Yeah, I'm disappointed, too. I thought we were sweeping into power; I thought change meant Change. I believed all that talk about another First 100 Days, a la Roosevelt. Well, that didn't happen. The question is, is this as good as it gets from Obama, or is he pacing himself? He may have a four and eight-year plan and they included a first year of just gettin' to know you and not gonna rock the boat too much. Well, Mission Accomplished on that.
It's still too early to lose hope in a guy as smart and talented as Barack Obama. But I would counsel him to remember: If you're going undercover to infiltrate how Washington works, so you become one of them for a while, to gain their confidence, well, it can be just like all those movies where a cop goes deep, deep, DEEP undercover with drug people and -- fuck, he's a drug addict, too!
Logic tells me that really smart guys like Obama and Rahm Emanuel know better what they're doing than I do. They certainly know things I don't know. I think we have the same general goals and beliefs. And this is what they do for a living -- I wouldn't even try it. But I will never stop having this doubt: that maybe if they had really charged in there riding the forceful energy of the historic election, and acted like it was an emergency moment -- which it was -- they could have gotten some big victories right up front, and there really could have been an historic "first hundred days" for this administration and the country. Instead of what happened, which is the Obamas got a dog. It could have worked -- the country had given its endorsement to "...and now for something completely different." There might have been a way to knock the Republicans back on their heels right away, with the argument that "The American people demanded we make these changes, and you are unpatriotic to stand in their way."
We'll never know. Because that moment passed, and now it could follow the pattern of World War I and devolve into boring, static trench warfare where nothing really gamechanging happens while both sides slowly bleed to death.
That said, I do not forget that if the election had gone the other way, we'd right now have a barter economy and be at war with Honduras.
So, one year after the election, what do you think Candidate Obama would think of President Obama? Tweet your response (our Twitter hashtag is #OneYearLater), or post it in the comments section.
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Arianna Huffington: Obama One Year Later: The Audacity of Winning vs. The Timidity of Governing
If Obama wants to make sure he doesn't let down the millions who believed he really would change the system, he should read the The Audacity to Win -- and rediscover a whole host of things he knows, but seems to have forgotten.
Mitchell Bard: Candidate Obama Might Have Some Questions for President Obama
Coming off the election, the president had enormous political capital (really a blank check to move forward with anything he campaigned for), and I can't help thinking that he didn't make enough use of it.
Arianna was a guest on MSNBC's Morning Joe today to discuss her latest column comparing candidate Obama to President Obama, as well as the public's...
Between the short attention span of the public and media, the poor showing of activists to counter the tea party hecklers in town halls and the lack of courage of the Democrats in Congress, the left has failed to move health reform over the finish line. Democratic Senators failed to unite to support the agenda they ran on. I'm tired of the left giving President Obama so little credit for what he has managed to do already in his first year.
I understand what you mean, but... I never thought I'd say this... the bar was set pretty high by Bush. He was a "president" who wasn't even elected, had no mandate to do anything, and who seemed to be incompetent or drunk most of the time. And look at what Bush accomplished without any public support. I think everyone expected Obama to blow that record out of the water, what with his popular election, specific mandate to fix certain things that Bush had messed up, and his charisma and leadership qualities, but he chose to act in the interests of the money instead of the people.
The economy is still going down, we are still illegally holding foreign citizens in hidden jails around the world, we still torture, we still use depleated uranium munitions in populated areas, we still have no health care, we still have the rich getting richer while the poor wait their turn...
Sorry, but there are a lot of reasons to be disenchanted by the current situation.
Real smart guys, Massachusetts lost. Must be in their greater game plan. People give others too much credit. If you win you are a genius. Sorry, luck is a big factor. They think the people who are suffering every day will be stupid enough to vote for them again, even as they kiss the behinds of Wall Street, and stick a boot up the behinds of Main street. If voters do that then they deserve this pair. I knew when he put a bunch of Clintonites in that we would be getting more of the same we've had for the last forty years. You are deluding yourself in thinking that he will be anything but a plaything for Wall Street.
I'd much rather have a politician who votes for the people who elected them whether the elected official is a democrat or republican.
What we have is the best government that money/Goldman Sachs can buy, beginning with candidate Obama.
What's the solution? Well, stop letting them have use of your money. Get out of the national banks and credit cards, and go local. Join your local credit union. Shop at locally owned businesses. Yes, they can be more expensive than WalMart, but you are investing in your own community. Stop feeding the Empire.
Did he change the economic structure in any way whatsoever to stop bubbles from forming and crashing? no.
Has he scaled back either war in ANY way? No.
