One of the things I thought we needed when I voted for him was someone who can bring the parties together - or more specifically people from both parties, not leadership. (the other main reason was transparency/trust) I don't care how much republican leadership is against Obama, I think a good leader would find a way to move things forward -both his objectives and some from the other side since that's the only way when the country is about 50/50.
That means behind the scenes discussions where he says "here's what I want. what do you want?" Then coming out together and saying 'here's what we have agreed to" He did try some with Boehner and it didn't work. But don't give up. Try more rather than coming out publicly saying "here's my jobs bill. demand your congressman approves it" - over and over for 3 weeks. Or "here's a 'grand bargain' that gives the republicans what they want. they need to play nice". Those were great political/campaign moves, but sucked as far as getting things done.
Good leadership means understanding the problems (i.e. the other side just wants to say no) and still finding ways to get things done and work with whoever you need to. He may have been elected by 50% of the people, but he is president of 100% and needs to work with a congress from the other party. If he owned congress too, he could say 'fuck you' to the other side. But he doesn't own congress and other than his Boehner talks I haven't seen any honest attempt to work with them since his supposed 'I won' comment in 2009 until now. Most of what he's said has sounded a lot like 'fuck you' to the other side even though he words it so his supporters can say he's trying to reach bipartisan agreement.
I know DU hates bipartisanship and love the 'i won. do what I' say attitude. But the fact is that NOTHING is moving forward without bipartisanship until congress changes. And even with a D congress look at the ACA mess. A crappy bill barely passed and it's being fought the entire way by the opponents. Until the country becomes 90+% liberal & D that's all we can expect without someone showing good bipartisanship leader skills and changing things.
I'll give republicans 99% of the blame. It's not Obama's fault that he can't get things done, he just doesn't have the leadership skills needed to work in our current political climate. I hope the next president does (R or D) because I don't see us changing from a pretty even 50/50 split on R/D representation in congress any time soon.
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