Yeah, now the uber wealthy D’s (who are secret hypocrites) have an advantage over the uber wealthy R’s (who are open hypocrites). Neither do anything (actions always speak louder than words) to show they care about the majority of people. Obama’s political capital will only be used for the people who own the Capitol.

Looks like people really like a Prez that bails out Wall Street, carries out drone assassinations, whores for Pharma/Insurers….

Really, I’m now rooting for the 1%. The 99% are damn fools.

to paraphrase Madeline Albright . . .

What’s the point of having this superb “Political Capital” that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?

Just because of another one of his lying speeches? Good grief!
The biggest clue to the next 4 years is the failure of the filibuster reform. Dems don’t want to govern, it seems

Anyone who believes that crap, I’ve got a bridge I want to sell ya.

America has no respect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1UXl5e4K2E

Just to add a little spice to the discussion, what are we to make of this article by Glen Ford, at Black Agenda Report? It might be considered OT, yet, is it, really not a part of the larger whole?

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/republicans-suppress-black-vote-democrats-scatter-it

“Popularity” is one thing, whether it is honestly deserved and reflective of principle and necessary actions, of deeds, rather than mere words, is another, and equally important question, that is, if we sincerely wish depth, breath, and perspective to inform our lively, and very necessary, conversations.

DW

Obama’s Job Approval Hits Three Year High

that’s based on his progressive rhetoric, I doubt he’ll accept that fact and act accordingly

This is as high as it gets. More and more people will hear that Obama speaks out of both sides of his mouth. Lotta foam no action.

Hmm, just spitballing here but his popularity could be headed down as we speak

I think of it as “the Clinton-Springsteen surge.”

http://youtu.be/Rom8Y6zFjbo

Word. This is the most depressing thing I have read this morning, but it’s still early.

Nobody asked me.
Nobody EVER asks me.

I suppose this adds credence to the ol’ saying, “You can fool some of the people all of the time.

All hat and no cattle.

How about All HOPE and no CHANGE as well.

Obama is a fraud. A dangerous fraud.

Everything else is just noise.

“Obama unchained”?

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/django-unchained-or-%E2%80%9Ckilling-whitey-while-protecting-white-power%E2%80%9D-review

Another interesting, and thought-provoking, article from Black Agenda Report.

What do you think of the words directed toward Obama, bigchin?

I think they resonate … far more than claims that Obama is, in any way, honestly earning, or deserving, of “heightened” approval.

Again, considering that while it may seem OT, perhaps it, really, is not?

DW

Why is it that so few, except for the right, agree with your severe critique of Obama?

He has been President for 4 years. He has a record. You have had an opportunity to make your case. Yet, he remains popular among moderates and liberals.

Maybe “moderates” and “liberals” are not the categories they once were, oldgold. I found a discrepancy between the poll of Obama’s assumed popularity and the poll of enthusiasm about his speech:

“Obama’s inaugural address earned fewer positive marks and appears to have served mainly as a pep rally, with raving reviews from supporters and plenty of yawns from his opponents. While the speech drew twice as many cheers as jeers — 51 percent approved while 24 percent disapproved — a quarter of Americans had no opinion on the speech. ”

What are we to make of this? That he’s really, really popular, but hey, we either didn’t approve or we didn’t bother to listen (I fall into the latter category) – and that’s pretty much half the country. Ya know what I think that means? To take a phrase from the wonderful ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ musical – “God bless and keep the Tsar! – far away from me!”

I have another question. The Washington Post graph linked above shows a huge spike of approval in 2009. What exactly happened in 2009 that made Obama even more popular than he is now? For the life of me, I can’t think of anything.

Good idea for a bumper sticker.

I’ll send you proof.

Long time no see.

I think some, if not many people, confuse “approval rating” for “popularity”. He is a likable guy. But many have not and will not analyze his presidency based on what he said he was gonna do and what he has done. Many are totally uninformed on the lack of bankster prosecution, Gitmo, drone assasinations, continued abuse of the NDAA and FISA, I could go on.

He talks a good game. A really good game. Then he just capitulates to the republicans every chance he gets.

If obama would actually follow through on the actions he which claims to wish to take in his speech, his approval rating would climb and and stay there. If he stopped servicing the 1% and took concrete action on behalf of the rest of us he would leave office with the “greatness” legacy he wants so badly…

Slight edit:

He talks a good game. A really good game. Then he just waits until the cameras are off and most are no longer paying attention to pursue the policies desired by the 1%.

Otherwise, right on.

Maybe it’s the “moderates and liberals” who need to explain which items in the “severe critique” (wars, suppression of dissent, wealth transfer, the TPP, putting SS and Medicare on the table, non-support for labor, etc.) just don’t bother them enough to cause him to be unpopular with them.

Many are totally uninformed on the lack of bankster prosecution, Gitmo, drone assasinations, continued abuse of the NDAA and FISA

Or maybe, just maybe, most people are more concerned with things that directly affect their own lives and have families and jobs and other things to do and don’t have time to fret and kvetch and whine about the unfairness of life because they’re are too busy actually living it.

I realize that most of you won’t understand this.

Maybe it’s the “moderates and liberals” who need to explain which items in the “severe critique” (wars, suppression of dissent, wealth transfer, the TPP, putting SS and Medicare on the table, non-support for labor, etc.) just don’t bother them enough to cause him to be unpopular with them.

