Mr President, do know how many people lived on ramen noodles to get you elected?

How many gave up savings? How many people gave up entertainment?
How many people sensing the collapse of our financial system literally threw you forward like a Hail Mary pass in hopes that you would act in our best interest; you know, the *people* people of the United States?

I'm now unemployed, uninsured, and foreclosed. All of these issues were addressed in your campaign promises. Do you think we as a group of evermore impoverished plain Americans we can preserver as long as the Democratic Asshole Senators can delay? The proof is in: 122 less voters will be available by tomorrow; 4K by the next election.

And I know that in the Democratic political strategist minds they are thinking; you're broke, so you really don't count anymore.

My employment prospects were sent to India and/or simply filled on site with an H1-B. Do you think we could get some relief on that. At least let us know that you're interested in the plight of the plain everyday Americans that sent those small donations?

Do you think the younger voters that were *so* hyped up about your election are still excited? I was once 18-25 yrs old and I can tell you they are seeing the same old politics of getting served scraps justified with more intellectual arguments. Yes, the crowds love to cheer you--you being a charismatic speaker can work a crowd. However, that glow isn't lasting nearly as long as it used to. There is no "force multiplier". Nobody is going out registering voters or calling their friends. The party is in fact in decline and it's your watch.

The time is at hand ... we need you to work for us now.

(Sry folks, I love that President, but I'm getting frustrated)

accomplished some good things in his term. But now that he is an insider and no longer a challenger...well things change don't they?

Msongs

We are chumps until 2012.

Enjoy the ride!

Who's going to challenge Obama, a sitting president? Nobody. And the Repubs will nominate some horror show of a candidate, just like they always have. You will have no choice to change things for the better.

The people spoke last year, like they always do- they love them corporatists, or at least they have been taught to.

I don't know what might break the cycle. A complete collapse is just as likely to lead to a totalitarian state as we are quite a ways there already.

connections in the current administration.

...to LEAD the 'recovery' is vile.

Obama is a fraud. And, his election took the momentum of real change, diffused it, and allowed the corporations to push through policies that would have caused a rebellion, if a Republican President has instituted them.

That leaves Kucinich. At least Kucinich is honest and has his divorces behind him, hopefully.

I re-registered as a Green shortly after he took office. I no longer believe in the "We can drive the party left" nonsense.

Buying Brand Obama
By Chris Hedges

Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest.

more at link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/04

(even the good things are scraps/crumbs)

"hope and change" rhetoric.

He's a politician, same as any other. He'll care about your worries only to the extent that it will get him reelected. Otherwise he's beholden to his financial donors.

My feelings exactly.

nt

What will they do if we just stay home in 2010...or in VA and NJ...this November? Get rid of Rahm and start working for the people and not the lobbyists.

NT

Apparently the man has been a big part of the "conscience" of this White House...

Oh, yeah. he's a SELF MADE millionaire, so if you're going to give the last 20 years of blame to him, at least get your fucking facts straight.

people who read books! and HOW DARE HE NOT hire a ghost writer!?! Guess he wanted all the profits for himself and his family...

were and are frustrated.

Since 11/25/08, when I first voiced my "concerns" about the Geithner appointment and got flamed for it here on DU, I have said that we the people were being ignored, and they the bankers were getting all the attention.

Damn it, thunder rising, I wish to hell this shit hadn't happened to you. I wish to hell it hadn't gone this way for you and so many more like you. It sucks. It just plain sucks.

Hang in there. I can't promise it'll get better, nor can I promise it won't get any worse, but hangin' on is about all we can do any more.

and



Tansy Gold

Obama owns it! Many don't like to hear this, many keep saying he inherited ALL this and that may be true... but for me, I'm seeing some "selling out" going on! I DON'T LIKE IT and if people like Reid & Baucus and the Blue Dogs aren't reigned in... then WHAT'S THE USE???

Some people just need to be taken to the WOOD SHED and given a stern talking to!! Just how I'm seeing it! I posted something about Goldman Sachs the other day and several of the replies just blew me off because of my concern.

THIS isn't moving the ball forward for the America people, when this administration has so many of these people working on OUR behalf!

