Must Read: Obama Just Ran Out Of Slack

[WillyT]

Obama Just Ran Out Of Slack
By Tom Sullivan - Campaig For America's Future
December 17, 2009 - 12:41am ET

<snip>

The media was quick to declare the Obama honeymoon over this summer. Yet supporters exhilarated by Barack Obama’s stunning win in November 2008 were still willing to cut him a lot of slack. That slack just ran out.

The simplest, most comprehensive health insurance reform –- single payer –- was off the table before the legislative effort started, replaced with an amorphous "public option." David Sirota and others called it a violation of Negotiating 101: compromise comes at the end of the process, not at the beginning. Now the campaign to enact substantive health care reform has foundered on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). And on Obama’s refusal to bust heads. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel instructed Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to cut a deal with Lieberman for his vote, even if it meant jettisoning Medicare expansion and a public option –- along with cost controls, lifetime benefit caps and drug re-importation. Reid did. So much for the Chicago-style politics Fox News warned about.

All year, progressive reform advocates tried to remain calm as the House and Senate bills got watered down. “Don’t freak out,” they told each other. At every stage, they were told "trust us" as the bills got weaker and weaker. They can expect to hear that once again as the House and Senate bills go to conference. An Organizing for America rumor in September had it that the White House was working secretly on its own bill to spring in mid October once opponents had spent themselves pushing back against the House and Senate versions.

That, obviously, never surfaced. It was more wishful thinking from Obama supporters trying to keep the faith while stuffing down the nagging feeling that they were being sold out and that there never was any hope of seeing a bill with a public option. At Salon, Glenn Greenwald argues that that was the plan all along and that, quoting Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), "This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs criticized Howard Dean on Wednesday for trying to kill the Senate bill, Greenwald observes. Why did the White House go after a former governor, yet never call out sitting senators Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman for their obstruction?

Matt Taibbi’s headline-grabbing takedown of Goldman Sachs, “Inside The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone in July, detailed the extent to which Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street investment banks brought about the Great Recession. Many Goldman veterans on the Obama economic team, Taibbi warned, were charged with repairing the damage to which they themselves had contributed. Still, Obama’s base told themselves the boss had it under control.

But Taibbi’s expose this month, “Obama’s Big Sellout” delivered the coup de grâce to any remaining credibility the White House had as agents of financial reform. Immediately after the election, the economists who helped craft the campaign’s populist economic message were sent to bureaucratic “Siberia.” Taibbi listed a roster of Rubinites (as in former Clinton Treasury secretary, Bob Rubin) and Citigroup bankers whose “balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation” philosophy is behind the administration’s economic policy. The financial reform bill passed in the House reflects the same tepid regulatory impulses, as does the Senate’s health care proposal. The Federal Reserve will be audited, but “cram-down” and the effort to reinstate Glass-Steagall both failed. Public Citizen declared, “The bill does very little to address industry structure ... The biggest banks are now bigger than they were before the crisis.” Even as Democrats celebrated the passage of financial reform in the House, Obama’s state-level organizers braced for fallout from the Taibbi article among supporters .

Obama’s base had also expected a radical break from Bush-era policies deployed in prosecuting the “war on terror.” But no court has yet ruled on the legality of treatment former prisoners allege constituted torture. The Obama Justice Department “has worked tirelessly to shutter or pre-empt torture litigation,” lawsuits brought by former detainees who allege they were tortured while in U.S. custody under Bush, says Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick. “To be clear,” Lithwick writes, “it's not that torture victims are losing these trials. They can't even find their way into a courtroom. And, time after time, it's the Obama administration barring the door.” In a conference call with reporters, Jameel Jaffer, head of the ACLU's National Security Project, noted that while "the Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture, the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity."

Some Obama supporters have begun reacting to his fundraising e-mails with skepticism bordering on disgust. Their patience has worn as thin as promises that "we will not back down" on health care reform. On December 16, after the White House had caved to Joe Lieberman's demands on the Senate health care bill, caller after caller to progressive talk radio programs expressed outrage. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 47 percent consider his health care plan a bad idea, and only 32 percent favor it. NBC's Chuck Todd wrote on Twitter: "Most of the movement on the 'bad idea' comes from some of the president's core support groups, folks upset about lost public option." Radio host and author Thom Hartmann suggested, “Put this healthcare bill where the sun don’t shine.” Blogger Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo filed a post entitled “Goodbye, Cruel World!” to respond to the flood of e-mails TPM had received from angry progressives seeking “'walk me back from the ledge' services.” An open letter to the president posted on Daily Kos from a self-described “former Obamabot” expressed deep regret at having “been bamboozled, hoodwinked. Sold a shiny bill of goods.”

Obama had best start listening. Of all people, he should know that one of the worst things you can do with campaign volunteers is waste their precious time. Because they won't come back.

<snip>

Link: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009125116/obama-just-ran-out-slack

That about sums it up.

:shrug:

[RainDog]

1. this is the truth.

politics is about dealmaking.

we voted for him and expect him to honor this vote. instead he has PANDERED to the right wing from day one.

I've had it. Let them vote for him.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

96. MY FEELINGS TO A TEE

HE IS A GOOD TALKER THOUGH

[KakistocracyHater]

100. the words were never his, notice how after he won those kinds of speeches

faded.......then stopped completely. Now it sounds like he's brought in W's speechwriters, he just is better at pronouncing.

