I'm Gonna Ask You Something From The Heart... About President Barack Obama...

[WillyT]

No proof, none needed... just asking...

Just getting a sense of what you think is going on...

President Barack Obama would, if he could...

Let the KeyStone Pipeline come to fruition...

Allow for more fracking/drilling... in any state in the union...

Push through the TPP...

Try to resurrect the "Grand Bargain"...

Is more concerned with his legacy... than the rest of us.

I could go on...but I wonder about your thoughts?

[Jefferson23]

1. Doesn't matter, just as long as those things don't happen. n/t

[Hoppy]

12. Just because it ain't happened yet,

doesn't mean his thoughts might not become reality in future. All it means is that so far, we have dodge several bullets.

[Jefferson23]

15. That's all that matters...it does not happen..his thoughts are not the issue. n/t

[Whisp]

2. The defunct Cat Food Commission has a lot of people upset

are what my thoughts are.
I am beginning to believe that if SS was slashed and the elderly were to horribly suffer, that that would make some people here happy. Fucked up shit.

[ProSense]

5. Exactly.

"I am beginning to believe that if SS was slashed and the elderly were to horribly suffer, that that would make some people here happy. Fucked up shit."

It's like they're pissed Obama is ruining their narrative, which is really bizarre.

[MADem]

31. Not so bizarre when you consider the source, I believe.

It's pretty easy to divine an agenda when people are unhappy when Obama takes actions that enhance the social safety net and improve the lives of those in the working classes.

[JoePhilly]

3. Never end the Iraq war, never end DADT, definitely invade Syria, definitely gut

Social Security.

Never end Afghanistan.

Never end the Bush tax cuts for the top 2%.

Outrages from Christmas past.

[malokvale77]

4. All I know is...

if all those things happen, his legacy will be toast.

[woo me with science]

6. Focusing on the man's personal feelings is a diversion.

He is the temporary, most visible symptom of a government/media/electoral system deeply and malignantly corrupted by corporate money and power. After his term, unless the people find a way to throw ourselves into the gears of the system that is eating us alive, another corporate puppet will be installed.

Speculating about his feelings about being a corporate puppet seems to me beside the point, because it feeds into the Republican/Third Way desire to turn this into a fight about party and personal loyalties that will only serve to divide and divert us from where our attention needs to be: on exposing and demanding fundamental, radical change in a deeply corrupt system.

[Phlem]

8. +1,000,000,000

-p

[Enthusiast]

18. +1 a whole bunch.......nt

[ProSense]

20. This is hilarious

Speculating about his feelings about being a corporate puppet seems to me beside the point, because it feeds into the Republican/Third Way desire to turn this into a fight about party and personal loyalties that will only serve to divide and divert us from where our attention needs to be: on exposing and demanding fundamental, radical change in a deeply corrupt system.

I mean, who exactly is feeding "a fight about party and personal loyalties that will only serve to divide and divert us"?

Why, it's the very same people who find are hi-fiving this OP:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024535742
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024535742#post216

[MADem]

32. Hey, if shitting on the guy himself doesn't work, change the narrative and

make it about his supporters and his party--oh, and call 'em names, too, while we're at it!

Obama's delivering the change, they just are pissed that there's no street camping and rock throwing to "go with." Eh, can't please 'em all.

[jsr]

27. Celebrity worship inhibits critical thinking

It puts Occam's razor in the trash and replaces it with supergalactic chess rationalizations.

[Demo_Chris]

7. He will do exactly what his corporate employers direct...

No more or less. If want better, Obama told us what we have to do; we have to FORCE them to listen. And the only way to do that is to trade our votes for representation. If you give away your vote for nothing, nothing is all you are going to get.

[Hoyt]

9. Not saying he is right, but here is why I think he supports some of these things --

Keystone pipeline -- he thinks being energy dependent is important and the pipeline is safer, cheaper than nuclear, off shore drilling, etc. Not sure he is for fracking. In any event, I think he believes energy self-sufficiency may be worth some trade-offs if it keeps us out of wars, and creates some jobs here. As part of this, I think he also supports wind, solar, etc., energy.

There is everything to gain from a decent TPP. Not saying it will work out to be decent, but no harm in trying to work something out that benefits us and the world. I'm not sure that the bits and pieces of info we are getting are anywhere close to the truth. No matter what happens, it still has to go through Congress.

We do need to improve our finances. No harm in a grand bargain that accomplishes that without destroying important programs and puts us on a better path that includes tax increases, cuts in defense, etc. I don't think what he is supporting destroys such programs, at least I'm not panicking yet.

I'm not sure he is overly concerned about his legacy.

But what the heck do I know.

[RobertEarl]

14. What the heck do you know? How to whitewash

Obama ok'd billions in loan guarantees for nukes. He loves nukes. The pipeline will get his ok and he'll just duck the global warming issue as he has all along. Sure, mouth off about it, but burn, baby, burn. Drill here, drill now is at heart of his presidency.

