Looking at this poll it is logical to conclude the McConnell is either a dramatically better negotiator than Obama or Obama lied about not wanting to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy.

This is logical fallacy. You posit that Obama traded support for something unpopular for support for something popular, but you do not consider that there is no mechanism to force the popular initiative. The current dynamic favors the threat of inaction. Stalemate and obstruction has a value and a cost here. The veto is a threat to prevent action. The GOP has no mandate to govern anything. They don’t need any legislation to pass. Their position in the minority frees them from responsibility for governing.

Your premise is based on the assumption that because Obama has a “responsibility to govern” he therefore cannot “prevent action”, and that he had no mechanism “to force the popular initiative.” But both of these assumptions are wrong. Sometimes governing does mean preventing action, if the action is detrimental. Which is why the President has veto power. As for forcing the initiative, Obama and the Dems didn’t have to lift a finger to allow the tax cuts to expire on schedule. So while “the current dynamic favors the threat of inaction”, in this case, the threat of inaction was a weapon in Obama’s arsenal. McConnell had nothing!

As for the unemployment benefits, Republicans couldn’t have sustained opposition to that for long without serious political damage, given how popular and seriously needed they are.

So you see, he was in a position of almost overwhelming strength. So I don’t understand how you can object to the statement you quoted.

Because I have no faith that the Republicans would have paid a price for opposing unemployment benefits. The logical proposition was that trading something unpopular for something popular is losing, but I don’t think he would have been able to get the popular something. People in this country are so abominably stupid that the Republicans would simply say, “we’re sorry, but unemployment benefits are against our core principles, but in keeping with liberal democrat principles. It was the democratic president’s responsibility to put food on your table and we told him we would let you starve if he didn’t deal.” And astonishingly, people would agree. Now, maybe the right thing to do would have been to let a few people starve first to find out. I’m not sure.

Because I have no faith that the Republicans would have paid a price for opposing unemployment benefits.

We’ll never know if they would have paid a price or not. Since Obama caved ahead of time, rather than actually fighting for something to help people

But the extension of the unemployment benefits will help people. And maybe you don’t know, but I do. These guys could kill a baby on TV and no one would bat an eyelash. Would there have been a tangible good for human beings tomorrow for not extending the tax cuts? I mean one that would not have been offset by the douchebags on the right going more crazy? And that poll says that 75% of Americans favored it. So Obama would have just gotten hammered if he didn’t do it anyways.

The Republican base (the real ba$e, not the wingnuts) would have FREAKED OUT if Obama let the tax cuts expire. Taxes are their #1 priority. There is no doubt in my mind that Obama could have gotten a much better deal than he did.

Obama has a history of caving

Just read below!
1st Obama endorses the Bush agenda of spying on and killing americans
2nd Obama attacks Unions (the F! the UAW moment screams republican)
3rd Obama double downs on Bush Wars, (now they are Obama wars)
4th Obama attacks Teacher Unions (teacher unions now hate OBAMA)
5th Obama does not attack the Banks? he bails them out? (sorta like what the GOP does)
6th Obama passes the Bob Dole Health Care Bill (Bob Dole is a republican)
7th Obama kills the Public Option
8Th Obama kills Drug Importation
9Th Obama APPOINTS an insurance executive to manage his health care Bill
10th Obama does not APPOINT Dawn Johnsen
11th Obama hand picks the cat food commission to destroy Social Security
12th Obama supports Blanche Lincoln, a candidate who hates Unions, and has no chance of winning
13 Guantanomo still open for business
14.Patriot Act renewed
15. renditions continue
16. Bernanke reappointed
17. Americans targeted for assassination
18 Obama is all for sending more USA jobs off shore
19 Obama is for tax cuts for the RICH!
20. Obama and the TSA porno Scandal
21 Obama freezes federal wages for 2 years
22. OBAMA TARP Funds for Legal Services for Foreclosure Victims Blocked By Treasury
23. Obama lowers estate tax for the rich
24. Obama tax bill of 2010 GUTS Social Security
25. Obama wants WikiLeaks Assange charged with espionage.

fugitivepoem, trying to defend OBAMA is hilarious!!! :) still laughing

Please tell us how Republicans FEAR OBAMA!!! so we can get a bigger laugh

What is not funny?
Every Dem running in 2012, will have to defend all of OBAMA actions listed above.