[bjobotts]

106. Should have elected McCain/Palin. Bring back the Bushies.Disappointment should not ruin judgement

[DailyGrind51]

122. Perhaps, had the economy declined to 1929 levels under another Republican Presidency,

the consequent Democratic administration would have had an easier time accomplishing its agenda.

[pokercat999]

123. Think on this: It wouldn't have made much if any difference

both McCain and Obama were corporate APPOROVED candidates the POLICIES would have been about the same and Obama has proved that.

[KakistocracyHater]

129. hell no, are you saying we were on the wrong side in WW2 as well?

that's what the Right started saying in 1946. Quit thinking like a W follower & quit twisting my desired end result, I want Obama to correct course & DO WHAT HE SAID IN HIS CAMPAIGN SPEECHES. Can you hear me now?

[Laelth]

2. k&r for the truth, however depressing. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[ixion]

3. yep, spot on article...

I'm sad to say.

I had high hopes for Obama, without expecting miracles. His decision to be a 'war' president was the one that sunk it, though. I knew he was going to pander to Wall St. and the usual corporate suspects, but hoped that he would put an end to * era Pax Americana BS. Well, he hasn't even done that. On the contrary, he has worked tirelessly to build a framework to support those policies. :(

[pleah]

4. K&R

[Mari333]

5. one of my best friends, who hasnt been keeping up with the news

asked me how things were going yesterday. I told her.
she said she has finally reached the place that I reached almost a yr ago, when Rick Warren was chosen to speak

that disillusionment finally hit her. she had carried hope in a bucket, it seemed. just as I had.

just a little hope . anything. so so tired after 8 yrs of Bush war crimes, and then, just asking for some change.

and then, nothing.

just more of the same corporate shite.

so she said she has reached apathy central.

[pissedoff01]

6. Yep. There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee, that says

...

[davidwparker]

56. +1

[tblue]

79. No truer words were ever mangled.

That was funny, the way you got it verbatim.

Damn! Thought I had my country back.

[jaxx]

7. Is this a rah-rah for Taibbi or a bitch about Obama?

Either way some others should start listening too. because this is driving people away.....from the fringe that thinks it's the whole Democratic Party. We all worked for the election, and one's work is no better or more important than the other ones work. This instant dismissal of those not in lockstep with them is nothing but arrogance and attitude. Get an adjustment.

[RainDog]

9. what a joke.

tell people who are PISSED OFF BEYOND MEASURE at the betrayal of this administration to pander to those who would support him no matter what he does?

I think a little REALITY-BASED adjustment is in order, and it's needed by the corporate wing of the democratic party. you don't just get someone's vote and then piss on them and expect them to accept it.

that's the reality of POLITICS.

[jaxx]

16. I just gave you reality and you didn't like it.

Imagine that. All the CAPS and pissed off in the world doesn't make you always right. It says your way or no way.

I had 8 years of that and I'm not going there again.

[RainDog]

20. I gave you the reality and you didn't like it

but you ignore it at your peril.

if you knew anything about the things Obama has done since he took office, you would understand that your claim of "your way or no way" is a joke.

but THIS (yes, capital letters because it's THAT IMPORTANT) issue is the deal breaker.

you don't like it, I don't care. I hope Obama cares because, otherwise, he is setting up a landslide for the republicans at the midterms.

not because progressives will vote for them, but because progressives won't vote for blue dogs. they'll sit out a "non-choice" choice on election day. and, the MAJORITY of the American population is pissed as shit about the Wall Street pandering... left and right.

that's the reality. if you don't want to accept it, don't. but you'll find out the truth of what I've said on election day.

[jaxx]

21. I know what he's done, same as you do.

The difference is that you choose to use anything not in your pocket as it was wrong. All of nothing.

Well good luck, all is not very productive. Starting the ball rolling.....that looks ahead.

[RainDog]

23. yeah, good luck

I can't quite understand what you wrote in that first sentence, but the conserva-dems have screwed the democratic party, not the people who support, you know, DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES.

you know, that health care thing that has been part of the democratic party's issues since Truman. TRUMAN.

isn't it about time for the blue dogs to at least become as democratic as, you know, Truman? Kennedy?

the democrats are making the wrong moves and they will pay for it. I didn't make them make the choices they did. they'll be held responsible for them, tho.

[jaxx]

28. Yes, since Truman.

And it's finally getting out of the starting block after 64 years. Wow this is Progress with a capital P. We are on our way. This is democratic principles never giving up.

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/anniversaries/healthprogram.htm

To me this is the biggest thing for the democratic party since FDR got that 4th election. We will prevail.

[Jackpine Radical]

68. Out of the starting block and headed exactly in the wrong direction.

Mandating shitty, high deductible, 40% copay, essentially unusable health insurance for the least well-off, and then fining them if they don't comply, is not exactly the same as providing decent health care coverage. It is, however, wonderful legislation for boosting insurance company profits, using the IRS as the bill collector.

[Frisbee]

104. Insurance Co. Stocks up 10% or more....

'nuff said?...

[progressoid]

71. Did you read your own link?

You said, "To me this is the biggest thing for the democratic party since FDR got that 4th election."

