A friend suggested a while back that this blog rant against Democrats as well as Republicans. That's been pretty hard to do on a regular basis given the consistently outrageous behavior of Republicans. But I'm willing to give it a shot.
My friend also said that he had voted for neither Obama nor McCain in the 2008 election. His comment on Obama was that he was too "green" (in the experience sense not in the environmental sense) to be president. He may well have been right. Obama appears to have been bullied by everyone from freshman Congressmen to the medical industry to the military to Benjamin Netanyahu and the so-called "Israel lobby". Maybe he is naive or maybe he really has been a centrist all along. In any case, the change we can believe in didn't happen. Yes the 111th Congress had some pretty decent accomplishments but they were shoved out in 2010.
So without further ado, here are the top 10 disappointments of the Obama Presidency.
10. Not requesting Harry Reid to change the filibuster rules in the Senate. This procedure ensures that the party that wants government to fail or do nothing will always win - even if they control just 40 of the 100 seats. It has no place in a democracy.
9. Allowing the most reactionary elements in our country to control the political conversation. A year or so after the election, I saw a cartoon on the wall of a local business. Obama was dressed as Steve Urkel and looking at a graph with a seriously down-sloping line. The comment from the cartoon Obama-Urkel was "Did I do that?" No, actually you inherited the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression from your predecessor and it's proving a major challenge. Maybe it's because Obama thought himself the Great Compromiser, maybe it's because he realized too late that the fear-mongers and haters were out to ruin his Presidency, maybe Democrats just don't know how to respond to lies and distortions...whatever the reason ...he failed to make the case for his policies. This led to the 2010 election bloodbath and the Democratic majority was lost.
8. Continuing Bush-era policies against civil liberties developed during the new Age of Fear and taking it a step further by approving unnecessary (Bin-Laden, who could have been easily captured for trial as a war criminal) and unlawful (Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen) assassinations. As noted by Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com , "No effort was made to indict [al-Awlaki] for any crimes [and]...no evidence (as opposed to unverified government accusations) was presented of his guilt."
7. Taking until YE 2011 to get out of Iraq (McCain and Romney: please shut up). The troops could have been easily and methodically withdrawn within 6 months of his becoming President. Based on misinformation and lies and abetted by a complacent media (remember how thrilled these idiots were to be "embedded" with the troops), this war of the Neo-Cons was totally unjustified. It elevated Iran, a fundamentalist Islamic state, to be the major player in the Middle East with Iraq as its puppet. Well done, Bushie.
6. Agreeing to a stimulus package that, in the end, was too small. While it had a signicant impact, it was not anywhere near large enough to prevent the "jobless recovery". See also #3 and #4 below.
5. Spending all of his political capital after the election on health care and getting only a half-loaf solution. It may have been worth it if he got a single-payer solution (the one sure way to reduce health care costs) but this was not even on the table. See also #3 below.
4. Appointing Wall Street players and Bush-era advisors to his economic team. These were the clowns that got us into the mess in the first place. His focus on the deficit when 16% of Americans are either unemployed or underemployed is self-defeating. At a time when bold Keynesian moves are needed, the Administration settles timidly for half-measures.
3. A) Thinking he could compromise with Republicans and B) not controlling the Red Dog Democrats. Democrats held 60 seats and controlled the House when Obama became President. Instead of FDR (or even LBJ) style arm twisting, he let a small minority of Democrats combine with Republicans to dictate the policies of his Administration. When the stated aim of the opposing party is to limit you to a one-term Presidency and their media minions are hoping for you to fail, you do not compromise. You call them out and fight.
2. Failing to achieve a Palestinian - Israeli peace accord. After a good and somewhat even-handed start (for example, his 2009 speech in Cairo), he was manhandled by the right-wing Israeli President and AIPAC. Instead of doing what is right to get the two sides to the table - namely insisting on an immediate settlement freeze in the occupied territories, he fell victim to domestic politics, the Israel lobby and their right-wing Republican and Christian fundamentalist allies. His failure to support Palestinian statehood at the UN was one of the major low points in his administration. While not the only issue that energizes Muslim fundamentalists, the Occupation remains a key factor in the antagonism against us. I guess Americans for Peace Now will just have to raise more money to get its progressive Jewish voice heard above the right-wing babble.
1. Escalating the war in Afghanistan. The war is no more winnable or justifiable than was Vietnam. The surge has not worked but our money and blood continue to flow in that "graveyard of empires". The so-called "war" on terror should have been a police action not a war. Terrorism is prevented by detection not by war.
Having said all that, unless he is challenged by a progressive Democrat (yeah, I know, fat chance), he remains the least bad option for 2012. Hopefully enough of his 2008 base will be inspired enough by this bland reality to go to the polls. (I mean can you imagine a Rick Perry presidency?) For all the talk of the importance of "independents", if the Democratic left doesn't show up next November, Obama will lose.
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