First I worried that Obama was foolhardy to put Goldman Sachs alumni and other Wall Street geniuses in charge of fixing the mess that they'd made in the first place. But then I bought the pragmatic argument that these masters of the universe were the only people with enough inside experience to understand the derivatives con game well enough to shut it down.
Then I was afraid that Obama was naïve to court Republicans who kept stiffing him on vote after party-line vote. But then I convinced myself that a majority of Americans wanted him to persist at bipartisanship even though House Republicans unanimously preferred warfare to finding common ground, and that being gracious to kneejerk obstructionists gave him enough political cover to get enough Republican Senators to block a Republican filibuster.
Then I thought Obama and his Justice Department were being wussy to oppose calls for hearings about torture and for giving a pass to the supine Bush appointees who concocted a "legal" rationale for waterboarding. But then I bowed to the notion that health care and energy and the rest of the reform agenda would die if torture took up all the oxygen in Washington.
Then I was troubled that we were ramping up in Afghanistan without an exit strategy, and that rendition and military commissions would continue, and that withholding promised torture photos would lead to the very enemy propaganda victory that the policy reversal was meant to avoid. But then I had to acknowledge the national security and realpolitik props it was winning him from columnists, from the military establishment and from Republicans, and the political upside of being willing to alienate civil libertarians like me.
Then I was concerned that the single-payer option doesn't have a seat at the administration's health policy table, and that the White House didn't lobby the Hill for an interest-rate cap on usurious credit card companies, and that giving laborers a reasonable chance to organize their workplaces isn't a legislative priority, and that ending "don't ask, don't tell" has become don't-go-there. But when I recalled that Obama has already reversed Bush's ban on stem cells, and cancelled Bush's last-minute rule permitting mountaintop mining waste to be dumped near streams, and signed a law extending the statute of limitations on equal-pay lawsuits, I remembered how hostile the last White House was to just about everything I believe in.
Throughout the campaign, candidate Obama refused to take the advice I shouted at my television. During the debates, when I pleaded with him to counterpunch at McCain more aggressively, he instead kept calmly saying, "I agree with John...." When I urged him to respond ferociously to Sarah Palin's poisonous charge that he was "pallin' around with terrorists," he coolly ignored me. When I begged him to replace his let's-look-forward-not-backward rhetoric with a promise to hold Bush lawbreakers accountable, it seemed like he didn't even hear me. And since his strategy clearly worked, it turned out to be a good thing that he blew me off.
I don't think that President Obama is in a policy bubble, that he's not doing what I want him to do because there's no one in the White House forcefully making my case to him. On the contrary, I'm pretty sure that in every decision he makes, the political, moral and policy pros and cons are all starkly in front of him. Nor is it plausible to me that he lacks the smarts and values to know the right thing, or the courage to do the right thing, or that he's become a captive of the Washington insider/corporate media establishment, or that he's a bait-and-switch President who ran as a Democrat but governs as a post-partisan.
On the other hand, I don't have to agree with Obama all the time. In fact, it's my responsibility to be loud and clear when he lets me down.
During the Bush years, I was astonished by the ability of Republicans to walk in lockstep, to justify everything the administration did, to bend themselves into a pretzel in order to claim that night is day and black is white. On the Hill, among the interest groups, in the right-wing echo chamber, there was no lie too blatant or hypocrisy too appalling to be saluted as sweet reason.
Obama doesn't get that kind of treatment, nor should he. There's no reason his supporters on the left should suck it up and defend him when we disagree with him. Tough love for him is a sign of respect. Sure, vocal dissent runs the risk of propagating a media meme: "Obama's in trouble with his base, but where are they going to go?" But so what if criticism plays into that narrative? After eight years of dissent being demonized as unpatriotic, it's a relief to be mixing it up again.
This is my column from The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. You can read more of my columns here, and e-mail me there if you'd like.
He hasn't delivered.
Obama's team is obviously playing on a media-political level that Democrats have never seen and Republicans thought they'd mastered . They know that to be seen moving towards a political objective is to invite attack, but that to be seen as being moved by mass opinion towards a desired outcome is to fend off attack. It's a little less chivalrous than the "this is what I stand for and I'm going to get it by going straight for it" technique, but it's what's going to allow them to pass legislation that people actually want while bypassing well crafted Republican talking points.
What strikes me in your post is all of the rationalization you've been going through which I can relate to but the disappointments are piling up high and fast.
Sure Americans want bipartisanship but since nearly all of the moderates and independents have left the GOP; just who is Obama trying to seek common ground with? Virgil Goode? Michelle Bachman? There's nobody left in the GOP but crazy hardliner far right wing idealogues. They don't want to work with him anyway, all they want is to be back in power and for him to only serve one term.