The same as the old boss

Exactly. Thank you.

We get a democrat for president and people here still bitch like Bush was still in office. Some people will never ever be satisfied. It must suck for you people to constantly live under a dark cloud.

As evidenced down below.

I was just calling out the assholes here.

By the (D) behind the name.

If Obama had an (R) behind his name, he would be absolutely lambasted for everything he's doing. But he has a (D) behind his name so it's A-OK.

You obviously need to get with the program.

then these are glory days for you, i guess.

they dont notice the difference. You live in comfort i assume. you speak like it.

I do live in comfort. I recognize that. It's not the insult that you think it is.

Also, you don't speak for the all of the homeless or all of the poor. I work a soup kitchen in Chicago and the vast majority people there are not nearly as angry at Obama as some of the people here on DU.

college campuses, who otherwise would not be able to get online to post thoughts.

People can be upset with President Obama, and still support him enough to call him Mr. President.

Merely for the sentiment of the OP I rec it. The fact is very true, thousands of people gave up all they had to help get Senator Obama elected president. He should be reminded of that when anyone who did such sees him, and I would expect him to say thank you, because he's a good guy.

I dislike hysterical rants saying that Obama is the same as Bush. Not posts saying that he is the same as Bush on a specific issue (because on some issues, yes, he has kept Bush policies and he should be hammered for doing so) , but outright saying that he is the same as Bush period. I see people who have absolutely nothing. They line up an hour in advance to get a hot meal once a week. They don't get to go to college. They are kicked out of the libraries at night. And if THOSE people are joyful that Obama is president and that he is not Bush(and some of them are downright joyful) then why can't people who live in comfort accept the simple fact that Obama is not Bush?

This doesn't stop criticism of Obama or his policies. I don't know why this is so difficult for people to admit.

themselves or their children.

You don't have to match him exactly.

I'd wager, no one here thinks Bush and Obama are the same. I think you may be taking an argument to an extreme. That is why I wrote what I did.

I will borrow an argument even though it is somewhat inflammatory.

"The fundamental truth about the Obama administration is that it is the Bush administration run by slightly less incompetent, marginally less evil people:

* The Iraq occupation will end when Bush wanted it to.
* The Bush administration's campaign of eradication of fundamental civil liberties, including the gutting of the 4th amendment and holding people without trial, continues.
* The Afghan war continues, and is even being escalated.
* The signature issue of "health care reform" is a scheme which will force citizens to buy private insurance which, because of lack of effective controls, will increase in price faster than wages or inflation.
* Obama and Geithner have followed the Bush/Paulson financial policies, virtually to the letter, spending trillions bailing out Wall Street and creating a financial sector which has fewer, larger actors with more political power than before.
* Obama continues to exert pressure primarily on Progressives rather than on Blue Dogs in order to obtain relatively more conservative rather than liberal bills. (This is not an accident.) The most liberal bill always comes from the House, the conference committee bill is inevitably closer to the more conservative Senate bill. (This is not an accident.)
* Unlike Bush Jr, Bush Sr., Clinton, and Reagan, Obama has not replaced the prior administration's district attorneys wholesale, instead leaving in place the majority of the Bush administration DA's who had survived Rove's purges intended to make sure they were loyal Republican apparatchiks.
* Obama has not cleaned out the administration in general of Bush-era appointees and plants; indeed he has filled less spots than either Clinton or Bush II had by this point in their terms—and no, it's not because the Senate won't confirm them.
* Obama appointees will be forced to resign if the right wing (aka Beck) goes after them hard, but if progressives don't like them, tough luck.
* Obama's economic team is filled with people who created the framework which allowed the financial meltdown to occur, who didn't see it coming, and whose solution to it is to give money to their friends and colleagues and try and get another bubble started."

http://openleft.com/diary/15113/meet-the-new-boss

I don't entirely agree because of all the positive the President has done but he has also done some bad things. I am not saying throw the bum out. I am saying we need to get active and push back.

So, yeah, I stand by my earlier statement.

The world would pretty much look the same as it does right now.

