"How to Sacrifice a Presidency and Get Nothing For It." Katrina vanden Heuvel

[chimpymustgo]

Obama: On the way to a failed presidency?

By Katrina vanden Heuvel
Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the Democratic Party left him before he left the party. Like many progressive supporters of Barack Obama, I'm beginning to have the same feeling about this president.

Consider what we've seen since the shellacking Democrats took in the fall elections.

On Afghanistan, the administration has intimated that the 2011 pullout date is "inoperable," with the White House talking 2014 and Gen. David H. Petraeus suggesting decades of occupation. On bipartisanship, the president seems to think that cooperation requires self-abasement. He apologized to the obstructionist Republican leadership for not reaching out, a gesture reciprocated with another poke in the eye. He chose to meet with the hyper-partisan Chamber of Commerce after it ran one of the most dishonest independent campaigns in memory. He appears to be courting Roger Altman, a former investment banker, for his economic team, leavening the Goldman Sachs flavor of his administration with a salty Lehman Brothers veteran.

On the economy, the president has abandoned what Americans are focused on - jobs - to embrace what the Beltway elites care about - deficits. His freeze of federal workers' pay, of more symbolic than deficit-reducing value, only reinforced right-wing tripe: that federal employees are overpaid; that overspending is our problem, as opposed to inane tax cuts for the top end; that we should impose austerity now, instead of working to get the economy going.

Now the not-so-subtle retreats are turning into a rout. The president is touting a NAFTA-like corporate trade deal with South Korea. He appears to be headed toward supporting cuts in Social Security and Medicare and irresponsible reductions in domestic investment. And he's on the verge of kowtowing to Republican bluster and cutting a deal to extend George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich in exchange (one hopes) for extending unemployment insurance and possibly getting a vote on the New START treaty.

This is political self-immolation. Blue-collar workers abandoned Democrats in large numbers in the fall; wait until they learn what the trade deal means for them. Seniors went south, probably because of Republican lies about cuts in Medicare; wait until anyone over 40 who's lost their savings hears about Alan Simpson's plan to take it to the "greedy geezers." The $60 billion each year in Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans could pay for universal preschool for America's children, or tuition and board for half of America's college students.

-edit-

Now Obama faces the same challenge. This isn't about conventional politics. This is simply about the fate and future of our country. This president has a clear and imperative historic mandate. If he shirks it, he risks more than failing to get reelected. He risks a failed presidency.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and writes a weekly online column for The Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/06/AR2010120606022.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Tansy_Gold]

1. He HAD a clear and historic mandate. He's already pissed it away. n/t

[defendandprotect]

38. Obama behaved as though the Repugs had the mandate and he was minority ....!!

[axollot]

43. That's a fact hun. From my POV all he has done is

kowtow to the 'pugs in a race to get their approval. I bet even now - he'll still get sand kicked in his face and the political capital GAINED by the compromise will be much, much less then the political capital LOST.

Far to many were straight against extending these cuts. It should have never come down to an exchange for UI for tax cuts. NEVER.

I used to remind myself that he was 'still' better than a McCain/Palin administration and yes there have been many times he did the best he could but 2yrs was spent kissing the RWs arse. Only to have the proverbial football pulled away from him. The RW are winning with Obama administration's help at making him look weak.

:grr:

:hug: to you!

Cheers
sandy
venting.
edit typo

[RetroLounge]

44. +1000

RL

[donco6]

2. Great article.

And Obama supports cuts in SS by including a reduction of SS payroll tax in the "compromise." This will result in a recalculation of the actuarial studies, showing SS dropping fund balance faster than anticipated, thus "necessitating" a change in benefits. Meow.

[Poboy]

3. Recommend.

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[democrank]

5. A pathetically squandered historic opportunity.

It`s almost unbelievable.

[chimpymustgo]

8. Seriously. WTF has happened here?

I've been leaning toward the trojan horse theory. But maybe it's more frightening and cannot be spoken.

[somone]

16. The simpler theory is usually correct

based on the facts and behavior we know

[liberation]

35. Occam and his razor have never been proven incorrect...

... unlike Spock's n-dimensional chess which has to yet win a single game.

[MissDeeds]

27. It's really mind-boggling

The Obama who now holds the presidency is exactly the kind of person that Obama the candidate ran against. It is indeed frightening.

[JackDragna]

51. It wasn't squandered.

Obama did everything he wanted. He was never our ally from the outset. This isn't incompetency or cowardice, what we're seeing: this is a coordinated effort by the heavy hitters in both parties to rig the system in favor of the wealthy and establish a police-state-like government with no accountability to the people. In fact, I daresay his presidency has been everything the upper classes could have wanted.

[Myrina]

6. "On the way to a failed Presidency" ? Try, already there.

:(

[Individualist]

14. +1

[TheEuclideanOne]

41. Apparently you are underestimating Obama

You would think that he has run out of things to give away, but he has two more years to make today's situation look like a walk in the park. Get ready. You want to see failure, PM me in 2 years.