Americans want their government to work for them a hell of a lot more than they want Obama to play nicely with a political group. We don't want to suffer for his high minded pragmatism. Most Americans really want Single-Payer health care. Not a corporate written hafl-assed version that's just going to further break the backs of the middle-class. I see too much Clinton in him at this point, caring more about his image than the issues.
Clinton blew a lot of political capital with Ask Don't Tell and Health Care Reform. Though the effort was courageous and well intended, it only cemented the Republican opposition and started Limbaugh's career. After that, he had to spend the remaining 7 years out-maneuvering the Republican Party by adopting its own platforms like Welfare Reform, Deregulation and NAFTA. It wasn't about the Democratic platform, it was about political survival.
Obama only won with 52% of the vote, and is too sharp to thow all of his capital into a single initiative which can further erode what support he won. Does it have to become a choice between Gay Rights or Ending the War? Fixing the economy or fixing health care?
I believe he indends to do all that he promised, but first he has to change Washington. The first bellweather will be his first nominee to the Supreme Court, then the mid-term elections. The final test will be the 2012 election, when the Republican party completely self destructs. After that, will come the reform he promised in his second term.
I had kittens when I was young. When you first get a kitten they are so cute and cuddly. But they pee and crap all over the place until you house train them. How do you do that? There is one very fast and fool proof way. Rub their noses in their crap.
The President has stated he will not release photos of torture carried out by the U.S. The argument is that this release would endanger the lives of Americans. Meanwhile, it’s obvious the photos would implicate the U.S. and the Obama administration, even though the torture was carried out in the previous administration.
Our country and our leaders need to have their noses rubbed in the crap they do. They need to take a good long look at the death, pain, suffering and destruction these wars are. Look at the lost limbs, the dead infants and toddlers, the devastated families, the broken bodies of our GIs, their broken families, their lost wages of never being able to work again. Take a good long hard look at those pictures, show them to the American people and then once again. tell us why these wars are so necessary. Tell us why wars that proliferate terrorism, instead of quelling it, are necessary.
http://stopwar.lafilmonline.com/?p=7
If the US is not careful we are going to get hit again for the same reasons that brought the nation 9/11. It will be a sad day - yet we WILL NOT be able to pretend that we didn't know. We will be able to say that we chose to ignore the information provided to us.
How long will you last? We voted this man in to fix this country, wish is not and easy or simple task. Let the man do his work without the constant whining.
You can disagree without being disagreeable, cant you?
Obama is showing fear and a lack of courage when it comes to torture and accountability. We cannot believe in that BS!
When Obama gives us Change - as in REFORM - not just Wall Street Bailouts- I believe that we will support him every step of the way.
Right now - Obama seems to have "father issues" with the Republican Party. If the Republicans are only 21% Why doesn't he take the remaining 80% and put through an agenda that would make everyone feel that the system has Changed.
"Nor is it plausible to me that he lacks the smarts and values to know the right thing, or the courage to do the right thing, or that he's become a captive of the Washington insider/corporate media establishment, or that he's a bait-and-switch President who ran as a Democrat but governs as a post-partisan."
I SAY (and I worked hard for and donated to Obama):
ALL that is entirely plausible to me. And you said it well.
I think:
-- He is not as smart or deep as we hoped he was.
-- He is not only not a great speaker, he is often shockingly inarticulate.
-- His values (as reflected in his actions not his words) are certainly not mine.
-- He was always a captive of corporate America, and it continues with Summers/Geithner.
-- He does bait-and-switch ... and say-one-thing-do-another every day.
-- He is neither Democrat nor Republican. He has no discernible core beyond an affinity for authoritarians and militarists.
How many times must he betray his own candidacy before progressives become incensed?
Obama is a blank canvas upon which, with his encouragement, we have painted our hopes and dreams. But sadly he simply is not who we thought he was. It's time to get that.
Seems like you people are doing exactly what the repugs want you to do.
Expect miracles and if you don't get satisfaction when you want it, scream and gnash your teeth about how disappointed you are... please grow up
His positions have evolved, which is politico speak for backtracking. The only side of the aisle he pays attention to now are the conservatives. I fear what kind of SCOTUS justice he will nominate to please the Republicans so he can get his pick approved unanimously to make him look like some kind of bipartisan hero.
The American people overwhelmingly support Single-Payer, deciding not to do anything on torture isn't looking forward...it's covering up a crime. High minded pragmatism is fine for policy debate but when it involves human rights issues such as DADT which he publicly promised to change and sadistic torture to justify a war, it just doesn't apply.
I am a progressive and I am incensed, a lot of my progressive friends are too. It's time for MoveOn, PFAW, PDA et al to get off their asses and show Obama some tough love. They'd have a lot of support.