The glass is half full! We have something congenitally wrong with us!
I would say that this president’s penchant for sarcastic, not-quite-whiny, “why oh why aren’t they as smart as me” insider riffs is one of his least attractive qualities. Psst, Mr. President? You’re not doing standup — you’re the president of the United States, and the head of the Democratic party. This isn’t the high school lunchroom.
And those of us left living on a wing and prayer thanks to your “half full”, half-assed economic policies just don’t have a sense of humor about our continuing plight. I know it’s been a long time since your mom got food stamps, but you might want to give that empathy thing some thought.
UPDATE: Oh, and this is the house (scroll up, it’s right on the lake) where he was speaking about the rest of us seeing the glass as half empty:
Hold on while I get my shotgun and my bible. I guess I’ll need to cling to them a bit longer.
He still doesn’t get it that we can make sure he’s a 1-term president, does he? Who the f**k does he think put him in office?
The PUBLIC OPTION was the WHOLE f%*^#g POINT of “REFORM!”
I am soooooo frustrated, irritated, disgusted and ANGRY that I am actually thinking of voting Rethuglican! Hope I calm down by Election Day (but I doubt it).
I don’t have to like him to vote for the Democrats. I don’t like any of them — okay, hardly any.
I can see that the glass is 1/2 full, it’s just not on my table.
He’s just a creepy, right wing, narcissistic, entitled sociopath. He’s no smarter, no better, no more clever than George Bush.
I don’t like most politicians, so I can’t vote or not vote on that basis. I’m trying to figure out what’s the best possible strategy for working people and their immediate needs. I’m still not sure.
The public option was all I ever cared about. It’s all I’ve been caring about for at least 40 years. When Obama sold us out to the insurance industry, it was the greatest blow EVER, especially considering that the country was finally ready for it.
So sad. So overwhelmingly sad. Instead of setting us on a road to repairing the imbalances of the last 50 years, the administration has made it plain that nothing less than total collapse will clear the decks and also guaranteed that outcome at the same time.
“And those of us left living on a wing and prayer thanks to your “half full”, half-assed economic policies just don’t have a sense of humor about our continuing plight. I know it’s been a long time since your mom got food stamps, but you might want to give that empathy thing some thought.”
This is what I call ownage! Simply…brilliant!! Digby think so and I concur 200%.
Nice Susie!
Unfortunately for us, Obama knows that a significant enough portion of the base will never vote against him (for a variety of reasons..) so we are left with this smarmy triangulating bullshit as he positions himself as the “reasonable” center- aka the business as usual corrupt world of Washington politics that most of the country despises. Not a winning strategy, if you ask me…
As VastLeft points out over and over over at Corrente, the term “public option” was never defined by Obama. It was used as bait to pull activists off the trail leading to single payer, Medicare for All Improved. It was put out, various groups developed their own definitions, none of them were Medicare for All or even Medicare Buy-In.
We should not go down that garden path again with any pol.
Talking about a public option means nothing until it is clearly defined — and it won’t be by the powers that be who are beholden to their Corporate Overlords.
Single payer, Medicare for All, on the other hand, is immediately understood by the public — and it’s what a majority of the public told pollsters they wanted, in numbers close to or just over 60% right up to the time the Senate passed something and Obama signed it. It was not easy to get pollsters to even include single payer in polling, but a few did, and 60% of the public said that’s what they wanted.
We should tell the pols, loud and proud, we want single payer.
Medicare for All –which would not take 3 plus years to implement, would not require inventing a square wheel to make it fit into the HCR model Obama et al wanted; that’s High Corporate Revenues, btw.
I have no idea which version of public option TaosJohn thought he was fighting for, but it was clear that a possible “public option” became more amorphous, not less, as the Congressional debate continued. It made it possible for Obama to mislead and make his behind closed door deals with Big Pharma, Big Health Industry Playahs stick.
What a waste of tremendous opportunity.
Of course, if Obama had gone for Medicare for All he would not be accused of being a Corporate tool and the Dems would not be facing the electoral difficulties they do this year and will for dog know how long.
Sorry, but you sound like the whiny 5th-grader, Susie.
Were you expecting him to wave a magic wand and have everything happen INSTANTLY?
Are you going to cut off your nose to spite your face because the effects of the good things he’s managed to do haven’t kicked in yet?
Lots of us are hurting, but voting with your stomach isn’t the answer.
Where exactly do you think you’d be right now if the Republicans managed to defeat everything Obama DID accomplish?
Why not write about THAT? Suppose THAT. Answer THAT instead of just taking whiny-ass potshots at someone who’s supposedly taking potshots at you.
Why, yes, that’s exactly what I was expecting. I’m sure he has a magic wand and I don’t understand why he won’t use it. Yes, I’m going to cut off my nose just to spite my face, I just haven’t decided yet whether to use a serrated knife.
“Voting with your stomach isn’t the answer.” Wow, what wisdom. Thanks for that. I’m assuming you still have a job, and maybe even health insurance? And I’d guess offhand that you work in a technical field, like engineering or IT, where all the answers are “logical.”
Let’s see, where would I be right not if the Republicans managed to defeat what Obama did accomplish? Oh, you mean they didn’t? You mean every piece of legislation that was larded with unnecessary concessions to the Republicans — verifiably unnecessary, because the concessions were made specifically to get Republican support, which never happened — that’s what success looks like? It’s hard to answer your question, because in my view, Obama always starts negotiating from a position of weakness and negotiates down from there.
Third Party, Folks.
I donated $50 a month for over a year to Obama’s campaign when I was close to flat-broke and eating stringently. Moreover, I
pretty well condemned anyone who put Obama down. Today I
have no respect for the man; and I feel I was bamboozled (his word, remember?)
You should write to him and tell him that. Seriously. I think he’s in such a bubble, he doesn’t have to acknowledge what people are going through.
@GodOfBiscuits: If they had managed to defeat his sell-out HCR mess, we would all be far better off.
@KGB999
word
Your post is a more succinct, and impersonal, version of exactly the letter I’ve been meaning to write since Gibbs’ “professional” comment. I think it’s exactly correct.
But your commenters seem determined to prove both of us wrong.
A good many of us are as smart as him. Why we’re pissed is we are seeing him pandering to Wall Street, Billionaires and little Republican punks. In short, doing pretty much what Bush the Dumber did. The main thing in his favor at the moment is he has not started any wars. Discontinuing more of Bush’s policies and spanking some Republicans like the Boner would be a step in the right direction.
This is what you have to do:
Program Director: Take 2, cue Howard.
Beale: I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.
We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be!
We all know things are bad — worse than bad — they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, “Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.”
Well, I’m not going to leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!
I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot. I don’t want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad.
You’ve gotta say, “I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”
So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,
“I’m as mad as hell,
and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
Now, Let’s start the Revolution!
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Once I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a remark is added I get four emails with the identical comment. Is there any approach you can take away me from that service? Thanks! FREDRICK GUSHLAW