"The evidence is overwhelming that Obama has long wanted exactly what he got" (Glenn Greenwald)

[kpete]

MONDAY, AUG 1, 2011 10:02 ET
The myth of Obama's "blunders" and "weakness"
BY GLENN GREENWALD

................

It appears to be true that the President wanted tax revenues to be part of this deal. But it is absolutely false that he did not want these brutal budget cuts and was simply forced -- either by his own strategic "blunders" or the "weakness" of his office -- into accepting them. The evidence is overwhelming that Obama has long wanted exactly what he got: these severe domestic budget cuts and even ones well beyond these, including Social Security and Medicare, which he is likely to get with the Super-Committee created by this bill (as Robert Reich described the bill: "No tax increases on rich yet almost certain cuts in Medicare and Social Security . . . . Ds can no longer campaign on R's desire to Medicare and Soc Security, now that O has agreed it").

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/08/01/debt_ceiling/index.html

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[DirkGently]

2. Yep. Awaiting the "unrec because Greenwald is on the Enemies List" drive-bys. 8)

[gratuitous]

3. Hey, what's a little political gamesmanship when someone else's life is on the line?

It's not like any of the players in this little drama had any skin in the game. But a whole lot of other people certainly did. And while the gold continues to funneled upward, ever upward, the rest of us can take comfort that we still have the shaft.

[Autumn]

4. It has been plain to see for a while now

he's a very smart man and by no means is he weak. He got exactly what he wanted. K/R

[indepat]

11. That he got presactly want he wanted is as obvious as any two connected dots

:patriot:

[OHdem10]

5. DLC are Conservative Democrats---just kinder and gentler than

Republicans---somehow they always end up at the same
goal post.

[Big Blue Marble]

6. But, but, but,

Obama had no choice. he had to agree to save the country. He was being held hostage.....at least that what I keep reading.

So it was 24 dimensional chess after all.

[snappyturtle]

7. I think the President allowed the debt ceiling debate to come down

to the wire so that, at best, he could look like he saved an impossible situation when in fact the outcome could have been much different had he gotten out in front of it months ago.

[snagglepuss]

8. k & r nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. I'm a contrarian by nature.

That's what kept me at DU during the primaries - perversely because it seemed that I was the only HRC supporter.

To me, Obama's choices of advisers (such as U of Chicago professor Austan Goolsbee), his fixation on bi/postpartisanship and his tendency toward allusions and rhetoric rather than issues and principles, (We are the ones we've been waiting for?? What the fuck is that?) made this outcome obvious.

Like I said, I'm a contrarian. There's a part of me that wants to find a reason to defend him now. I got nothing.

I do, finally, have a little sympathy for those who were taken in by it though.

[xmas74]

12. You weren't the only HRC supporter.

I was sucked in early during the primaries but found myself burned out on the message boards and decided to leave and do something constructive. I spent my time volunteering, not that it helped.

I'll probably vote for him the second time around but he's not what I wanted and I knew that when everyone else was fawning all over him even during the primaries.

[tblue]

15. Well said, lumberjack.

And "WTF is that?" made me chuckle (through my tears). Egad, this is sad. I was on the fence between HRC and Obama. I'm not certain she would've been any better, but how could she have been any worse? At least she acknowledged once that there was such a thing as a "vast r/w conspiracy."

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. Obama is uniquely unsuited to this political landscape. n/t

[jpak]

10. LOLOLOL!!!!!1111

:rofl:

[woo me with science]

13. Well, finally someone is telling the truth.

It's about time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. More the reason for progressives to start fielding a candidate for

the 2016 election. You have to find some way to beat the DLCers.

[grahamhgreen]

17. Obama has gutted some of our parties planks.