Um, who is O*a*bama?

Oh, and I did listen to this guy on NPR this morning, talking about Obama. I - Atticus Finch - quite well appreciate the middle-of-the-road, pragmatic incremental approach of the President - but I have to agree: he has too often, in the interest of appealing to a non-existent "center", tried to negotiate with terrorist extremists (bullies) by starting halfway to their end of the bargain right off the bat.

There is no center in American politics - there are a bunch of closet progressives and closet radical righties who don't really want to admit they are in bed with either Ralph Nader or Grover Norquist (or worse, Bachmann), even though they are and will vote that way in the privacy of the voting booth.

Aren't political scientists always telling us that the beauty of the two party system is that it kind of forces people to pick a side? And while dominance may swing back and forth, this ensures some eventual progress, even if it is quite gradual. Obama is taking the fall for being a "socialist" and a "liberal" (with no real regard as to whether he is or not) - he might as well go ahead and be one.

Yeah, the links in the post are somewhat confusing. Two of them direct to the same NYT article (which I'd generally understood to be only appropriate when the link is to spreadingsantorum.com) and the second contains the typo pointed out by @ 1.

@2: "he might as well go ahead and be one." Hear, hear.
One problem is the continued myth of "two-sides" in American partisan politics. It seems to me with have two parties, but two shades of the same "side." Also, someone like Obama has busted his ass his entire life to get to the office he now occupies, why would you want such a job if you weren't going to make bold moves and take courageous moral stances? I mean really, what could motivate you to get such a job just to be a corporate sycophant?

@6, Our brains evolved to regard any sentence as more authoritative if it makes reference to our brains.

He simply can not blame Obama for any of that. In fact, it's the Republicans that have been behind all his complaints. And as far as a corrupted senate goes, same as it always was.

@1: Typo fixed.

I have yet to hear anyone suggest a realistic strategy for better handling the debt situation than the one Obama pursued. As far as rhetoric goes, Americans already blame congress for fucking that up - Obama would have little to gain and lots to loose by piling on.

obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

@8 Oh for fuck's sake, Vince, denial much?

@10 Well of course Obama being a horrible negotiator was always the only realistic strategy, but he could have raised the ceiling with the 14th amendment or issued platinum coins. They were legal options, there if he ever wanted to stop capitulating to the Republicans or at the very least, say he was willing to use them to better his bargaining position. But nope, instead he goes "Oh these aces up my sleeve? That would be cheating, my heavens, no!"

We have a new type of rule now. Not one man rule, or rule of aristocracy, or plutocracy, but of small groups elevated to positions of absolute power by random pressures and subject to political and economic factors that leave little room for decision. They are representatives of abstract forces who’ve reached power through surrender of self. The iron-willed dictator is a thing of the past. There will be no more Stalins, no more Hitlers. The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push.

@12 Is it possible that those "aces" were just not very good options, and he knew it?

Lord knows that every economist I've talked to (oh the "perks" of academia) has said those were seriously shitty options at best that could have wreaked even more havok on the economy?

But, no, let's just assume that printing a $2 trillion dollar coin wouldn't have ANY effect on the market whatsoever. Ideological purity or DEATH!

When the stimulus package details took hold, I thought to myself that it seemed unlikely that it would work. What good would individual small payroll tax relief do? Nothing. In total it cost a ton of money and individually it made no difference. And yet it became part of the script for the republicans about failed spending. Notice, though they don't see the extension of their own fat cat tax deductions as failed spending....

There have been many times when Obama could have just offered a narrative of what informed his position. But he always has and always choose not to say anything. The space is filled with the spew on the right. Who in their right political mind lets that happen? Over and over?

Of the field of republicans you have crazy tea party candidates, uninspiring apologists for Wall Street, another idiot (probably) from Texas. So Obama will win because he isn't an idiot or an ideologue. But I don't think for one second he'll get more bold without a re-election to worry about. Because then it will be about his legacy.

Ah c'mon, let's be realistic.

Obama makes nice speeches, which have nothing to do with his actions.

He's wanted to slice and dice the social safety net long before in got in office: was smart enough not to say so loudly during campaigning.

Obama likes working with the Republicans because he can get what he wants from them: or rather, what his corporate bosses want.

And he has.

@14 I'm not asking for ideological purity, just the semblance of a spine every once in a while. How would've using his constitutionally granted powers to make sure we pay our debts wrecked the market? Drastic cuts in government spending during a recession though, that's fan-fucking-tastic for the economy.

Also he could've made an agreement to raise the debt ceiling part of the deal for extending the Bush tax cuts, like any sane person knew he should have, if he didn't want to be backed into a corner of his own making.

Obama is in a lose-lose situation. He could be choosing confrontation, and ushering in the inevitable era of violence that will result. Instead, he chooses capitulation and delays the onset of violence for now. This is your chance to get to know your neighbors, lower your living costs, clear your debts and practice a trade that can make you money even in hard times. Obama's capitulation is extending the calm before the storm; there is no real solution to this huge mess; take this time to prepare for a lower standard of living in the USA.