“Remember that 3 a.m. phone call? Remember the warning about the rose-colored petals falling from the sky? Remember about learning on the job? Sure you do. Doesn’t a part of you, deep down, realize she was right?” wrote Dickinson, a political-science professor at Middlebury College. “If I heard it once this last week, I heard it a thousand times: You were duped by Obama’s rhetoric—the whole ‘hopey-changey’ thing. And you wanted to be part of history, too—to help break down the ultimate racial barrier. That’s OK. We were all young once. But now it’s time to elect someone who can play hardball, who understands how to be ruthless, who will be a real ... uh ... tough negotiator in office. There won’t be any debate about Hillary’s, er, ‘man-package.'"
Schieffer: I want to show you something. This is an interview that the President had with Matt Lauer of the Today program about a month after he took office in 2009. I just want you to listen to this.
START CLIP
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Look, I'm at the start of my administration. One nice thing about - the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, I've got four years. And -
MATT LAUER: You're gonna know quickly how people feel -
PRESIDENT OBAMA: - and - and -
MATT LAUER: - about what -
PRESIDENT OBAMA: that's exactly right. And - and, you know, a year from now I think people - are gonna see that - we're starting to make some progress. But there's still gonna be some pain out there. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's gonna be a one-term proposition.
END CLIP
Schieffer: So there you are, Mr. Axelrod, that was the President at the start. We're getting right up to that three year point. Is this going to be a one-term presidency?
Axelrod: I think the question is what this election...first of all, let's certify that we have, we're in a different place then we were on the day he did that interview.
Schieffer: Well we are, things are worse.
The self-described smartest woman on the planet will not want to be remembered as the person who de-railed a halfrican president...her multi-culti/diversity/pc hard-wiring will not allow it.
The self-described smartest woman on the planet will not want to be remembered as the person who de-railed a halfrican president...her multi-culti/diversity/pc hard-wiring will not allow it.
That didn't stop her in 08. Not that I think she will run, either. I don't. The funny stuff is the Democrats' regrets over electing a dope.
The self-described smartest woman on the planet will not want to be remembered as the person who de-railed a halfrican president...her multi-culti/diversity/pc hard-wiring will not allow it.
THE real conundrum is why the president seems so compelled to take both sides of every issue, encouraging voters to project whatever they want on him, and hoping they won’t realize which hand is holding the rabbit. That a large section of the country views him as a socialist while many in his own party are concluding that he does not share their values speaks volumes — but not the volumes his advisers are selling: that if you make both the right and left mad, you must be doing something right.
As a practicing psychologist with more than 25 years of experience, I will resist the temptation to diagnose at a distance, but as a scientist and strategic consultant I will venture some hypotheses.
The most charitable explanation is that he and his advisers have succumbed to a view of electoral success to which many Democrats succumb — that “centrist” voters like “centrist” politicians. Unfortunately, reality is more complicated. Centrist voters prefer honest politicians who help them solve their problems. A second possibility is that he is simply not up to the task by virtue of his lack of experience and a character defect that might not have been so debilitating at some other time in history. Those of us who were bewitched by his eloquence on the campaign trail chose to ignore some disquieting aspects of his biography: that he had accomplished very little before he ran for president, having never run a business or a state; that he had a singularly unremarkable career as a law professor, publishing nothing in 12 years at the University of Chicago other than an autobiography; and that, before joining the United States Senate, he had voted "present" (instead of "yea" or "nay") 130 times, sometimes dodging difficult issues.
Another funny point is that the MFM is fixated on the far left's regrets about BO not being far enough to the left for them.The left simply didn't understand that there had to be some semblance that he was trying his best at making the country better. Many of his actions were done by executive order by and large it was a democratic elected dictator so he couldn't just do it on his own like Chavez or Mao much to the chagrin of his supporters. His Congress, a rubber stamp for the destruction thrust upon the country, made themselves irrelevant asap. The winds of "change" shifted rather abruptly during the healthcare debate and he was caught flat footed by the overwhelming dissent of the populous demanding that he stop with the procedural takeover of the healthcare system. It got worse from there on out.
The real (untold) story is how the non-affiliated O'BamaVoters® are turning away in droves. That's the number that will make for a landslide next year. The far left O'BamaVoter® is regretful only that BO isn't the lefty they thought he was. They will still grudgingly vote for him the same way that the diehard libs grudgingly voted for Carter in 1980. In other words, BO will always be able to count on the hopelessly stupid demographic.
I think, though, that in the coming weeks the MFM will print more and more of these regretful O'BamaVoter® stories because, like it or not, that is the mood in every nook and cranny in the country. People are pissed and that attitude won't get better as the election approaches. I believe that BO will eventually have a lower approval rating than GWB did at the end of his second term and that it will continue to be a downward trend all the way to the end. He would already be there if he had a press as hostile as GWB had for all eight of his years.
