House Dems met with Obama yesterday and urged Obama to be more forceful in advocating for Democratic policies. He rebuffed them:
The challenge — on behalf of the many Democrats who have long complained that Obama is not making enough use of his White House megaphone — was principally delivered by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), according to the attendees. Waxman, lawmakers said, called for stronger action across the board, rather than on a particular issue.
But Obama responded that he has to be more careful and more considered than that, and that he is executing an existing plan.
A plan to put the economy further in the tank and get reelected by grateful Republicans?
The president has heard the complaint before. Democrats have accused Obama repeatedly of ceding too much ground to the GOP, especially on health care and the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy. But attendees said the critique appeared to rub him the wrong way on Thursday.
“He was a little testy with the Waxman question. Essentially, Mr. Waxman was urging him to fight more,” one legislator said. “The president reminded folks that he’s the president sitting in that chair and he knows how to negotiate.”
Obama also told the assembled Democrats not to count on more fiery rhetoric from the Oval Office.
“He said, ‘There’s a difference between me and a member of Congress,'” another lawmaker said, paraphrasing the president as saying: “When I say something the markets react, all of society reacts, other countries react. I’ve got to be careful with what I say. I can’t just say it for brinkmanship. I’ve got to say it in a way so that I get what I want said, but I don’t upset markets and so on.”
In other words, Wall Street and the military-industrial boys have trained him not to piddle on the rug. And he has a plan.
Which would mean it’s all on purpose.
Obama is the devil, a RepubliKKKan disguised in brown skin as a progressive sheep!
sarcasm alert.
All it would take is one real U.S. Senator to blow his shit up. If Bernie Sanders started acting like U.S. Presidents for life Olympia Snow and Susan Collins or Lindsay Graham or Jim Bunning, and at the last minute put a hold (effectively a filibuster) on the debt ceiling legislation, insisting on his own legislation instead, everybody would fucking freak out. And you know, a Republican may just do that anyway.
Obama is weak, but from the inside out. It’s time someone from his own party took him to the woodshed on a position from the left. It’s time someone threw out not just the baby but the orphanage. There are a lot of uncontroversial things that would severely hurt Republicans. It’s time someone started acting like someone who wants to win an election and get their policies done, instead of a Republican masquerading as a Democrat. Seriously, this guy’s merely a more convincing version of discredited out-of-touch bullshit artist Harold Ford.
We can analyze Barry ’til the cows come home, but why. He told us everything we needed to know in his books. His tragic flaw: he actually believes in his awesome power to advance his agenda by reasoning in good faith with neo-proto-crypto-fascists who want only to destroy him. He’s delusional and afraid to use his real power. (It feels good to use the f-word, even highly qualified.)
One way to look at it: Barry is a supremely successful social climber. There’s no way that could have happened if he hadn’t learned long ago not to piddle on the carpet at the Rebublican salon. It’s also true that on election he was immediately awed and captured by his Wall Street Masters (hell, he appointed them to his inner circle), and the National Security State ghouls.
A successful class climber like Barry will never be able to take on the powers that be like, say, FDR did. Dissembling won’t work. They’ll sniff you out every time. They have ways.
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Obamabots who believe Barry is waiting for his second term to dash into a phone booth and emerge as a Super-progressive are delusional too. He has shown his colors. Crystal clear.
“Which would mean it’s all on purpose.”
Ding. Ding. Ding. We have a winner!
(So nice to see logic at work.)
That’s right. You dare not be too forceful. You might provoke some kind of reaction. I hate to say it, but I am now convinced that this president will go down in history as one of the most tragic failures we have ever had, not just a bad president, but one in a category of failure all his own, presiding over a historic disaster.
“For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.
We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace–business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.
I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master. ” FDR 1936
And why could FDR speak so harshly and fearlessly? He was already rich, already an aristocrat by birth. Unlike our current president and other leaders, he did not need to keep the favor of the wealthy to maintain his station in life after he leaves his office.