How about that little thing called Medicare that LBJ signed?

When on July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law at the Harry S. Truman library & Museum, he said that it "all started really with the man from Independence".**

The current POS bill is nothing like Truman's vision. It's more like Nixon's health care plan.

[tavalon]

97. I want some of what you're smoking.

[Hannah Bell]

108. That's hysterical. The biggest thing since FDR? What planet do you live on?

[rpannier]

112. Gee... Medicare, Voting Rights Act

I guess those are irrelevancies in your world.

[Why Syzygy]

116. It is being called the third term of George Bush.

And I don't think you can point out any differences. Hence your attack on the messengers of these glad tidings.

Name ONE.

[defendandprotect]

119. I think the "reality adjustment" is for the voters . . . we've known for 40 years that

corporations were buying government and our candidates --

You've seen the figures on the corporate money poured into Obama and Hillary and others.

THAT was the difference with Howard Dean -- lucky they didn't assassinate him!

What is it that makes voters look at all of the evidence and decide that one candidate --

also pre-owned and pre-bribed by corporations -- was going to save us from corporatism/fascism???

Granted we've all been taught that capitalism is synonymous with democracy -- but in reality

it's a system intended to move the wealth and resources of the many to the few. And it does

that over and again quite successfully. Now, they're not even hiding their crimes and still

forcing us to bail them out -- again.

Most of all voters who are waking up now need to come together on a new plan -- because what

we've been doing over the past 40 years hasn't worked.

A large part of it has been right wing violence -- assassinations, stolen elections --

with oru corporate/CIA press ignoring it all and keeping the cover ups going.

But another large part of it has been a reluctance to give up the trust, reset the BS meters --

and come together on a new plan B.

[girl gone mad]

10. Yes, I agree.

Rahm and company should not dismissively declare us "left of the left" nuts, etc. This kind of rhetoric is only driving people away. A majority is for the public option. A majority is against mandates for private insurance. We are not the fringe and it's arrogant for the administration to try and bully everyone to march in lockstep with the fringe DLC/"Centrists".

[RainDog]

12. exactly n/t

[nashville_brook]

13. it's not the rhetoric that's driving people away -- it's the policies.

edit to say:

most people aren't neck deep in rhetoric like the DU-ified. Most people are live where the rubber meets the road. They are unemployed. Without healthcare. and without HOPE. the one thing obama promised was hope, and he's not delivering on it.

that's what most people are responding to.

[davidwparker]

57. +1

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

124. Well said

[rhett o rick]

64. Rahm is driving us away on purpose. He used us like Hitler's Brown Shirts. Now he is done

with us and he sent the SS after us. He wants the middle of the country including non-crazy ex-republicans. He is willing to dump us to get the right of center. There are three political parties today. The Progressive Party, the Palin-wacko Party and the Corporatist-Centrist Party.

[Why Syzygy]

117. That is absolutely true. nt

[ima_sinnic]

24. it's a summary and timeline of the left's disillusionment with Obama

you're free not to be disillusioned, nobody says you have to be. Nowhere in the article does it "pass judgment" on those who are not critical of Obama. Nobody's "dismissing" anybody, that is your own "take" on it. If the article doesn't apply to you, skip on to the next one.

[sojourner]

77. how is what you are doing not "dismissal" of those who disagree? sorry, it's not OUR problem

that you don't like what is being said.

[Jim Sagle]

84. Shove that DLC BS back up yer ass where it came from.

[rateyes]

8. kicking and arring.

:kick:

[nashville_brook]

11. that about sums it up.

[Toots]

14. Being played for a sucker does not set well with me

I am extremely close to blowing off the Democrats completely..I will NEVER vote for a Republican NEVER so it may be that I just won't bother any more. Obama is as much a Republican as Nixon IMO even though he has a D after his name. Zell Miller has a D after his name as well.

[nashville_brook]

19. back in 2000 when many of my friends responded to Clinton's corpotopia by voting for Nader,

i didn't get it. i was appalled. lost some friends, i think, with my relentless pounding that "gore is different; he'll be better than Clinton."

i was so blind to the mess that Clinton made, that i couldn't make it compute. now, i'm seeing their truth. this bullshit "Government for the Corporations" is so bankrupt that ANYONE, even NADER (!) for gods sake, looks better than a party-affiliated Dem. Gore didn't lose b/c he campaigned badly, he lost because the Clinton governed badly, and that left enough of an enthusiasm gap for Bush and the Florida GOP to steal it.

[Fumesucker]

15. a violation of Negotiating 101: compromise comes at the end of the process, not at the beginning

Exactly..

[pissedoff01]

17. Nobody with half a brain cell would buy a car this way

[salguine]

This will not turn around. Obama has already committed to the type of President he'll be.

[Vincardog]

59. The type of President he'll be is a ONE TERM president.

[SammyWinstonJack]

127. Which is all he ever wanted, one term to finish where bu$h left off

Wait for him too hand SS over to his Wall Street buddies and Medicare to the private insurance industry all in the name of 'reform'.

x(

[Vincardog]

128. I am looking for my choices for another country to work and live in.

[NJmaverick]

18. What "MUST" be read is more fact based articles and less opinion pieces

IMO

[ima_sinnic]

25. most of it is factual--just a summary of examples of the disillusionment of Obama voters

do you disagree with the "opinion" at the end of the article--that "one of the worst things you can do with campaign volunteers is waste their precious time. Because they won't come back" ?

