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The Bite of Obama
President Obama has had an awful couple of months by all accounts. The economy is in the tank (again), there is growing evidence that his base is starting to lose patience with him and the debt-ceiling deal proved once and for all that the Tea Party have tangible power in Washington (did I miss anything).
Since the debt-ceiling deal the media have been peddling the Republican Party’s three year old narrative – Obama strong enough to be President – a narrative which some on the left have began to pick up. This is a narrative which I have found hilarious since this was the same President who ordered a bunch of US Seals to put a bullet in Osama Bin Laden’s eye. Lets also not forget the dead Somali pirates who met the same fate.
Also legislatively, it would be very difficult to call this President a failure. He has passed a Health-Care bill which had been the stuff of dreams for many years in the Democratic Party, he passed the stimulus bill, hate crimes bill, financial reform and he repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The (credible) argument is that he could have done so much more, but if his accomplishments were being painted as gross overreach by Republicans in the 2010 elections, a mid-term election period which they stomped to victory, how would they have been perceived if the Democrats pushed for every minor thing they wanted.
The notion that there are some Democrats out there who are seriously thinking about primarying this President is mind blowing. The very thought that they would consider practically crippling this President and guaranteeing a Republican victory because Obama was not the version of a Democratic George Bush is worrying indeed. You hear Democrats fearing for the state of women’s rights, union rights, gay rights in America and the Citizen’s United judgement in the Supreme Court but yet entertain the thought of not fully supporting President Obama is… well, you get the idea.
There is real reasons to be disappointed with President Obama if you are of a Democratic leaning – but those reasons are not big enough or convincing enough to contemplate staying at home or supporting another candidate in 2012.
Political discipline, this is what I have always admired Republicans for – heck I admired their dangerous political discipline during the debt ceiling debates. The Democrats have to find a bit of that discipline going into 2012.
21 Responses to “The Bite of Obama”
Just who are these Democrats who are “seriously thinking about primarying this President?” It seems premature to say that their primary efforts will cripple Obama or guarantee a Republican victory without even knowing who they are.
Dalitso, Obama is of course the lesser of two evils (it’s easy to say this even without knowing who his opponent will be since the GOP no longer has any credibility with people for whome standards still matter and who can think for themselves) but some of us are tired of being held hostage to a two party system that encourages voters to settle for less every four years. This “settling” over time seems to have taken all accountability out of the system and has left us with undo corporate influence and tribal-centric voters. If progressive democrats allow themselves to be coerced into voting for Obama because the alternative is a whacko, then they have given up what little power they have. Why should they acquiesce to that celebration of low expectations? It’s one thing to vote for someone who has convinced you they can walk the walk, but quite another to vote for them after seeing they don’t actually walk all that well. As for that HCR bill being “the stuff of dreams”, ah… well, I think the hyperbole there is kind of off the charts. It isn’t like any dream I’ve ever had.
It’s easy to not be afraid of some foreign nutjob, and order their death. That’s not where the fear lies.
Obama’s real fear is the American people, and the angry division of the nation.
Here is his problem: Ideology.
He’s firmly set on holding what he perceives as the “Moral High Ground”, at the expense of the National Economy. It will cost him this election.
People are making the choice to cut Government agencies and programs in order to fix economic woes, and these are unthinkable actions for Obama.
The idea of shrinking the EPA and it’s influence will anger the Environmentalists.
The idea of shrinking SS will anger the Elderly, and Handicapped.
The idea of shrinking Healthcare will anger people across the board.
The problem is that there is no money to cover these things anymore, even if we as a Nation are morally obligated to.
Add to that: There are 100′s of useless Federal Agencies that have little-to-no effect on the daily lives of the people. These agencies are viewed as “jobs for the people”, and Obama sticks to his guns for them, but “Superfluous Positions of Employment” is not the Federal Government’s job, nor should it ever be.
I think the Democratic party wants a hero with an “Abraham Lincoln Legacy”, but it’s going to be written in history more as a “Carter Legacy”.
Don’t worry…the far-left likes to fantasize about putting Obama through a primary. They’ll never do it. They either don’t have the conviction or the balls.
The “Right” don’t have the moral fortitude to tell the truth in their public speeches. Lies rule the day on their political stump. Well formed by the Limbaugh’s and Hannity’s into propaganda artists, they only reflect the dumb Americans and compete for that minority.
