thats pretty much it - he is a politician first and foremost and he is seems perfectly willing to compromise his values and his campaign promises in order to appear as centrist as possible. the problem is that when you try to please everyone you end up pleasing no one. obama has been a huge disappointment and that is reflected in his dwindling poll #'s. i cant remember a first-year president's #'s sinking this quickly. its pretty surprising. if i had voted for obama i would be pissed at the things he has done (or not done). he said he would have nobody w/ ethics problems in his administration and then his treasury sec. is a tax cheat, not to mention the guy who authored the first round of bail-outs under bush. he said he would have no lobbyists in his administration and he went back on that too. and as i already brought up in the 'why isnt cheney in prison yet?' thread, obama's stance of civil liberties leave much to be desired... expansion of bush's warrantless wiretapping program, after saying he would end it. attempting to use evidence gained under torture to keep defendants in prison. threatening to w/hold intel info from the brits if they allow evidence of torture to be admissible in court. going back on his word to close gitmo asap. this is clearly not the 'change' that many who voted for him were expecting. jo mama
This is silly. The big tent democratic party struggling with their big tent? I know that democrats want to believe otherwise, but what happened in the last election was not America saying "We are all now progressive/liberal democrats!" It was them saying "President Bush and the Republicans have been so bad, so depressing that we hate them. We also love the idea of making history and electing a black man president." Furthermore, Obama did not run a national campaign on the idea of being a progressive liberal president. He talked about being a centrist. He talked about being a moderate. He talked about working with both sides of the aisle. If democrats think they need to start retreating to the extreme left of their party in order to solidify their base, they can. It will make it all the more amusing when they (and some on this board) come in here and talk about the republicans retreating to the extreme right of THEIR party. The truth is Americans don't really like either party right now. They are mad at the political system, they think politicians haven't really represented them for a while now, they hate "partisan" rules, they want reform socially and in the way Washington works, but they don't want extreme liberal reform and they don't want "conservative" reform. Americans don't want to be Europe and they don't want to be 1800 America either. Both sides can talk about retreating to their bases all they want, but the truth is the real bases of both parties are shrinking.
You are completely forgetting that LBJ could twist arms because he spent years in Congress helping his fellow Congressmen get their bills passed and various electorates served. Obama spent days in Congress before he was off and running for President. No one in Congress "owes" him anything except lip service. Justtxyank: Well said.
Amen, except for one thing. I sense the country is driftng leftward (economically and esp. socially) very very slowly. There will be profound changes over the next 10+ years to reflect this. The change will benefit the Dems. The GOP will eventually morph itself and adjust.
Nine months. With the incredible, damned unbelievable mess left by George W. Bush and his Republican controlled Congress, how anyone could think anything really meaningful could be accomplished in nine months just blows my mind. So much of this crap is perception and that you can place at Obama's feet. He needs to speak less and speak out more strongly when he does. Pick his spots and then forcefully make his case. The man is doing a good job, given the circumstances. He's not giving a good enough perception that he is doing so. And he needs to bust some heads in Congress. Stop responding to complaints from his own supporters after the fact. Act on the issues he ran on where he can without needing Congressional approval. Want to do something about "don't ask, don't tell?" Give an executive order. That's one example and not the only case where Obama could simply act. Talk less, speak more forcefully when you do, Mister President, and act.
