Obama's Pattern of Accommodation
This is the singular Obama style evident on major domestic issues. The process begins with a firm statement of the problem, a clarion call for action, and a pledge to force change. Then, there is the period of eerie calm -- no plan is unveiled, no campaign strategy executed. There ensues an opaque, slow-motion free-for-all involving a fractured Congress, advocates, lobbies and the media with the White House staff operating in the shadows behind the scenes. Among the protagonists are the very parties that are the cause of the problem.
The very idea of a compelling national interest gets lost in the melee. Obama makes brief public appearances punctuated by further proclamations of the imperative to act, still without any specifics or sustained effort. Whatever comes out of this muddle is declared historic and promising. Thus the ramshackle approach taken toward the financial crisis.
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You're suggesting he's been given the power of a god who can wave his arm and his will be done. It's a two dimensional perspective in a four dimensional world. Many comments assume the same. Give your heads a collective shake. It's not a board game anymore.
You just don't get it, slg. These people do not assume that the man is a god, or that he has unlimited power to change the world or the country. Say what you will, it's not that they are naive; it's that they want the meaningful change this man promised. No, not even that is right. What they want is for this President to keep his word, to at least try to keep the promises he made to the American people. In that regard, this President is failing, and it's a failure of choice.
It's not that they assume he has the power to prevail in all he attempts. It's that they know what he promised and that, while he still has the support of the American people in meaningful numbers, he's chosen not to try. He's forsaken his promises to the American people on the big issues.
It's time for those making excuses for this President's failure to lead as he said he would, to acknowledge the truth. This President is not the man we thought he was, and not the President he said he'd be.
I am afraid you may be right. I am giving him time on healthcare. All the time he wants to do it right. But Wall Street is a different matter all together.
He has been completely snookered by his advisers. He is in way over his head. He must use atomic weapons on these people. He must use force in every way imaginable.
Wall Street is now an out and out a criminal enterprise that has corrupted our financial system to within an inch of death.
In any other time in history in any other nation these people would be executed by the state plain and simple. We are a civilized nation. For us it must be settled by laws. The Congress and Senate of the United States have failed the people. They have completely failed to do their jobs. We need righteous force of law. As a state we should have executed Bernie Madoff to send a message. Every Congressman and Senator that voted to essentially repeal Glass-Steagal and then pass the Commodities and Futures Modernization Act should be so publicly exposed that they need private security protection as traitors in fear for their lives. What has been done to us is THAT bad.
Our President must get angry. Fiercely angry. He must clean house like Jesus got mad and threw the money lenders out of the Temple. I am sorry to say this because I greatly admire the man. But Jesus had a pair. Does Obama?
Wow, you guys are geniuses. You have declared Obama's legacy after 6 months.
I am sorry to say I agree with the writer. We need so much more than palliatives for the Wall Street fiasco. President Obama's prescriptions are little more than aspirin. The big Wall Street Privateers need to be dismantled. No more too big to fail. Nothing could be clearer. Please all of you commenters, write Obama and your Congressmen. We want accountability on Wall Street. That means more than shadowy regulation.
That's exactly what Obama's proposing we be able to do with the Fed.
President Obama has been presented with historic challenges and historic opportunities. And time after time he goes out of his way to prove he's just not the man to deal with either one.
Please cite examples.
Agreed. The evidence is in. The pattern is clear.
"Among the protagonists are the very parties that are the cause of the problem," Mr. Brenner said. That's right, but weak! In fact, the very parties who caused the problems are appointed members of the Obama administration and are writing/co-writing the legislation. As Arianna has said, and as Rolling Stone magazine recently made explicitly clear, Goldman Sachs is Exhibit A of the pile of proof. Obama is enabling further corporate control of our government.
We don't have a democracy. We don't have a representative democracy. We voted for the candidate promising what we wanted done. That's supposed to work in a "democracy
Surprise?
...and Hillary or McCain would have been better? Not a chance.
Michael,
You're preaching to the choir. This president has failed to show any real commitment for real change. Its time we supporters of the president start to realize the president has big bark and no bite.
nothing we can really believe in... just another pathetic politician
got no hope...
. I agree completely.
Look at the stimulus package for example. It Included more tax cuts than stimulus to win over Republicans, but not a single one voted for it in the house. Virtually every credible economist said tax cuts will not create jobs or spur the economy in any meaningful way. Yet, Obama pushed the bill as it was written.
Here is the problem . It's not the bill he wanted, but If it fails, he will take all the blame.
