The filbuster sell-out kind of explains Obama's "surprisingly liberal" inauguration speech.

[ShadesOfBlue]

39. typical whining

from my fellow liberals and progressives. But then this isn't a surprise, I knew this theory would take flight as soon as it became clear this week that Reid would not follow through with full filibuster reforms. I'm curious though why it took Reid's decision to make people like the OP come to their predictable conclusions. After all the House is still ran by the GOP last time I checked and Obama knew that when putting together his speech. Regardless of what went down with the filibuster the House was always going to be an obstacle, right?


Look, I think Obama is more center-left or moderate; obviously he is not far-left. I'm okay with that and frankly the country is okay with that too considering that the goals he brought up during his inauguration address are those that are supported by a majority of the country. Therefore I am not cynical to think Obama was using those talking points as some sort of ruse to cover his true feelings and intent. The reality is that even if true filibuster reform had been put into play this week, it would still have been very difficult to push all of that legislation through. Not impossible, but very tough. Odds were laws were not going to be passed for all of these major challenges. But should that stop the President from fighting for them or stop him from laying out his vision for both his second term and America in his speech?

Here's something to remember: when politicians are not campaigning they hate bringing up promises or strongly addressing challenges that in the end they can't follow through on. That's egg on their faces. That's a blow to their political credibility and strength. That's a blow to their egos. So....I think Obama will still fight for immigration reform and the gun law changes regardless of this week's decision by Reid. For the latter he is going to get demonized by the right no matter if he wins or loses that battle so his his boldest move was asking for reform of gun laws in the first place.

I have a wait-and-see approach regarding Obama tackling climate change. His administration has done some positive things on that front but overall I think most of the folks who care about this issue are disappointed with the administration's record concerning the environment. Worst of all I don't think there is much collective will in Washington to come up with solutions NOW and to be honest the public keeps allowing this issue to slide down the list of must-dos every time other concerns bubble to the surface (like gun control). So if there is one area for one to be "cynical" enough to think Obama is looking for the easy out it could be on climate.

However I feel Obama will do whatever he can in all the other issues he addressed. That means avoiding wars when possible, protecting so-called "entitlements" from being privatized, trying tom get reasonable gun-law reforms, protecting the health rights of women, taking care of the immigration problems, etc. It won't be easy and some compromises may have to be made along the way which of course will lead to hysteria from those on the far-left (who are just as intolerant to the idea of compromise as those on the far-right).

But forget about all of that because in the end I think the speech was less about any possible promises contained within (that's more for the State of the Union anyway) and more about an affirmation that all of us Americans are cherished members of one collective national family. Tell a LGBT person that Obama's speech is merely some Corporate Democrat bullshit meant to cover all the basic Democratic talking points. Decades from now, generations from now, there will be people saying that that speech was the moment in which their life changed. Changed because they felt they were finally felt accepted or that they finally had their eyes opened and became sympathetic to the plight of others. Words matter. Speeches matter. To some people at least. Thankfully not everyone is as misanthropic as many here tend to be. Maybe there is something to be said about naivete.