A lot of the criticism of Obama here is that he's not doing what we would like.

[TheWraith]

I started writing some of this in reply to a question that was asked of me in another thread, but that thread got locked before I could post it. But this is rather the core of some of the strife on DU, and needed to be said.

A lot of the criticism of Obama here is that he's not doing what we would like. The disconnect lies in assuming that we should grade Obama on what we would prefer be the case, when chances are that a great many DUers hold preferences that would be far off the edge of what's possible, such as seeing Wall Street derivatives traders arrested for treason. It's a nice thought, but it's just that: a thought, or more accurately a fantasy. (And it's MY fantasy; no, you can't have it for yourself.) Instead of live in a fantasy, I would rather ask: what can we actually accomplish to improve the lives of real people and move the country in the right direction, considering the unprecedented levels of stonewalling from the right?

We have a governmental system which can be, and has been, brought to a screeching halt by 41 Senators who are either far right or spend most of their time cow-towing to the far right. That is the political reality. We don't have to like it, and there's a lot we should be doing about it, but refusing to get anything accomplished because we can't get everything accomplished is not the way.

I'd like single-payer healthcare, but blaming Obama for not personally bringing that about would be grotesquely unrealistic behavior on my part. I'd also prefer to completely eliminate the Republican Party from the face of American politics, but that's not going to happen either. Instead, what we have done is expand SCHIP, expand hate-crimes protections, pull the plug on the Iraq War, end recission, end lifetime healthcare caps, eliminate pre-existing conditions, appoint two new left-leaning women to the Supreme Court, guarantee the right to sue for pay discrimination, and a hundred other things. With luck by the end of the month we'll have kept taxes low for working people, ended Don't Ask Don't Tell, and continued to dismantle the archaic leftovers of the Cold War.

At the end of the day, I prefer to focus on the positive, what we've accomplished instead of what's been blocked. Some people think that makes me a "cheerleader." I would point out the fact that vast chunks of the New Deal were blocked or struck down as unconstitutional: that didn't stop FDR from being arguably the best thing ever to happen to working people in this country. Progress is not a matter of getting 100% of your goals, it's a matter of getting something done. It's not easy, and it's very rarely fast. But that's never managed to stop us before.

[villager]

1. or even, you know, what we voted for

n/t

[villager]

2. a "CC" from DU's software

n/t

[Clio the Leo]

3. how positively pragmatic of you .... I like it. ;-) nt

[MannyGoldstein]

4. K&R Obama is even smarter than FDR

FDR worked hard for things that he sometimes didn't get, and made the mistake of letting working Americans know that he'd fight ferociously for them, even if he didn't always win. This showed weakness and made him look puny, as well as making his enemies quite cross.

Obama is smart enough to never fight hard for things he might not get. He is a strong president, one who shows no weakness.

[OrwellwasRight]

7. Gosh I hope I agree with you.

:kick:

[awoke_in_2003]

10. Manny, your delivery...

just keeps getting better.

[Fruittree]

18. Actually I find it kind of obnoxious but whatever...

It does kind of prove the original post - by all means, please continue to focus on the negative.

[Bobbie Jo]

23. +1

[JNelson6563]

26. I know, very Fox News, slams to 2 good Dem Presidents in

one Heather-level-sarcasm post. And then it gets support! Through the looking glass at DU again...

Julie

[roguevalley]

17. FDR is a god among working people and got elected four

times. Obama is a wimp and will be lucky to win his second. So saith an FDR dem from waaaay back.

[COLGATE4]

32. K&R X1000!

[angee_is_mad]

5. K&R

Another DUer making TOO MUCH SENSE!

[frazzled]

6. And I think what people would like is ...

a pissing match. Intellectually, they know that (a) the President is not the King of Congress and (b) the Republicans are blocking everything, even that with which they really should agree. They know that things are not possible: they just want to see them some good ol' (Alan Grayson type) yelling and name calling and taking to the woodshed. Which, of course, would not accomplish anything. (They're always saying they want more than just talk, but what they really want is just talk.)

It's actually quite remarkable what Obama has managed to accomplish in the face of the political situation. Someone posts the list here at least daily. Of course it's not our dream list of accomplishments. But it's moving things forward during a very bad time and in a deathly political climate.

But that is never the focus. Some of us just want a pissing match. For others, that's not our style.

[sat110]

14. Wake up already republicans dispise you!

Yeh I know I want more then talk, the days of biting his lower lip and
delivering some self expressed historic speech about crap he himself
wont even fight for, its all just BS. and tired. I wonder if he really
grasp how cowardly he comes off during these press conferences. I think
the republicans are surprised themselves at times on how quickly he is
willing to cave on just about everything. I don't think they respect
him which makes it that much harder to accomplish anything in the next
two years.

