What Obama doesn't understand about the "Professional Left"

New York Times Magazine published a piece by Johnathan Chait basically telling us Professional Lefty's we need to STFU and support Bush, I mean Obama because we are just to stoopid to understand Obama is powerless. Snark

President Obama underestimated the depth of the crisis in 2009 and left himself with bad options in the event the economy failed to recover as quickly as he hoped. And yet the wave of criticism from the left over the stimulus is fundamentally flawed: it ignores the real choices Obama faced (and the progressive decisions he made) and wishes away any constraints upon his power.

The most common hallmark of the left’s magical thinking is a failure to recognize that Congress is a separate, coequal branch of government consisting of members whose goals may differ from the president’s. Congressional Republicans pursued a strategy of denying Obama support for any major element of his agenda, on the correct assumption that this would make it less popular and help the party win the 2010 elections. Only for roughly four months during Obama’s term did Democrats have the 60 Senate votes they needed to overcome a filibuster.

There are also some who like to list President Obama's accomplishments during those four months as if that should negate any constructive criticism, but as one of my list serve friends says, for each step forward there are many step's backward

H/T gracedesigns

For each step "forward" I could think of, (and there
aren't many) I saw many steps "backward." Most notable is Obama's Health
Care Reform which is being bragged about in some quarters, but most of us
out here realize that with the modest reforms came HUGE giveaways to the
Insurance Industry, including MANDATORY insurance for all Americans. Sure
the Insurance Companies must now accept people with "pre-existing
conditions," but how many of those people or their families will have the
means to pay the huge insurance premiums the companies demand, or the
"fines" for not being able to buy the mandated insurance?

We are now facing drastic cuts in programs benefiting Seniors and low income
households. Senior Centers are on the chopping block, as well as programs
like "Meals of Wheels." Even our hallowed retirement program in which we
have invested our money, Social Security, is on the chopping block. Federal
Housing Assistance is under attack as well.
The current administration want to privatize free Public Education, create
"Charter Schools" and turn our education system into a money-making deal
for the corporation who will run the schools. As prices for everything from
gasoline to food skyrocketed during the past three years, the minimum wage
was only raised once. Seniors also suffered as they were denied their cost
of living increases, so many must now choose between paying for their
medications or buying food.

Bush policies stemming from the Patriot Act, which gave Bush his "Imperial
Presidency," are still in place, and we are seeing hundreds of Americans
peacefully exercising their right to free speech being arrested daily on the
sidewalks surrounding the White House under suppressive laws created by The
Patriot Act.. Elsewhere, Members of Congress are shutting down
no-cost-to-the-public "Town Hall" meetings with their constituents and
opening up "pay for the privilege of speaking to your Congressional
Representative" events.

Sorry, (name redacted), the issues I've cited above have completely
overshadowed the so-called "accomplishments" I've seen pushed through by the
Obama Administration, including the bail outs to supposedly "save" the
economy, but which ended up saving massive salaries and retirement bonuses
for CEOs without creating new American jobs IN America, without restoring
Glass-Steagall to regulate the corrupt runaway banking system, without
putting pressure on Congress to overthrow the "Citizens United" ruling which
would have been at least some campaign funding reform and which should have
been done immediately while Obama had both a Democratic House and Senate to
get those important jobs done.

The final blows for me are when Obama refused to support American Citizens
protesting the union busing agenda of Republican Governors

Or push for huge military spending cuts rather than putting Social Security
"on the table"

Or moving swiftly to end "racial profiling" laws in the various
anti-immigration laws also being pushed into law by Republican Governors and
thereby diminish the voting power of the Democratic Party.

Or letting the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy expire for everyone making over
a quarter of a Million in annual income.,

Or using his Congressional Majority during the first two years of his term
of office to close the corporate tax loopholes

Or allowing Universal, single payer health care for all Americans to be "on
the table" rather than going meekly along with the Emmanuel Brothers'
backroom deals with Big Pharma and the Insurance Industry to make sure the
"For Profits" would continue to profit under his "new"
health care plan.

No (name redacted), I won't be forgetting that the invented crisis of
raising the debt ceiling could have been solved by the President simply
raising the debt ceiling without any "negotiations" at all. There WAS a
precedence for that, and it should have been done rather than opening up the
possibility of weakening or totally destroying Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid. I won't forget President Obama calling Social Security an
"entitlement" program when it is in no way shape or form an "entitlement."
Social Security Funds were paid by employees payroll deductions for all of
their working lives. That is a retirement INVESTMENT, not an "entitlement."