But the good news is that BO won't do an LBJ and announce that he won't run for re-election for the good of the party. BO is too much the narcissist for that. He'll ride those piss poor approval ratings all the way to the basement all the time saying it's GWB's (and the tea party's) fault and that things are better.
So, more funny regretful O'BamaVoter® stories are on the way.
To the Marxist it's proportional: the ratio of loss of public support to the increase in control of the levers of power. The levers of power that were once invested to us and delegated to our representatives.
Let that a$$hole focus on Romney, while my gal Michele gains traction.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/iowa/iowa_caucus_bachmann_romney_and_paul_on_top (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/iowa/iowa_caucus_bachmann_romney_and_paul_on_top)
He tries this crap on Michele he's gonna be in a world of hurt!
I've been thinking for a while now that it would behoove us to get behind a clear choice early, and for my money that choice is Bachmann. There's a number of things I want to nip in the bud early: Romney and the Rovian constellation in orbit around him, and also this coquettish "will he / won't he" messaging from Rick Perry. Michele has the goods, and more balls than the rest of those Ruling Class eunuchs combined. She has momentum right now, and I'd like to for once employ the technique of "fait accompli" for our own purpose.
All that remains of the great hopes Americans and the world had pinned on Obama, inspired by his stirring campaign speeches about change and renewal, is a battlefield of unsatisfactory and contradictory compromises. Obama, who just turned 50 and was once a symbol of youthful change, suddenly seems old and worn out, as gray as his hair has become.
His decline in popularity has also destroyed the hope that Obama could bring new momentum to America and the world. With the debt-ceiling debate, the right-wing Tea Party movement has taken both Congress and Obama's presidency hostage. It is no longer the president who determines the issues and sets the tone of the debate, but a small, radicalized group of unashamedly amateur politicians who have declared the government to be their enemy. As the Tea Party gains stature, Obama loses credibility. Musician Harry Belafonte, once an ardent Obama supporter, has talked of his disappointment with the president. "He has only listened to the voices that shout the loudest, and it's all those reckless right-wing forces," Belafonte told CNN. "It's almost criminal."
Obama has always managed to win over Americans with big words. He used big words to raise expectations and establish a mood of change in the 2008 presidential election campaign, when he inspired the country with his slogan "Yes, we can."
Obama has always managed to win over Americans with big words. He used big words to raise expectations and establish a mood of change in the 2008 presidential election campaign, when he inspired the country with his slogan "Yes, we can."
SPIEGEL: Is it true that even among African-Americans Obama's standing has suffered?
Jackson: We blacks were the first people embracing Obama, long before the people at expensive fundraisers were supporting him. We gave him his first love, 96 percent of blacks voted for him in 2008. Yet today we are the number one in unemployment, with 16 percent of American blacks out of work. We are number one in foreclosure, number one in short life expectancy, in loan default. Big banks steered their toxic products toward minorities and Congress did not oversee them properly because it is basically corrupted by all the money it is raising on Wall Street. So there is a lot of pain here in our community and this pain must be addressed.
SPIEGEL: And you don't feel the President is doing that?
Jackson: Obama used to be a community organizer. He knows how to build communities. In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.
After yet another unconditional surrender in the debt ceiling talks, he's hit his tipping point. Just go talk to any group of liberals in the country and see if half of them aren't incredibly pissed off at him. I do it all the time and their whispers of discontent has grown into a cacophony.
Finally, nearly every progressive commentator is talking about his profound weakness, if it even is that and not something worse (some have started to question whether he even wants to win on progressive issues or if he is fundamentally conservative).
Socrates taught that wisdom begins in the recognition of how little we know. Mr. Obama is perpetually intent on telling us how much he knows. Aristotle wrote that the type of intelligence most needed in politics is prudence, which in turn requires experience. Mr. Obama came to office with no experience. Plutarch warned that flattery "makes itself an obstacle and pestilence to great houses and great affairs." Today's White House, more so than any in memory, is stuffed with flatterers.
...every jacksass that voted for this POS should be strapped in a chair with their eyes taped open and made to watch it over and over again! Maybe then half of that brain-dead group could regain some consciousness and self respect!
...every jacksass that voted for this POS should be strapped in a chair with their eyes taped open and made to watch it over and over again! Maybe then half of that brain-dead group could regain some consciousness and self respect!
Ummm....
O'BamaVoters®
...so, fat chance.
Belafonte needs to have his brain aerated. Criminal? As opposed to what the tiny, vociferous minority has been doing to this country is just a-ok to him.
