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11-22-2011, 07:50 AM   #1
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Why Obama still matters

This I find an excellent summary - I haven't had the chance to read the New York articles yet, but they sound good as well.
Why Obama Still Matters - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast

QuoteQuote:
The one thing I noticed in my continental run-around this past week is just how mad liberals are at Obama. I remain as baffled by this anger as I am by Republican contempt for the guy. New York magazine has two superb essays that sum up my own feelings on both sides pretty perfectly - by Jon Chait and David Frum. Chait notes how systemic and eternal liberal disenchantment is, and how congenitally useless Democrats are in rallying round a leader, even one who has achieved so much in such a short time. Many Dems even now think Clinton was more successful in fighting the GOP in his first term than Obama has been. (Memo to the left: universal healthcare was achieved under Obama). But much of this is the usual Democratic limpness and whininess. If George Bush had taken out Osama bin Laden, wiped out al Qaeda's leadership and gathered a treasure trove of real intelligence by a daring raid, he'd be on Mount Rushmore by now. If he'd done the equivalent on the right of universal healthcare, he'd be the second coming of Reagan. But Obama and liberals? If I hear one more gripe about single payer from someone in their fifties with a ponytail, I'll scream.

But the right is more unhinged and more dangerously full of denial. Since I was never structurally or financially or socially linked to the Washington right, I was immune to the withdrawal of jobs, money and access doled out to any dissenter in the Bush years. But every now and again, I get some kind of amazed look - "You're not going to back Obama again, are you?" - from someone in the conservative cocoon, and when I respond, "So far, you bet!", there is often a long pause and a genuine sadness on their faces. "What the hell happened to him?" you can hear them asking themselves.

Some of this is as head-scratching for me as it is for David:
Some of the smartest and most sophisticated people I know—canny investors, erudite authors—sincerely and passionately believe that President Barack Obama has gone far beyond conventional American liberalism and is willfully and relentlessly driving the United States down the road to socialism. No counterevidence will dissuade them from this belief: not record-high corporate profits, not almost 500,000 job losses in the public sector, not the lowest tax rates since the Truman administration. It is not easy to fit this belief alongside the equally strongly held belief that the president is a pitiful, bumbling amateur, dazed and overwhelmed by a job too big for him—and yet that is done too.
Did you get the impression from the GOP debates that Obama had lowered taxes? That he had not nationalized but saved the banks? That he had dispatched Osama and Qaddafi? That he had 60 percent support for a sane and succcessful foreign policy? That he was an exemplar of all those social values conservatives say they support: a model husband and father, a black man who has eschewed identity politics almost entirely, a president whose speeches are among the most intellectually Christian of any in modern times? This strange, bizarre hostility to him I put down to displaced anger at Bush, to cultural panic among the old, but also to a wider propaganda support system that is truly a sight to behold:

Outside this alternative [conservative media] reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy *errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he’s a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action *phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) “the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from.”

The constant American exceptionalism point - taken to an absurd degree - is a function of neurosis not patriotism. It comes out n the weirdest ways - in the Christanist roundtable last weekend, Gingrich actually said that America was the only country in the world where people saw soldiers as sons, daughters, fathers and mothers. Yes, other nations are full of emotionless robots. But it is not a solution to America being way down the list on a number of variables to insist that we're Number One! always and everywhere. And no amount of this insistence that "conservatives" are the only truly American participants in democracy will help when you have no idea how to cope with the uninsured, with fiscal balance outside a Randian fantasy, with soaring healthcare costs, or debt-crippled demand. David puts it best here:
It’s one thing to point out (accurately) that President Obama’s stimulus plan was mostly a compilation of antique Democratic wish lists, and quite another to argue that the correct response to the worst collapse since the thirties is to wait for the economy to get better on its own. It’s one thing to worry (wisely) about the long-term trend in government spending, and another to demand big, immediate cuts when 25 million are out of full-time work and the government can borrow for ten years at 2 percent. It’s a duty to scrutinize the actions and decisions of the incumbent administration, but an abuse to use the filibuster as a routine tool of legislation or to prevent dozens of presidential appointments from even coming to a vote. It’s fine to be unconcerned that the rich are getting richer, but blind to deny that *middle-class wages have stagnated or worse over the past dozen years. In the aftershock of 2008, large numbers of Americans feel exploited and abused. Rather than workable solutions, my party is offering low taxes for the currently rich and high spending for the currently old, to be followed by who-knows-what and who-the-hell-cares. This isn’t conservatism; it’s a going-out-of-business sale for the baby-boom generation.

It was never my party, but it was one to which I could once accord regular agreement and respect. No more. I remain unrepentant in my support for this president, a man who has accomplished more in the face of a more hostile environment in his first three years than any president since Johnson. I wish more reasonable Dems and a few moderate Republicans will soon have the courage to say so.


11-22-2011, 09:38 AM   #2
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Yep, that's about how I feel about it, Nesster.

