Audacity is not one of his qualities, and the hope he inspires in others, he expects others to fulfill. He agrees to watch and approve in case of success, but not to lead and support in the event of a protracted struggle for reform. His courage is real but limited, and not built for loneliness -- it demands rings of visible layers of protection with names like Gates, Clinton, Summers, Geithner. His invocations of principle would be better if they were not habitually cheapened by self-praise -- as in that sentence in the Peace Prize acceptance which announced that, by contrast with Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Barack Obama "faces the world as it is." Those heroes of self-sacrifice, Obama was saying, worked in a rarefied medium of sheer ideals; they surpassed him in point of resoluteness only because their task was smaller. The almost continuous eloquence of this president (marred by a fondness for platitudes) leaves such an agreeable feeling with those attuned to its sound that it can seem stingy not to take the word for the deed. But before endorsing anyone's principles, one ought to be sure what principles he has ever held in earnest. It is not finally a matter of courage, but of conviction. After Guantanamo, after state secrets, after cap and trade, health care, the settlement freeze, and Afghanistan, it will be hard to answer the skeptic who says Obama lacks the conviction of his convictions. The best one can say is that he would certainly like things to end up better than they were when he started; and he is willing to christen a new path and sign his name when the way seems clear. It is not nothing -- though not what we looked for, either -- that he mostly gives in to the old and destructive solutions only after the cause of reform has failed to win a victory for itself.
A leader can only lead is he is trusted, and who trusts a liar? The truth is required for unwavering support. Either Obama has fallen into the traps of experts, pundits, and statistics and is being manipulated by his advisers, or he is leveraging the information he has as part of a political calculation. The problem either way is that he's not telling the truth. At least not all of the time.
Regardless what Obama does, what are you going to do? What am I doing? Tell the truth. That's all. If people know the truth then they can judge their leaders better and elect leaders who will act in the interest of the people. The truth is that the power is in the people, but control of the power is in the hands of the wealth. People must take back their power, educate themselves and their communities, and promote the truth. Harder problems than those we face are sure to come, and it's up to us to address them all. The truth is one of the greatest tools we can use, and Obama would do well to understand that.
But Rahm and Harry and Nancy and Joe and Max don't want that, so tough, Mr. President. Hide behind them.
Well I guess he's going to have to come up with more than ONE bold and democratic move to win me back.
Barak Obama-same tailor
Spectators on the street-what beautiful apparel!
I have mixed feelings at this point, is it Obama's fault ? or is it our own ?" So much has been expected of this President, and even a rudimentary understanding of DC tells us that at best, our current system is slow , if not paralyzed, most of the time, at worst it is hopelessly corrupt.
I don't know whether to be disappointed in the President, or disappointed in myself for expecting too much. Obviously, if I remember Peggy Lee's music, I am old enough to know better.
I do feel sorry for the millions of young people who had such high ideals and expectations, cynicism is often acquired through age and disappointment, as is wisdom.
Do your frickin' job.
Those Dem president were LEADERS. Obama is a poor follower giving lip service to change but not the necessary presidential leadership. I voted for Obama but will not do so again.
The solution for health care was being decided NOW in the first year. Was Congress supposed to wait until Obama was ready to be a fully engaged and mature and experienced President? The whole apologist argument of giving him more time assumes a weak President who must give up essential positions because "Washington" is moving against him. It assumes that Barak can literally give away the store as in some future time, he will make everything right. There ain't no prophetic future time of milk and honey--sorry.
Is fact that he gave Pharma what they wanted an issue of giving him more time, or simply poor leadership, or something much more worse? Maybe he is showing leadership in giving big Pharma what they want because you know, he believes that is the right order of things. And for that, he will push to make events happen.
If ever there were a time when change non only seemed possible but indispensible it is now as the curtain rises on the great failure of our society. We can but ask the question, for what, for whom did our ancestors battle and die to obtain liberty and freedom? Then the question, why are we so willing to sacrifice these hard won human values so lightly, to accept watching our democracy go down the drain with scarcely a protest? How is it possible that a mafia like organisation of our lives over-rides all else?
We needed, and for a moment thought we had elected, a man of the caliber of FDR, who would remember the "forgotten man." It appears we got what will perhaps be President Obama greatest legacy - our first black President - in a time when that is much - but not enough.
If he has policies that you disagree with, Why aren't you (we) showing up in Washington in great numbers and stating our disappointment.
Most posts are saying I won't vote. I respect your choice, but will this in anyway solve the problems of the Country.
I fully support and have faith in this President. If you disagree then state your beliefs. I just don't see the reasoning behind the vicious attacks on posts that support the President.
Why....SHAME ON THEM !
Where is accountability for war crimes, where are our civil rights, where is the money offered on a silver platter to the banksters, why the backroom deals with the health insurance companies and why continue the bomb bomb away of the Bush administration with the same people running the war games?
Why? Because this, so far, is Obama's policy and it has nothing to do with faith and beliefs.
Not
It's getting increasingly difficult to distinguish between HuffPo and Drudge. Oh wait, we passed the marker months ago.
While not too long ago I was concerned about the possibility of a one term presidency for Obama thanks to all the angst and whining from the Left, I'm now actually hoping for it, and that a Republican ten times worse than Bush gets into Office in 2012.
I wouldn't wish the kind of "support" that Obama is getting from the likes of you guys on anybody. You gave Bush 8 years to royally Eff up the country 6 ways from Sundown, and yet couldn't even wait a full year before declaring Obama a disappointment. Talk about ludicrous double standards and hypocrisy of the highest order.
Honestly you guys deserve all the Bushes, Cheney's and Palin's that you'll inevitably get with your internecine ineptitude and your puerile sense of perspective and patience. I believe it was one of the GOP strategists who said that they don't really have to do anything big to get back the majorities of Congress and get back to power in the White House; all they have to do is sit back and wait for Dems to implode and eat their own, as they always inevitably do. Color me shocked that he was oh-so-right.
I just hope the next black president comes from the other side, because nobody needs this kind of nonsense.
The Huffington Post is a perfect example of what will happen in an environment of free debate in the public square. What is happening is that the progressive argument (the far left progressive argument, that is) is losing to more reasoned, rational, and non-ideological opinions.
I applaud Ms. Huffington, and Huffpo, for letting the debate go in whatever direction the readers take it.
And if progressives can't handle the truth, there's always the Daily Kos.
The right wing doesn't have a monopoly on thought police. Question all authority. Even from within your own party.
voted for a man who used thought that could change the world in 11months
and you are disappointed. Well, you should be disappointed in your self
1) unrealistic expectations that the Pres is a Messiah or King that he can
declare laws legally and therefore it is so
2)Your apparent inablility to Understand that the Congress and the Senate
forms, compromises then writes the bills and are responsible for funding them.
You were PROMISED nothing. The pres said that change is not easy, and it
will take all of us working towards it. DId you think he had a magic wand? it
is petulant and frankly ridiculous to expect all your wishes to come true in
less than a year when it took bush 8 long years to destroy our country.
I'm sorry - we were promised somethings, and he knew he had a majority mandate from the voting public. Now - all he's worried about are the next elections.
He knows why we voted for him - and he sailed us down the river.