I hope their heads explode.
Just for the sake of how much fun it would be to watch....I believe a covert campaign should be excuted to flood hillary with e mails to "save our country" and run for Prez.
I love others eating thier own.
...every jacksass that voted for this POS should be strapped in a chair with their eyes taped open and made to watch it over and over again! Maybe then half of that brain-dead group could regain some consciousness and self respect!
Ummm....
O'BamaVoters®
...so, fat chance.
Neighbor, eh? Won't have to far to go to deliver retribution then.
Mr Reid added that the president remained a formidable campaigner and fund-raiser and should not be ruled out of the fight in 2012. But he said some Democrats were feeling "buyer's remorse" for selecting the president in his epic battle with Mrs Clinton for the 2008 Democratic nomination.
"The notion everyone is talking about is 'is he Jimmy Carter or will he be a one-term president'," he said.
Gary Pearce, a Democratic strategist in North Carolina, a swing state Mr Obama is likely to struggle to retain in 2012, said: "Democrats are worried. He looks weak, he doesn't say anything that grabs you, and people are looking for some kind of magic."
The romance is gone. But don't worry. It's not him; it's you.
It turns out we are the ones who failed Him. We weren't prepared for a mega-dosage of awesomeness. We were too dimwitted to grasp the decency of central planning. And the insistence of troublemakers to engage in debate and vote, in fact, is the most serious threat to this nation's future.
The sight of a crumbling Cult of Obama -- and with it the end of the progressive presidency -- has many on the left so frustrated that they simply dismiss the very idea of ideological debate. To challenge the morality and rationality of Obamanomics only means you're bought, too stupid to know any better or, most likely, both. A slack-jawed hostage-taking saboteur.
I voted for Obama in the primary and then again in the general election. I even left the election night party at the Pageant — a party with an open bar and filled with state legislators, union guys and other acquaintances — to go to the Chase Park Plaza, where the Obama people were celebrating. I knew almost nobody at that second party, but I was there when the networks declared that Obama was the next president. People cried and hugged. I got teary myself. A black president. The times they are a-changing.
Indeed. They keep getting worse.
...why is the White House so cocky about Obama as a TV draw against quick-draw Rick Perry? As James Carville acerbically noted, given a choice between watching an Obama speech and a G.O.P. debate, “I’d watch the debate, and I’m not even a Republican.”
The White House caved, of course, and moved to Thursday, because there’s nothing the Republicans say that he won’t eagerly meet halfway.
No. 2 on David Letterman’s Top Ten List of the president’s plans for Labor Day: “Pretty much whatever the Republicans tell him he can do.”
On MSNBC, the anchors were wistfully listening to old F.D.R. speeches, wishing that this president had some of that fight. But Obama can’t turn into F.D.R. for the campaign because he aspires to the class that F.D.R. was a traitor to; and he can’t turn into Harry Truman because he lacks the common touch. He has an acquired elitism.
MSNBC’s Matt Miller offered “a public service” to journalists talking about Obama — a list of synonyms for cave: “Buckle, fold, concede, bend, defer, submit, give in, knuckle under, kowtow, surrender, yield, comply, capitulate.”
And it wasn’t exactly Morning in America when Obama sent out a mass e-mail to supporters Wednesday under the heading “Frustrated.”
This has been the summer that liberal discontent with Obama has finally crystallized. The frustration has been simmering for a while — through centrist appointments, bank bailouts and the defeat of the public option, to name a few examples. But it has taken the debt-ceiling standoff and the threat of a double-dip recession to create a leftist critique of the president that stuck.
Obama’s image as a weakling and sellout on domestic issues now centers on his alleged resistance, from the very first days of his presidency, to do whatever was necessary to heal the economy. “The truly decisive move that broke the arc of history,” wrote the Emory professor Drew Westen in this newspaper, “was his handling of the stimulus.” Just as the conservative repudiation of George W. Bush boiled down to “he spent too much,” the liberal repudiation of Obama has settled on “he didn’t spend enough.”
No. 2 on David Letterman’s Top Ten List of the president’s plans for Labor Day: “Pretty much whatever the Republicans tell him he can do.”
No one, not even the president's defenders, expect his coming jobs speech to mean anything. When the president spoke during a recent market swoon, the market dropped another 100 points. Democrats may soon have to confront an uncomfortable truth, and ask whether Obama is a suitable choice at the top of the ticket in 2012. They may then have to ask themselves if there's any way they can push him off the top of the ticket.
That these questions have not yet been asked in any serious way shows how weak the Democratic Party is as a political organization. Yet this political weakness is not inevitable, it can be changed through courage and collective action by a few party insiders smart and principled enough to understand the value of a public debate, and by activists who are courageous enough to face the real legacy of the Obama years.
