Obama: Where's the beef on "unity"? - Democratic Underground

draft_mario_cuomo

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Fri Jun-15-07 11:38 PM
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Obama: Where's the beef on "unity"?

Obama is running on the premise that he has a magic unity elixir. An elixir that Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Clay, Webster, Lincoln, T. Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Carter, and Clinton did not possess. In other words, he is claiming he has a magic way to do what no one in America has been able to do since Lexington and Concord.

Let's accept his premise for the sake of discussion. Let's believe that he can achieve what other great Americans could not achieve. Where is the performance? There have been two prominent instances this year alone that were tailor-made from someone with Obama's self-proclaimed touch.

The first was the divisive issue of whether to continue financing Bush's war with a blank check. After the initial veto, the going got tough. Over 100,000 troops were waiting to see if somehow a compromise could be brokered to help bring an end to the failed war. This could have been Obama's version of Henry Clay's famous compromises of 1820 and 1850 on the contentious issue of slavery. What did this self-proclaimed Henry Clay squared do? He disappeared. When his alleged skills were needed the most he grew silent. He was nowhere to be found on the issue. He did not try to bring both sides together to forge a compromise. He cut and run. He could not even state which way he would vote and quietly voted "nay" at the last minute.

Perhaps that was just a mistake. Another opportunity quickly called for Obama's alleged special skills: immigration. Immigration is arguably the second most contentious legislative issue (with abortion being left to the courts). If we are ever to get any immigration reform we need someone who can bring both sides together in a compromise. We need someone who can get Americans to look past the distractions that divide us and instead look at our common purposes. These are precisely the qualities Obama claims to possess. Where was he during the immigration debate? He showed up, at least, this time. Surely that raised hopes that the self-styled "Great Compromiser" would come to the rescue. What happened? He made a cameo by offering an amendment. An amendment that actually increased division in the senate and made it more likely for the bill to fail.

Obama is running on the audacity of arrogance. It is very arrogant to think he could do what all those other great leaders could not do. We must look at his performance. He seems utterly incapable of achieving unity and common cause on the controversial issues of the day. Even worse, he does not even bother to try! Think about the audacity of arrogance. He runs around the nation calling for "unity" and an end to divisiveness. He extols himself as the magic man who can make this happen. Then he returns to the senate. Evidently, the senate chamber is his kryptonite. The man who speaks so well about unity and working together in Des Moines and Manchester suddenly does not even attempt to achieve his stated goals. The day ends. He clocks out. He gets on a jet to a big fundraiser California, a town hall in Nashua, NH, or a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It is as if he pushed the delete button on the day's work in the senate. He is back to using flashy and appealing Axlerod rhetoric about unity and divisiveness. He promises, again, to deliver later what he doesn't even try to deliver today. That is the audacity of arrogance.