If you think that Obama and McCain would be "about the same" you're beyond reason. This is not to say that Obama doesn't need to improve on certain areas or even that Obama isn't merely the lesser of two evils. But my god, Obama is the FAR lesser of two evils.

whether or not the evil is turned up to elevenses.

McCain would be drawing down troops in Iraq, ordered the closing of Gitmo, changed procedures to the FOIA, reversed Bush's ban on funding to foreign organizations that allow abortions, signed into law easing the federal requirements for filing employment discrimination and signed a law that increased the number of children covered uner SCHIP (which he voted against in the senate, IRRC). McCain would have reversed Bush's policy to use tax dollars for stem cell research, too.

Oh, and McCain would have nominated Sonya Sotomayer, too. And let us not forget that the rest of the world would have LOVED McCain almost as much as they hated Bush.

To top it off, McCain would have taken on health care reform, too.

Wow, I obviously voted for the wrong guy.

And he would be doing about the same things as Obama now.

and that is what the OP is referring to.

a President of Domestic Affairs, A president of Foreign Affairs, etc. etc. etc.

We get one person.

So you cannot say that Obama is the same as Bush or about the same as McCain and expect people to think you are only talking about economic affairs. The quality of a president incorporates all aspects of said presidency.

and I see the past 30 years of nonsense is preached and embraced by this administration. Although, at a slightly less shrill tone.

I'll agree this administrations approach to the empire, is much better than the last administration's.

instead of just the economy.

And Obama is the same as Bush because all things start with economics.

Carter did some good things (efforts in world peace, trying to be honest with Americans about the economic situation, etc). Barack Obama is doing some good things as well. However, on the big issues which will determine the fate of our nation 10 years out he has a very spotty record. On those issues, I see us going in a similar trajectory that we were going before albeit at a slower pace. I hope I'm wrong.

Time will only tell.

or
"He's about the same as McCain would have been"

However, those are just my key issues. The country isn't really ready to talk about those issues yet.

There are several issues of my own that fit there. I absolutely cannot stand people who say he's the same as the old boss or he's no better than McCain. That's just foolishness.

thanks for some level headedness

Saying he's like Bush or McCain is a prize-winning sort of idiocy.

--our country has ever known, with the possible exception of Adams, who went back and served in the House of Representatives.

...IS the BIGGEST Social Issue.
And Working Americans are not getting it.(Economic Justice)

to the economy, and the trend toward "downsizing" jobs, was well underway before Candidate Obama even decided to run for the Oval Office. The current "depression" started to snowball toward the end of 2007, and became a crisis by the middle of 2008 (just over a year ago). After decades of neoconservative deregulation and failure to enforce anti-monopoly laws, the American economy turned to shit, and took most of the world with it.

I seriously doubt that anyone, or any team of crackerjack economists, could have made much more progress at a recovery by this point than has President Obama and his administration. We have not completed the first part of any triage procedure: stopping the bleeding. Phase II will mainly consist of creating more jobs, and dealing with the millions of foreclosures that are still to come. Phase III will be tied to reinforcing the Dollar, and dealing with the permanent level of higher energy costs.

A single term will most likely not be enough time to complete Phase II, and two terms may not be enough time to even begin Phase III.

Bush just happened to be riding the deregulation/FreeMarkets horse when it collapsed.

but the erosion of Glass-Steagall began under Ronny Raygun's "trickle-down" madness in the 1980s, and by the time Slick Willy got his hands on it, it was already toothless:

http://news.briefing.com/GeneralContent/Investor/Active...

Deregulation began with the Kristol/Raygun/Gingrich neoconservative movement (they fired Volker for not supporting deregulation), and the Bush/Rove/Gingrich/Delay neoconservatives showed their reverence to Raygun by continuing the policy at every opportunity. They have controlled the Congress, the Oval Office, or both, for the better part of the past three decades, and deregulation along with obscene tax cuts for the top 1% in this country, have been their stock-in-trade.

I also recognize that Bill Clinton's "triangulation," and the advent of the neoconservative wing of the Democratic Party, the DLC, was part and parcel of this treasonous movement to destroy the Labor Movement and the Middle Class in the USA.

