What just happened in Wisconsin is a sign of a growing wave

[27inCali]

2012 will be another wave election. It will go against the Rs. The Senate will be a little tough because of how many more D incumbents there are than Rs, but we can hold on there and the House is ours for the taking.

The question is, when the wave is over, will Congress be more and more stacked with Progressives or with just more of the same lame "centrist" corporate hand-maidens?

The answer to that question depends on where Progressives put their focus: either a) beating up Obama all day or b) taking over D Congressional primaries and sending some real fire-breathing Progressives into Congress to drag Obama to the Left.

I get the disappointment in Obama, but I think spending all day kicking the shit out of him on every little issue wont be half as effective as making sure the Ds riding the wave into Congress in 2012 are REAL Progressives.

Obama's big weakness is that he is obsessed with building consensus. The answer to this problem is to make sure the majority of people he is compromising with are Progressives. We didn't have that 2008-2010, we had Blue Dogs galore shitting all over everything and they still lost their seats anyways. They are gone now and replaced with whackjob Tea baggers that will be easy to take out, especially if the Ds running against them are unabashed Progressives with a populist message.

We can do this folks!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We're doing just that here in my Congressional District!

Since Jane Harman resigned (or is about to), we are going to elect a way more progressive Dem to that seat.

Janice Hahn and Debra Bowen are the main candidates, and Marcy Winograd is the outlier here. Any one of these will be way more progressive than Harman was. As if!

This is what we need to do!

[xchrom]

4. +1

[WI_DEM]

2. I just wish President Obama would be more than a spectator in this wave of events

happening around the country and begin to help lead it.

[Vincardog]

3. taking over D Congressional primaries and sending some real fire-breathing Progressives into Congres

That gets my vote. Send in the LIBERALS that will send Obama the bills he will only sign if forced to.

[gordianot]

5. Building a consensus sounds good, it will not work when dealing with megalomania radical opposition.

The loyal opposition of another time is no more, Republicans have invested too much into the politics of fear and division. Obama fails to recognize that some have no better angels left in their nature.

[bigmonkey]

6. It makes a big difference, though, if they're way outnumbered.

I think that's the OP's point. Help the timid Dems do the right thing by surrounding them with progressives.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. I don't have a problem with this at all.......

Barring a miracle/catastrophe, Obama will be the Dem nominee in '12. He's obviously MUCH more of a "Why can't we get along?" type than a bully pulpit type of Dem, so as another poster said, make sure we give him VERY progressive proposals to "compromise" for.