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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ILCUL8R who wrote (101134)	9/9/2011 11:36:47 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 149317

Rise of the Fallen? _____________________________________________________________________ By CHARLES M. BLOW COLUMNIST THE NEW YORK TIMES SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 The man was on fire! President Obama was champing at the bit during Thursday night’s speech to a joint session of Congress. He’d had it with those do-nothings. He was going to show everyone that he could be tough — and he did. So why does it feel as if we’ve been here before? Why does it feel as if we’ve heard him “give it to them” before only to have him lighten up and give in later? Because we have, that’s why. Yes, Thursday’s speech was an encouraging shift in tone with a meaty jobs plan of the president’s own design. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, even gave USA Today a glowing review of the plan. The paper reported it this way: “The plan, if enacted would boost economic growth next year by 2 percentage points and create two million additional jobs.” Of course, it will never be passed as is, but the positive analysis is still a nice feather in the president’s cap. But, in the end, it was just another speech. It didn’t answer definitively the larger questions that remain for this president: Has he truly shifted strategy or is his tonal shifting merely temporal? Has he finally realized that you can’t rub the belly of the beast that wants to eat you, that you have to fight your way off the plate and bring the monster to heel? Has he come to understand that Americans value valiant struggle over bloodless surrender? Does he have any interest in becoming the Obama of people’s imaginations, the one they thought they saw through the showers of streamers, and explosions of confetti in 2008 — the man who only ever existed in their own minds? Is the “transformative president” more than an opportunistic transformer, shifting shape to suit the moment, but truly settling on none? And can any adjustment halt the precipitous slide in the number of people who see him as an effective leader? According to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week, the number of people who rated the president “very good” at having strong leadership qualities has steadily dropped from 70 percent the month he took office to 42 percent last month. It’s not that people don’t believe him, it’s that an increasing number don’t believe in him. And that is far more dangerous politically. Obama can and must answer these questions, and quickly. He isn’t only battling a calcifying cynicism about the inefficacy of government in general, he’s battling the rapidly hardening public perception that he himself is a product of what I call the doughnut doctrine of leadership — soft, glazy, hollow in the middle and ideally suited for getting dunked. Americans want him to clearly identify his core beliefs. It’s simple: They want to fully understand his values and how they apply to us as individuals and as a country. Moreover, they want to be completely convinced that he is willing to defend it all. The vacillation between hot and cold, stern and pliable, resolute and accommodating hasn’t inspired that confidence. Americans respect authenticity and conviction even when they don’t fully agree with it. Conviction bespeaks strength; strength bespeaks power; and, for better or worse, this is a culture that applauds and is comforted by power. Obama has a list of accomplishments as long as your arm. But a less-than-masterly use of the bully pulpit has allowed both opponents and supposed allies to minimize them. A very vocal part of the progressive base has painted many of his successes as capitulations, while many on the far right have painted them as a threat to the security and solvency of the republic. That’s the problem with lingering too long in the middle: you take fire from both sides. And then there is the prickly racial question that we dare not raise lest the raiser him or herself be called a race baiter: can the president win back enough of the white and Hispanic support? A Gallup report issued this week found that the president’s approval rating among both whites and Hispanics had dropped to the lowest point of his presidency. Since he was elected, his approval rating among whites has dropped by 43 percent and by 36 percent among Hispanics, but it has dropped nearly 9 percent among blacks. There is no way to fully understand this racial movement, but there is no denying that it exists. Maybe some blacks are stubbornly sticking with him, in part for racial reasons. Maybe some whites and Hispanics are drifting away from him, in part for the same reasons. Who knows? But the dramatic difference points to something that exists beneath the surface and beyond policy. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to imagine a successful re-election bid for a president who can only muster a third of the white vote and half of the Hispanic vote. That should send ice-cold shudders of fear through every Democrat because the leading Republican contenders for the job are either hopelessly hokey, obviously plastic, horribly misguided or some other form of terrible. Gov. Rick Perry, the newly minted Republican presidential front-runner, participated in his first presidential debate on Wednesday and did his best imitation of Andy Griffith on acid. He said that he believes Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, global warming is based on shaky science and hasn’t struggled at all with executing more inmates in Texas than any governor in recent American history. This man shouldn’t even be allowed to traipse his boots and spurs into the White House for a visit, let alone take up residence there. And even beyond re-elections, it will be hard for the president to accrue enough political capital to effectively finish out this term with approval numbers like the ones he has had. Thursday’s jobs speech was a good start toward a positive change if, indeed, it was a genuine start and not part of a pattern of fits and starts. The president was on fire, but the jury is still out on whether that fire was just another flash of light or a source of sustainable heat and whether some people would rather freeze than warm to him.

To: ILCUL8R who wrote (101134)	9/10/2011 10:52:30 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

"How do we encourage MSNBC and people such as Mathews to follow the same format" Matthews' idea, which he has been espousing for weeks. They did it when he worked for Tip O'Neill. The question is, "How do we get Obama to hire Matthews?" How do we get Obama to even watch Matthews?

To: ILCUL8R who wrote (101134)	9/10/2011 11:33:48 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Yes indeed, I watched Mathews too. It took me some time to figure out the display at the bottom of the screen. I first thought it was the usual political sticker. He also prepared his audience for Obama's visit to Boehner's district on Tuesday by displaying the roads and bridges that need repair in his district. That is some pretty smart journalism, very original and effective. It is about time that folks fight back, take back the country from the rich folks and if they so wish bid then "Au revoir". I hope Obama does not go back to the table with the Republicans as they are now inviting him to do. He needs to go to every district of the Republican freshman too. And what I like about his jobs plan is that he is willing to look at Medicare to "make it more effective" as he put it. Cut out waste and with the money saved cover more people,, improve current benefits and not reduce and cut benefits as the Teapers want. We have been Harassed Enough Already (HEA) by the Tea Party. Time to get them off our backs.