[NJmaverick]

34. Where are all these facts you speak of?

[ima_sinnic]

36. read the article, they're right in front of you--for example:

Here is the article with the opinions crossed out, with the bare facts (and I think I've been generous here, calling the question at the end of the 4th paragraph an "opinion" as well as the prediction in the 3rd paragraph that people can expect to be told "trust us" as the bill goes into conference)--the writer is merely reporting a chain of events--whether or not you agree with the any of the writers like Taibbi that are quoted, you cannot deny the FACT that those articles were published and had a strong effect:

The media was quick to declare the Obama honeymoon over this summer. Yet supporters exhilarated by Barack Obama’s stunning win in November 2008 were still willing to cut him a lot of slack. That slack just ran out.

The simplest, most comprehensive health insurance reform –- single payer –- was off the table before the legislative effort started, replaced with an amorphous "public option." David Sirota and others called it a violation of Negotiating 101: compromise comes at the end of the process, not at the beginning. Now the campaign to enact substantive health care reform has foundered on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). And on Obama’s refusal to bust heads. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel instructed Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) to cut a deal with Lieberman for his vote, even if it meant jettisoning Medicare expansion and a public option –- along with cost controls, lifetime benefit caps and drug re-importation. Reid did. So much for the Chicago-style politics Fox News warned about.

All year, progressive reform advocates tried to remain calm as the House and Senate bills got watered down. “Don’t freak out,” they told each other. At every stage, they were told "trust us" as the bills got weaker and weaker. They can expect to hear that once again as the House and Senate bills go to conference. An Organizing for America rumor in September had it that the White House was working secretly on its own bill to spring in mid October once opponents had spent themselves pushing back against the House and Senate versions.

That, obviously, never surfaced. It was more wishful thinking from Obama supporters trying to keep the faith while stuffing down the nagging feeling that they were being sold out and that there never was any hope of seeing a bill with a public option. At Salon, Glenn Greenwald argues that that was the plan all along and that, quoting Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), "This bill appears to be legislation that the president wanted in the first place." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs criticized Howard Dean on Wednesday for trying to kill the Senate bill, Greenwald observes. Why did the White House go after a former governor, yet never call out sitting senators Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman for their obstruction?

Matt Taibbi’s headline-grabbing takedown of Goldman Sachs, “Inside The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone in July, detailed the extent to which Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street investment banks brought about the Great Recession. Many Goldman veterans on the Obama economic team, Taibbi warned, were charged with repairing the damage to which they themselves had contributed. Still, Obama’s base told themselves the boss had it under control.

But Taibbi’s expose this month, “Obama’s Big Sellout” delivered the coup de grâce to any remaining credibility the White House had as agents of financial reform. Immediately after the election, the economists who helped craft the campaign’s populist economic message were sent to bureaucratic “Siberia.” Taibbi listed a roster of Rubinites (as in former Clinton Treasury secretary, Bob Rubin) and Citigroup bankers whose “balanced budgets, free trade and financial deregulation” philosophy is behind the administration’s economic policy. The financial reform bill passed in the House reflects the same tepid regulatory impulses, as does the Senate’s health care proposal. The Federal Reserve will be audited, but “cram-down” and the effort to reinstate Glass-Steagall both failed. Public Citizen declared, “The bill does very little to address industry structure ... The biggest banks are now bigger than they were before the crisis.” Even as Democrats celebrated the passage of financial reform in the House, Obama’s state-level organizers braced for fallout from the Taibbi article among supporters .

Obama’s base had also expected a radical break from Bush-era policies deployed in prosecuting the “war on terror.” But no court has yet ruled on the legality of treatment former prisoners allege constituted torture. The Obama Justice Department “has worked tirelessly to shutter or pre-empt torture litigation,” lawsuits brought by former detainees who allege they were tortured while in U.S. custody under Bush, says Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick. “To be clear,” Lithwick writes, “it's not that torture victims are losing these trials. They can't even find their way into a courtroom. And, time after time, it's the Obama administration barring the door.” In a conference call with reporters, Jameel Jaffer, head of the ACLU's National Security Project, noted that while "the Bush administration constructed a legal framework for torture, the Obama administration is constructing a legal framework for impunity."

Some Obama supporters have begun reacting to his fundraising e-mails with skepticism bordering on disgust. Their patience has worn as thin as promises that "we will not back down" on health care reform. On December 16, after the White House had caved to Joe Lieberman's demands on the Senate health care bill, caller after caller to progressive talk radio programs expressed outrage. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 47 percent consider his health care plan a bad idea, and only 32 percent favor it. NBC's Chuck Todd wrote on Twitter: "Most of the movement on the 'bad idea' comes from some of the president's core support groups, folks upset about lost public option." Radio host and author Thom Hartmann suggested, “Put this healthcare bill where the sun don’t shine.” Blogger Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo filed a post entitled “Goodbye, Cruel World!” to respond to the flood of e-mails TPM had received from angry progressives seeking “'walk me back from the ledge' services.” An open letter to the president posted on Daily Kos from a self-described “former Obamabot” expressed deep regret at having “been bamboozled, hoodwinked. Sold a shiny bill of goods.”