Obama has ruined the Democratic Party. The 2010 wipeout was an electoral catastrophe so bad you'd have to go back to 1894 to find comparable losses. From 2008 to 2010, according to Gallup, the fastest growing demographic party label was former Democrat. Obama took over the party in 2008 with 36 percent of Americans considering themselves Democrats. Within just two years, that number had dropped to 31 percent, which tied a 22-year low.
From Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/09/04/favoritesonsanddaughters)...should O'Bama be primaried?
...
Be sure to check the comments.
"Can you imagine what even four years of President Perry or Bachmann would leave this country looking like?" -- Alan Lloyd
Hmm. A White House that embraces every chance to snub liberals while taking its policy cues from Tea Party Republicans? A White House that loves Wall Street and hates Main Street? A president who embraces endless wars abroad while attacking the New Deal at home? A commander in chief who claims the authority to surveil, arrest, imprison, and assassinate us upon mere suspicion?
Yeah, I can "imagine" that. Just walk over to the nearest window and look outside.
Obama's incompetence...
...and his sheer mendacity have been cited here often enough. I have no use for this worthless coward and to hear any number of Obamapologists whining and wheezing about how bad the Republicans are is simply laughable.
If Republicans are so bad why is Obama placating them at every turn ? capitulating to them at every opportunity ? Why did Obama fail to come out swinging the day after his inaugural and pin the blame on exactly who drove the economy over the cliff, which he inherited, and where and how it was robbed ?
Why all this bending over and grabbing of his ankles when Mitch McConnell shouts, "Boo!" ? why sellout promise after promise, doublecrossing a once enthusiastic base and volunteer pool ? why piss all over his own supporters and then sit around blaming them while scratching his ass over how he had his clock cleaned in the midterms by the very teabaggers he all but invented ?
Obama owns his miserable presidency and he owns the fact that he has on his hands an extraordinary problem. I sense from folks like teresa and g50 that there is now a whiff of concern in the once solid edifice of support for Obama. As well there should be: on the one hand this fool could yet snatch defeat from the jaws of victory; on the other, he could stumble through a second term just as foolishly as he has his first. Either option is pretty sad commentary on his abilities, which are pretty pathetic to say the least. As time rolls on toward the general this whiff of concern could develop into full blown panic over these possibilities.
I say dump this political coward. It may well result in Republican rule for 4 years but that's just about what we've had thusfar; sure, Obama is a bit right-of-center as opposed to a full blown loon. But why is he pointed that direction in the first place ? He's supposed to be a Democrat, not a DINO. If I wanted a Republican in office I would have voted for Gramps and that Wasilla hillbilly. Of course, watching Obama reverse himself on FISA told me all I needed to know about him.
Primary this f**ker, go after his support state by state; force him to defend those areas he otherwise would (as always) take for granted; nibble away at his funding wherever it is found and by whatever means possible; talk up his betrayals and his capitulations; sandbag this charlatan at every turn. Do everything possible to prevent his reelection; weaken him; erode his support in Congress and statewide by voting against anyone who supports him.
Obama deserves neither the respect nor the support of any Democrat who believes in the ideals the Party was founded on. I am a LIBERAL Democrat and I'm proud of the tradition that Democrats once brought to the political scene. It's a shame that so many so-called Democrats are now lily-livered wimps who shy from the good fight. The patty cake which Obama has been playing with the Republicans and Wall Street--among others--can not be rewarded with support or votes.
Ditch this coward, now, before he demolishes the Democratic Party. Because if you don't, that's exactly what's in store.
—Sheri Lynn
DailyKos readers/commenters are mostly in favor of a primary challenge. Here is one example. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/05/1013653/-Matt-Stollers-new-article-hits-the-nail-on-the-head?via=siderec)
One reason I supported President Obama is because he said we must protect clean air, water and lands. But what good is it to say the right thing unless you act on it?
Since early August, three administration decisions -- on Arctic drilling, the Keystone XL pipeline and the ozone that causes smog -- have all favored dirty industry over public health and a clean environment. Like so many others, I'm beginning to wonder just where the man stands.
For months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been poised to issue new ozone rules to reduce the smog that causes asthma attacks and other respiratory ills. We badly need these new standards, which the EPA estimates could prevent 12,000 premature deaths a year.
On Friday, though, the White House put the new rules on ice. The result: these vital protections will be delayed until at least 2013 - conveniently after next year's presidential election.
I have to believe that President Obama still knows it's important to protect clean air, water and lands. Like so many, I'm waiting for him to stand up for all that. I'm waiting for him to stand up for our future. But we can't wait forever.
They want him to go full-on double dictator.