We call it the OBAMA necklace

We know 23 Democratic senators that are not happy at the present time, they have seen the future and they are in commercials with the lying president call OBAMA :)

Polls like this are ridiculous. Barely have of the respondents are even registered to vote. The pollster has to explain the issue to them before they answer, and the way the question is explained has enormous impact on the result.

ut the extension of the unemployment benefits will help people. And maybe you don’t know, but I do.

Since you’re new here I won’t say what I might otherwise. I am 58 years old and have been un/underemployed for more than six years. Yes the bill helps some people but no where near as many as it could or should help. It should have provided help for the “99ers” or the virtual “99ers” (those in states that were set up to not even get the 99 weeks of unemployment but got capped at 60 weeks.) It should have tied the unemployment extension to the length of time of the tax cut extension.

If Obama is going to get hammered for something anyway, then why doesn’t he go ahead and do the things that make the most sense and damn the hammering and jabbering from the know nothings? They’re going to jabber away anyway so do something that provides more help to those in eed and let ‘em jabber away.

It might even work out to be both popular and effective but we’ll never know because he caves ahead of time and thus here we are.

Republicans WOULD have had to come out and vote to accept the extension of the Unemployment. You may not believe it to be so but they are not toal idiots and if they had said no? Then you tie the albatross of tax cuts for the rich and nothing for those who really need it and watch the Rs scurry for cover.

Politics is a dirty game and Obama is playing it like it’s an afternoon tea party – pun intended.

Look, I assume its ok to have my own opinion. I have said in another thread that I am new to this blog and I see that the posters in here run from the extremely disappointed to those that are convinced he is actively evil. I won’t have sarcastic, snarky fights with you or anyone else. I’m coming from a different perspective. I believe this country gets exactly what it deserves, and though I have a very progressive wish list, I have no faith that the country will support it. I don’t blame Obama for what I see as national failures. So, am I frustrated? Yes. Do I think Obama is an evil failure that is squandering the political will to transform the country? No, I don’t. I think we’re a nation of dumb, selfish rednecks, and when you finish boiling down our politics, that’s the agenda that will prevail until the people are a different people.

Come On Fugitivepoem? you have got to do better than this. :)

the last 20 months = the following
Dems control WH
Dems control Senate
Dems control House

what do progressives get for helping DEMS control DC
1. Hoover Economic Policies
2. Bob Dole Health Care Bill
3. Bush Tax Cuts (now they are the OBAMA tax cuts)

So what you are basically saying is that OBAMA is complete MORON when it comes to politics? Bush got everything he wanted with a lot less.

Nothing = Nancy Pelosi passing 400 Bills and Harry Reid killing Nancy 400 bills

the last 20 months the republicans who control nothing in DC got the following!
1. Bush Tax Cuts
2. Bob Dole Health Care Bill
3. Hoover Economic Policies

the GOP is Obama’s Daddy! the GOP does not need to run any candidates in 2012, WHY? would they?

1. Obama is going to cut Social Security for them
2. Obama is going to do a Nafta type of deal with China

who needs the GOP, when you have OBAMA?

fugitivepoem what type of team does OBAMA need to win?

if we were playing basketball Obama would lose if he had Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jerry West, Kareem, Shaq, etc. playing against a junior high school team. You are the one that call the GOP a bunch of HICKS.

Obama is so 2008! :)

Stop calling Obama a loser fugitivepoem! Obama already knows he is a 1 termer

that was the deal!
no candidate in history of USA presidents has made HOOVER smile like OBAMA. :) FDR OBAMA is not

I’m not calling Obama a loser. I’m calling the country moronic. I assume its just axiomatic that the Bob dole style plan is worse than nothing, but to me its exactly what I’m talking about. The country has drifted so far right that the best plan that has any chance of getting through is this watered down piece of legislation, but passing it causes half of the country to declare him a socialist and turn on democrats in the midterm elections. You talk like having the House and the senate matters, when you just told me that Bush didn’t have it and got his agenda through. Did I want single payer? Of course I did. Was there political will to get that doe in this country? Of course not. The sports metaphor doesn’t work. Don’t fall back on that. Tell me how you would have gotten progressive legislation passed in this country today. Tell me who can get progressive legislation passed in this contry today. In fact, point out one piece of progressive legislation that you are happy with that has become law in the last thirty years. What is more likely, Obama is squandering political will and failing and evil, or he is just the most recent in a long line of people that has tried to do something with this f__ked up, uneducated, easy to manipulate, constantly vote against its own interests electorate.

