The man talked about during the campaign was the one elected with a mandate. - Edit 1
Before modification by Joel at 12/02/2012 02:30:30 AM
Pretty much he has done accounting math to obtain everything he wanted but get rid of the complaints.
but I do think he's accomplishing what he meant to, which is important for me. The polls aren't killing him because this is what many women (and I have to assume men?) secretly want - it infuriates me that many of them won't say this in front of their peers for fear of judgement, but it still shows that there is a silent majority in favor of affordable contraception. (I point this out as someone who has recently been discussing tooooooo much with several different types of female friends/family members. I can't say it makes me completely correct, but the comments certainly seem to support me.)
Joel, I love you, but I can no longer read your "Obama bomb" posts, so I have no idea what other discussion is happening here, and will be leaving now. You sound like triscuit. Ugh.
I cannot really blame you. I am just frustrated, disillusioned and bitter over Obama turning out to be yet another Republican Lite Democrat and what those policies are doing to the nation and world. This is not a win for womens health. That depends on insurers agreeing to offer free contraceptive coverage because 1) It makes economic sense (they would already give free coverage if it were that simple) and 2) they want in on insurance exchanges that will not exist until two years from now.
Do not hold your breath. But Obama can yet again tell progressives he delivered for us even though he actually abandoned us, and the torch-wielding villagers sick of puritanical robber barons will go out and vote for him again because "he fights for us." No one fights for us; America is every man for himself now.
It seems to me that you're too far to the left to view it clearly - America is simply NOT that progressive yet, and Obama is going back to pretty much where he has to be. I won't claim that he's been some sort of genius, but he IS essentially what I expected - "republican lite" is a cute term you like to use, but I think we're just learning what happens when one side tries to work in compromises and everyone is used to ultimatums, so it doesn't work (or appears not to).
Every time I read one of your posts that touches on this, I get the feeling that you're convinced he should be the man everyone talked about in the campaign. We all knew that couldn't happen. Govt doesn't work like that. So anyway, I don't want to sit here and tell you I think you're wrong, so I should probably just shut up and let you keep on.
Working class Americans do not really care about left/right or socialist/capitalist. They care about esoteric ideals like jobs, housing, personal savings/debt and medical care. It just so happens the left historically does a better job on those issues, though some debate that.
What is undebateable is that Obama campaigned on that platform, McCain and Co. attacked it, and he won 350+ electoral votes plus a supermajority in both chambers of Congress. His approval ratings and his partys Congressional caucus have dwindled since, not because he is "too liberal" or "socialist," but because he took office doing things like leaving homebuyers twisting in the wind while handing a $700 billion bailout to banks that knowingly and feloniously issued them bad loans. Supposedly he is FINALLY throwing the unwitting borrowers a $25 billion life line three years later, but if you check the fine print in the thread I just posted on that you will find all it does is protect those same banks from prosecution for their crimes. Homebuyers even a single payment behind are eligible for no relief, and what relief is available will be given out in order of increasing need.
Or take healthcare "reform." After six months of corporate bailout after corporate bailout his attention at last turned to his campaign cornerstone. So after campaigning on a public option with no public mandate, while opponents called it socialism and he won a landslide anyway, he delivered NO public option WITH a public mandate. It ensures no one healthcare, but requires everyone acquire it, while doing nothing about skyrocketing prices that prevented tens of millions buying insurance even under the threat of DEATH (but a $750 tax penalty will "fix" that.
) The only people who benefit are—another group of megacorps, this time the insurance industry promised $900 billion in tax money, plus whatever they charge those of their now captive customers who do not qualify for federal assistance.Obama is in (deep) trouble, not because he attempted the socialism Republicans continually accuse him of, but because he did NOT. America was on board with another New Deal, just as in 1932; they were not convinced it would work, but knew what we had been doing for the past decade had failed. Instead we got more of the same, and people who voted for change are wondering why they bothered. Obama got Americans to believe again, convinced us we could actually get a populist president who works for us instead of lobbyists, and must now face the publics outrage at forsaking that pledge.
Even if he struggles to re-election, for no better reason than that Romney is such an awful candidate, Obamas legacy is probably Sammaels: Betrayer of Hope.