Obama had best start listening. Of all people, he should know that one of the worst things you can do with campaign volunteers is waste their precious time. Because they won't come back.

[ChiciB1]

55. I WILL SAY One Thing For You NJmaverick! You Have A Very Hard Head...

and I doubt you'll EVER change your mind! I can't fathom what it is that YOU aren't seeing, but I suppose you have your reasons. What they are I can only speculate on, but at THIS POINT IN TIME, what I'm speculating is that you might have something to gain by your loyalty!

I rarely say negative things about a fellow Du'er, and I'm not saying you're not entitled to your opinion. But I will say this, for you to blindly accept this crap over and over, might lead others to lose any respect you might have here at DU! I realize there are still others who agree with you, but I'm seeing many of them FINALLY seeing the writing on the wall!!

Be stubborn if you will, but many here may not take you seriously much longer. Again, you have every right to believe what you want, still it seems strange to some of us.

JMHO!

[Raineyb]

61. I can only say that it's very difficult to see when one has one's head up the party's ass.

That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ima_sinnic]

37. it seems that some might use their opportunity to post more wisely

than posting nonsense. It's not quantity, but quality that counts. A "sock puppet" is someone who loyally parrots the status-quo line. Who's the real "sock puppet" here?

[NJmaverick]

42. A sock puppet is a second or third ID used by one poster

to inflate rec counts and flame other posters with immunity.

[ima_sinnic]

43. thanks for the clarification

I don't don't know whether that is true in this case, but I hadn't been aware of that use of the term--makes sense.

[davidwparker]

58. excuse me, but what do you find in the OP that is opinion?

[scentopine]

88. LOL! Blame the liberal media, right? -nt

[laughingliberal]

22. k & r n/t

[Blasphemer]

26. K&R nt

[AzDar]

27. Kick

[Angry Dragon]

29. After reading the posts

and listening to people on the airwaves and on the street there are things that jump out.

We have become a country of labels and unhappiness. We want to put a label on everyone, put them in a box so we can define them. This does not work except to have the people at the bottom fight among themselves and forget the fight with the people at the top. Don't tell me who you are but tell me what you want and believe in. Many here call themselves progressives, I do not know what that really means. Do they want fair and representative government?? That to me does not sound very progressive. That is just the government that we were promised when the Founding Fathers first set this government up. Anyone in government that does not work for a representative government is in my eyes in violation of the Constitution and should be tried for treason. That may be a stretch but it is what I believe.

When it comes to how many people are really happy in this country you would find it hard to name very many. I would tell you that is not a good thing. When you have nearly 100% of the people pissed at their government something is really wrong and needs to be changed. One can get mad at the president and say he is not doing his job and they have every right to feel this way. He is the LEADER and that is what he wanted. If he can not lead then he should be able to take the heat.

We have a government run by the few, for the few, and the many are left to sit and wait for the crumbs that the few care to give us. The president seems to think more within the lines of the few than the many.

[varelse]

82. This needs to be an OP (nt)

[democracy1st]

31. K & R

[asdjrocky]

32. We have been screwed over by these people.

How anyone can believe there is a lick of difference between the two parties is crazy.

[justabob]

69. indeed

The dems just want a kinder, gentler fascism, but fascism nevertheless, or so it would appear.

[PurityOfEssence]

109. Don't confuse the party with the man

The cult of the individual has been writ large here, and many have spoken out against it to be called alarmists or worse, but this has been vapid, vague, rock star hero-worship on a wrap-party rampage for far too long now.

Truly, he's not a fiend, but Barack Obama is an Ultramoderate and a card-carrying corporatist of the most mundane sort known. What's alarming about this for many is that they believed--truly believed to the point of worship--in this man as a transcendent leader of uncommon decency and legendary status. The very hook of the campaign was "change" and being above the "old" kind of politics. To find out so starkly in so many different instances just how completely cliched this machine's approach is is the precursor to mass disillusionment approaching disgust.

Had a party hack performed like a tippy-toeing appeaser and corporate enabler, the sting wouldn't have been too great, but so very many deeply opened up their hearts and virgin-like optimism to this person, and the letdown will have moments of great unpleasantness.

There are still honorable and decent Democrats in high elective office, and just because they're putting the best face on this fiasco doesn't mean they're charlatans or tools, it's simply what they must do when their party has them careening in a dangerous direction.

The overblown hyperbole engendered by Barack Obama himself and ESPECIALLY by his most fervent supporters makes the Deaniacs' worship of yore seem positively casual and mortal in comparison. He is NOT the party. He is NOT the embodiment of what we can expect. Perhaps he'll straighten out a bit and find a spine, but I don't think so for the same reason you probably don't: he's a corporatist. He's one of them. Whether he thinks that that kind of concentrated extra-legal power is necessary or desirable or merely an unavoidable reality of the moment, he's one of them and his true spiritual alignment with them doesn't matter one whit. He's not just enabling them, he's advancing their cause.

That doesn't mean the Democratic Party is to be thrown out with the Kool-Aid, it just means that one particular standard bearer isn't up to snuff, to put it mildly.