The country has drifted so far right that the best plan that has any chance of getting through is this watered down piece of legislation, but passing it causes half of the country to declare him a socialist and turn on democrats in the midterm elections

While the country does majority identify as center right (mainly due to the demonization of the term “liberal” for thirty years), the actual policy positions that had approval of 70% or higher during the Health Care debate was the liberal position. A simple phrase such as “Medicare for all” would have been (and was) both popular and a far better cost savings than the execrable insurance industry give-away that was voted in.

Obama doesn’t have to “get progressive legislation passed” if he could be seen fighting for something instead of continually caving to the right. He has pissed away the base and pissed on the base for nothing. He had majorities in the House and Senate and did nothing to use them, claiming he was impotent and oh well, nothing can be done about it.

If he actually fought and stood up for something rather than caving at the least resistance, you and he both would probably be surprised at his popularity. He promised change and instead gave us get along and go along.

well, maybe. I’m not sure how you can say that the majority of the country identifies center, right, and also say that if the president embraced a more combative progressive agenda he would be more popular, but then I don’t think being more popular should be the point either. I’m just saying that to act like all he had to do was want it more and it would have gotten done, ignores the reality that most people in this country have no idea what they are doing and have no idea whether they agree with you, Obama, Palin, or the man on the moon. They are easily tricked and can be easily stampeded. The Republicans are unscrupulous and will exploit the ignorance of the masses. Democrats tend to think that is bad, and so have to try to explain complicated things to people that believe the earth is 6000 years old.

In polling, when people are asked their political orientation, they self identify as conservative or moderate.

But when actual positions are laid out, in ways that even the low information voter can understand, they will choose the position that can be identified as liberal.

Public option was one such position, which was in fact the compromise from single payer/Medicare for all. People could understand Medicare for all. Yet the PO and Medicare for all were never even considered but given away to Big PhRMA and Big Insurance in agreements in the WH even as Obama continued to profess to support a Public Option.

Obama has a wonderful way of speaking that he could use, through the media, by-passing the Fox News and other media gate keepers. Going over the gate keepers heads if you will, similar to how Bush and Reagan both sold policies.

But because his actions did not reflect his rhetoric (such as the public option give away) he gave it all away without even trying.

Well, duh. Color me unsurprised.

It’s a CNN poll doncha know.

The naysayers will be here any second linking to gallup or CBS or Rasmussen (shudder) and say “look here, this deal was POPULAR with Americans.”

The naysayers (folks who claim they’re liberal/progressive but insist we can’t really have progressive legislation cause the country is RIGHT WING) will cling to and point to anything to validate their world view. This CNN poll is not the only one to show this data, the President himself (hardly a liberal) conceded the that a majority of Americans were against extending the tax cuts to the rich. Duh.

Say what you will, O has made a man out of Mitch.

Ok, competition is over.

Post of the day right there.

LOL

O talents are deep and eleventy mention.

I still don’t think O is a bad negotiator. I think he got exactly what he wanted.

Asshole.

Yeah, I gotta admit, making a man out of Mitch… THAT’S talent…

Yeppers. Was the plan right from the outset.

Subsidiary benefit. It’s impoverishing the poor and enriching the rich that really counts. Can’t help it if it makes assholes appear like heroes.

On edit: Collateral benefit.

Ding-Ding! The only thing that will surprise me now is if Obama actually does something for the citizens he is ignoring.

He’s not ignoring the citizens. He’s actively putting them down.

Now, maybe the right thing to do would have been to let a few people starve first to find out.

This way, people are definitely going to starve – like the 99ers. And it won’t be limited to them. Just wait until President Origami also folds on the spending cuts the Republicans want.

Well, God damn us one and all. My annual Christmas shopping list of the best presents to get your embarrassing right wing relative is now up, with 15 sure fire winners.

Marshall McLuhan:

“I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.”

The tax-cut deal between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans gets generally high marks in the latest CNN Poll – 75% of all respondents said they approved.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/12/20/support-for-tax-deal-is-broad-based/

People in this country are so abominably stupid

Not stupid enough to believe that President Origami has their best interests at heart. Not for much longer, the way he’s going now. His support is declining exponentially, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

What I do want to see is the push back if the SocSec benefit really starts being cut. I know raising the age is one thing…but an effective, longterm cut is quite another…right at the time when the loud boomers are hitting the age…and their kids are not planning to help support them. What do you see?

Obama’s job is to give wins to republicans and validate their worldview at every turn. Truly I’ve never seen a more fawning admirer of failed pukehood in my life.

