Carter? No. Worse than Carter.
Aug. 27th, 2010 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redneckgaijinIf you couldn't guess, the 2010 Congressional election is playing out as a straight referendum on Barack Obama's presidency. Of course the Republicans hate him with a passion, but his own base is more and more deserting him, either staying home entirely or voting solely out of fear of Republican plans to return America to the Gilded Age.
Here's two of the reasons why liberal voters are giving up on Democrats in general and Obama specifically:
Only 1,200 people enrolled in four months of government-offered pre-existing conditions coverage plans
Partly this is due to paperwork; partly this is due to rather extreme requirements for qualification (survive six months with no coverage whatever); but mostly it's due to the fact that the plan's premiums are still too damn expensive for a lot of people. The one good thing health insurance reform was supposed to have done- win coverage for those who could or would not be covered- is failing miserably.
Louisianans prefer Bush's Katrina leadership to Obama's BP Spill leadership
Because Bush, at least, went through the motions (though not the substance) of trying to do something to help Katrina victims and to repair the damage. Obama has done NOTHING. He's simply stepped back and told BP to clean up its own mess as BP saw fit. He then helped BP with its efforts to cover up the extent of the spill, to the point of pushing absurd low-ball estimates of oil spilled and then overoptimistic estimates of containment, cleanup, and decomposition rates. Obama came out of the oil spill looking like BP's best buddy in the world- not the person charged to uphold the laws BP broke.
And Tuesday the nation will get reminded of yet another reason Obama is dragging his party to its doom:
Obama Iraq Speech To Signal Shift To Afghan Focus
That's right... after already doubling down on a war to prop up a petty corrupt dictator (after, mind you, said corrupt dictator blatantly rigged an election in his own favor), Obama's going to redouble his bet- trying to persuade an American populace that's already 75% against the war in Afghanistan that sending yet more troops in there is a GOOD idea.
What's happening to the Democrats, of course, is not entirely Obama's fault. Their willingness to cave in to blackmail from Joe "Or Else I'll Switch Parties" Lieberman is what fatally crippled health care reform and made it the meaningless corporate welfare handout it is. Their eagerness to accept candidates who share few or none of their goals, such as Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln, also played its part. And just as General Pickett said of the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, "I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it," so the Republicans did their part, forming a solid and almost unshakable opposition to absolutely everything proposed by the Democrats, simply because it was the Democrats who proposed it.
But in failing to lead from the bully pulpit, except to lead into bipartisan compromises that turned into abject surrender, Barack Obama has played the main role- and certainly the most visible role- in squandering all the potential of the past two years.
And the electorate's about to punish the Democrats- and the whole nation- based on his performance more than anything else.
Here's two of the reasons why liberal voters are giving up on Democrats in general and Obama specifically:
Only 1,200 people enrolled in four months of government-offered pre-existing conditions coverage plans
Partly this is due to paperwork; partly this is due to rather extreme requirements for qualification (survive six months with no coverage whatever); but mostly it's due to the fact that the plan's premiums are still too damn expensive for a lot of people. The one good thing health insurance reform was supposed to have done- win coverage for those who could or would not be covered- is failing miserably.
Louisianans prefer Bush's Katrina leadership to Obama's BP Spill leadership
Because Bush, at least, went through the motions (though not the substance) of trying to do something to help Katrina victims and to repair the damage. Obama has done NOTHING. He's simply stepped back and told BP to clean up its own mess as BP saw fit. He then helped BP with its efforts to cover up the extent of the spill, to the point of pushing absurd low-ball estimates of oil spilled and then overoptimistic estimates of containment, cleanup, and decomposition rates. Obama came out of the oil spill looking like BP's best buddy in the world- not the person charged to uphold the laws BP broke.
And Tuesday the nation will get reminded of yet another reason Obama is dragging his party to its doom:
Obama Iraq Speech To Signal Shift To Afghan Focus
That's right... after already doubling down on a war to prop up a petty corrupt dictator (after, mind you, said corrupt dictator blatantly rigged an election in his own favor), Obama's going to redouble his bet- trying to persuade an American populace that's already 75% against the war in Afghanistan that sending yet more troops in there is a GOOD idea.
What's happening to the Democrats, of course, is not entirely Obama's fault. Their willingness to cave in to blackmail from Joe "Or Else I'll Switch Parties" Lieberman is what fatally crippled health care reform and made it the meaningless corporate welfare handout it is. Their eagerness to accept candidates who share few or none of their goals, such as Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln, also played its part. And just as General Pickett said of the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, "I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it," so the Republicans did their part, forming a solid and almost unshakable opposition to absolutely everything proposed by the Democrats, simply because it was the Democrats who proposed it.
But in failing to lead from the bully pulpit, except to lead into bipartisan compromises that turned into abject surrender, Barack Obama has played the main role- and certainly the most visible role- in squandering all the potential of the past two years.
And the electorate's about to punish the Democrats- and the whole nation- based on his performance more than anything else.
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Date: 2010-08-28 04:26 am (UTC)I agree with something you said a while back in that Obama is not the President of the United States, but a junior Senator in the Oval Office. He needs to get off his ass and lead.
Remember that Clinton also fucked off until the Republicans took over Congress for the first time in 40 years back in 1994. At that point, Clinton had to start fighting (Newt Gingrich mostly), and it was the swift kick in the ass he needed. Slick Willie's only problem after that was that he couldn't keep it in his pants.