TP

[frazzled]

28. Confirmed: what you want is mere talk

Tough guy talk.

This is America, after all.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. He needs to stop pandering to Republicans!

[Fruittree]

19. I have mixed views about this...

I hate a lot of what Republicans have come to stand for but I respect the fact that Obama in spite of unprecedented disrespect and obstructionism is going about his job methodically and undramatically getting done what he can and coming back and trying for those things he didn't get the first time around. I repeat as I have other times, if we were all organized, positive, sticking with him and out publicly supporting more progressive causes, I think he'd respond by moving left. As it is, he's attacked from both sides - it has to be hard and pretty disheartening. And it is ultimately self - defeating.

[Chulanowa]

9. What? Optimism on DU?

[XemaSab]

11. I don't blame Obama for not delivering national health care

I do blame him for not even putting it on the table.

Compromise is only meaningful if you're not starting out with a centrist/corporate position and working your way right from there.

[sat110]

12. Wake up! we have been sold out

I'll be straight up and fair about where I'm coming from, I feel betrayed,
personally I would never ever vote for him again. up until a few days ago
I never even posted anything political in my life.

I think this guys all about one thing himself the Obama party.

Lets see I don't even know where to begin

For starters he had dems in Congress take votes on highly controversial
bills when in reality it was a long gone conclusion the Senate would
never act on them. leaving good people hanging out to dry including one
of the best like Russ Feingold, it makes me sick just thinking about it now.

He caved on everything instead of fighting like a man for democratic
principles and values, the public option being one of the most important
and coming shorty the 700 billion tax break for the wealthy top 2% I have
to stop its getting to upsetting. if we do not start looking for another
Presidential Candidate for 2012 we will lose in a landslide like never before.
his big problem is not Republicans its his base he spit on.

I have solid progressive Democratic friends I have known for decades not one
of them would ever vote for this guy again, and that's even before he passes
the full Bush tax cuts. to ignore these facts is simply insane. The one I feel
really sorry for is Biden.

TP

[BeyondGeography]

13. I was fine with all of it up to now

But I really think it's a blunder if he goes along with a full extension. This is the issue where he needs to stick his neck out and go it alone if necessary. It would define him for the better and rally the base straight through 2012 if he just stood up for what is right and popular. I don't get it.

[elana i am]

15. i agree that we have to stop blaming obama for things out of his control

but i don't have the ability that you have to focus on the positive. eh. having said that, i also think a lot of the wailing and knoshing of teeth going on around here is just a lot of wasted ire. because this is democratic underground and there's a rule against bashing dems, i don't go around trash talking them, but neither do i hide my head in the sand.

i see very little if any acknowledgment that obama was essentially a lame duck president from day one, and that has fairly little to with the repugs and a lot more to do with obama's fellow dems - specifically the senate dems. while the house is far from being overachievers they've at least been doing their job. where it all falls apart is in the senate. because of the rather large blue dog contingent there's rarely been 50 votes, let alone 60.

even i didn't expect the repugs to be so completely and utterly anti-everything, but it didn't take me long to figure it out. but really, the most we can blame them for is being in cahoots with the blue dogs, who are the real culprits and the contingent that holds all the cards. when obama has been bargaining away all the good stuff, he hasn't been kowtowing to the repugs, it's the blue dog asshats and centerists who are holding him down.

i voted for kucinich, not obama, so nobody can call me an obama apologist. i'm being honest when i say that i see obama doing a fairly good job within the constraints of his current position. we're still many years away from a truly progressive president and a progressive political philosophy. (hence the reason i'm not a very positive person). anyhow, expecting obama to be that person always has been sheer folly (and it's unfair to obama).

[akbacchus_BC]

16. I for one agreed that President Obama inherited a boat load of shit and

tried his best for the economy to recover. What I do not agree with is that he picked people who could not help him or advise him. He had to have known that people disliked him and would not play nice. We are talking about leadership here, sadly, I have not seen that! When leadership is absent, we all know how things will turn out.

I may be wrong in my opinion and it is just my opinion!

[Yeahyeah]

20. It's morning in America!

[struggle4progress]

21. But he hasn't put on a hockey mask and taken a chain saw to the Congressional Republicans!

I mean, how can I support the guy if he won't do stuff like that?

[eomer]

22. Democrats, Obama included, are responsible for not bringing us the public option.

They could have delivered the public option with just 50 votes in the Senate by doing it in the reconciliation process.

