The Case for Obama...a truly historic presidency

[raindaddy]

59. I think you're the one forgetting something...

A president alone can't do ANYTHING that relates to spending money or collecting revenues. They can set policy within agencies and they can change some rules.

Much of what you've mentioned that you're disappointed with are things that require majorities in BOTH Houses in Congress and -in the Senate, a 60% majority. FDR had majorities in both houses. Obama has never had that kind of support in Congress. A president is not a king or a dictator. There just isn't that much any president can accomplish without the agreement of Congress.

FDR had a compliant, agreeable Congress. If he'd had today's Republican Party against him, how much of his program do you think he would have achieved? FDR didn't get everything he wanted - health care, for instance, and his court-packing scheme.

I realize, after we (the Dems in Congress), rolled over and gave GWB much of what he wanted (i.e., Dems COMPLIED with Bush), that we all sort of got used to a president who we perceived as a bully. But the truth is, the Congress GAVE GWB most of what he did. Obama doesn't have that luxury. Obama has been able to accomplish only as much as the Congress would allow.

It seems to me that our focus this year should be on trying to get more Dems elected Congress and taking back the House, building a fillibuster-proof Senate.

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You're missing one major component.. Leadership. We're now looking at an 8% congress.. The vast majority of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. We're in a middle class economic meltdown, civil unrest. The time is ripe for leadership. Using the office of the presidency to go directly to the people and outlining a solution that deals with a government that been completely corrupted by corporate $$$.
What we didn't need was three years of reaching out to the insanity that's become the Republican party for a consensus in the name of bipartisanship, a continuation of tax cuts for the rich and Bush's war in Afghanistan which was Obama's call. I presume Obama chose his own corporate/Wall Street friendly stacked administration?