Ernie : You said-- Most of Obama's problems aren't his fault. But they *are* his responsibility, and so far he hasn't truly stepped up. Does he know how to "step up" to dealing with the problems ? Seems to me-- and a lot of others-- that he is essentially clueless. Reason for his cluelessness is his ideology. When all is said, his idea of "centrism" is that the standard Left-wing views of the urban Democratic Party are the actual "middle" and his only Left consists of de facto neo-Communists ( the high dudgeon "Progressives" ) with moderate Republicans the only legitimate Right, and conservatives so many extremist Rightists, as if they are all little better than neo-Nazis. Hence his demonization of Fox News and the more-or-less "libertarian" Tea Party, which he doesn't really understand at all. That is, politically he is naive and not well informed. And apparently he has no real desire to become well informed. His political inexperience, combined with his ideology, and you got the formula for a "perfect storm." The debacle has two main parts, maybe three. First, the need should have been clear from day # 1 that all else had to be FAR down on the totem pole in terms of priorities, to the extent that before moving on any other major legislation the economy had to be fixed, really fixed, not just "hope for change" after passing a couple of bailouts. Instead, because of his urban ideology, think South Side of Chicago, BHO's big concern was what he could do for his former social worker constituents that might matter the most to them, hence Health Care Reform. But instead of adopting a pragmatic approach, some now, the rest later, he chose to go for a grand package. But, as in 1993 under Bubba, all Republican ideas ( OK a few minor exceptions ) were denied on principle, and generally in Congress no GOP rep or senator could even offer amendments. So, as Halperin did not say, the Republicans had good reason to become outright obstructionists, they were being handed a take it or leave it set of proposals, and their tough luck. This pixxed them off. Motivated to find fault with the Health care bill, they found MANY, not a suprise since Obama turned the drafting over to the Congress with little WH leadership and, as a result, the bill was a mish-mash that satisfied almost no-one. Politically it was very poorly received, with the Democratic Left just about as unhappy as the Republican Right, and average voters disillusioned with the next to nothing they got, since many major provisions don't even take effect until 2014. Worse, as the Republicans pointed out, insurance costs for most folks would inevitably go up, not down, when insurance companies readjusted rates. I think, too, a good slice of the electorate was not at all happy with the provision to insure not all of the uninsured, but the habitual welfare class, those who, in many eyes, don't deserve any such thing and are a drag on the system in 100 different ways and ought to stop breeding. I think this summarizes this attitude well enough. Anyway, as the unemployment picture went from bad to worse, although there eventually was a decline from 10 and a half to 9 and a half, news of billions of dollars in bonus payouts to rich bankers had an impact, especially galling since TARP money was given with no strings attached as far as bank responsibility to the "real economy." NONE, and therefore cash hoarding on Wall Street ( now 2 or 3 trillion ) and almost no new job creation. All of this while BHO was spending almost a full year seeking Health Care to accommodate welfare parasites, at least so a lot of people viewed it. So the voters sent a message --in New Jersey, Virginia and stunningly in Massachusetts, and it was completely ignored. Hence perceived arrogance on the part of the WH. Then came more pushing to homosexualize the military, the appointment of two hard Left Supreme Court justices, and perceived ineptitude when the Gulf oil spill crisis hit, the equivalent for Obama of Katrina for George W. The backdrop was daily speech making by the prez, waaaay to much speech making, 32 rounds of golf, and a dozen vacations to Martha's Vinyard. Followed by a series of Islamic incidents, the Ft Hood murderer, the GZ mosque, etc, in all cases which left the clear impression that Obama is pro-Muslim and not much ( if at all ) of a Christian. In short, I'd put the emphasis on Halperin's opening statement about BHO caught between elite opinion to the effect that he is incompetent ( now an Absolute Truism ) and working class opinion ( another truism beyond debate ) that Obama is complete poison for the economy. We got what he is, not what he led people to believe they were voting for. We got a lawyer from an Ivy League school with pretensions of superiority, a social worker with a social worker's worldview, and an ideological Leftist. Speaking of selling the public a bill of goods, 2008 was the biggest con job of American history, at a minimum, the biggest con job since Nixon in 1972. Now a lot of people wonder how it all went wrong ? Hell, what did anyone really expect when the elected someone who can be thought of as the political equivalent of Bernie Madoff ? For which, at the end of the day, the man most responsible for how this all came about was George W Bush. Alas, it never is a good idea to replace one screw-up with another screw-up. My most humble and self-effacing Radical Centrist opinion Billy In a message dated 10/14/2010 2:17:10 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
On Oct 14, 2010, at 11:24 AM, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) wrote: Most of Obama's private (and sometimes public) rebuttals to the voices slamming him on all sides are justified or spot on. He did inherit a lot of problems from the Bush Administration. He did act quickly in the initial weeks of his Administration to stave off a worldwide depression. His efforts at job creation have been obstructed by Republicans (even the proposals based on policies supported by the GOP in the past). His opponents haven't put forth specifics of their own, nor offered genuine compromise, while the media have allowed the right's activists and gabbers to run wild with criticism without furnishing legitimate alternative solutions. _(See Barack Obama's top 10 sound bites.)_ (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1954949_1954934,00.html) But Obama has exacerbated his political problems not just by failing to enact policies that would have actually turned the economy around, but also by authorizing a series of tactical moves intended to demonize Republicans and distract from the problems at hand. He has wasted time lambasting his foes when he should have been putting forth his agenda in a clear, optimistic fashion, defending the benefits of his key decisions during the past two years (health care and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for example) and explaining what he would do with a re-elected Democratic majority to spur growth. Nice analysis; very Radical Centrist. Most of Obama's problems aren't his fault. But they *are* his responsibility, and so far he hasn't truly stepped up. -- Ernie P. = -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
