Want to know what's wrong? Why people are pissed? Read this.

[WilliamPitt]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/obamas-biggest-challenge-thursday-one-of-his-own-making.php?ref=fpblg

Woop.

There it is.

[emulatorloo]

1. Interesting op-Ed. Glad to see he does not give Republicans a free pass

[WilliamPitt]

2. It's TPM

Here's a companion piece to the above link: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/republicans-pre-emptively-reject-obama-jobs-plan-pollution-cave.php?ref=fpa

[emulatorloo]

6. Thanks! The piece he cites in the McConnell article is excellent as well

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult
Saturday 3 September 2011
by: Mike Lofgren, Truthout | News Analysis

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

[WilliamPitt]

8. We are really proud of that piece at Truthout.

Great, great stuff. Happily, it's getting widely read and picked up by a lot of large news sources, so the important word is getting out.

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. "President Current Republican Polling Front Runner"

Choice: Own the recession or own the recovery. You can easily own the recession by hanging out with the Congress. To own the recovery, Obama must go to the people and stay there. State by state, city by city, month by month. He has shown no inclination to do that. So...

[Overseas]

4. K&R. Well said.

[TwilightGardener]

5. I agree with much of this analysis. The problem is, most people (myself included)

do not fully understand how the deficit relates to the present economy--even when I read Krugman, he acknowledges that the deficit will hurt us in the long term if we don't get it under control. My best understanding of it is that making the deficit, and spending cuts, a priority right now equates to considering the future water bill when your house is on fire. I think Obama is trying to address all things at once, in response to current Repub and media messaging, and that may prove a mistake.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. So, Obama had the support he needed to pursue a Democratic platform,

but never went for the close.

[ThomCat]

15. That has been true from the beginning.

He had the support to get universal health care.

At the beginning of his term he has armies of supporters who would have flooded the streets for any call for a public campaign to back him in efforts to change this country over to universal health care.

He chose not to involve his masses of supporters, and instead went to closed door meeting where only the insurance industry, republicans, and the right side of the democratic party were invited to attend.

He didn't even invite doctors, nurses or their professional organizations. But for-profit corporations were there. He basically ham-strung himself by surrounding himself with nothing but corporate opinions in a bubble.

Then he showed from the very beginning that he can't negotiate work a damn. He offered the insurance industry a bribe to attend the talks, as if they needed one when they were being offered the privileged seat at the table. He offered them a guarantee that they would remain a necessary and profitable part of healthcare, immediately guaranteeing no universal healthcare right from the very start.

Who starts a negotiation by handing the other side 90% of what they want, while asking nothing in return, and then basically says, "If you're still not willing to negotiate, I can give you more."

Where were his supporters in any of this? Did you see him calling on any of the people who supported him? All the people he had been promising a fight for universal health care to on the campaign trail throughout the entire campaign? Did you see him mobilizing experts? Did you see him mobilizing energy and anger and desire and strength of all his supporters to get any kind of message out to other politicians, or to corporations? Did you see him mobilizing armies of doctors and nurses? He could have!

He shot himself in the foot. He ruined his own efforts. And he did it deliberately because when he decided to abandon universal healthcare, because his corporate advisers told him to.

Goldman Sachs pulls his strings, and he caved.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. This is fucking crazy.

I must be setting a new record. That's the third post today where I used the "F" word.

[woo me with science]

9. He poisoned the message.

because he is a Third Way Democrat.

Now he wants to appear to run as a real Democrat, but it is damned hard to do that when you have been fighting for the other side for 2 1/2 years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1482232

.

[adigal]

10. At this point, Obama needs to do what is right, and not worry about reelection.

If he does what is right, reelection will take care of itself.

[gkhouston]

14. Correct. If he goes to the country, making the case for a genuinely

bold jobs plan, he'll like win re-election even if the Republicans block everything. And if he hammers home that Republicans are blocking everything (something many already know), we could take back the House and gain some ground in the Senate. From the sampling of conversations I've heard/participated in, a lot of people are unhappy with the Republicans, but they're also unhappy with the Dems for not being more assertive.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. The only time he doesn't have to worry about reelection is if Palin

or Gingrich run against him. According to polls, he loses otherwise.

[kentuck]

11. One thing to remember:

"They were famously unpersuaded by the gesture, and instead (falsely) portrayed the bill as a budget buster -- an early salvo in a campaign to blame Obama and Democrats for soaring deficits, which of course were almost entirely attributable to the Bush-era financial crisis and recession."

[Lorien]

12. "Deficit mania" came from the Teabaggers. No one outside of the Right cares

about the deficit; Americans are far more worried about jobs and the economy in general. Obama has used his bully pulpit and Presidency to advance the right Wing agenda and message; including the push for "austerity" for the poor, more wealth for the rich. He needs to be primaried.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Yup

[progressoid]

18. "Ok, old guy" {rolls eyes}

That's what my daughter says whenever I use a phrase from the last century.

Whoomp, there it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FPimCmbX8
:rofl:

Oh, and k/r for the article.