We are already seeing this on the SDMB. Obama supporters are being disappointed/enraged/whatever by his choices as he prepares to take office. E.g., his choices of longtime Beltway insiders as opposed to his promises of “Change”.
The question is: what has he already done to make you say “Wait, what?”, or what might he do in the future to make you say “Wait, what?”?
MODS: This is more of a IMHO, but I suspect it will end up in GD.
I think the people complaining about “beltway insiders” in Obama’s administration were generally not Obama supporters to begin with – just people looking to complain. If he picks people who know how to get things done in Washington, he gets accused of not being “Changy” enough, and if he picks picks people who aren’t familiar with Washington politics, he’d get flack for their “inexperience.”
Really, when Obama talked about “Change”, he was talking about change relative to the Bush administration. His primary criticism of McCain was that he was not a big enough change from Bush. I don’t see any evidence that Obama is bringing in people who are too politically similar to Bush’s inner circle.
By the way, what exactly is the point of starting a thread to complain about things that Obama might hypothetically do? Would it be so bad to at least wait until he’s sworn in before declaring what a disappointment he is?
Indeed. If one can work themselves up two months before the guy even takes office, they’re looking at four years of self-inflicted agony.
He’s a President-Elect, not a beatification candidate. He’s gonna screw up sooner or later, and probably in some particularly impressive and entertaining fashion as all past Presidents have and all future Presidents will, but there’s no point fretting about it.
This is just the Right gearing themselves up for another ‘whatever it takes’ attempt to harass an ‘illegitimate,’ as in ‘not Republican’ President on any grounds whatsoever.
He didn’t make me Secretary of Pie. Bastard.
I’ve often complained of my deteriorating memory but I don’t recall any Obama supporters on the SDMB being enraged by Obama’s choices of assistants, cabinet members, etc., etc. Some people may have been disappointed in some of his choices but enraged seems a little severe.
Here is a story from MSNBC that I read this morning; it seems to me the OP must have read the same story.
Since he hasn’t done anything yet, nothing has garnered that reaction from me. In the future – not putting a plan in motion to withdraw troops, not attempting to enact a health care plan, or not following through on promises of transparency would do the trick.
It’s really strange to hear the “That’s not change!” mantra, especially if you pay attention to the reasons it’s being claimed. For instance, in another thread, Shodan has asserted that Obama’s current tax policy is strongly reminiscent of Bush’s. In the words of the OP – Wait, what? I also saw a Maddow segment on MSNBC probing the question; my exact thought was, “If that’s what you think ‘change’ is, then you weren’t paying attention to anything he’s said for the past two years.”
I get the feeling we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this in the near future. Hopefully, once he, y’know, actually starts governing, it’ll die off somewhat.
And y’all are who?
Didn’t know Shodan was an Obama supporter/worshiper/whatever.
I disagree.
Maybe MPSIMS. You might be able to suck a few people in over there.
There’s potential disillusionment, but I think the actual disillusionment probably looks overstated due to the fact that the press is starting to look for it, and Dopers (who are more politically active than most people and also largely on the left) are more likely to be disappointed than most other groups.
I’ve seen the same question asked in several of these threads, and I’ve asked it myself: if people are disappointed with his appointments and hirings, who or what did they expect? If you’re picking someone to run a federal bureaucracy or trying to get laws passed, why wouldn’t you want someone with experience in the DC world?
I myself am planning to be heartbroken when he vetoes the “Everybody Gets a Kitten” Act in 2011.
I practice in front of a mirror three hours a day.
So what you are saying is that people are not blindly and unquestioningly following Obama like he is the Messiah? You mean people are not blindly and unquestioningly approving everything he does? Isn’t this a good thing and a sign of intelligent people? You make it sound like something negative but what I find negative is the people who followed GWB no matter what and would have voted for him and his policies no matter what.
I was critical of GWB and I will be critical of Obama when he does things which I don’t like. And he has already done some things which I am not entirely in agreement with. So what? He is a million times better choice than McCain.
I find it starnge that obama is hiring the same gang of lowlifes (rom the Clinton adminstrations), who started us on the road to ruin. All of this amounts to one thing: hyperinflation.
Buy gold.
I’ve been disappointed at his support of the auto bailout. But when I mentioned it I got jumped on by people screaming that he isn’t president yet so I can’t judge. I don’t see why I can’t have opinion on things he does before he is president. Shrug.
Most of my “Wait, what?” moments have been in reaction to the complaints. With all the bitching here and elsewhere about Eric Holder I had assumed the man had been caught felching puppies, but the worst I could find was that he’d advised Clinton about a pardon in a potentially inappropriate manner. Oh noes!
I’m saving my outrage for Dr Pepper. And the kitten thing. Dammit, I want free soda AND free kittens.
Screw that! Buy guns, point them at people with gold, and say, “Gimme!” 
I shouldn’t need to say this, but yes, I’m kidding.
I’m a Republican, but pretty much favored Obama over McCain. At the start, I was actually kind of crazy about Obama. I wasn’t swept up in Obama-mania, but I did really like him. As time went on, I became disillusioned over some things, but at the end, I still favored him.
The main reason was his message of change. I thought, and he made it seem, that he was talking about complete change. I really didn’t think he mean change ONLY from the Bush, and a return to the Clinton administration, but change from all of it. I guess I was just naive.
You might think so, but the second-guessing is already starting. That’s inevitable given the high expectations Obama accepted from his movement (and yes, it was something more than a “campaign”). Also inevitable in light of all the urgent problems everyone wants solved now.
And there really is something reasonable to it, or so says William Greider:
How is he “returning to the Clinton Administration”? By appointing a few Clinton insiders? Important to remember that Cabinet posts are not entry level jobs, so finding people with experience is both necessary and wise.
It would certainly qualify as CHANGE if Obama appointed Joe the Plumber as Secretary of the Treasury and my Aunt Edna as Secretary of State, but is that the type of drastic change you were hoping for?
Anyone who thought Obama wouldn’t govern as a slightly left leaning pragmatic moderate in the later Clinton mold wasn’t paying a lick of attention to him during the campaign. He stated his policies pretty clearly on his website and in his book.
Also I think with the various crises and wars he’s inheriting he’s not going to be able to much more than clean up and crisis management.
Frankly, outside of HRC herself, I like his appointments.