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz (economist) sums it up nicely:

"Paul Volcker, the previous Fed Chairman known for keeping inflation under control, was fired because the Reagan administration didn't believe he was an adequate de-regulator. Our country has thus suffered from the consequences of choosing as regulator-in-chief of the economy someone who didn't believe in regulation."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Volcker

*sigh*

disagree with you. The neo-cons were/are a true threat.

THE FIVE MEMBERS OF THE NOBEL COMMITTEE.

as if they're a large body, and not just five white guys from Norwegia, apointed by the Norwegian Parliament and closely matching its political and ideological makeup.

And yes, I know it's Norway.

If people do not know anything about Nobel Prizes, then I suppose they may think it's a large governing body or maybe even citizens of a country called Nobel. But the poster obviously assumed that people were semi-educated.

--right now we need BOLD things on health care, financial regulation and climate change, and we aren't getting them.

Did you say something?

but that sets the bar awfully low, don't you think?

But for the millions out of work, hungry, and foreclosed, cant get much worse.

There's a vague memory of having heard their names before, but I don't think I can place them.

This argument is so old that it needs the dust blown off of it every time people like you trot it out.

And ever since they have been buying teabags like crazy to de-rail Obama's Marxist Plan To Destroy America.

How could you forget?

Besides, McCain is on TV every day, and Palin has a 400 page autobiography that is "#1 at AMAZON!!!!!!"

How can we forget them when they won't go away?

People, children living in cars and tents. Ask them if it would be worse under McPalin.

one doesn't have to back the opposition to be disappointed in who we elected. No, of course McCain/ Palin wouldn't be BETTER, but for so many of us NOTHING is GETTING BETTER right now. Keeping the status quo isn't helping. We need real change and immediate action.We need what we voted for. Lives depend on it.

The "he could suck worse" argument isn't a great one.

Look, Obama made promise he chooses not to keep.

(Help me here - what did I miss?)

Oh, also the one about turning around a really, really, really big ship.

And you neglected to accuse anyone of poutrage.

I think that about covers it.

That's my favorite.

Does anything say kool kiddie quite like comparing basic human rights to a bratty child's demand for an impossible Christmas present?

did NOT buy that 9/11 was Clinton's fault since it happened nine months into Bush's term. And Clinton did NOT try to blame Mogadishu on Poppy Bush even though it happened right after he took office and Poppy had sent the troops in very late in his term.

Every president inherits problems. Obama made a big deal about all he would do early in his term. What happened to all those promises? So far he's enriched the bankers and is trying to pass a health care bill that would raise premiums and fine people who are uninsured. Those who can't afford insurance damned sure can't afford to pay a fine. Will we have debtors' prisons? Or indentured servitude?

We sure as hell won't have ponies. YES WE CAN. . . DO WITHOUT.

"change we could believe in", for "the audacity of hope", and "the fierce urgency of now"
And a lot of us worked our asses off to make that happen, and guess what..... it isn't.
The issue isn't is he better then McCain and Palin would have been, the issue is there
is not a hell of a lot of transparency in his government, the war he spoke out against
is getting more involved, and it's an un-winnable war that is plundering our national treasure.
Rendition is still going on, Gitmo is still open, and in all likelihood will stay open for a
while. There has been no action taken for verified voting, Glass Steagal has not been put
back into place, the banks are still too big to fail, and are not lending money. So tell
me my good friend, isn't it wonderful that he's going to repeal Don't ask don't tell, wow
change I can believe in, I'm sooooo thrilled I sent him money and had my kids go door to
door in Nevada for him. Talk is cheap, actions speak. If you're going to inspire and lead
then you damn well better deliver or you're going to raise another generation of cynics
who won't vote

no, i actually don't think it would be worse were mccain in office.

nope, i don't.

for votes. and going to the wrong side looking for them.
the DC beltway crowd is out of touch.

We can't get a Dem in the White House AND expect them to uphold
core Democratic principles.

It has alot to do with that "electable" meme we always swallow
hook line and stinker.

My imaginary dog could have beat McSame.

with some crappy, tired replies to it. But good op.

It's not his fault the financial wizards blew up the economy.

the election.

as sandandsea points out, Obama has done that too to help.