They want him to go full-on double dictator.
Listening to Obama talk about jobs and shared prosperity yesterday reminded me that we are back in campaign mode and Barack Obama has started doing again what he does best – play the part of a progressive. He's good at it. It sounds like he has a natural affinity for union workers and ordinary people when he makes these speeches. But his policies are crafted by representatives of corporate/financial America, who happen to entirely make up his inner circle.
I just don't believe this guy anymore, and it's become almost painful to listen to him.
I found this (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/obama-and-jobs-why-i-dont-believe-him-anymore-20110906?stop_mobi=yes) at AoS. Some wussy writing for Rolling Stone says, darn it, he just can't believe O'Bama anymore...QuoteListening to Obama talk about jobs and shared prosperity yesterday reminded me that we are back in campaign mode and Barack Obama has started doing again what he does best – play the part of a progressive. He's good at it. It sounds like he has a natural affinity for union workers and ordinary people when he makes these speeches. But his policies are crafted by representatives of corporate/financial America, who happen to entirely make up his inner circle.
I just don't believe this guy anymore, and it's become almost painful to listen to him.
As usual...lot's of fun to be had in reading the comments.
Strange indeed is the sudden Democratic furor at Barack Obama. In fairness to the president, though, much of it seems to be a matter of scapegoating.
On the domestic front, for example, we forget that Obama “went big” on the stimulus, giving a number of speeches about the “historic” size of his “investments” and why we should not worry about the timid naysayers. At the time, he was widely praised for his audacity. He also went big on Obamacare, despite worries from party centrists. Again, he was praised for forcing through such a radically new program. In other words, few Democrats have tried so eagerly to advance the liberal domestic agenda. His appointments, the politics at the Department of Justice and the EPA, and his use of executive fiat to circumvent bothersome laws bear that out.
If Obama were enjoying a 60 percent approval rating and the economy were humming at 5 percent annual growth and 5 percent unemployment, the Democrats would be singing his praises despite his stumbles. The problem Obama poses to Democrats is not his policy but his popularity — in their ‘what-if’ minds, he is sinking because he did not do enough rather than far too much.
In other words, the furor comes not so much because he has embarrassed them on national security and seems increasingly detached from the job, but because that he nearly destroyed the congressional Democrats in 2010, often hovers below 40 percent in popularity, and has the potential to really do some big-time damage to the party in 2012.
But again, why is that?
I think Victor Davis Hanson is over-thinking this. When I first saw this, I thought that, but I'm gonna mention it to you anyway. "Were Obama to show the same flexibility on the economy as he has on the War on Terror he still might revitalize the economy a bit." For example, if he would "junk the Keynesian model, radically revise and simplify the tax code, address entitlements, talk up employers, prune regulations, and compromise on spending cuts, he still might revitalize the economy a bit. It's hard to destroy the greatest economy in history in three years," Victor Davis Hanson writes, although I'd say Obama has done better at it than anybody would have thought. "Then, when his numbers improved, he would win Democratic adulation for his Clinton-like savvy."
Now, let's look at this. To think that Obama is gonna change this radically on his economic policies is a bit of a stretch. And you know of my profound respect for Victor Davis Hanson, we've interviewed him for the Limbaugh Letter and I've spoken to him a number of times. And while he didn't close Gitmo, and while he expanded Afghanistan, and while he did go to war in Libya, and while we're still in Iraq, that's just the continuation of what was. That really wasn't the repudiation of anything. But for Obama to pull similar moves on his own economic policies is something I can't see. Obama's not gonna junk his Keynesian approach. Obama's not gonna junk this whole business of growing the economy by growing government spending. He's not gonna lower taxes on producers and the wealth creators.
Now, Victor Davis Hanson is saying what if he does, though, what if he did do that? And what if it revived him? Victor Davis Hanson's point is, then, his approval numbers would rise and even his Democrat opposition right now would revel and how he's outfoxed us, the same way they reveled in how Clinton outfoxed us. Remember, I've said this I don't know how many times, I think one of the big reasons for Clinton's popularity was how he outfoxed Newt and how he outfoxed us, not what Clinton did, but that he defeated us. Remember, we are hated more than Al-Qaeda is hated by these people. This is Victor Davis Hanson's point. If Obama can come up with a way to pull a rabbit out of his hat here and really outfox us and use our own ideas as his, and they work, that he can turn this all around and resume being adored and adulated by people who are now angry at him. I just don't see him doing it. I can't see him repudiating himself this way.
...this essay by VDH (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/276255/anatomy-democratic-angst-over-obama-victor-davis-hanson)...