I expect the same type of passivity on healthcare.
The simple fact is he is not a strong leader. He is a preacher and his gospel is compromise and accommodation.
Tax cut in the stimulus package is for middle-class. It was not calculated to satisfy Republicans but was part of President Obama’s campaign. Please check your facts before going for the sharp knives.
Yeah I saw that too and my heart just sank. I was afraid then it was a sign of things to come. I wish I'd been wrong.
Edmonsky, That $100 Billion tax cut (alternative minimum tax relief) is part of the stimulus bill. And, Just like the pork, it's part of the gross number that was declared by the president to be a stimulus package. AMT relief should have been a separate bill which would have forced the Republicans into a corner. How could they have voted against that separate piece of legislation?
Obama continues to disappoint.
He has been a sad disapointment so far and not at all the person he claimed to be. Where is the Obama we voted for? I'm pissed.
Mr. Michael Brenner has made the most compelling argument that fleshes out the character of President Obama’s administration. He got it right. But he is speaking the language of ivory-tower liberal more analogous to a spider in a web, very decorative and fanciful but inactive. There is world of difference between academic expositions and pragmatic realities. President Obama is a deadly silent finisher. How he dealt with Hilary Clinton’s campaign bears eloquent testimony to his strategic way of doing things.
For instance, some liberals and progressives have suggested that President Obama should forget about trying to work with Republicans because they are not interested in co-operating with him. But the missed the critical point. Obama is forcing Republicans into accepting branding themselves as obstructionist party and see President Obama as a person who reaches out to others. While Republicans are at it, President Obama is going over their head in Washington and taking his message to the heartland America. If President Obama was drawing line in sand as some of these liberals would like him to do, he would have earned the definition of liberal political ideologue in the minds of the electorates. Hence, he would start losing political capital if he is seen as another pol highly intent at advancing liberal political ideologies.
So when does that "strategy" begin to translate into satisfying the needs and wishes of Americans?
Let's just use "health care reform" as but one example of the major domestic policy issues of the moment. Clearly judging by the polls there is massive support for single payer health care funding, yet it's not even out for discussion. How's he going to be a "deadly silent finisher" on this in favor of it?
What is President Obama saving his "political capital" for if not to satisfy the requirements of the vast majority of the people?
You're joking, right? Brenner a liberal? He's about a half a heartbeat away from joining the neocon club.
THANK YOU!
THIS WAS MUCH NEEDED TO BE SAID!
PRESIDENT OBAMA, PLEASE WAKE UP!
Thank you for voicing what many have come to realize but not articulate, Michael Brenner. Glad to see you bloging here and hopefully we'll get more of your insight. President Backtrack Obama indeed!
I find it surprising how passionless he is. Everything is said with a calm demeanor in the same voice. He seems more concerned with framing the issue than doing anything about it. We will have four years of great lost opportunity.
The DOMA brief was forceful, though.
John Aravosis:
http://www
"I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us.
Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued that our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).
He actually argued that the courts shouldn't consider Loving v. Virginia, the miscegenation case in which the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to ban interracial marriages, when looking at gay civil rights cases. He told the court, in essence, that blacks deserve more civil rights than gays, that our civil rights are not on the same level.
Bush, Reagan and Clinton all filed briefs in court opposing current federal law as being unconstitu
He didn't write the D A M N DOMA brief!!!!
His DOJ DID! DOJ is under the Executive Branch. He damn well should have known about it.
Thanks Superstition! and He NEVER APOLOGIZED FOR THE DOMA BRIEF. I saw a CNN Poll where a large majority (70%) of respondents agreed that BO had thrown his gay supporters under the bus. I was happy to see that so many people "get that."
I get the feeling that Obama is more interested in being the center of attention; being exalted and just being the guy in charge....
There is a definite unwillingness to make the hard decisions, and I dare say to be honest with Americans about the limitation of the government particularly in light of the debacle left by the GOP
we have a rehashing of the same democratic ideas and like the Repubs they will be soundly rejected in the not so distant future. How about taking some of the best ideas of the Repubs and merging them with the best from the Dems to create a new paradigm rather than capitulating to the Dems' political whims?
I don't see any theme or belief system that has been put forth by the administration , no higher vision regarding where he believes America ascend to nor any road map outlining how we will get there...
Even though it has been only 6 months, I too am getting tired of the endless platitudes and publicity stunts the pseudo townhall/campaign stops/ infomercials followed by inactivity and as you stated the wait for someone else to solve the nation's problems or even to put forth an idea
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