(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
We have now reached a point where there is beginning to boil over a lot of open criticism and disappointment finally from the “mainstream” left over the performance of Barack Obama, and his leadership skills.
Instead of just a few grumblings, made over hushed tones, immediately followed by pronouncements about how it’s only been just 3 months…5 months…8 months… etc., people are now coming to the full realization, even on DailyKos now, that Obama is not going to govern in a manner that brings about any substantial change whatsoever.
Yet many commentators from Ed Schultz, to Michael Moore, to Arianna Huffington, to Markos, to Keith Olbermann etc. generally see the problem as one of being — that Obama is just too unengaged, or not forceful enough, or not providing strong enough leadership. The idea put forth here is that Obama really wants to do the right thing, but he is just a poor negotiator, or isn’t standing up enough, or too happy to compromise away his real “dearly held” beliefs.
But I disagree with this second part of the analysis. I have seen enough now to come to the conclusion that Obama is really executing the agenda that he wants, and advancing the agenda that he and his friends want. He just fooled a whole lot of people during the Primaries with his (deceptive) lofty rhetoric, deliberately left unspecific, and charming speeches and charisma.
The problem with Obama, however, is not one of ommission, but one of commission. Recall that just as George W. Bush ran in 1999-2000 as a “compassionate” conservative with no critera at all about what that really meant for the middle-class ( a Dick Cheney Presidency-??). Well, Barack Obama ran his campaign very similarily as “Martin Luther Obama” come to save the little people – with no policy program ever put forward for doing any such thing – and an ever accumlating track record for totally backtracking on the few progressive ideas casually tossed about (then later retracted) throughout his campaign. Things like….suddenly being anti-NAFTA during the critical Wisconsin Primary (which he won), only to immediately reverse himself (and align himself with the pro-NAFTA agenda) once that State had voted for him.
But what we continually see is that Obama has no problem whatsoever with twisting arms, pressuring the Senate, asserting his own will, etc. when he wants them to vote against the reimportation of cheaper, generic Drugs (to prevent seniors from saving enormous amounts of money). He has no problem with villifying Howard Dean right out in the open, or outright intimidating progressive Congressman like Pete DeFazio with the open threat “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother“, when he disagreed with Obama’s new Military escalations. And he has no problem with protecting, and even praising the agenda of Joe Lieberman.
To understand the real Barack Obama, and also what is further to come, all you have to do is look at his very first week as President, after capturing the hearts and hopes of the grassroots. The very first things he did was:
1. Empower the corrupt BlueDog, Corporatist, pro-War Rahm Emanual to head public policy for adminstration.
2. Replace (fire?) the progressive 50-State DNC Chairman Howard Dean, and deny him any proper credit for 2006/2008 Election victories (that he benefited from), and snub and humiliate him.
3. Empower and resuscitate Bush’s own War Secretary frickin Robert Gates to continue 8 more years of permanent Foreign Occupations, permanent Military Bases, permanent War Profiteering, permanent Taxpayer-financed Contractors, and Multi-front War expansion.
4. Demand a hands-off policy against any effort to remove the stalking horse republican Joe Lieberman from his Democratic Chairmanship position.
Right there it became clear whose Obama’s friends were, and just as significant (if not more so) whose Obama’s friends were not (the progressives, and people with any integrity).
The incoming administration, elected on “change“, made no effort to hire any government reformers, progressive policy people, consumer advocates, government whistleblowers whatsoever — rather those people were deliberately shunned in favor of a decidely pro-WallStreet, pro-BankMonopoly, pro-GoldmanSachs-Citibank, pro-War-Establishment, pro-permanent-Occupation, pro-Neo-Establishment, pro-CIA-secrecy, Corporatist administration by design.
All that which has followed, has been a predictable and inevitable consequence of that design. So, rather than seeing Barack Obama as a “weak” leader, we must begin to see him in the same way that we saw George W. Bush. A guy who wants the Foxes to be the guards at the Hen House, and who also wants to drive away and banish the few progressives who dare raise their hands in protest.
The sad truth is that Obama, in fact, is a very strong and decisive leader. He has just setup the tables to lead this Country decidely down the same old crooked Wall-Street, World Empire path that he inherited, without so much as a speed bump to slow it down (much less policies that would ever possibly reverse it).
Corrupt leaders often sometimes appear either “weak”, incompetent, or forgetful — as they struggle to keep their lies straight, and tie themselves into knots trying to keep their broken promises from being exposed. Generally, they like to even play up these (false) impressions of being incompetent or forgetful, etc. (example: Ronald Reagan on the IRAN-CONTRA enterprise), because this is obviously more forgivable and more “human” (therefore charming), than outright corruption.
However, Obama’s backroom deal, and his later explicit pressure put on the U.S. Senate to kill the admendment that would permit the simple reimportation of cheaper, generic Drugs is an act not of weakness, incompetence, lack of toughness, or passivity.
It is an act of determined strength, like all his other actions, and an act of clear, explicit, FAT-CAT corruption. President Obama, and his status-quo hackery administration represent an explicitly corrupt, fraudulent administration — whose friends are all well known enemies of progressive change, and “the little guy”.