The argument that the entrenched power blocs simply can't be confronted any more than this belies the pretty cold fact that he's simply not rattling their fine driveway gates very much at all.

[branders seine]

35. the pooch has been screwn

[Generator]

38. Well Obama doesn't need the left or even the Democratic

vote. That's the way he acts. Could it be because he not only has learned the propaganda-call it health reform when it will actually make insurance companies richer and us poorer-and also learned the old Bush blackmail-"pass this or your children will be bankrupt."

But maybe he also doesn't worry because he will have the magic switch that fixes elections. Surely if propagandists are on his team he can hire the Bush fixers of 2004.

Also, he is still very charming and the Republicans have no one and nothing. It's hard to defeat an incumbent. So Obama will probably win, but I will never believe in his win anymore either. I believe in nothing anymore. It's over. I've been had one too many times.

[davidwparker]

62. No. Huckabee will win. He will capture the (R) base and have disillusioned

(I)'s swing back to him from Obama. Jobs are the issue and the change that Obama was suppose to bring but cannot, Huckabee will run on.

He will quote the Bible, jobs, Mom's apple pie. He is a Baptist preacher.

Is it hard to defeat an incumbent?

Bush Sr. and Jimmy Carter. (Bush, Jr, too, but Camp Kerry didn't count all the votes.)

[elocs]

125. It appears that a disillusioned and fractured Republican party may be given hope

by a Democratic Congress and White House that has no core beliefs that cannot be compromised, who are big on rhetoric and promises, as they take a good chunk of their base for granted and continually disillusion them. I can see how Republicans might be hopeful.

If the GOP picks anybody but Palin they will have a shot in 2012, certainly better than 2008 because a lot of Democrats and independents are not going to buy the "change you can count on" again. It's the old fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. With the right Republican candidate 2012 will turn out to be a real race.

[HuckleB]

39. In other words, perfectionism is now killing progress.

Just friggin' great.

[ima_sinnic]

40. THAT is not what "is now killing progress"

it is so far from being "perfect," that the idea of "perfectionism" now holding it up is a joke. Have you even read the piece?

[bvar22]

48. Perfectionism is killing "progress" ?

Lets take a quick look at all that "progress".


*WARS fully funded and EXPANDING. Bill sent to our children…...Mission Accomplished !

*Trillion Dollars given to friends and campaign contributors on Wall Street. No Strings Attached...Mission Accomplished!

*Military Spending INCREASED....Mission Accomplished!

*Trillion+ Dollars given to the Health Insurance Industry. Easily Avoidable, symbolic only strings attached....Mission almost Accomplished!


*Force all Americans to buy invisible products from For Profit Corporations who produce nothing tangible and create no wealth.....Mission almost Accomplished!

*Kill the possibility for a REAL "Public Option" or REAL Universal Health Care for at least another generation, and begin the “Entitlement Reform” defunding of Medicare (-$500 Billion)....Mission almost Accomplished!

*Block ANY REAL re-regulation of BIG BANKS and Credit Cards....Mission Accomplished!

*Protect the Bush War Criminals and Torturers from JUSTICE....Mission Accomplished.

*Throw the GBLTs under the bus and expand "faith based" initiatives....Mission Accomplished!

*Reinforce the worst Police State provisions of the Patriot Act....Mission Accomplished!

*Protect the very richest. Tell the Working Class that they CAN WILL compete with 3rd World Slave Labor for their jobs.....Mission Accomplished!

*EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) killed in the crib....Mission Accomplished!

*More Anti-LABOR "Free Trade"....Mission almost Accomplished!

*Jobless Recovery....Mission Accomplished

*The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party SHUT OUT of the Obama Administration…...Mission Accomplished!

*Accelerate the destruction of Public Education...Mission Accomplished!

*Bury next generation under such a debt burden that they will never be able to afford any social or economic programs that will benefit their Working Class....Mission Accomplished.


I don't think I can stand anymore of that "progress".

[Goldstein1984]

49. I'm just waiting for retirement

If I'm going to be living in an oligarchy, the ones to the south have much lower costs of living.

[bvar22]

63. In 2006,

My wife and I moved from Minneapolis to The Rural South (Ouachita Mtns. Arkansas)
Cost of Living was only ONE reason.

We now grow a good percentage of our food, keep Chickens and HoneyBees.
We will add a nanny goat or milk cow next year.
What we can't make ourselves, we buy or barter 2nd hand or salvage and make it work....or do without.

We are living well on a very low "taxable" income.
Its beautiful here, and Arkansas has two more "LIBERAL" Democrats.
Still a few years from Social Security (if Obama's "Entitlement Reform" doesn't blow that up.)



KILL the DLC.

[Goldstein1984]

72. We're in Alaska

So south is pretty easy to come by from here.

I was thinking even further south. Our retirement took a huge hit when the market collapsed. We took a further hit when the company I worked for in Nebraska went bankrupt and we moved back to Alaska. And we have family among the unemployed and underemployed, so a good piece of my earnings goes to help them until things improve. So, our retirement is going to be modest as well, and we plan to live outside the system as much as possible.

That said, we were thinking even further south that where you are. We know people living very well on modest retirement incomes in Mexico and Venezuela.