But that's history now and a moot point going forward. During the lame duck session I don't believe they can use reconciliation because they didn't include it when they passed the budget (someone please correct or clarify this if I'm wrong). So 60 votes in the Senate will be the reality in the lame duck session. Even though that wasn't necessary (Democrats had it in their power to do differently and include reconciliation in the budget), it is now locked in by legislative rules.

And then next year the House is (obviously) under Republican control.

So the best we can hope for prior to 2013 is for little or nothing to get done. Because anything that can get through the 2010 lame duck 60-vote Senate or the 2011/2012 Republican House is likely to be worse than nothing.

So the 2012 election campaign is going to be a contest to see which side can most effectively blame the other side for how bad things are and for nothing getting done about it.

I worked hard as a local team captain in Obama's election campaign. I presently don't think I would do it again in 2012. Obama's transgressions (failure to prosecute war crimes, authorization of assassinations in place of due process, invocation of Bush-style state secrets claims, escalation in Afghanistan, dissembling on "withdrawal" in Iraq, etc.) already present a difficult moral dilemma even if there were changes in other areas that were compelling. But not being particularly impressed on the policy change side, how can I overcome the moral objections?

[leftynyc]

24. Forget doing what I would like

I'd like to see him fight for something - ANYTHING - that would help the middle class. I mean really fight - go toe to toe with the pubs and not back down in the face of problems. That there are any Dems threatening to only vote on extending all tax cuts shows the President is not a leader in his own party. I've been defending President Obama for 3 straight years now and I'm exhausted. The man is simply not a leader.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

25. Your post makes no sense. First, there are three branches of government.

The president cannot control what Congress does. Second, the biggest problem, as you suggest, is that we have a bunch of whussy Blue Dog Democrats who are scared of Republicans and who will vote with them. Obama has nothing to do with that. Third, I think there are many Democrats who realize that the Republican tax policy has put them in a bind. Extend the tax breaks for everyone, or the middle class will be hurt. If this were a healthy economy, then yes, please allow the tax cuts to expire. But because the middle class is already hurting, should the Democrats allow the tax cuts to continue, even if it means the wealthy get more? And lastly, you made an egregious error. Barack Obama has even been the president for 2 years, so how can you be defending him for 3? Makes no sense.

[Ninga]

27. Obama has EVERYTHING to do with the members of his party who capitulate to the GOP and are blue to

the core.

He brings them into the oval office, closes the door and gets the f**ing job done...with the purse strings, with money allocated to their districts, whatever. Obama needs to call LBJ on the phone to find out how it is done.

The Senate and the Congress have "whip" positions. People who go out and whip up the votes.

Nancy Pelosi whips her whips, that is why she accomplished so much.

Who, what, when, where, and why has Obama whipped any Republican, whipped any position, whipped himself onto a prime time spot and talked directly to the people and asked them for help?

All of us understand the civics of our country. We know how laws are made.

The President has not used the bully pulpit, the strongest and most affective tool a President has at hand.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

31. In terms of using the bully pulpit, I agree. He needs to do more than that.

As for the Democrats in the Senate, it depends. Comparing this situation to LBJ is wrong. LBJ allowed the Dixiecrats to vote how they wanted because he had a larger majority who were liberal Democrats. LBJ enjoyed a 67 seat majority in the Senate, so losing some conservative Dems was more feasible. It's not as feasible today, especially with the political climate that we are in.

As far as Obama fighting more *in general* yes, I agree. He needs to fight the Republicans much harder than he has, which hasn't been much.

[leftynyc]

29. First off - I was defending him

before he was elected to those who felt the Dems made a mistake by not going with Hillary - that's for starters.

No need to explain government to me. I watched how bush/cheney lead the republicans in 2001-2006. They barely ever dared to cross that administration. Nobody fears Obama because they know he'll cave - he always does. I'm looking for a leader and I got someone who doesn't fight for ANYTHING. There is simply no reason both the house and the senate cannot put forth a bill that ONLY extends the tax cuts for the middle class - let the blue dogs vote against it and have it in on the record. THEN if it doesn't pass, pound it in the press EVERY SINGLE DAY that the pubs and blue dogs only care about their rich buddies and the only way it can get done is to extend for everyone. At least the original vote would be on the record and it'll give the Dems an issue for 2012. Caving over and over again makes the president look like shit and I'm finding it very hard to continue to fight and defend someone who doesn't himself care enough to fight.

[GoCubsGo]

30. Thank you.

Well said.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

33. See my post above. n/t