While the major fallout from Robert Gibbs' recent slap in the face to "the professional left" has died down a bit, a second round of examination seems to have begun -- one much more introspective and much less knee-jerk than the first round. But the problem seems to be that the people writing about it are mostly of the inside-the-Beltway punditry, meaning it lacks a certain breadth, I think.
This isn't to say such articles aren't valuable, and worth debate. Greg Sargent, who writes the political blog The Plum Line over at WashingtonPost.com, titled today's article: "Why is left so disappointed in Obama?" In it, Sargent discusses an article in Politico which attempts to answer this question, and comes up with his own take on things. Which immediately led me to thinking: "Well, why not ask a few Lefties what they think?"
Since it's Monday, meaning this column will appear in Huffington Post as well as on my own website, I thought I'd do the courtesy of actually asking a fairly large, fairly Lefty audience what they thought, instead of just offering up my own explanations for the phenomenon. So, what do you think? I promise I'll tally everyone's comments in an effort to try to qualify what the Left (or at least, the portion of it reading this) really thinks about their disappointment with the president.
To do so, I'm going to offer up some choices, and invite you to rank your top three in the comments section, by number. Now, I realize that these are all, of necessity, going to be generalizations, and that you may not find the exact reason you're looking for in the list, or perhaps one only tangentially related. So I've also included the option "Other," where you can add your own particular reason for disappointment. And I've also included "I'm not disappointed," for those who are still happy with the job Barack Obama is doing.
In any case, here's the list to choose from. Again, rank your answers in the order they apply to your thoughts and feelings, while keeping in mind only the top three answers you give will be counted. I've tried to be as broad as possible in imagining what top disappointments could be, so you'll have to forgive the length of the list.
As a Lefty (or "as someone who voted for him," to be inclusive), President Obama has disappointed me for the following reasons:
There you have it. Are you disappointed in President Obama? Why? Let me know in the comments, and after I add things up, I promise I'll send the results on to Sargent (in the hopes he'll plug my column in his, to be scrupulously honest, here). Don't forget to rank your answers "First/Second/Third" or "1, 2, 3" so I can score them properly.
Whether anyone inside the Beltway pays attention or not, though, I think it's a worthwhile question to ask, and I think the answers will be very interesting to see, no matter how things turn out. So have at it!
UPDATE: Poll results for the first 100 responses are now up over at my site. Thanks to everyone who responded!
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As I ask everyone whose list looks suspiciously in numeric order: what are your top three (ranked) answers?
-CW
Far too much emphasis on bipartisanship; far too little emphasis on standing up for core Democratic values and using his bully pulpit to give voice to the Democratic narrative. Being too quick to bargain away the strongest and best part of legislation. I think the more Obama chases Republicans in an effort of Bipartisanship, the more they will run away from it. In the name of bipartisanship he bargins away the strongest and best of legislation. That's as much the Senate's fault as Obama's.
Lastly, he doesn't respect his base (14)
So 3 & 4 are tied for 1st place and 14 is tied for 2nd place.
I don't think Obama himself communicates often enough with the American people about the economy. People are scared and need to be reassured. I don't think his administration has done a good job of communicating with the American people. Gibbs comments about the "Professional Left", Rahm Emmanual's comments about "F***ing R*****ds" Didn't help. The stupid comment that came out of his office about Unions throwing money away by opposing Lincoln didn't help.
No one has the right to be mad at about Afghanistan. As I see it, he did exactly what he said he was going to do.
Many Conservatives called Obama a Liberal Messiah. But right now America doesn't need a Messiah, so much as we need a Moses.
2) 16. A couple of signing statements were real stinkers.
3) I guess I'll call it 13. The Wall Street Reform was missing a lot, and he hasn't gotten anywhere near as much done on energy as is needed.
Who has benefited the most in the past 18 months? The top 1%'ers were essentially paid off on their losses, while the rest of us were cast aside. The Military Industrial Complex is doing bang-up business while all other domestic manufacturing is failing.
The Nobel Peace Prize hangs in the Oval Office as a daily reminder to the President of his moral cowardice in his Mideast adventures and his failure to rein in American War Crimes against Humanity. And he continues to attempt appeasement of the Right Wing lunatics and their backstage handlers that are hell-bent on his destruction. But Obama's failure is his own.
You've got to provide numbers in order to be included in the tally...
-CW
I can't help it...I got to say it....Progressives have talking points....LOL....just like the radical right...the sheep the lemmings..the parrots ...who run around chanting the same thing over and over...now...so do the radical left.
It would be funny, if it weren't so sad....sad because the right are feeding you Progressives these talking points ...and you just take right off with them.....they are using you Progressives...they have been and you make it just so easy for them.
Just today Boehner was used to put out a call to arms.......to radical Progressives everywhere.. I'm sure you won't disappoint.
OK, but what are your top three (ranked) choices?
-CW
(#2 & #16) Both essentially the same for me. If you say you're going to close Gitmo, you do it. End of story, but it's still not closed and what were they even thinking about trying these cases in public court? It's a military operation. If you want transparency, open them to the public, but keep it military. If it's not legal, then change the law. Bush did it all the time.
(add #6 & #19) The Bush tax cuts message is getting away from them. This should be a no-brainer for democrats. The idea is that the tax cuts are "job creators" and if they expire then they're Obama's "job reducer", right? Throw this message back in the face of republicans. Where are the jobs?? They should be hammering this home every single day.
I trust pres.Obama.
I know he has it in him.
I saw it during his campaign.
He needs to get it back.
2) Other: Human Rights -- not outspoken enough on human rights abuses, i.e. genocide/mass atrocities, DADT and Prop 8
3) Other than that, I'm not too disappointed -- he's gotten much done in a short amount of time, and in a very difficult political climate.
OK, I'm chalking this one up as a #1 too.
-CW