Maybe these same “moderate and liberals” realize that these daily bitchfests in comment sections amongst the same small circle of malcontents is unproductive.

You guys probably won’t understand that either…

I agree that comments among a relatively small group of people won’t change the world, though many people who comment here also try to participate in or support a variety of forms of activism, not just the keyboard kind.

As a thought experiment though, what do you think may have happened if the much, much larger group of “moderates and liberals” who spent much of the last 4 years making excuses for Obama on issue after issue, and discrediting those issues in the public discourse as unattainable ponies, had instead joined in the critique and the protest? I ask because the right never makes excuses for their politicians – they push and push to the right. Why is that kind of unrelenting critique considered unrealistic or disloyal (or whatever the objection, I’m not clear)by such a large contingent of Obama/Democratic supporters?

You seem to believe that people who, apparently aren’t as smart or moral or as evolved as you, are “making excuses” for Obama when, in fact, they may either agree with him or understand that good intentions aren’t enough. Your priorities, your obsessions are not the same as mine. For every person who is obsessed with drones there is another person who is equally obsessed with GMO food and another who is equally obsessed with Tibet. And these little FDL comment bitchfests that continually pop under any post that contains Obama’s name always contain is a bunch of people with personal agendas and grievances that always always turn into “why doesn’t America think like we do?” couched in smugness and superiority.

It’s not that this “unrelenting critique” of Obama is disloyal or unrealistic, it’s that it’s ineffective because the ‘progressive wing’ is incapable of doing anything well outside of grievance mongering and self-congratulation for grievance mongering.

The one good thing progressives have done in the last 20 years was OWS but in the end they even fucked that up because they always fuck up anything that requires leadership and the ability to focus on one topic without dragging LGBT issues, veganism, the death penalty, literacy or somebody else’s pet cause when it is not the topic at hand. They’re all good topics… but not at the same time. And then, when someone says “we’re not talking about that now” on comes the grievance mongering again because “OWS is not taking LGBT issues seriously” and then everything turns to shit …again.

Atrios used to joke that most emails he got were from people who asked why he didn’t discuss such and such topic. The answer was, because he wasn’t that interested in such and such. And that infuriated people.

Topics like “bankster convictions, Gitmo, drone assasinations, continued abuse of the NDAA and FISA” may concern this proud progressive few here at FDL and Marcy Wheeler and Glenn Greenwald, but the world is moving on, interest has subsided, and there are real world issues that affect real peoples lives that need to be addressed.

The sixties are over. They didn’t work then, they won’t work now.

Dear TBogg: I know Marcy Wheeler and Glenn Greenwald. And you, sir, are no Marcy Wheeler or Glenn Greenwald.

HaHa! Love it!

You would have made a great Hitler apologist, Mr. Droopystache. Keep your focus squarely on keeping your own personal gravy train of grift running on time and let the thinking be done by more intelligent souls, ie, progressives.

Well bless your sanctimonious heart.

Please don’t use words you don’t understand. I’m not one of those bad people who mistreated you, so you should have no reason to be sanctimonious with me. Unless…

Saying things like the President doesn’t have a magic wand, or isn’t a dictator, or the Republicans are so mean, or what would Fox News say, do sometimes sound like excuses to me, on particular issues where the President has actual executive power, or various types of influence within the Democratic Party, or is going in the opposite direction from public opinion.

If people are saying these things when the President has taken a non-liberal, non-progressive course, because, as you indicate, they actually agree with him, then that’s different from saying he doesn’t have a magic wand, or blaming progressives for not maintaining focus. That seems like an actual split in values, and I guess both sides can’t both claim the progressive label, it just confuses things (er, …confuses me, anyhow).

Thanks for taking the time to reply. We obviously don’t agree, but I don’t consider myself more moral or evolved than anyone else, which is why I’m trying to understand why people who are clearly intelligent and well-informed aren’t concerned about some of the things that concern me.

And I know both Marcy and Glenn going back to before FDL existed. And I have a great deal of respect for them both but nonetheless wish they would move on to other topics that would benefit from their examinations.

It was the perfect word:

sanc·ti·mo·ni·ous
/ˌsaNG(k)təˈmōnēəs/
Adjective
derogatory. Making a show of being morally superior to other people.

What, pray tell, is my “gravy train of grift” seeing as what I make off of FDL compared to the time I put into it works out to roughly equal to a sharecroppers wages in 1920′s Alabama.

Untalented grifters have a hard life, I agree.

I see. Either you can’t tell or refuse to acknowledge the difference between on-point criticism and sanctimoniousness, or you can’t imagine anyone morally superior to Hitler. Our loss.

But of course, you’re right. Tbogg = Hitler

[MAROON]

True that.

He has become a troll on this blog. Why doesn’t he just stay out?
Really strange immature fallacious comments and intolerance for ??? other opinions, truth, just don’t get the snarky attitude. Live and let live but don’t try and enforce the provisions of the Constitution on our leaders cuz their to busy helping everyone.

All the comments are a waste of time yet he must read them and then be motivated to waste his time responding. That is truly a waste of time. He goes in the DON’T FEED THE TROLLS category from now on for me anyway.