Obama Faces Liberal Revolt over Tax Cut Deal (CBS)

[somone]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20024748-503544.html

Obama Faces Liberal Revolt over Tax Cut Deal
Posted by Brian Montopoli

The battle over extending the Bush-era tax cuts has emerged as a defining moment for liberals disenchanted with President Obama, who they increasingly see as unwilling or unable to back up his campaign promises. Mr. Obama vowed as a candidate to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for incomes below $250,000 for a couple or $200,000 for an individual - but let the cuts, which lapse at the end of the year, expire for incomes above those thresholds.

Republicans want the cuts extended for all income levels, including the wealthiest Americans. Though the American people favor Mr. Obama's position according to the latest CBS News poll, the White House and congressional Democrats appear poised to accept a temporary extension of all of the cuts this week. The White House's apparent willingness to give in to the GOP on the tax cut issue - despite Democrats' large majorities in both houses of Congress (at least for a few more weeks) - is striking many on the left as emblematic of a president who they say has repeatedly failed to fight for what he believes in.

Liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich this weekend explained "the baffling Obama presidency" in part by arguing that Mr. Obama "has seemingly surrendered his once-considerable abilities to act, decide or think." The president's attempts to seek out compromise instead of holding fast to a position, he wrote, has rendered him "indistinct" and "weightless." Over at the liberal Huffington Post, meanwhile, the talk has turned to rallying around a serious primary challenge to Mr. Obama. While such a challenge is unlikely to materialize, the discussion reflects the level of disenchantment with Mr. Obama among the activist left.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist nor have a PhD in political science and sociology to see clearly that Obama has abandoned much of the base that elected him," wrote Clarence B. Jones Sunday in a column calling on liberals to consider rallying around someone else in 2012. "He has done this because he no longer respects, fears or believes those persons who elected him have any alternative, but to accept what he does, whether they like it or not." Daniel Roche, a 2008 Deputy Field Organizer in Nevada for Mr. Obama, is quoted in an email from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee saying that if the president "capitulates on this, there really is no point in voting for him in 2012." "The difference between voting for a Republican and voting for someone whose default negotiation strategy is rolling over and dying whenever the Republican Party says mean things is marginal," he said. "This should be a ridiculously easy fight to win."...

[BlueJac]

1. Trying to get reelected with tax cuts.........

to the rich, himself included, will not work. The right hates him and the left doesn't trust him anymore.

[Monique1]

2. So what happens when

I don't trust anyone - media plays a huge role

[Catherina]

26. Try to get reelected period. Stick a fork in him, he's done. But he knows that

Obama had no intention of running for a second term. Lieberman's protege came knowing he only had 4 years to deliver for the DLC. And deliver he has.

[Common Sense Party]

30. He should have run on tax hikes -- 90% on earnings above $100K.

But he doesn't know what creates wealth and turns around economies. He squandered a great opportunity.

Kucinich/Grayson 2012?

[bigtree]

3. you'd think that from the title that 'liberal' legislators were in revolt

Polls show that the public is pretty much in line with what the President is doing. I'm sure he can find another deputy field organizer in Nevada and the rest.

[whatchamacallit]

6. Polls can be misleading, the "shellacking" will continue (nt)

[closeupready]

7. So happy to hear you are fine with his wimpiness.

:hi:

[GOTV]

24. Polls show that the public was "pretty much in line" with what Obama SAID he wanted to do ...

... about taxes.

[Lasher]

4. Betrayed.

He had a winning hand. All he had to do was nothing. He's extending all the Bush tax cuts because he wants to.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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

[southernyankeebelle]

5. I called Pelosi's office today. I left a message and told her I appreciated her work for

liberals. I asked her to lend her balls to president Obama. I told her to tell him not to cave in on the tax break for the rich. If he does I will not vote for him in 2012, period. I will pray for a good liberal to go after him.

[kctim]

8. "...calling on liberals to consider rallying around someone else in 2012"

So who would moderates rally around?

[Lorien]

9. Moderates don't rally around anyone. They blow with the winds

and they won't vote for Obama if the State of the Union isn't improved for them.

[kctim]

11. But we WILL vote for a liberal?

Not sure you guys quite understand the situation.

[Lorien]

18. Did JFK and Carter win their elections or not?

And are you LEFT or center or RIGHT of center? I'm guessing FAR RIGHT of center if you approve of what Obama has been doing, which doesn't make you the least bit "moderate".

[kctim]

25. Thats just silly

The only thing President Obama and moderate Dems are "far right of center" of, is what progressives claim to be the center.

Heck, you have an even less chance if what you say was true. The vast majority of Dems approve of the job President Obama is doing. By your standards, they are all far right of center. So why would they rally behind a liberal candidate?

[bluestate10]

13. For moderates, it's all about the economy and some realistic change.

We are not, by choice, and ideological bunch. If President Obama rights the economy, after saving it, and gets some egregious federal policies made sensible, moderates will help him crush anyone. Moderates are the 900 pound gorilla in the room.

[kctim]

14. Good points

but I want to know why the far-left believes that moderates will simply shut-up and join them in rallying around a liberal candidate.

[pscot]

17. Like you crushed the teabaggers in November?

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin elected wing-nut senators. Awesome stuff, that moderation.

[Lorien]

19. Liberals stayed home in November. They were given little to vote FOR

only just more of the same to vote AGAINST. Start being honest about it.

[pscot]

22. The post eletion analysis doesn't show that

http://content.thirdway.org/publications/348/Third_Way_Memo_-_Red_Shift-Moderates_in_2010.pdf

liberal turnout in 2010 exactly matched turnout in the last mid-term election in 2006. In both cases, liberals made up 20% of voters. House Democratic candidates in 2010 also won 90% of the liberal vote, a 3-point improvement compared to their performance among liberals in both 2006 and 2008, when 87% of liberals voted for Democratic House candidates.
//////
This dramatic red shift meant two things for Democrats in 2010: (1) that overperformance with liberals was not enough to make up for the moderate crossover to the conservative base; and (2) Democrats had to overperform with moderates in 2010, which they failed to do.

[kctim]

29. Yes, lets be honest

liberals do not win in places where 'blue dogs' at least have a chance. Why? Because there is not a liberal 'base' to speak of in those areas.
Forcing liberal politics on us IS NOT WORKING, so maybe we should work together.

[Mimosa]

28. That's the truth, Lorien. n/t

[Rageneau]

12. Howard Dean

No moderate, but still a prime choice in my book.

[gratuitous]

10. It's like watching a batter strike out when the other side is trying to intentionally walk him

QUIT SWINGING AT THOSE PITCHES! You're not meant to hit them.

[samplegirl]

15. Sadly~~~What will be our alternative??

Newt or Sarah?

[mmonk]

20. Thom Hartmann basically said when you lose Clarence Jones, you've lost

everybody.

[Major Hogwash]

21. And this benefits who? Besides the mainstream media and the Republicans?

Certainly doesn't help any of the main street guys.

[Bluebear]

23. It's revolting alright. nt

[Le Taz Hot]

27. Honest to goddess,

is the man deaf? Webisites, TV, editorials, they're all saying the same thing: FIGHT or lose it all in 2012. In two years this man will have virtually NO support if he keeps doing what he's doing.