I swear I want his ass impeached, if only for being not a shred of anything he sold himself as.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to work for the White House these days. How can these people stand to look at themselves in the mirror in the morning?

Yes, there should be a price for that. As in malpractice.

LOL! You still got it. After all these years, you still manage to keep up the laughter. You and Attaturk win the prize.

oldgold, you have fallen in love with POLLS lately! :)

I have a simple question for you.

What President is hated by progressives and conservatives and helps both ends of the political spectrum raise a lot of money?

You got it! OBAMA

see OBAMA is good for something

by the way, the only poll that matters is the MONEY POLL

major dem donors abandon WH? :( not good

oldgold send this poll to the major Dem Donors, maybe they will hug OBAMA again. LAUGHING

So when Obama loses, he had no choice, the country is right wing, the Presidency is powerless, etc.

Then why is he so awesome? I get if you think there is no other choice – in which case we should all just give up on politics now. But Obama can’t be great and weak at the same time.

Obama could prevent action in the Rs states, by placing all Federal Expenditure line item “under review” in that state or district when a Senator of Rep votes against a line item.

Enough of the “voting against everything” and still taking a large amount of our money in Federal Largess back to you district.

Votes should have consequences, and the best consequence of a “no vote” is “no money”.

oldgold luvs whatever proves the point s/he is trying to make. It’s as simple as that. Do not expect consistency or intellectual honesty from oldgold.

oldgold, you have fallen in love with POLLS lately! :)

Well, I thought this was a post about the CNN poll! I was trying to add context.

Here is some more.

In the CNN poll, The highest approval margin of all came among people in the antitax South, at 81%. No big surprise there. But that’s followed closely by moderates and Democrats, both at 78%. Next at 77% come urban residents and those making under $50,000. Those who attended college came in next at 76% and self-described conservatives at 75%.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/12/20/support-for-tax-deal-is-broad-based/

It should be abundantly clear by now that this president is a Republican in everything but name. He did not just start lying now; he lied in the campaign over and over again. Once elected, instead of fighting for a progressive or moderately liberal or even traditionally Democratic agenda, he gave us Republican so-called health care reform, Republican so-called financial reform, a worse human rights record than Bush, a greater escalation in Afghanistan than Bush, no public option (he still ridicules those who know how many lives this has cost), no net neutrality, no challenge to the People’s United decision, and on and on. He didn’t suddenly become the worst politician on the planet after appearing to be the best; his actions since being elected tell us who he really is and what he really wants.

The wsj is so “fair and balanced”. I so love their polls.

The devil is in the details.

What was the approval measurement of each of the items in the package?

Lies, damn lies, statistics, and fools.

Yes massa, Uncle Tom will be on it right away! Yes massa!

Conditioned reflex perhaps?

oldgold luvs whatever proves the point s/he is trying to make. It’s as simple as that.

Yes, I confess that I do like evidence that proves the points I am trying to make.

I cited the very damn poll the OP referenced! How in the world can you flame me for that?

I don’t think you realize that most of us here do not think Obama is Awesome. We have major issues with the man. We don’t think he has mastered negotiations or anything else. In our eyes, he has been a complete failure at every turn. He has undermined his own congress. Of course, they were not really all that into it anyway.

All we see is political theater every day. Punch and Judy Matinees from 9 to 3 daily is all they are doing. The actual legislation is from a playbook.

Regardless of whether it is consistent with your prior points or has proven reliable in the past. A perfect example of data mining.

Welcome. I think you will find many informative articles and posting here.

I for one think your assessment of the majority of those who vote in this county and what passes for leadership in those elected to office. But I and many others I talk to are fatigued with just listing all the venality and ignorance.

What ideas do you have as to how to reverse the process and regain the better educated and socially conscous public we once could claimed?

oldgold?

politically are the 23 dems senators going to run on the idea they voted for BUSH TAX CUTS in 2010?

Oldgold is Obama going to use your polls in 2012? to help him keep his tax cuts? Laughing

Oldgold? think about what you are doing! you are saying that Progressives love the Bush Tax Cuts/Obama Tax Cuts? are you losing it?

again this is why progressives and conservative use OBAMA to raise money, he is hated by both political bases in the USA.

The CNN poll indicates 78% of Democrats support the deal.

It isn’t my poll. It is the same poll the OP, Walker, cited in this post.

Now, if you want to continue making political assessments based on the notion that this deal is unpopular, you are free to do so. Unfortunately, the ABC/Wapo poll, Pew Poll, NBC/WJS poll and now the CNN poll do not indicate that this is the case.

