As every economist has pointed out, the stimulus prevented the economy from tanking further. And, of course, private sector jobs have increased and continue to do so; unemployment is fueled by the loss of state and local governmental jobs, which it is politically impossible to get support for in Congress.
The problem is that Americans think only in headlines and soundbites, and act like cranky two-year-olds if they don’t get exactly what they want. They’d rather get nothing than a partial victory. But partial victories has always been the way things progressed in the US. Nothing ever came out of one fell swoop.
It’s delusional to think that a full public health option could be passed by Congress these days (and if the Supreme Court is going to declare the current law unconstitutional, they’re no less likely to declare the public option unconstitutional). If Obama is so weak as a president, why is it that health care – something that’s been pushed by Democratic presidents since at least FDR – managed to get signed into law?
What the US needs right now is more grown-ups in government, not overgrown two-year-olds. The problem is that too many voters are just overgrown two-year-olds who cry “I want! I want! I want!” and are refused to accept anything other than everything.
Obama is a grown-up. He also got a lot more from the Republicans than they got from him, even though his negotiating position was extremely weak. My respect for him over this deal has further increased.
The only health insurance I have is Medicare. I don’t have dependents under the age of 26 and Medicare does have limits on what it pays. Your sauce isn’t sauce for me. Where is my benefit when our elected officials want to put my insurance on the chopping block?
Where the hell did you get the idea that a President can repeal a law? DADT is not an executive order; it is a law. And it doesn’t take a ConLaw prof to know that, it only takes staying awake in Civics class.
Obama is not married to the label “Democrat”. He has said he would not run the country with an eye on getting re-elected. He said he will make decisions logically and based on the best interest of the middle class. I don’t think he really understood how much time and effort the Republicans would spend trying to screw him over, so he is doing his best to deal with that.
Basically, I got what I paid for and I’m OK with that.
I agree with most of what you said but eight years of the Bush administration have caused me to change my standards. Obama may not be accomplishing much but at least he’s not actively making things worse.
DADT is institutionalized bigotry. I doubt the supreme court could dig up a way to OK treating a segment of our population as 2nd class citizens.The service should do the right thing. DADT should be scrapped and serving in the military should be open to all.
Palin was a shock. It showed McCains desperation and demonstrated his willingness to stick an incompetent in a very important position to save his presidential ambitions. He did not know she was not very bright, greedy and untrainable . He took the light off the Democratic Convention and turned it back on him. She just failed miserably. If she actually brought something to the stage it would have been a great move.
I think Obama has pretty much sold out and I think we will have another eight years like we had under the last administration and it frustrates the hell out of me. I had at least expected Obama to fight.
The outrage over the prison in Guantanamo was related to the human rights and Constitutional rights violations that are occurring there. The problem is that there are people being held indefinitely without trial, without legal representation, without the rights that they deserve under the US Constitution. There’s no need to build another prison or move prisoners. The location of the prisoners is not the issue.
All Obama has to do is issue an executive order that says that the civil rights guaranteed under the US Constitution are not limited to the physical borders of the states. They also apply persons under US control in other locations, including prisoners and detainees of the US Military.
Next time, let’s not nominate a Blue Dog or Black Caucus Dem & expect a progressive.
The OP is excessively binary. The GOP don’t want Barry Obama either. He’s a centrist.
I think the fact Obama’s vapid little campaign managed to squeak out a victory even as he alienated local Democrat organizations around the country shows how tired of Bush’s wars the country was. The Dems might have won with a John Edwards or a Dennis Kucinich, & instead we gave it to Joe Black Caucus Blue Dog from Chicago. We were timid, & compromising.
I want to see the tepid twerp primaried–well, challenged, anyway–but we need a left-wing Pat Buchanan to do it.
OK, that’s a bit strong. I like Barry O, I do. But he’s not a voice of the left by any stretch.
You think the Dems would have had a chance with John Edwards, considering his marriage problems? Or Dennis Kucinich? The only realistic candidates were Obama or Hillary Clinton. Either probably would have won. I don’t see that there would have been much difference in their policies.
She is a scary decoy. Guys like me thought the country would never vote for a hard-hearted asshole like Reagan, or a smirking hard-hearted idiotic asshole like W. We were wrong. Many people love their inner-smirking-hard-hearted-asshole and will vote for Palin.
Obama is currently very angry at lefties like me because we hate and loathe his Bush tax cut deal. Nice to see old Mr. Cool get as angry as he has made some of us. By trying to touch the payroll tax in a Republican way, he has made me willing to back an opponent in the primaries and hope he doesn’t run again. But he’s gonna run and he is gonna win anyone foolish enough to run against him in the primaries.
He now has a full-fledged revolt on his hands in his own party in Congress. I could take Bill Clinton’s moderatism, but Obama doesn’t seem to understand that Republicans and their primary policy: to obstruct running the country when a Democrat is President.
You guys have a wildly wrong idea of what it takes to get elected and enact policies in this country. You think Dennis Kucinich could have won? You think Obama is weak for caving, but you think the GOP are a bunch of nihilists who want to do nothing but obstruct? It just doesn’t make any sense. You’re lucky the smart Democrats elected Obama and actually passed more Democratic legislation than has been passed in 40 years instead of electing Kucinich who would have lost or someone else who would have acted like Bush and gotten nothing done like Bush.
I suspect your post would be even more incoherent if I knew your posting history. Why don’t you explain why it suddenly makes sense from a right-wing perspective, or whatever?