At the same time, the 'liberal disenchantment' ...though often overstated, especially when the Right claims it means 'the Left' is also part of some 'Conservative mandate' (whatever suits at the moment) ...is precisely about the fact that half of this country was so enthusiastic about Obama precisely because we believed he'd stand up for our real pluralistic and working-to-middle-class type values, ..and basically lead and inspire the nation through a term of office where 'We're not getting pushed around anymore,' ...of course there's only so much you can do when the Republicans so abused the filibuster, but at the same time, it seems like we got the usual lackluster, conciliatory thing that means 'Republicans somehow manage to turn *losing* into getting most of what they want anyway, while, yes, frustrating those of us who vote Democrat and want real change. '

Part of the problem is that *appearance* of ineffectuality. That's why there's an OWS... cause the democratic process has been so bought out that even an Obama can't seem to budge anything. It's not his *fault,* but a lot of us really were expecting more fire, and more of taking the high ground.
11-22-2011, 09:56 AM   #3
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Given the downward spiral the nation was in it the fall of 08, I think Obama has done a decent job. Does anybody really think McCain would have done better? One political commentator said at the time that whoever got elected was going to become the scapegoat for all the problems of the past administrations. He was right on.
11-22-2011, 11:14 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by reeftool Quote
Given the downward spiral the nation was in it the fall of 08, I think Obama has done a decent job. Does anybody really think McCain would have done better? One political commentator said at the time that whoever got elected was going to become the scapegoat for all the problems of the past administrations. He was right on.
A "right-on" comment!
I think that when 'WE THE PEOPLE' get to finally have their say there is going to be some big surprises for the GOP.

11-22-2011, 11:20 AM   #5
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If the US doesn't want Obama, we'll take him. He would sweep an election for Canadian President.
11-22-2011, 12:50 PM   #6
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I agree! Wasn't he born in Canada anyways? To think of him vs any of our current candidates/assclowns who are in the running for Prime Minister.. We're still better off than the states choices (other than Obama) but not my very much.
11-22-2011, 12:55 PM   #7
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I think Obama was born in the Kenya province of Canada. Lucky for you guys, he can't do much to make Canada more socialist, if he were President of Canada

11-22-2011, 12:57 PM   #8
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QuoteOriginally posted by Chex Quote
We're still better off than the states choices (other than Obama) but not my very much.
I have to disagree with that. I am appalled at the candidates the Republicans have put forward, most especially Cain and Bachmann.

Prime ministers don't have much real power. Certainly not like a President. I want Obama for President.

Last edited by audiobomber; 11-22-2011 at 01:21 PM.
11-22-2011, 12:59 PM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nesster Quote
I think Obama was born in the Kenya province of Canada. Lucky for you guys, he can't do much to make Canada more socialist, if he were President of Canada
He's just to the right of our right-most Conservative party.
11-22-2011, 01:14 PM   #10
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I'm not sure that anyone noticed, but President Obama was recently down here for a brief 'thanks a bunch' tour.

Given the almost hysterical 'pop star' feting he got from our media, and from politicians and commentariate from both sides he would be elected unopposed should he decide to take out Australian citizenry and run for office.

Given the paucity of our current leadership, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

From this distance, he seems to be in a no-win situation. The right keep blaming him for the stuffed up (or deliberate scorched earth) policies of the previous less than stellar President and administration. His message of change and hope pre election set the bar way too high. He gave the impression that by electing him, some sort of magic wand would suddenly appear for him to use to wipe away 30+ years of mal administration of the US economy. Obviously that was never going to happen in one term. The bloody minded intransigence of the GOP in refusing to co-operate with the much needed reforms exacerbate the situation. It is almost Treasonous. The advantages of short term personal and political gain seem (from this distance) to have been put before the National interest. There is nothing Obama can do about that.

Forgive me for commentating from without, rather than within but - While ever there is a deeply held belief by powerful commentators that 'trickle down' Reaganomics is a valid, useful economic policy the USA will never recover from the current malaise. Something more akin to Roosevelts' New Deal needs to be undertaken to put the populace back to work and re-establish pride and the dignity of labour. Poor President Obama does not have the political capital or firepower to pull off such reforms.

Last edited by wizofoz; 11-22-2011 at 09:34 PM.
11-22-2011, 02:42 PM   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by Nesster Quote
I think Obama was born in the Kenya province of Canada. Lucky for you guys, he can't do much to make Canada more socialist, if he were President of Canada
It does not matter as our Prime Minister does not have to be born in Canada. The last not to I think was John Turner (of course he was Prime Minister but never elected as one).

Perhaps we could make him a socialist:
11-22-2011, 03:24 PM   #12
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QuoteOriginally posted by wizofoz Quote
He gave the impression that by electing him, some sort of magic wand would suddenly appear for him to use to wipe away 30+ years of mal administration of the US economy. Obviously that was never going to happen in one term. The bloody minded intransigence of the GOP in refusing to co-operate with the much needed reforms exacerbate the situation. It is almost Treasonous.
Some of us think it IS treasonous......

Along w/ Bush/Cheney being tried for war crimes...... I've got no problem with it..
11-22-2011, 09:27 PM   #13
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Thanks for sharing. My main disappointment with him is how he's let the banks continue their treacherous ways.
11-27-2011, 12:16 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by johnmflores Quote
Thanks for sharing. My main disappointment with him is how he's let the banks continue their treacherous ways.
I don't think "he" makes a lot of the final decisions.. I'm sure he's "told" to do more things than he "decides" to do.
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