...But remember, for all the jokes about his teleprompted eloquence and canned monotonous speeches, it is not all that easy to be eloquent on a teleprompter, and what now sounds trite, canned, and predictable, just three years ago brought paramedics to fainting audiences. The problem is not just Obama, but his rigid adherence to a statist economy that has terrified capital-laden employers into near complete stasis.
Were Obama to show the same flexibility on the economy as he has on the War on Terror (junk the Keynesian model, radically revise and simplify the tax code, address entitlements, talk up employers, prune regulations, and compromise on spending cuts), he still might revitalize the economy a bit — it’s hard to destroy the greatest economy in history in three years. Then, when his numbers improved, he would win Democratic adulation for his Clinton-like savvy.
Matt Stoler's new article is titled "What Democrats can do about Obama" and is one of the best pundit articles I have written all year.That says it all............ I AM SICK of all IIIIIIIIIIIII's ...........and MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE's ::puke:: ::mooning::
I don't think the Obama voter regret has reached critical mass yet, otherwise Cheney's recommendation would be getting serious consideration by Dem insiders...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/dick-cheney-to-hillary-clinton-run/ (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/09/dick-cheney-to-hillary-clinton-run/)
It would be awesome to see though, Operation Chaos on steroids!
::stirpot:: ;D
It is so thoroughly hilarious watching them rationalize that Obama's plummeting popularity and the ass-kicking they received last November are because, doggone it, he just hasn't been left-wing enough!
...the excerpt from the above article is how I believe obama views himself. He is systemically destroying the West. The more I study islam, the more I believe it.
“The frustrations are real,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, who was the state chairman of Mr. Obama’s campaign four years ago. “I think we know that there is a Barack Obama that’s deep in there, but he’s got to synchronize it with passion and principles.”
There is little cause for immediate optimism, with polls showing Mr. Obama at one of the lowest points of his presidency.
His own economic advisers concede that the unemployment rate, currently 9.1 percent, is unlikely to drop substantially over the next year, creating a daunting obstacle to re-election.
Liberals have grown frustrated by some of his actions, like the decision this month to drop tougher air-quality standards.
And polling suggests that the president’s yearlong effort to reclaim the political center has so far yielded little in the way of additional support from the moderates and independents who tend to decide presidential elections.
“The alarms have already gone off in the Democratic grass roots,” said Robert Zimmerman, a member of the Democratic National Committee from New York, who hopes the president’s jobs plan can be a turning point. “If the Obama administration hasn’t heard them, they should check the wiring of their alarm system.”
Mr. DeFazio recalled attending a dozen or so town-hall-style meetings recently in his district, a slice of western Oregon that Mr. Obama carried in 2008 by 11 percentage points. Mr. DeFazio said party loyalists had bluntly said they were reconsidering their support.
“I have one heck of a lot of Democrats saying, ‘I voted for him before, don’t know if I can do it again,’ ” he said.
QuoteMr. DeFazio recalled attending a dozen or so town-hall-style meetings recently in his district, a slice of western Oregon that Mr. Obama carried in 2008 by 11 percentage points. Mr. DeFazio said party loyalists had bluntly said they were reconsidering their support.
“I have one heck of a lot of Democrats saying, ‘I voted for him before, don’t know if I can do it again,’ ” he said.
QuoteMr. DeFazio recalled attending a dozen or so town-hall-style meetings recently in his district, a slice of western Oregon that Mr. Obama carried in 2008 by 11 percentage points. Mr. DeFazio said party loyalists had bluntly said they were reconsidering their support.
“I have one heck of a lot of Democrats saying, ‘I voted for him before, don’t know if I can do it again,’ ” he said.
Don't trust them!! Our candidates need to campaign as if they were 10 pointd behind.
Earlier this year on March 11, a Friday, Japan was struck by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake. An hour later a 30-foot tidal wave swamped the northeast portion of the country, killing thousands and leaving devastation in its wake. Four hours after that, Japan declared itself in a state of nuclear emergency. Within days, at least three of the country’s nuclear reactors were in states of partial meltdown. While the crisis in Japan was accelerating, oil prices continued to hover around $100 per barrel, America’s domestic economic recovery continued to disintegrate, a revolution in Libya continued to blossom into a full-fledged civil conflict, and American troops continued to fight in Afghanistan.
On Saturday, March 12, President Obama played golf. On Monday, March 14, President Obama visited a middle school in Northern Virginia to kick off a week’s worth of activities centered around “Winning the Future” of education. Because it was a big day, he also kicked off a “Sunshine Week” celebration to trumpet reforms to the Freedom of Information Act. On Tuesday, March 15, President Obama sat down with ESPN to tape a segment about his NCAA March Madness picks.
As he surveyed the globe you could practically hear Obama thinking to himself, Chance the Gardener-style, I like to watch .??.??.