Has he cut or even slowed the deficit spending? No, he's tripled it
Has he come out against the Fed. Reserve's power to print money out of thin air to prop up the banks thereby destroying the value of the money we earn? No.
Has he stopped the US Gov. from financially supporting oil-rich dictatorships like those in Jordan and Saudi Arabia which is the entire fuel of Al-Qaeda's hatred of America? No.
Whoopee, he's trying to hand out a healthcare program that is entirely funded on borrowed chinese money, where according to the NY times 90% of the legislation was written by freakin' lobbyists
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all
stop making excuses. Don't hope for change- demand it.
A) America's largest problem is the debt, the falling dollar, and the havoc it's wreaking on the economy. Obama has tripled the annual budget shortfall from 500 billion to over $1.5 trillion. Give the guy a chance?! He just had one! He tripled the deficit instead of balancing the budget!
B) He just signed a spending bill over the summer for another 105 BILLION to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars! More time?? HE JUST SHOWED US WHAT HE'S ALL ABOUT. He could have signed a 90 day withdrawal order the day he took office. We would have been out of the middle easy 6 months ago.
C) The stimulus and bail outs?? If he wanted to stimulate the economy he should have froze all congressional spending and passed it back in a total income tax freeze.
Stop crying about more time. Time is irrelevant, the direction is the problem.
To use a different metaphor--Obama is like a physician who found a patient bleeding to death and put him into surgery, while the right-wingers are saying "You should have prescribed diet and exercise!"
Maybe next time you'll all actually listen to what is said by the candidate instead of what is said about him/her.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-plouffe/president-obama-and-candi_b_343985.html&cp
Bill, Bill...hiding behind humor. The situation is many months past being funny anymore.
I think if McSame had won, we'd be doing exactly what we're doing now, only without the hatched stinklet eggs of "the teabaggers" and the incredible advancement of Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman.
I want to quit calling President Obama "smart" and "talented" now. When can we go ahead and do that? What is wrong with us?
And let's not forget everyone's darling Al Gore picked Lieberman as a VP.
Obama was the only choice, but he's turned out to be all show and no go.The latest health care bill is a compromised mess disguised as a victory. The big winners are the insurance companies. And the crowd cheers.
I'm sorry, but this kind of Chicken Little "the President is falling!" nonsense has got to stop. Obama's first 10 months may not have been perfect, and there are certainly some decisions I would have him change, but to dismiss his entire Presidency is arrogant and massively short-sighted.
This is a partial list as of June 2009 --
Reversed restrictions on stem cell research
Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy
Created a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners
Expanded loan programs for small businesses
Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch
Expanded eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP)
Expanded funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners
Directed military leaders to end war in Iraq
Sent two additional brigades to Afghanistan
As promised gave a speech at a major Islamic forum in the first 100 days of his administration
Granted Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send money to Cuba
Restored funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program
Released presidential records
Now requires new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliation or contributions
Pushed for enactment of Matthew Shepard Act, which expands hate crime law to include sexual orientation and other factors
Created a White House Office on Urban Policy
Supported increased funding for the NEA
Funded major expansion of AmeriCorps
If you honestly believe that the latest health care bill is a "mess" then you're not paying attention. The problem is that liberals wanted to essentially cover everyone through some government run program. Yet, Obama never promised any such thing. He promised to make health more affordable and expand coverage.
Thus, the big winners here, sir, are the THIRTY-PLUS MILLION AMERICANS who will get health insurance who weren't even eligible before. But I suppose you'd rather have zero people covered as long as Obama tried, and failed, to pass a litmus test approved plan that demolished the Insurance Industry.
After all, some of you blogger types have had the same answer to every problem this year: BURN IT DOWN! The banks are over extended and in danger of collapse? Well, BURN IT DOWN! Obama inherits Guantanamo, and now has to deal with what to do with the terrorists living there, BURN IT DOWN!
Unfortunately, the problem is that most progressive bloggers don't really believe in anything accept spitting at the system.
You're only marginalizing yourself now.
We will be hung out to dry until just before elections and then there will be the attempt at some movement. Cynical gamesmanship.
I'm disappointed in Bill. I expected better.
In conventional times, he should have been able to campaign to the center but govern from the left instead of the other way around.
But that task has been made very difficult because of the way the right have cleverly tilted the playing field. The wacko fringe, who would likely be imprisoned in any other self-respecting democracy, is at times to right of dictators of the past. This provides extreme cover for the other extremists who inhabit the perceived mainstream. So the center is not really the center anymore. Its like being at the real north pole with the magnetic north pole to the south of you.
It may take at lead four years to get the field itself back on an even keel, so people need a little patience.