One more time, the issue is NOT who is in the White House in 2013....

[Pab Sungenis]

http://cnx.com/?p=1506

...it's who is there now!

Whether the Republicans want to admit it, or whether certain Democrats want to admit it, Barack Obama does not need to convince the country to put him in the White House. He's there now. So the question becomes, what does he do with it?

The American people don't want or need a list of tiny little things the President has done. 95% of the "accomplishments" he's had mean jack squat for the average American who is out of work and uninsurable, and his disapproval numbers bear that out. We need bold leadership, not another CEO in a long string of failed administrators like the Republicans favor. And we're not going to get that if we don't force his hand.

The Jobs Act is a great next step, even if it's not as large or as ambitious as it should have been. We can't let him sell it out to Republican opposition like he did all of the good parts of the Health Reform act. We need to keep pushing him to fight for what America needs and deserves. Making excuses for him is just going to give him an excuse to "stay the course" of half-baked measures that aren't what the people need and desperately want.

That's why we criticize Obama. That's why we pressure him to do what needs to be done. That's why we underline that he can't count on our support unquestioningly: he has to have earned it by the way he's governed.

Another year of the tepid leadership the President showed in his first two years is going to be even worse than a Rick Perry presidency will. That's because no matter what happens in the next election, Barack Obama is President at least until January 20th 2013. There is so much he can, and needs to do, during that remaining time, and he doesn't have to get a single vote from any of us to give him the power to do it. The wasted potential of the rest of the Obama Administration would be more of a disaster because there will be no excuse for it and no need for it.

So don't whine about ponies and rainbows, saying "you never really loved him." Of course we love him, but it's tough love. We want him to be the great President he has the potential to be, and that he is not being now.

[ixion]

1. k/r (rec to 0)

[madamesilverspurs]

2. "Tepid" leadership?? Not hardly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x772937

[Bluenorthwest]

4. The results of 2010 and the current special elections indicate

that tepid is perhaps too kind a word for leadership that does not attain wide electoral victory. Our majority lost, and dwindling. Time for a whole new way of doing things.

[frylock]

13. "The List" for the reading impaired

[Pab Sungenis]

19. And how much of that leadership

actually had an impact on the average American? How much of that leadership put people back to work?

Answer: far too little.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Continuity is costing him and us too much , their his enemy and our Rouge..

EMPLOYEES!!!!

[Magginkat]

5. Mark Morford Tells Obama What He Need To Do

This article by columnist Mark Morford at the San Francisco Gate, is an amusing but deadly serious
article about what Obama needs to do to get the country back on track.

Obama, get your Dick (Cheney) on

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/14/notes091411.DTL&type=printable

[hifiguy]

8. Thanks for that GREAT link!! nt

:hi:

[Life Long Dem]

6. Obama is out there fighting for what America needs and deserves.

It's time we fight for what America needs and deserves.

[Pab Sungenis]

7. Now he is.

But for how long? Look at the health care debacle. Our strongest negotiating point off the table before things began. The public option traded away even as he insisted the bill he signed must include it?

We need the Obama of 2008, not the Obama of 2009-2010. It looks like we've got him, but we can't let him get lazy.

[obxhead]

9. He is?

All I see is some minor tinkering around the edges of the problem with an attack on Medicare sprinkled on top.

[pnorman]

10. If you want Obama to "lead" like FDR.

then do your best to give him FDR-like legislative LANDSLIDES next year! Absent that, he'll have to continue doing what he's been doing up until now--- the best he can do with a poor hand.

Some of the history-challenged zealots here, should do some Googling on FDR!

[Pab Sungenis]

11. He already had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate

and an overwhelming majority in the House.

He wasted it.

[pnorman]

14. That was a comfortable lead in both Houses.

but BOTH Houses included a substantial number of Blue Dogs, if not outright DINOs. please Google FDR again!

[pnorman]

17. This was the electoiral LANDSLIDE of 1932!

Any questions?

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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

[Pab Sungenis]

18. Worse because of wasted potential.

With Perry we'd know what we were in for, as bad as it would be. Obama's weak leadership up to now was unexpected and a shame.

[BlueIris]

15. You're being far too kind.

This Administration is a terrible failure.

[stevedeshazer]

16. k and r

+1