Bill Clinton’s vanity was that he wished he could have been at the center of a world historical event. Barack Obama’s vanity is that he believes he is a world historical event. And the greatness of his being dwarfs any necessity to establish greatness through action. That’s why, despite his passivity as president, we’re likely to see a much more vigorous Obama in the coming months as he switches from governing to campaigning. However ambivalent he may be about leading the country, arguing for the indispensability of Barack Obama is the one project that has always commanded his full attention.
Yes, that was good.
My only quibble is the part "as he switches from governing to campaigning". He's never not been campaigning. Remember the Tucson "memorial service" complete with T-shirts?
Even before the polls closed, the recriminations – something short of panic, and considerably more than mere grumbling – had begun. On a high-level campaign conference call Tuesday afternoon, Democratic donors and strategists commiserated over their disappointment in Obama. A source on the call described the mood as “awful.”
“People feel betrayed, disappointed, furious, disgusted, hopeless,” said the source.
"Maybe America is becoming “a very difficult district” for Democrats, especially Barack Obama. Bloomberg’s new poll puts his job approval rating at a mundane 45/49, although Bloomberg reports that it’s the lowest approval level he has had in the series. But a peek inside the actual numbers shows a startling data point that should have the Obama 2012 team keeping their resumés updated.
First, Bloomberg headlined their report on the poll “Obama approval plummets on jobs plan,” with a majority of respondents rejecting Porkulus II:
A majority of Americans don’t believe President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan will help lower the unemployment rate, skepticism he must overcome as he presses Congress for action and positions himself for re- election.
The downbeat assessment of the American Jobs Act reflects a growing and broad sense of dissatisfaction with the president. Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy by 62 percent to 33 percent, a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 9-12 shows. The disapproval number represents a nine point increase from six months ago. …
By a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent, Americans doubt the package of tax cuts and spending proposals intended to jumpstart job creation that Obama submitted to Congress this week will bring down the 9.1 percent jobless rate. That sentiment undermines one of the core arguments the president is making on the job act’s behalf in a nationwide campaign to build public support.
Frankly, I chalk the fact that Obama even has 40% for this retread of his failed 2009 Keynesian package to the innate optimism of Americans, with a healthy dose of blind loyalty among liberals. It’s telling, though, that the jobs bill gets less support than Obama’s overall job approval. He’s not just singing preaching to the choir, he may be only singing preaching to the altos and tenors. At least to start, the jobs bill won’t be a gamechanger for Obama — at least not in the direction he’d like."
The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer’s remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.
The finding in the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows a higher level of wishful thinking about a Hillary Clinton presidency than when a similar question was asked in July 2010. Then, a quarter of Americans held such a view.
“Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on,” said Susan Dunlop, 50, a homemaker in New Port Richey, Florida. “I don’t think she would have bent as much.”
For generations, Democrats longed for a president who could enact national health care. Barack Obama did it.
For years, Democrats longed for a president who could massively increase federal spending, impose broad new regulations and fight for higher taxes. Barack Obama did it.
For much of the past decade, Democrats longed for a president who could pull American forces out of Iraq and redirect U.S. security policy toward al Qaeda. Barack Obama did it -- and killed Osama bin Laden, to boot.
Obama did all that, and more. And now many Democrats are afraid to be seen with him. Some gratitude.
Democratic grumbling about the president has reached an all-time high. On a recent conference call of party strategists, disaffected Democrats reportedly threw around words like "betrayed," "disappointed," "furious" and "disgusted," with some blaming Obama for the stunning Democratic loss in New York's 9th Congressional District. Surveying the political landscape of Democratic disaffection with the president, longtime strategist James Carville could come up with just one word of advice: Panic!
Ever since the pains of August intensified, Republicans have increasingly hoped, and Democrats have feared, that Barack Obama is another Jimmy Carter. The GOP is doing its best to block recovery as a conscious strategy to reclaim the White House: kill jobs to get the job. But there is grave risk for Republicans in this transparent cynicism; the president has the voice, and we've learned before that he has the strength of will to set the choice and win the big battle. Indeed, that's what makes the comparison with Carter absurd; from health reform to financial reform to the salvation of the auto industry and the prevention of depression, Obama has a historic record of achievement.
The next step is to consistently push for jobs and growth. The president may not pass his bill — the odds are against it — but you can bet he won't be a prisoner of Republican intransigence. Obama is a fourth quarter player. And the fourth quarter has come. It's time for the crybaby chorus to leave the critic's row and get in the game. The president will do his part. And then his victory in the 2012 election will be remembered long after his phony defeat in a peculiar special election fades into a footnote.
The panic isn't justified — and Democrats can't afford it. Grow up. As Carville might say, there's too much at stake, stupid.
