No, You Didn't Dream It; Obama Told Us To Expect More (VIDEO)

The rift among progressives about President Obama's performance has been growing for months. The President's defenders share the same short list of excuses for him. He's only been in office so many months. He's never claimed to be ultra-progressive. He can't do everything at once. He inherited big problems.

The items on the list are all true but irrelevant. None of them address the very real concerns that Obama's critics actually have. And many of those critics were enthusiastic Obama supporters during the election.

Worse than this litany of straw men is the tone that Obama's defenders so often use; that of barely patient parents talking to stupid impatient children who don't understand the real world. In his piece defending the President, Bob Cesca wrote "we want this president to be FDR meets Kennedy meets MLK meets LBJ meets Bobby Kennedy meets Rachel Maddow meets Superman."

No, sir. We don't want that impossibility. We are not little children and we know what we want. We want him to be the Barack Obama that we voted for.

The real Obama is muddied by his defenders. They want to pat us on the head and try to tell us that we don't remember Barack Obama at all. He was always pragmatic and not very progressive at all. He was never going to shake things up.

No, you didn't dream it.

He wasn't Hillary Clinton. He was not an establishment Democrat. On most policies, he and Senator Clinton were fairly close throughout the primaries. The difference was that Obama wasn't going to Washington D.C. to play politics the old way. He was against lobbyists and had no interest in politics usual.

There was one big policy difference with Senator Clinton. She was in favor of an Individual Mandate as a solution for health insurance. Senator Obama didn't equivocate on this issue.

The issues of lobbying and health care were connected for Seantor Obama. He was very specific about lobbyists in one particular industry - pharmaceuticals. And he was very clear that negotiating drug prices with them was a bad thing.

Those three short videos show just some of the difference between what we voted for and what we have now. The right often accuses the press of being in the tank for President Obama. It's hard to watch these videos and not wonder why the press hasn't asked him about these 180 degree turns in policy. I don't think it's bias; it's just lazy journalism.

But the Obama voters remember. He has a super majority in Congress and had a mandate from the American people. It's not that he hasn't done anything. It's just that he hasn't done anything more than President Hillary Clinton or any traditional, establishment Democrat would have done.

We expected more. Barack Obama told us to expect more. There's too much at stake to be content with expecting anything less.

 

Follow Lee Stranahan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Stranahan

Comments

[MocksNix]

Also, Obama is constantly deferring to Rham Emmanuel. So, who's our president?

[anachoret]

I agree with your posts points, Mr. Stranahan.
However, at this point, what I see is a straight line going from "Starve the Beast" to "Too big to fail."

Perhaps the "Yes we can" met pragmatism on the "Team of rivals."

[JohnFromCensornati]

Honestly, I didn't buy the BS and I didn't vote for or donate to him, so I'm not disappointed.

[party-of-one]

Lee Stranahan would do well to read more history. he challenges Obama INHERITED are the greatest for any president since FDR. Roosevelt addressed economic collapse in his first two terms, but did not address WAR until his THIRD term. I know Stanahan says nine months is a straw man. Correcting the fall out of the Bush-Clinton legacy and more in less than a year with a do-nothing Congress? get real.

Unfortunately, Obama made the necessary choice, to staff with Clinton-era warmovers. The functions of government must continue, even if the agenda is change. One good way for Obama to show leadership and return to his commitments would be a new chief of staff, who gets the vision, the values, and can move it into action despite the corporate agenda and get-even partisanship.

Straanahan's reference to the "super majority" in Congress fails to mention it is not only a mandate for Obama, also for CONGRESS. A super majority can also override a presidential veto. Congress can act on its own without this president, if it chooses. Unfortunately, this Democratic Congress continues to squabble and not get its business DONE,even with a Democrat in the WH, what is their excuse?

It is good to expect more, to speak out, criticize specifics. That's a responsibility particularly of supporters. This broad painting of a failed presidency after months does more to discourage than inspire. I see no good purpose in it.

[RichardU]

I certainly expected more, which I suppose was foolish. I still hold out a little hope that Obama will do a better job as president. Clinton didn't really do that great until 1993's Health Care Reform failed, but I was quite happy with his performance afterwards. I am hoping we can repeat the pattern with Obama.

So I guess I hope health reform fails and an influential Republican arises with a popular platform that returns control of both houses to the Republicans in 2010. Perhaps a president needs a nemesis and a major defeat before he can become great. I'll even gladly accept another sex scandal if it means major improvements for the country.

[nomobull]

he also expected us to do more than sit back and complain.so besides expecting we to turn into he what are you doing.

[RichardU]

I'm dedicating large amounts of time to researching the constitutional arguments against an individual mandate, and saving my money, so I am prepared to fight it in the courts if it is passed. I'm also rearranging things in my life to permit even more time to this effort should the legislation be enacted.

Other than the loss of freedom involved in a mandate, I pretty much don't care what happens with health care. That loss of freedom is, by far, the most important issue to me though. I care about the economy, so I'm investing my money rather than sticking it in the mattress or a savings account. Although it's not billions, at least it adds a little fluidity to the availability of capital in the economy. I also care about the environment, and have an incredibly small footprint compared to the average American. I hoped to be doing more, but researching constitutional case law has wasted quite a bit of my energy.

So, what are you doing?

[JohnFromCensornati]

Add another excuse to the list. It's not BHO that's done nothing! It's us!