[bvar22]

81. We strongly considered Costa Rica.

I worked in Venezuela for several years in the 90's.
I loved Venezuela...Beautiful people, beautiful country, but there are parts of Venezuela that are very dangerous, and there is deep Anti-American resentment in much of Venezuela (rightly so).
That was before the reforms under Chavez, so I don't know how the atmosphere is today, but considering Obama's hostile stance on Chavez, and open support for the Right Wing Puppet Military State in Colombia, I don't think much has changed....might be worse.

Most of the American ex-pats I was working with in Venezuela chose to live in Costa Rica for a number of reasons.

We had looked at relocating to Latin America, but chose to stay in the US. At the time we made that decision we were under the delusion that the Democratic Party was actually going to do something about Health Care (the one thing beyond our control) that would benefit the Working Class....Boy were WE wrong, but we have cast the dice.
We will stay here, but if we were making that decision again, we would look harder at Latin America.

Good Luck with your plans.
The only remaining option is to STARVE the BEAST.
Learn to Live Well on a low "taxable" income.

Bob
Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas

[mnhtnbb]

89. We had chosen Panama: we even have our permanent resident visas

After Obama won, hubby lost all interest in moving to Panama and we now no longer have a financial
interest there.

I wonder whether we should be back looking again, instead of deciding to rebuild on our lot
where our house burned down two years ago in Chapel Hill.

[Goldstein1984]

90. Panama is one we have considered.

We're looking for ways to move money outside the country, just so we have a reserve fund in another currency in case all goes to hell here before we exit.

[mnhtnbb]

126. Currency in Panama is the dollar--US dollar--and their banks are under

a lot of pressure to provide transparency on their accounts.

We never made any attempt to hide funds from the U.S. and we did have two accounts at a Panamanian bank
and reported them to the US Treasury as required. Opening accounts there is quite difficult, though,
requiring all kinds of documentation and references; it's not like walking into a bank in the U.S.,
showing a driver's license and opening an account.

[Puglover]

73. We bought property north of Quito in Ecuador.

Building and headed there in the next 2 years.

Google Cotacachi and retirement. Heaven.

Better yet. www.andeanretreat.com

[Goldstein1984]

91. Know where the emergency exits are

Adding that to my Favorites filed under "Expat."

Sounds like a lot of folks may be looking for the emergency exits.

[davidwparker]

66. +1

[Amonester]

98. bvar22, that regression reality needs to be sent to the 'contact' page

ok, sending them a copy there, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

won't probably 'change' anything, but at least maybe one of 'em corporate shills

will know the fact that their propaganda and their projection tactics don't work with us (Rahm&Co must think we're all idiots)

so at least they'll know that we know who they Really R.

Bookmarking.

[midnight]

118. Me either...

[WorseBeforeBetter]

87. You consider IRS-enforced mandates with no insurance industry cost controls...

"progress"? Don't do me and millions of other middle-class Americans any favors.

Kill it. Kill it now.

[Frisbee]

105. No....

a pices of crap that does more harm than good is killing the shit we are already living with.

[Vidar]

41. K&R.

[ncteechur]

44. Thank you.

signed,

Tim Pawlenty

[snot]

45. Time for Some New Slogans

along the lines of "Benedict Obama." Seriously, we've been betrayed, and it's time to let others know we know it.

[pundaint]

47. Great meme!

Benedict Obama says it all.

[leftstreet]

46. K&R

[girl_interrupted]

50. K&R

[Goldstein1984]

51. In representative government, it's all about representation

If my elected representatives aren't doing that, then they aren't getting my vote. As far and strategic voting and party politics, it doesn't work for me.

Maybe better is waiting on the other side of worse.

All I know is, the status quo isn't working for me. If you want to see who it's working for, read the Wall Street Journal.

[bajamary]

52. The Vichy (corporate) Democrats

These Corporate Democrats have been in the pocket of big Wall Street and Big Pharma all along.

Obama has shown his true color: green as in money not as in environment.

I also was horribly fooled by Obama as I worked many months, like so many others, to get him elected.

I'm from Chicago and my old Congressperson was Rahm Emmanuel. So when I heard that Obama hired him as his Chief of Staff, a chill went through my body.

With this awful health care bill that gives us no public option yet it gives Big Insurance and Phama billions more in profits, I now have a horrible chill going through my soul.

I, for one, will not get fooled again by Mr. Obama. No votes, no money and no good karma to him and his gang of Vichy Democrats.

[Turk 182]

53. K&R nt

[davidwparker]

54. "It was more wishful thinking from Obama supporters" - Tom must read DU

:spank:

[secondwind]

60. Ok...so it's the truth! But we need to push this sucker through..........we have just this one

chance, and we cannot blow it! We have two senators way above 80+ years, they won't be there for us always.

We need SOMETHING now, and then we can fix whatever we want to later.

[bbgrunt]

80. Well, given the realization that corporate dems are in

control, what gives you any glimmer of expectation that this will be revisited or that it will come out better if it is revisited. We are being royally fleeced right now. This bill only accelerates that fleecing.

At some point the abused spouse either stands up and gets rid of the abuser or dies. This is that point.

[jillan]

65. I just want to know what happened to governing from the BOTTOM up?

Ahhhh please - another pile of bullshit I fell for....

