It shouldn't even BE this way at all. This should be LBJ II in getting major domestic legislation done.
But thanks to an appeaser in the White House and some in Congress, this country is screwed, for the GOP is sure to make a comeback from being on the sidelines it so much deserved:
One year into Obama’s presidency, good vibes are hard to find. The left has gone into a disappointed sulk, while many inhabiting FOX Nation seem to have gone stark raving mad.This was largely unavoidable. It’s unlikely that Obama himself ever believed his personal charm could heal the nation’s divisions. Any politician with half his intelligence had to see trouble coming.
So profound was the disorder left by the Bush administration that cleaning things up was bound to take time. By any rational standard, Obama has donea decent job, managing the financial crisis, warding off the specter of worldwide depression and restoring modest growth. Alas, politicians get little credit for disasters that didn’t happen.
Examining a recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll, it appears that the president’s declining popularity is largely due to the public’s sour mood about the economy. Indeed, his numbers track almost precisely those of Ronald Reagan during the first year of his presidency, and basically for the same reasons.
The message is also being muddled, but I contend Obama NEVER had ANY message going into last year's election. Just "hope" and "change" and other little platitudes.
2 comments:
Susan,
It is going to be painful for liberals to live through the rest of Obama's presidency. They projected qualities to him he never had and now they are disappointed that he is not delivering.
David Ehrenstein wrote a piece in LA Times during the campaign calling Obama the magical negro. It accurately described liberals illusions about Obama. They saw him as a magical figure. There was nothing in his past or present to justify the adulation. He had no history of ever fighting for anything. He had gotten ahead in life by making whites comfortable and making them feel good about themselves for supporting a black guy. The media adulation during the campaign was embarrassing. I worried about what would happen when his media supporters stopped treating him as the magical negro. I am afraid it is starting to happen. In a way I don't blame Obama for it. I blame the stupid people and their illusions. These people never cared about the issued. They were looking for a magical figure to save them. They kept talking Oprah mumbo jumbo about "healing the nation". That is not the job of the president. The only clear headed pundit during the campaign was Paul Krugman who had doubts about Obama. He warned people that Obama was conflict averse and that presidents who brought about major change liked taking on the opposition. FDR did not want to make nice with the GOP. He wanted to defeat them.
Have you ever nailed this one, Mary Louise. We knew it would come to this, that Obama supporters, who projected all of their ideas on a seemingly blank slate, would be hugely disappointed when the reality of Obama being an appeaser and a neoliberal would come to light. But anybody who had the insight to notice the media's 24/7 hype of this man KNEW he was bad news. McCain for me was unacceptable and I hoped for the best with Obama but expected the worst. He's turned into the Democrats' version of GWB.
He's already declared war on public education--a rightwing philosophy--and now I am scared to death he is going to gut Social Security and Medicare thanks to some commission he is forming. These programs don't need to be "fixed" the way the neoliberals want.
We ain't seen anything yet with this guy. I always suspected he was a ringer, and my doubts are coming true, unfortunately.
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