Primary or not, President Obama will remain president for a second term and the world knows it.
Funny how the Carter meme is picking up steam. While it isn’t the accurate analogy it’s not hard to understand why it might appeal to conservatives.
Shannon makes a good point. That said, if progressives feel they are being ignored and sidelined they will vote 3rd party in greater numbers than they did last time around.
Stray mongrel, the elderly do indeed vote in high numbers, and even if they perceive Obama not to be sufficiently protective of SS, they still won’t be senile enough en masse to vote out of the frying pan and into the fire.
It’s a pity we don’t have IRV.
I am retired, handicapped, and rely on SS as my primary income, but won’t vote for Obama, unless he can radically turn around the financial situation in this nation.
Which is something he has demonstrated the ability to make worse, not better.
The analogy with Carter is that Obama’s a first-term Democratic president facing intractable economic problems, whose efforts to control spending are meeting resistance from the left wing of his party. Okay so far as it goes, but it doesn’t account for Obama’s much greater personal charisma, the hyper-polarized political environment he works in, and Obama’s better fortunes in foreign affairs; Obama will be remembered as the man who got bin Laden, Carter as the man who launched Desert One.
It’s Democrats and liberals also making recent news with Carter references, don’t forget (any longer).
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As for “primary-ing” Obama, the far left is just silly, as usual. If they’re slackers, they deserve to be the difference in getting not Obama, but a Republican elected President. (I suspect that once the liberal media start drum-beating during the serious campaign season, they’ll be moved not to permit a GOP victory.)
Read Stray Mongrel’s comment. As I said above, they are a minority and thank God for it.
I don’t know about recent news, but I coined the “Carter” thing before he won the election.
I will remember him as “The President that meant well”.
Which is how I remember Carter. Great guy, lousy President.
Stray Mongrel-
Yeah, who are you going to vote for? Everybody else wants to cut your income.
The President may be having a difficult time holding back the heathen T-baggers trying desperately to cut your entitlement income, but he is fighting for you directly and specifically.
The president is not the cause on our nation’s current economic situation, but he is the foremost member of government trying to prevent people like you from being the scapegoat for the problem by the Republican party, whom want to correct our economic problem by taking away YOUR income.
Vote against the president if you wish, but you are cutting off your nose to spite your own face. It’s just dumb.
JS, liked your the better of two lousy choices analogy. Too true. Things are pretty bad when someone who has not voted for a Dem in a national election is thinking of voting for Obama. I’m quacking up.
Whoever wins the White House, they are not going to throw Disabled Americans under the bus, that type of talk is just nonsense.
We have to face reality.
“We” are facing reality. Washington is not.
Stray Mongrel-
Apparently you do not understand what “cut entitlements means”.
Hope you see the light before election day.
“The problem is that there is no money to cover these things anymore”
It is called raising revenue, taxes.
closing loopholes
decreasing defense spending
ending wars
cuts in spending and increases in revenue… and we don’t have to kick grandma to the curb.
Or, off a cliff…….
Tax reform is essential; simply raising taxes is not (though it will be eventually, when the Baby Boomers retire), and certainly leftist corruption of tax policy such as class warfare gimmicks or too-high tax increases is not. (And if liberals say Washington needs to spend more to revive the economy, they’re hypocritical to seek tax increases as the same time. Not that they’ve never been hypocritical.) Tax changes that aren’t primarily or exclusively about reform, rather than just tax increases, aren’t serious.
Spending is the problem, and entitlements are the core. Any budget without spending reform isn’t serious; any avoidance of entitlement reform is by definition not serious, a huge black mark or instant disqualification of any budget plan. (This includes the recent plan full of gimmicks that Congress created and that the President signed. In addition to the fighting by politicians about overdue reform, it’s no wonder why S&P lost confidence.)
You really need to get outside your own echo chamber more often. Most reasonable commenters here have already agreed that cuts AND taxes must take place. Try unhitching yourself from all that liberal-hate pathology once, just to make sure it’s still even possible. Either you don’t see how poisonous your behavior is or you don’t care. I wouldn’t hazard a guess as to which it is at this point.
President Obama has accomplished much. We all must remember on whose watch bin Laden was captured and eliminated from this earth. It was President Obama who gave the order and began our healing, but somehow that accomplishment has been overshadowed by the “party of no” and the fanatical TP. The president has my support and my vote.