Clarence Jones is a living legend. When I was chief speechwriter for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Clarence accepted our invitation to visit with an ad hoc group of Democratic speechwriters on the Hill. For more than two hours, he mesmerized us with stories of his friendship with Martin Luther King and his prominent role in the Civil Rights movement. Clarence not only had a courtside seat to watch history unfold; he was an active participant.
Clarence visited with us in the Capitol less than a week before President Obama's inauguration. That's what brought him to town. He waxed poetically about the meaning of the moment and the pride that King would surely feel. But he was also a realist, noting that the election of Barack Obama was not enough. The hard work of governing hadn't begun yet.
That's why I was surprised and disappointed to read Clarence's recent piece breaking with the President and calling for a 2012 primary challenge.
Clarence writes:
It is not easy to consider challenging the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States. But, regrettably, I believe that the time has come to do this.
I understand and share the frustration that many Democratic faithful feel over the tax cut compromise, the slow progress on repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell and escalation of troop counts in Afghanistan. All three issues were cornerstones of the President's 2008 campaign, and Democrats have every right to feel let down.
But let's not lose the forest for the trees. In less than two years, this President has:
Respectfully, the decision by Clarence Jones and some other liberal leaders to abandon President Obama at this moment reminds me of an investor who panics and sells all his shares in a blue-chip company because of one bad quarter. These may be the darkest days of the Obama presidency, but as Rev. King said himself, "We are not makers of history. We are made by history." Yes, history dealt President Obama a tough hand, but his leadership and accomplishments these first two years have earned him -- at the very least -- our patience. The White House is adjusting to the new political reality of divided control in 2011. The sausage making will only get uglier. But President Obama remains the most popular politician in town - and our best hope for progress.
David Meadvin was chief speechwriter for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. He is president of Inkwell Strategies, a Washington, DC-based speechwriting and communications firm.
Follow David Meadvin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/inkwellstrat
The Senate GOP has been able to hold a 40 to 41 seat coalition together, despite any and all negotiation for compromise.
Instead of taking his case to the public to shake TWO people loose, he let the GOP dictate the terms of every. Single. Debate.
And he lost. Every. Single. Debate.
He may have passed legislation, but it's flawed at best (healthcare), and pointless at worst (financial regulation.)
Instead of dictating the terms of the debate, Obama has been led from compromise to cave-in for the past two years.
We need a leader who can rally the public, not sit in the White House.
That single bad quarter was epic, but in actuality we're at halftime. I'm not looking forward to the next two years of Republican lite.
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Every "accomplishment" you list is a litany of incremental improvements. Sure, they're better than nothing but so much less than they could have been, because Obama gave away the store without a serious fight on any of it. Take both health care and the consumer credit legislation--neither of those laws went far enough in imposing regulations and have enough loopholes to drive a truck through. The companies in those respective industries are working hard to come up with new ways to screw people.
The liberal left, and, quite frankly, all the independent voters who put Obama in office have every right to be looking elsewhere. This tax cut deal was the last straw. Our POTUS has sealed his fate as a one-termer.
1.) Single payer or at a minimum, a public option
2.) Ending DADT
3.) Ending DOMA
4.) Passing ENDA
5.) Ending the wasteful wars
6.) Not extending the huge tax cuts for our wealthy overlords
What did I get?
He invited hate filled Rick Warren (supporter of "kill the gays in Uganda") to the inauguration. So, Rahm is right, I am definitely a F&%king retard for voting for this back stabbing, incompetent b$%ch.
Since the "incident" of inviting the murderer to the inauguration took place on day one, I don't see that this is an issue of "a bad quarter". It started out really awful, and has gone downhill from there. I can't imagine how this presidency could possible have been any worse.
Our entire election process has been corrupted by money. When "he who spends the most" wins, (and this has been the case in over 9 out of 10 instances for decades) then our representatives become those most willing to sell their integrity for the money needed to get elected.
The wealthy own this country, because they own the election process.
Without meaningful campaign finance reform, all other "reforms" will be in name only.
I have yet to hear of an alternative proposal to help the struggling middle class that could actually get passed.
-Isn't that one of the differences between us and the Republicans?
Take your talking points and go on CNN, we usually prefer a coherent essay here.
Oh and investment analogies are dubious considering that those who control the investment market are the ones pulling the strings on both the government and the economy. So it really doesn't matter if "I pull my blue chip stocks" because there are others backing them--making my involvement superfluous. Which leads to the question, we should only back Obama to feel good and forget that he isn't working for us because we don't matter?