For what it is worth, I personally think the deal, strictly in terms of economics, is less than above reproach.

Aunt Toby is upstairs!
Late Night: Merry Schmaltzmas

wsj poll. The WSJ has an agenda.

I disagree. I believe him a master of negotiation, and gets what he wants very frequently.

See how hard Obama personally lobbied and twisted arms to get Republican and Democratic Senators to support the Start treaty? See how hard he worked holding press conferences on getting Congress to pass the Obama tax cuts?

Obama did no such lobbying for the public option. He did no such lobbying for extending the unemployment benefits when it was not connected to his tax cuts for the rich. (Obama needed the unemployment benefits extension to be voted down so that he could then use it to COUPLE it to tax cuts for the rich, so that he could get those cuts passed.

Why do people not SEE the repeated evidence that Obama is a pretty radical corporate Republican who undermines the working class behind the scenes and works to advance the economic conservative agenda (destroying social security etc.) in pretty deep, radical ways. Obama is in effect taking a step BEYOND GWBush in many of these issues. That is how radical a neoliberal he is.

From his actions, the results of all his actions on the most important issues, there is no evidence that Obama is a Democrat.

To all the Obama supporters who still do not see Obama’s treachery: Next, Obama will be helping the Republicans destroy social security. His strategy is so heinous, so immoral. You know what Ralph Nader said of him. Open your eyes! Wake up! We cannot reward such behavior by supporting Obama at the next election, even if a Repub president wins. If we let Obama win the next election, we will get future Obamas in the Democratic party. We have to show treachery like this does not pay. Imagine what the Tea Party rightwingers would do if their president were actually a Democrat advancing the cause of the unions.

this post was about OBAMA getting taking to the Wood Shed by Mitch McConnell on this tax bill.(yes everyone in the know, knows the Republican won this battle with ease)

Are the BUSH TAXS CUTS/OBAMA TAX CUTS going to create any jobs? No

what did the 99ers get out of this deal? nothing

this TAX issue should have been the main issue of the 2010 midterms!

the rich get two more years of tax cuts? and the poor get a year of UI? this is the best OBAMA can do?

Obama also guts Social Security?

What do you think we are going to do?

Obama is irrelevant, soon he will be a joke!

the 23 dem senator up for re-election will soon learn that KABUKI goes both ways

imagine you tube videos showing Democrats going to Dem Senator offices picking up campaign flyers, signs and throwing them in the garbage can

imagine the commercial showing OBAMA 2008 against the Bush Tax Cuts and OBAMA 2010 voting for Bush tax cuts with your state senator laughing with OBAMA? would you vote for lying president? would you vote for your state senator who shares a laugh with the lying president?

oldgold don’t you complain when we start doing our KABUKI

what goes around will come around!

oldgold, a lot of us at FDL, don’t want to hear about POLLS, it is funny how POLLS that benefit the rich are good, and those that help the poor are bad.

Actually, Obama is not a totally devoted Corporate Republican either. He is whatever–Democrat or Republican–that is more expedient at that moment to him. That is why Obama attended the church of Wright and was a “liberal” at the beginning of his career. Because that was the only way he could advance his career at that point. Now he has dropped all that to show his true colors–a pretty radical neoliberal who likes tax cuts for the rich and wants to eliminate social security. I think labels, beliefs, certainly people, do not mean much to Obama. He is a person of shiftable principles, and his number one is himself. Hence Nader said he has no principles, and was an opportunist. I read someone describe him, during the primaries, as a charlatan.

“Obama lied” is my read

Just as in the public option

Now with the tax cuts

and of course the cute one with net neutrality where Obama orders his FCC chair to pretend to pass a rule, but only using the part of the Act that the Courts have already ruled not adequate to support net neutrality, as he knowingly rejects reversing Bush and allowing the FCC to regulate the net under the telephone rules because that would be a move that the Courts would approve of. As the Court rules against this FCC ruling, Obama will claim he tried but we all must “acknowledge the political difficulties”.

Why the media – and some on the left – still praise this con-artist is beyond my pay grade to understand. But Dennis K will not primary him – as was announced today. Indeed the black caucus Democrats will not reject him, so no one will primary him lest they be called racist. So the rest of us can only sit back and watch the show.

chef I agree with you

Obama is a man that can’t see the forest for the tress, he has no core beliefs.

The USA is burning, and OBAMA is pouring gas on the fire.

It is almost like, OBAMA is man who self esteem is tied to making RICH PEOPLE LIKE HIM.