"The Left turns on Obama as if he were culpable for pushing through the Left’s own agenda."
"Suddenly, liberal op-ed writers are trashing — even lampooning — Barack Obama as a one-term president (“one and done”). Centrist Democrats up for reelection in 2012 openly worry about inviting a kindred president into their districts, lest the new pariah lose them votes.
Left-wing think tanks, environmentalists, and academics vent their anger against Obama for supposedly being too soft on Republicans and too ready to compromise with right-wingers. But what really has caused the left-wing falling-out, less than three years after the hope-and-change crush on Barack Obama?"
All told, she is a flaming communist liberal that subscribes to alinsky/cloward/pivens and we would be thoroughly sick of her had she been elected. I don't have any inclinations about having her as a president. I am waiting anxiously for her to retire with the rest of 'em!!
All told, she is a flaming communist liberal that subscribes to alinsky/cloward/pivens and we would be thoroughly sick of her had she been elected. I don't have any inclinations about having her as a president. I am waiting anxiously for her to retire with the rest of 'em!!
Harridan too
Much of the Obama coverage was orchestrated sychophancy. They glided past his pretensions — when did a presidential candidate before “address the world” from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin? They ignored his arrogance — “You’re likeable enough, Hillary.” And they averted their eyes from his every gaffe — such as the admission that he didn’t speak “Austrian.”
The media walked right past the decades-long association of Obama with the weird and racist pastor Jermiah Wright. In the midst of the brief stormlet over the issue, one CNN host — inexplicably — decided that CNN was going to be a “Wright-free zone.” He could have hung out a sign: “No bad news about Obama here.”
Their fears aren't exclusive to their generation. But given that it seems to taken hold in a voting bloc that helped elect Obama with a wave of hope and change, there could be an opening for Republicans, unless the president can find a way to get young people fired up again.
"People are taking out $100,000 in debt and they're graduating next year," says Nick Haschka, a 25-year-old MBA student at Northwestern University.
Haschka voted for Obama in 2008 and remains a strong supporter. "I think he's doing the best he can in these circumstances," he says.
I got no sympathy for these a-holes...They would vote for another just like him in 99.999% of the time. ::doublebird::
Why Obama should withdraw
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-chapman-obama-reelection,0,622512.column#start (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-chapman-obama-reelection,0,622512.column#start)
Hillary!
::hysterical::
The Pali issue has the Left's undies in a bunch big time...they want Pali statehood bad...Obama just had a shot across his bow witht he Jewish vote in NY9...risks pissing of congress...risks pissing off his loony base...
Where's that Chesty Puller quote again? "...They can't escape us now"! They've surrounded themselves for us!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/852cc502-e398-11e0-8990-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1YaOfwuBt (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/852cc502-e398-11e0-8990-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1YaOfwuBt)
::danceban:: ::whoohoo:: ::danceban::
Over the past three years, Coe could have easily become one of those on the other end of the line — a no, a hang-up, a “refused.”
After working for Obama in the last election, Coe lost her job as a retail manager. She got another job, then lost that, too, as the recession deepened. Recently, her unemployment benefits ran out. Her husband’s job as a postal worker could be tenuous.
But her loyalty to a president — who she says made her feel, for the first time, “like I won, like we won, like the people won” — permits no criticism.
She believes things will be better if Obama is reelected. She thinks his jobs legislation will help her. That the payroll tax cut will help her husband, who is feeling the strain of her unemployment, which makes her feel strained, which, when she thought about it one afternoon, made her hold her chin up, cry and look away, which was like snowflaking in reverse.
“Yes, this is Earline. .?.?. Are you able to volunteer this weekend?”
No. Prior commitment.
“Hi, Carmen?”
Elderly; hard of hearing.
“Hello, Brian?”
Hangs up.
Her phone rings — perhaps a “not home” calling back.
“Hello?” she says, her voice losing enthusiasm. “Yes, I did. I did. My name’s Earline, and I’m with the Obama for America Campaign? And — oh. I’m sorry to hear that. .?.?.”
She makes a note to call the woman later.
“Oh, Lord,” Coe says after another person hangs up.
Just another of Obama's "baby-mamas"; this is the way they react to Black men, they always "give them another chance".
“Hi, Ellen,” she says. “My name is Earline, and I’m calling from Obama for America? We’re calling strong Obama supporters like yourself, and —?”
“Oh. I understand that. Yes. Would you be interested in doing any volunteer work? Because we’re holding voter registration this weekend, and —?”
Pause. “Okay. I understand that. Right. .?.?. And I hope your mother gets better.”
Under the column labeled “I’m in!” Coe circles “maybe” and dials again.