I won't forget and I won't make the mistake of voting for Obama again unless
he makes a hard return to issues that protect the majority of Americans
rather than the Corporate Campaign donors and starts "looking back" at
issues he should have begun taking care of the minute he entered office. He
did sign the 'Lily Ledbetter Act" into law, but at the same time he seemed
to trade off that important bill by exonerating a thoroughly guilty
Republican Senator, Ted Stevens, from
felony charges. Meanwhile, the innocent Don Siegelman remains trapped
in legal limbo with a felony conviction (on appeal) shackling the most
Popular Democrat in Alabama from using his political skills, possibly even
running for office, to stop the continuing Corporatist Republican takeover
of Alabama.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you, (name redacted). For me the
negatives vastly outweigh the few positive accomplishments of President
Obama's Administration, leaving me heartbroken and angry when I think of all
that could have been accomplished by him. A strong majority of the People
of America were behind him and would have remained behind him had he taken
decisive action in the first two years of his administration to end the
wars, punish the war criminals and reestablish American Justice at the
highly politicized DOJ. Instead he turned for "advice" from the very goons
from Wall Street and the banks who caused our economic crisis, sold health
care reform to the For Profit Insurance and Health Care Industry, did
nothing to "clean out" the highly politicized DOJ from its Bush Moles, and worst of all he allowed the Republican Party, through endless cave-ins and "compromises" to gain the power which led to the loss of the U. S. House of Representatives in 2010.

I cannot forget...I can only hope every American who can will go to
Washington on October 6th and, in peaceful civil disobedience, demand
specific changes from everyone who wants to remain in office. I also hope
that there will be Solidarity Rallies in every city, town, village or even
on the block where you live in America for those who cannot attend the
October 6th event in D. C. but who wish to show their support.


What President Obama doesn't understand about "The Left" is we don't like being punk'd. If you run as a liberal democrat, we expect you to govern as a liberal democrat. We expect you to keep your promises.

At seventeen years of age, it dawned on me that I would be eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election. A right that, in a democratic nation, comes with an obligation to be self-informed and knowledgeable of political affairs. I realized my fast-approaching surge into adulthood would be crippled by a dependent, uninformed mind. That if my opinion of government was simply the product of others’ rambling, I had no personal identity or significance.
So I started reading and I started listening. I tried to be as impartial as possible. When I read something clearly biased to one side, I tried to balance it by reading an account from the other side. I backtracked all the way to President Obama’s campaign speeches and promises. I attempted to objectively pair those past promises with later or present action. My findings were disheartening. Although I did find Obama had followed through on some of his campaign promises, there were many he had flatly and apathetically dropped.
Civil liberty promises such as closing Guantanamo Bay have not only been cast aside by the President, but he’s now sending September eleventh terrorists to be tried in their fake, unconstitutional trial system.
Amidst a current national union rights battle, I recollect on the words once spoken by our president. ‎”If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I’m in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself, I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America,” he promised during a campaign speech in 2007. But it has yet to be seen and it is years later.
“I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years,” Obama said in a press conference on Dec. 7, 2010. “In the long run, we simply can’t afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them.” Unfortunately, when the time came as president, Obama extended the tax cuts for two more years. America is waiting, perhaps hoping, but not changing.
It was a personal betrayal I felt with Obama. He was the only politician I ever trusted, and I was punished for opening my trust with such vulnerability. The political system took a beloved revolutionary; a savior; a personal hero and stripped him of his ostensible, distinguishing integrity.

I repeat, If President Obama is a one term President it will be his own damn fault.
All I am going to say is President Obama has no one to blame for himself because the first thing he should have done after he was sworn into office on January 8, 2008 was to restore honesty and integrity to the United States Justice Department.

But did he do that? Hell to the NO. His first act was to clear Republican Senator Ted Stevens. Meanwhile the former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman languishes in the wind and other Alabama Democrats are still under attack.

I tried to tell President Obama is was time to kick a$$ and take names back in September 2011.

Line the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the White House Press Corp up, make them bend over, go down the line kicking them in their a$$e$ for using the public airways to distort what we decide by lying and misinforming we the peeps. Then go back up the line and kick their a$$e$ for the lack of diversity in the MSM. In case you haven't noticed, the MSM and the White House Press Corps is ALL white and that's not right (pun intended). It's the media Mr. Obama. They want you to fail. He/she who controls the information controls the outcome. You need to take control of the information Sir.

Seriously Mr. President, it's time to send in the A Team, because the B Team has been a miserable failure.

Obama has regularly snubbed progressives, from health care to jobs, from Copenhagen to Afghanistan, from civil liberties to the Employee Free Choice Act.

It hasn’t been a winning strategy.

If Obama had been more progressive, unemployment would’t be so high, foreclosures wouldn’t be at record levels, he wouldn’t be bogged down in Afghanistan, he and other Democrats would be in a much better position politically.

It's Do or Die Mister President Sir. F the so called Independents and Moderates. They are really republican cowards. Independent/Moderate are words created by republicans to disguise them selves because they are afraid to reveal themselves fro who they really are. Stop pandering to them at the expense of your base. All you are doing is putting a noose around your neck, tying it to a tree, jumping on your horse, and riding out to a battle you already lost. Ask Artur Davis.

While Congressman Artur Davis's stunning loss in his quest to win the Alabama Democratic Gubernatorial nomination was a sad turn for one black man, it was a great moment for black voters. It revealed a heightened level of political sophistication among black primary voters who rejected Davis's "I-don't-need-to-spend-time-on-them-'cause-I-know-they'll-be-with-me" approach to campaigning. black Alabamans did not simply genuflect before a polished black candidate. He gave them nothing; they returned the favor. Davis has ambitiously positioned himself for higher office for some time. In so doing, he took his base for granted. That's the best way to lose an election

I'm just saying....