Obama does not make logical and rational decisions.

(Obama screws the left, he screws Unions, and he wonders why they hate him? this is not normal behavior, most people know and understand when they screw over people, chances are they are not going to smile and laugh about it)

Bernie Sanders really got under OBAMA skin? and Obama does something foolish he puts Clinton in front of the media. Like everyone is STUPID? Sanders was speaking to the USA, he was on C-Span.

Obama in his little mind, he thinks if he destroys Social Security people will love him? Obama really thinks he will be a hero if he kills Social Security in the middle of a Depression. Is this normal thinking? No

Obama is really treating the USA like what he done in 2008 was a High School Pranked, Obama is basically saying I lied may way to the WH progressives get over it.

Has Obama ever attacked anyone on the RIGHT YET?

if the DEMS don’t primary Obama, there will be no need to have a 2012 election, just give the keys to the WH, to the GOP nominee.

the only way to force a primary challenge on OBAMA is to attack the 23 senate Dems up for election in 2012, make OBAMA become so toxic they want him off the ticket in 2012

when one looks back at 2008, one can now see that progressive never had a chance at taking the WH. Clinton and Obama are both Neo-Liberals

the evil that we are dealing with, has always been a step ahead of us.
(Obama knew in 2008, he was a 1 termer, thus is off wall actions as president)

Democrats have huge problem a lot of their main donors are bailing out on OBAMA, if the Democrats don’t get rid of OBAMA he will hamper all Democrats ability to raise money. (money is the blood of politics! if you cut the money off, you may also force primary challenge to OBAMA)

When one studies Obama actions closely you can see he is making it very easy for the GOP to win in 2012.

2 year tax cut deal for the rich, favors GOP
1 year un-employment benefits favor GOP
attacks on health care bill the next 18 months favor GOP
Dems defending OBAMACARE the next 18 months favor GOP
gutting Social Security favors GOP

Obama main mission has always been a simple one, kill the DEMS chances at controlling the WH.

Obama big mistake was exposing all the trojan horses inside the DEM party.

Obama is a very sloppy kabuki player.

NO sh*T. It was like the big kid trading the little kid a quarter for his dad’s car keys.

This “deal” is nothing but Wall Street running the White House and the American people into handing over everything they’ve got and being one hundred percent dependent on the fraudulent criminal privatized country club gateway society that they control. …Hugely made up of foreigners. We are being fashioned into a third world country for the world elite.

“amazing proof that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell got a much better bargain than President Obama on the Bush tax cut deal.”

While I agree the statement is true, this type of analysis— who won, who lost— where the author decides who is to be considered is common and deeply flawed because as is usually true of this type, it does not consider and name those who are directly affected by the action at hand.

It should be made clear that the wealthy benefited significantly while some of the Americans-in-need got a little from what they paid for to ease their suffering.

To view this as win-loss for Obama/McConnell is to ignore the stinking evil of the deal and the loss of another piece of America’s soul: the victory of the monsters among us.

I think we’re a nation of dumb, selfish rednecks, and when you finish boiling down our politics, that’s the agenda that will prevail until the people are a different people.

Obama won an overwhelming electoral victory running on a progressive platform. A platform he ditched the second he won the the election. Not that popular opinion should have stopped even IF, IF it ran against enacting the change he promised to deliver. Which it didn’t. And opinion polls never stop the GOP when they are in charge.

Do I think Obama is an evil failure that is squandering the political will to transform the country? Yes

Obama was overwhelmingly elected by campaigning on progressive ideas. It only stands to reason, that with a little effort on his part, those progressive ideas could become passable legislation. Too bad we didn’t see any of that effort.

To Jedi at #58 and #59:

I generally agree with your post #58, but then you slipped this in:

“Obama does not make logical and rational decisions.”

You are implying Obama is not very smart, and that if he does evil things, it is because he has a good heart, but made mistakes. No. Obama knows exactly what he is doing. To all the people who imply Obama is stupid to cave to the Republicans, Obama is not stupid. Think about it: Obama went to Harvard etc. How stupid can he be? So he is not stupid, and is an amoral cunning and crafty person. So, we should never vote for him again.

Second, in #59, you say to get Obama primaried, we must attack the Democrats standing for reelection in 2012. Some of those Congressmen may be good progressives and we don’t want to weaken any progressives. Rather, in order to get Obama primaried, we must attack Obama. And we must weaken Obama. What you said about attacking the 20-odd Democrats standing for reelection in order to get at Obama does not make sense.