That lady with the very high rated post on DailyKos has received well over 1000 comments so far...Hmmm....Obama and his team might want to pay attention to a few of these comments from concerned supporters...
dailykos.com
I calculated the total amount of money I raised for the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign, during the last election cycle. It came to a smidge under $230,000.
All that energy. All that dedication.
Does anyone seriously expect me to do that again when the results are so profoundly disappointing?
"One cannot speak glibly of 'policy differences' and 'looking forward' and 'distraction' when corpses are involved." -John Sifton
by Granny Doc on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 07:36:12 PM PST
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Obama's poll numbers tanking...
The corporate media wants the public to believe that it's because Obama is "too polarizing" or "too left" when in fact, he's not progressive enough.
Obviously, Obama was elected for many reasons. But if he continues to pander to Money and the Center/Right, his presidency will be an Epic Failure.
by primarydoc on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 09:50:16 PM PST
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I don't give a f--k how often he plays golf....as long as he does what he's been hired to do. However, I just don't see that happening. He has a gift for making great speeches and a big celebrity smile but I don't see the type of leadership that the country desparately needs now. Unemployment is completely out of control, banks are still going under, people are dying, daily, because of a failed health system, people are losing their homes and Obama's escalating a no-win war in Afghanistan while Obama 's either playing golf or making another pretty speech. Did I hear the term "one-termer" mentioned?
by calibpatriot on Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 12:03:20 AM PST
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Can we raise FDR from the grave? Boy, we sure need him or someone like him.
by jimreyn on Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 12:12:09 AM PST
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It's Afghanistan too. Candidate Obama made it clear he would escalate in Afghanistan as he wound down Iraq, and I have always worried that his presidency would be ruined by that mistake.
by ybruti on Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 12:07:01 AM PST
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I'm afraid he's too chickenshit to kick ass and tell Rham to get off his butt and get the support needed for the Public Option or else. It appears that Pres. Obama is becoming too soft for the d.c. insiders and can't enact any tough legislation. Just look what he has actually done thus far and who he has been able to shut up. Granny is so correct...
by yowsta on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 10:39:42 PM PST
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Here's a few Obama misfires:
1)Negotiating with himself on the stimulus so it becomes a mere shadow of what it could've been.
2)More transparency in gov't which he promised but his administration repeatedly takes a "Bush Lite" approach to secrecy, Gitmo, etc. (his vow to close it has yet to see a result).
3)NOT LEADING on healthcare reform. He has the bully pulpit; the public has been on his side; yet he has simply not led the way a real leader would. Think LBJ and Medicare. Think FDR, who inherited a worse mess and by the end of 1933 restored the banking system and inspired confidence in the gov't and the country again.
Obama apparently lacked a blueprint himself. He could have done much more, but has squandered one opportunity after another. The first year was his best chance to make a major and truly transformative impact on these problems.
Granny Doc is right. He's made some beneficial small changes, but nothing that's been visionary or instrumental in helping to restore the country.
by Turn Left on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 09:31:41 PM PST
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Here's where he's losing us...
were there any serious advocates for single payer at the table at the beginning of the health care debate? No.
did Stiglitz or Reich ever get a serious hearing during the stimulus discussions? Not really.
Did Rahm Emanuel tell the Blue Dogs to fall in line and support their president or did he tell the progressives to sit down and shut up?
I could go on and on with this... the reality is the day Nancy Pelosi is pitched as the best hope for a serious fight on changing the status quo...that's the day to realize you've been had. They are already floating that trial balloon.
THERE IS NO "CAN" IN THE REPUBLIC PARTY!
by henry porter on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 08:19:25 PM PST
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I like 'financially challenged' GrannyDoc...this is such a beautifully written diary, and my heart is with you on this....
you know when 'everybody was working like dogs' to get President Obama elected (I volunteered 30 hours a week) I remember watching his speeches that were just amazing. He was so passionate, so fearless, so full of angst for 'Main Street', talking about 'dumb' wars, and you could literally 'see' the pitchfork in his hand when he railed against the 'Status Quo' and most especially Wall Street and the Bankers.
We 'thought' we knew exactly where this man stood, we 'thought' we 'he was one of us' and you just couldn't 'shut the guy up' as far his 'fired up and ready to go' energy.