So in addition to finally now unanimously recognizing the bad performance of the Obama administration, we must now also finally recognize its explicit corruption and deceit.
What we have is George W. Obama Johnson, and the audacity of 8 more years of a nakedly, corrupt, deceitful, truth-adverse, middle-class-adverse, adminstration by design.
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youre right. And didnt he start those appointments even before the inauguration?
He is following the agenda he wants. He fooled the American electorate into thinking he was a liberal democrat but he in reality is much more of a conservadem. His skin color had a lot to do with the deception which ironically shows how deeply racist the country really is. “I’m not racist, I’ll vote for that black guy”.
Nail meet head.
I can’t stand the sight of Obama any more.
the media/blogs are playing into the left is inept meme, by pushing the Obama himself want’s something better thing.
I think the question is really–how much power does any president have? To what extent are they all just actors or speechifiers? I think if you look at any photo of O in the corridors of power, you see a guy that is loving all the trappings of power and feeling of self importance more than anything else – very much like watching Bush actually.
the agenda–get some kind of crappy legislation passed, with the assistance of at least a few token republicans & then eviscerate the members of your own party who gave money, time and votes to put you into power, if they object in any way.
How often have Blue Dogs like Nelson been scolded or arm twisted for obstructing the agenda? Instead, we’ve noted how many times lying poster boys (& girls) for pond scum, like Liberman and Snowe, have been appeased at the cost of Progressives.
If they really wanted to get Progressive type things done, they have a majority and they could twist blue dog arms instead of ignoring and even threatening Progressive lawmakers with withdrawal of Party support for their re-election campaigns if they didn’t do as the WH demanded.
Were the ones who got rope a doped. I can no longer stand the sight of this man either. It feels worse when you were sold something that turns out to be utterly false.
At least with Bush/Cheney you knew they were evil fucks
Logan Act violation.
Obbie-wan-deciever is responsible for the abyss between his words and his actions.
He has damaged any ability to trust by his flagrant dishonesty.
I would add one thing to your list of “could have dones”:
He could have prosecuted the illegalities of the BushCoGang, but he didn’t want to give away a good thing. He welcomed the precedent of being able to get away with criminal acts. “Whahoo,” he thought, “more power for me. No. No. We’re not going to throw that increase of power away for the sake of justice.”
He has done a great diservice by raising the cynicism level. And he may be more responsible for the death of ths species than anyone else.
are auditioning for directorships and lucrative lobbying positions with the major defense contractors, PhRMA, health care insurers, Wall Street and the like.
If the debacle that appears to be on the brink of passage in the Senate becomes law, once even lifetime Dem voters start receiving bills in the mail of $1000, $1500 or even $2000/month or more for MANDATORY health insurance, which increases 25% a year, at the same time that their jobs are shipped overseas, their hours are cut, and their pay home pay plummets, there will be literally millions (including many young voters and current non-voters) who will decide to vote for the ABAD party for the rest of their lives. ABAD = anything but a Democrat.
Once it becomes apparent that the populace has been fed into the corporate meat grinder, with absolutely no protection and no control over their expenses, no guarantees of coverage, and greatly increased premiums for pre-existing conditions and/or advancing age, most people would prefer Genghis Khan over Obama.
Should this pass, the sixty who will be leaving the Senate in 2010, 2012, and finally in 2014, unable to acknowledge their error and reverse course, will create a giant opening for the Republican Party to come in as their savior, paving a return to the current broken road to ruin, which will then appear the much better alternative.
Don’t believe this could happen? Some of us may still remember those who suffered through the Great Depression (you know, the one in the 1930s), who hated Herbert Hoover, revered FDR, and vowed to never vote for another Republican as long as they lived.
The same outcome could befall the Dems.
or does it seem like the Reich Wing has recently become quieter in their personal attacks upon Obama? After all, since he is in many key respects serving as the reincarnation of George W. Bush, few of their criticisms would hold water except with the low information sheep in their base who don’t need convincing anyway.
There seems to be an old adage that if the enemy is in the process of self-destructing, it’s best to not interfere. If my perceptions are accurate, perhaps this might be the most telling sign that Obama and the Dems who support him are in freefall, spiraling downwards as the Republicans sit back, eating popcorn, eagerly awaiting impact.
… is all the people who had to con themselves into thinking that Obama was a progressive in order to motivate themselves into working to get him elected …
… because they could not engage in politics like a grown up citizen, deciding to support one candidate in an election without having to have “faith” in them or “enthusiasm” for them or whatever word we apply for permitting ourselves to have our political decisions made in a childish fashion based on which side has pushed which buttons.
Those people have now divided into two groups of squalling two year olds, one crying that people are saying mean things about daddy and the other crying because daddy did not buy the Birthday Present he promised by saying, “well, we’ll have to see about that”.
And its really hard to have a grown up conversation in the middle of dozens (at dKos sometimes hundreds) of arguments at a two-year-old level between those whose emotional investment in the fantasy they collaborated in creating trumps disappointment, and those whose disappointment has trumped the fantasy they had built.
And I don’t know what to do about that.
Of course, the fight itself serves the interests of the corporate establishment, as its not a Presidential election coming up but a mid-term election, and there is no resolution of the argument on either side that has the impact of undermining or even bounding their control of Congress.