[Starry Messenger]

7. recommend.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

9. Hear! Hear!

[HughBeaumont]

10. How many presidencies in the past 40 years can really be deemed a success?

Bottom line, it's because we're not reining in corporations or the nation's wealthy. We're not getting the nation's wealthy under some damned control. They get everything at the price of everything that helps us. Washington is merely aiding and abetting it all.

[chimpymustgo]

12. You have a point. We were just fooled again by another lying politician.

This dude had a mandate and could have made history. Could have saved the country. Could have at least tried.

[SammyWinstonJack]

47. He's just protecting his base, the haves and have mores. Hmm sounds familiar.

[TexasObserver]

11. Katrina vanden Heuvel is seldom wrong.

And not wrong this time.

[Poboy]

13. recommend

[somone]

15. Even the Bible said something about not giving pearls

to people who don't appreciate their value.

This is a tragic example.

[Individualist]

17. K&R

[Hell Hath No Fury]

18. Wish I could recommned this a thousand times.

We had the opportunity of a generation and it was pissed away. :cry:

[glitch]

19. He was given a different mandate by the people behind the corporations

currently wielding power.

We need to stop lamenting Obama and start focusing on them.

[frylock]

20. knr

[Lord Magus]

21. Obama has already accomplished more than any Democratic President since Truman.

That crap about Obama apologizing to Republicans for not reaching out is something that John Boner and company made up. And no, he's not supporting cutsi n Social Security and Medicare.

[mymomwasright]

26. Well then...

He failed to call them out on it! Big surprise, huh? Can you really and objectively say that he's not indecisive and wishy washy? A crossing guard has more courage to confront challenges!

[JDPriestly]

34. He has done a lot, none of it very well.

And he has neglected the most important part of his job -- selling the public on an agenda that will really help the country not only now but in the future.

[liberation]

36. It seems that in just one day, Obama went from not having had enough time to do anything..

... to have done more than anyone.

There must have been some special date where that threshold was crossed, I must have been out of the country that day or something. Totally missed it.

[BrklynLiberal]

45. Yes he is. Reducing payroll SS deduction will be used as justification

for reduced benefits. You are sadly mistaken.

[bluethruandthru]

48. and he put together his cat food commission - for no reason - and

he stocked it with a bunch of old rich guys who hate social security and can't wait to gut it. That commission was, for me, the most telling thing that Obama has done. There was absolutely no reason for this commission...he's been told by well-respected economists that the deficit is not in need of "fixing" right now and also that Social Security is not the cause of the deficit nor the cure...but he puts the commission together anyway and then stuffs it with republicans and dems who are anti social security/social programs.
Now the R's have yet another reason to attack Social Security. They can say "Obama's own commission recommends it"!

[Lord Magus]

53. Keep on dreaming.

It'll never happen. The only people who will call for reduced benefits are the Repugs. They don't feel any need for justification, they'll just call for it because it fits their ideology.

[highplainsdem]

22. K&R

[democracy1st]

23. K & R

[donheld]

24. very sad

[tomm2thumbs]

25. kick & rec

[MissDeeds]

28. K&R

[bertman]

29. I have to wonder if the Presididn't is getting his information from his closest

advisors or if he is somehow drawing these conclusions on his own.

Today he referred to the 'polls' as if that was what his Presidency is all about.

Very sad and very scary. I'm afraid that Katrina is correct.

Rec.

[David Zephyr]

30. Katrina sums it up perfectly.

Nothing to add to her superb words from her superb mind.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

31. rec'd

She hit the nail on the head.

[amborin]

32. K&R

[madmax]

33. I'm so torn

as I believe most of you are. This man gave me hope for the first time in a long time. I'm 61 so I've seen one or two Presidents in action.

I want so badly to give him the benefit of the doubt but, the more I read and see for myself what is happening I can't and it's breaking my heart.

After 8 years of w bush and all the shit that went down during that time 9/11, 2 fucking wars, the economy going down the tubes. Finally, I thought we can breathe, there is this man who has won the Presidential elecion and will begin the process of making our country better. The worst is over now...

A mandate and both houses. Could it get much better than that??

:cry:

[chimpymustgo]

39. "A mandate and both houses." A historic chance for real change. PFFT!

Now, the SHAFT?!?!?!?!?

[defendandprotect]

37. Think it's time to ask: "Should Obama announce he is stepping down in 2012?" --

[ForeignSpectator]

40. I hope the repubs don't get the idea to demand that...

...because he might just give it to them, along with SS.

[defendandprotect]

52. Obama might give them Social Security even if they don't ask ...!!

[Clear Blue Sky]

42. Not only did he have a mandate,

but he had strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Opportunities lost...

[BrklynLiberal]

46. Not merely lost, virtually given away.

[Poboy]

49. I'd use uglier language still...

Majorities and huge public will/backing for progressive change PISSED away...and told us to STFU to boot.

[BrklynLiberal]

50. +1000