[Bette Noir]

86. I'm still waiting for my pie.

[WinkyDink]

67. "they won't come back." Nor might millions of voters.

[GreenTea]

70. Sadly, it is all true.

[madrchsod]

74. "...try digging a little deeper in the well,well,well"

[ThomWV]

75. K&R

[bertman]

76. Rec.

[depakid]

78. Sometimes, lessons have to be re-learned the hard way

[Bette Noir]

83. Count me among the disappointed.

He's better than Bush, but by such a small margin that it's hardly visible.

I want my campaign contributions back. I need the money for medical bills.

[dpbrown]

85. That about sums it up

This isn't so much change you can believe in as it is a shakedown of all our change for the private industries that got us here.

[MasonJar]

92. As the poster says, "That about sums it up." I have known the outcome

practically from the inauguration, where Obama's speech was just what I wanted to hear, but which too quickly morphed into Rahm-itis, on every front. I am through with Obama. He is getting what he wants, and his policies do not coincide with mine on any level. We were duped!!!!!!!! I for one am furious I was lied to. I would have voted Democratic in any case, but would have not felt cheated.

[Skittles]

99. don't beat yourself up too bad, MasonJar

I knew when he was campaigning what we'd be getting and it doesn't feel much better :(

[MasonJar]

93. The poster nailed it with "That about sums it up." I am done with Obama.

He talks a good talk, but he lies. His inauguration address was just what I wanted to hear, but his governance has been pure Rahm-itis. I would have voted Dem in any case, but at least if he had not mislead us I would not today feel cheated. I could accept the unfortunate debacle. As it is, I now know Obama is not honest; he is an opportunist. Let's face it, liberals; he used us.

[BrklynLiberal]

94. It hurts. It really hurts....

broken hearted by disappointment

[Kindigger]

95. Where you all been?

And what took you so long?

I had many opportunities to see Obama in Iowa, but he was the one candidate I had no desire to see. In fact, every time I thought about him I had a horrible, uneasy feeling bordering on :puke:

Exactly like marrying my second husband after living with him for 14 years. We were to go to the courthouse in the afternoon. I spent that whole morning in the bathroom :puke: I had a feeling of dread I'd never experienced before. We were divorced in a year.

Yeah, the Obama campaign was like that.

Now I just sit back, read, and think "I could have told you that but you wouldn't have believed me."

[Greyhound]

101. .

WTYS
:smoke:

[Patchuli]

102. Is this the way Obama 'rights the wrong' in health care

that caused his mother's demise?

[Enthusiast]

103. Did anyone ever consider

the possibility that President Obama might be between a rock and a hard place? I'm only speculating here. But maybe the real PTB behind the scene have so much control that Obama was robbed of his power before he even took the oath of office. I think this is a distinct possibility. It would explain a lot.

[zenprole]

107. Welcome Aboard

A great post that justifies wading through the battalions of shyte-slingers on DU these past months: Obama delivered bailouts, more war, denials of crushing human need, and still managed to finesse the sheep that voted for him. As Gunny Hartman said, "Out-fucking-standing."

A tip of the hat to the many other DU posters who never were fooled by this marketing-campaign-in-multiculti-clothing. As the rock-hard, pro-democracy Evo Morales said at Hopenhagen today, "The only thing that has changed about the US president is his color." (And President Morales didn't even go to Harvard!)

So, then, what now? Is everything plutocratic on the table yet to everyone's satisfaction? Ready for something completely different, and ready to take it to the next level after that and that again until change isn't just desirable for sane people, but also an urgent need for greedheads as full of the fear everyone else has lived with for generations?

[Divine Discontent]

110. looking at the REC's & the posts on this & many other OP's & it's clear that Obama has lost many

who supported him & was hopeful.

This is very saddening.

He will be a one-termer and we're gonna get stuck with Mittens unless somehow he sees that (probably in Nov '10) these actions have been political suicide and a loss is coming in '12. What could do it all by itself, is if the HCB if passed as is, COULD be blamed on the Dems, and if premiums increase as they're projected to - people WILL blame the DEMS for the costs - it's a no brainer.

Yes, some of you may have a brain who support Obama almost entirely, but do you think the avg. American is gonna forgive him? They'll vote against him without a thought.

Someone tell the president he's about to lose over half the active base that works to get Dems elected - EVERYWHERE I go people are saying how poorly the WH is doing.

[jonnyblitz]

111. this piece is outstanding. i keep re-reading it. nt

[democrank]

113. There`s a new plan that`s the same as the old plan.....

Rahm Emanuel to President Obama: Don`t worry.Progressives and Liberals have nowhere else to go.

[bl968]

121. We can stay home.

That's my plan in the next election unless a truly outstanding progressive candidate is on the ballot. Not some fake progressive a real progressive.

[Not Sure]

114. I can't wait for the State of the Union address

I'll be back to the good old days of shouting down Bush on my television, only this time it will be me shouting down the asshole I voted for.

This past year is proof that I voted for nothing more than the sock puppet on the left hand instead of the one on the right hand, and that both are held by one puppeteer.

[Why Syzygy]

115. And yet

in the "Obama Support Group", they are cussing those of us with clarity of sight. They can't argue with the FACTS, mind you. But, boy do they hate our guts for our grasp of reality.

[TexasObserver]

120. Recommend