Now, it is the 'silence' from him that is most devastating to his base and to so many. Instead of that amazing energy and passion he had for 'change' it is his complete lack of 'taking a stand' (and isn't that what the hell leadership is all about?) that really tears at the heart.
I'd give my eye teeth to hear the 'old Obama' give a 'I'm gonna wop you up side the head' speech to Wall Street and the Bankers, or to hear him do a solid 30 minute speech on why any health reform without a robust public option, is unacceptable and will be 'vetoed' when it lands on his desk. I would dance for days in the streets if he gave a speech to Americans simply saying: I promised you when you elected me that I would do everything in my power to help Main Street, and today I am beginning a jobs programs similar to what FDR did in during the great depression......
I mean, it is the 'silence' the lack of leadership, the lack of taking a stand, the lack of that 'connection' that he had with millions and millions of Americans that has somehow just 'disappeared'...it feels like 'indifference' to me, it feels like who ever that person was that was giving all those 'fired up and ready to go' speeches kind of just vanished into thin air.
by Badabing on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 11:07:09 PM PST
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How disillusioned do you think these young Democrats are right now?
This is exactly the thing that is frustrating me about Obama. He had a huge backing and lots of momentum and in my opinion he has squandered most of this political capital with little to show for it.
What most here don't realize is that this first year with all his momentum was THE TIME to get things done. Not next year when we'll have elections or the third year when the 2012 election will be looming.
by According to Fish on Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 11:30:24 PM PST
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ORIGINAL POST...
Tonight this is the top rated post out on the very busy DailyKos website...
dailykos.com
You are losing me, Mr. President
by Granny Doc
Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 07:36:17 PM PST
I found your rhetoric so inspiring. I found your ideas so encouraging. I also saw the problems you had to confront as overwhelming.
I viewed your opposition as well educated, highly experienced but terminally stupid. I couldn't imagine how they could continue to run the government into the abyss once we had given you Congressional majorities, and a free hand to enact your policies.
So, I have stood back and let you manage these mounting disasters, firm in the belief that you would change the way government conducts the people's business.
But, it increasingly seems that you have decided that your "change" will be confined to eliminating the strangle hold that the Bush White House exercised over all branches of government.
You have stood back and let the bought and paid for Senate devise legislation that effects no real change in the health care system except around the edges.
You have allowed the financial industry to continue the very practices that drove the economy into chaos. You have filled your Cabinet with the very people who were instrumental in laying the ground work for the disaster, and given them free hand to prop up and protect the banks with no increase in regulation or protection for the system.
You allow the struggling Harry Reid to try to whip the Joe Liberman's and Ben Nelson's into line without any public effort to back him up.
Now, it looks as though you are going to accept the advice of General McCrystal, the man instrumental in the Pat Tillman cover up, to dictate Afghanistan policy.
Nothing is changing except the Disaster of the Day.
Yes, yes. I know that you have restored the image of America around the world. But really, Sir, was that going to be so hard after 8 years of Bush/Cheney? Just getting them out of office was going to spread a warm fuzzy feeling across the planet. Anyone could have done that.
I know it's popular for those of us who supported you to list the many small changes you have shepherded. But in the big things, Sir, health care, climate change, using the stimulus package to improve infrastructure and generate jobs, forestall the foreclosure crisis, and address renewable energy, you have done little.
Where are those fine rhetorical skills, now? Why are you not devoting a great deal more time to explaining to us what you are doing. Transparency has become the cash word, of late. But, little real transparency can occur without a careful and full disclosure of not only high sounding phrases of "hope" for the future, but of a discussion of the issues, led by you.
I'm an old woman, Mr. President. And, after decades of disappointment, and frustration at the willful greed and blatant ignorance of the Beltway Bovines, I dared to think that you might actually offer leadership. Leadership by drafting the rough outlines of what you wanted in legislation rather than letting the high school clique that inhabits Capitol Hill play their mindless games while we, out here, fall over a cliff. Leadership in a little serious arm twisting to get the Democrats to fall in line. Leadership in bypassing the mindset of the military and getting us out of Iraq and Afganistan.
Instead, Sir, I see the same old game, played in the same old way, with only the faces changing.
Please step up and take control of your government. That is what we elected you to do. Your failure, so far, to exercise the leadership and decision making skill set that I felt you might possess has been a profound disappointment.
You are losing me, Sir, along with many of those whom I encouraged to donate to your campaign, and to show up on election day. |