If TPP were so fucking good, why not lay it all out for us peeps? Instead it's all hidden, hush hush. F that. Obama fail, again.

The gand bargain... again a bunch of Bullshit. If Obama is so f'n great and to be trusted why doesn't he just come out and tell you he's gonna fuck with your retirement because "We do need to improve our finances."

*************

The worst about all this is so damn many here are more than willing to think: if Obama does it, "It will be ok." He sure has a lot of people fooled.

[arcane1]

34. Keystone has zero to do with American energy independance.

It's Canadian petroleum, being routed to the gulf for sale overseas.

[JaneyVee]

10. How about judging his legacy by what he does instead of personal assumptions?

[Thinkingabout]

28. Good thought, too much armchair coaching.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. He's a typical centrist politician. Big on vague slogans and promises.

In the end, just another deal maker and politics-as-usual placeholder. .

[VanillaRhapsody]

17. He is NOT a centrist...a Moderate Liberal

Bill Clinton was a Moderate (the Centrist word you are using)

[Tikki]

13. My heart tells me how f *cked we'd be right this minute if rmoney had become president.

My President Barack Obama has done many, many important things..good for me and others.




Tikki

[VanillaRhapsody]

16. Disagree....

thats my thoughts...

[Puzzledtraveller]

19. Bought and paid for

[scheming daemons]

21. how very pathetic, willyt

You're outrage has no valid outlet now, since Obama is not doing the things you predicted and feared he would do....

... so now you're left with "yeah, but deep down he REALLY wants to do those things, so I don't have to admit I was wrong about him."

You were, and are, wrong about him.

And now you are you reduced to pathetically claiming that you know what he wants to do, deep down.

He has been a GREAT progressive President. Not good ... great.

And now you're pissed that his actual ACTIONS are proving you wrong, so you are attacking him with your perception of his motives.

He does the right things. That is what matters .. not the "why". And you can't presume to know what is in another person's heart.

[WillyT]

22. I "Hope" You Are Right... But Just In Case... Bookmarked...

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024535030

[MADem]

33. +1 nt

[treestar]

23. there is a shortage of straw in your area

you are looking for ways to condemn the President and trying to get the rest of us to withdraw support, in the hopes of the house remaining Republican and the presidency going to them in 2016, perhaps in hopes of a "revolution" or perhaps just due to preferring Republican policies. I don't know what's in another's heart.

[Octafish]

24. Year Six and still no New New Deal for the 21st Century

Meanwhile, what needs to be addressed grows in size: environmental collapse, unemployment, lousy schools, lousy roads, crumbling infrastructure, etc. etc. etc.

[jsr]

29. Still kicking the can down the road

"What we have done is kicked this can down the road. We are now at the end of the road and are not in a position to kick it any further. ... We have to signal seriousness in this by making sure some of the hard decisions are made under my watch, not someone else's." - Barack Obama, Jan 2009

[Myrina]

25. If he thinks those decisions are going to leave a POSITIVE legacy ...

... he's kidding himself.

Promoting those things is not for the betterment of the country - he's counting some other kind of chickens.

[NCTraveler]

26. If he had his way and could.

Keystone - yes
Fracking - no
Push through TPP - yes
Grand Bargain - no
More concerned about his legacy than the rest of us - Than an overwhelming majority of us - yes

[bklyncowgirl]

30. Obama is a corporate Democrat. He's still way better than Romney.

No surprise there, no one who was not deemed suitably loyal to the corporate agenda would have been allowed anywhere near the presidency.

As a corporatist, he believes absolutely and without reservation that free trade in the long run is good for the country. He believes in the free market and prefers to work with the powers that be rather than challenge them. No bankster or crooked hedge fund manager need fear seeing the inside of a jail cell on his watch unless, like Bernie Madoff, their predations are way outside the bounds of what is considered acceptable by the powers that be. As for fines levied on the likes of Chase, that's the cost of doing business, my friends.

He does part company with corporate America in his call for raising taxes on the rich. This has earned him their hatred. Of course it's all for show because in the end the Republicans will make sure that the tax man never comes near the hoarded wealth of the superrich.

I think he does seem to want to do something about income inequality but his allegiance to free trade will not allow him to do much to change anything. If he did announce his opposition to TPP I imagine that the reaction in the corporate media would be devastating. Likewise I expect he'll end up supporting Keystone--there's money to be made and we might as well be the ones to make it. He'd probably administer it better than a Republican would but I think it's a done deal.

All that being said, God help us if Romney had been elected. I suppose you could make the argument that Romney could never get TPP passed just like it took Bill Clinton to get NAFTA through but Republicans tax cuts and spending on war have deeply damaged this country.

[FiveGoodMen]

35. All of the above

[Zorra]

36. None of us know. And this is not a good thing, IMO. nt