Reply #216: I think we should give him time! But "giving him a break" is kind of a debatable phrase...

[cascadiance]

I can understand the intent of his statement. Some might interpret it differently and a slam against his motives/character.

Obama is facing not only a slew of many problems happening all at once, which do need some time to wade through, and perhaps some hit or miss solutions too that might miss a few times before succeeding. I think FDR had to experiment a bit too before he got some things right for the long term too.

He is also facing an entrenched infrastructure that rewards corporate interests instead of serving the people that has been built up over the last few decades that will be very hard for him single-handedly to tear down overnight. He might have to live within that and compromise a bit until these barriers can be usurped, and probably needs a lot of help to shut down these barriers too (other pols, and many of us yelling for those barriers to come down too).

The key question is where his heart is, and whether his long term goal is to tear down this corporate-serving infrastructure enough so that he can make real concrete changes, and not just do window dressing that will prolong our tailspin and perhaps make it worse. This is tricky, as most of us don't know what is going on behind the scenes in the trenches, and why he might pick someone like Rahm Emanuel, who would NOT have been my choice to tear down this array of barriers were it me. But maybe he knows something about the dynamic of Emanuel being in charge that I don't. Up until now, when it arguably is keeping out people like Howard Dean out of the government, I'm still on the fence on whether to judge his heart being in the right places.

We need to push him to make even those little steps to stand off against the faces of corporate change, and then when the time comes for him to make a big change, PUSH HARD! If he works with us when the risks are high, but the goal is achievable, we'll know his heart is in the right place, and that we'll be able to count on him in the long term helping us overcome these huge barriers. I've seen small gestures so far, but I'm still waiting for him to make the big moves that might get the K-Street boys hot and bothered, which I WANT to see happen soon!

One more thing to push him to do (which WOULD count in my book as qualifying as this "big move") would be to get federal public campaign financing laws in place with teeth in them, and if nominating a judge for SCOTUS to replace someone like Ruth Bader Ginsberg, put someone in that will stand on the right side of the fence in tearing down the notion of "corporate personhood".

In judging the credibility of the original post here, it's not enough to say he isn't credible just because he's voiced many opinions against Obama. We all have a right to speak against someone if we feel legitimately that some of his policies are wrong. Now if that person was trying to distort what Obama's about and spread lies about him, then I think it's fair to argue against their credibility and to second guess what he says. I've not seen the case made yet that he's been lying about Obama yet here, though I've not read all of the posts on this large thread yet.