

16. Probably, given that the Repub candidates are such doofuses

If he doesn't start sticking up for Democratic values, he's going to lose us the Senate as well as the House, though.

[Generic Other]

17. Unless we agree with one side on this question

our posts will be deleted. All my Obama posts get deleted.

I no longer have a voice in my own party.

[SidDithers]

23. You're free to express your Obama opinions...

somewhere else. DU is not a political party.

Sid

[Generic Other]

29. Are you even eligible to vote?

I at least can cast a vote in the next election. Maybe it would behoove you not to chase me away.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. Much will depend on who challenges him

- Will there be a credible internal challenger (doubtful but still in realm of possibility)
- Who will be the repuke opponent

There clearly will not be the excitement of his first election to fire up the base.

[SidDithers]

20. Unrec for FUD...nt

Sid

[NYC Liberal]

21. "The president only one major accomplishment" - Bullshit.

"After people find out how it transforms the First World's worst healthcare system into something even crappier and more expensive, they'll be burning him in effigy." - More bullshit.

"fiddling-while-Rome-burns term" - Even more bullshit.

[Dash87]

26. All I can say to these threads is,

vote for who you want. Nobody is, or ever was being fooled. All I see are people who tried to make Obama into something he obviously wasn't, and then complaining that he wasn't their visionary "Obama" (remember the Tom Tomorrow cartoon).

I'll be voting for Obama in 2012, unless if a candidate that I agree with more introduces themselves.

[JoePhilly]

27. Rich Imagination?? More like a masturbatory fantasy.

[BillyJack]

30. People don't want to have to hold their nose between two

TOTALLY ROTTING, STINKING, OUTREGEOUSLY BIZARRE candidates!

Michelle Bachmann & Mitt Romney??? and a suck-up like Obama??? COME ON!!!!

Is that ALL that the US can come up with?????

American ~freakin'~ Idol can come up with better choices than these two/three, for heaven's sake!

Come on!

[Logical]

31. If there is no primary challange how can anyone vote against Obama?

[upi402]

32. He probably will and we'll collapse

It's so needless but propaganda works i guess

[NorthCarolina]

33. 2012 Slogan: "CHANGE: For Real this Time"

[lonestarnot]

34. "We ran off the road and sobered up."

[Karmadillo]

35. We were kidding the first time, but this time--we mean it! Honest!

nt

[Keith Bee]

36. Raspberry Unrec

The kind you find in a second-hand store.

[CanonRay]

37. Well who else can you vote for?

Trump? Palin? Bachman for pity's sake? No Liberal will run against him in a primary. He's either re-elected or we have a first class wacko in the White House.