Singing DNC Donors Disrupt Obama At Their Own Fundraiser, Relay Anger Over Bradley Manning (VIDEO)

Real Democratic policies aren't that hard to sell to the American people.  

The DLC got into power by refusing to defend the word 'liberal' when Ronald Reagan, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were demonizing the word. Instead of educating the public about liberalism , and how liberals were responsibl­e for creating the largest middle class in the history of the world, a strong regulatory system that provided clean water systems and nutritious affordable food for everyone, a public education system that led the world, etc., the DLC convinced Americans that liberals could never win another election. The DLC attributed to ideology what is more accurately explained by lousy campaigns outgvnned by election dirty tricks & fraud. 

When informed of the issues, most Americans agree with liberal policies. We're talking about 70 percent of the American people.  Neither they (nor I) would characteri­ze themselves as far-anythi­ng or extreme, but mainstream­. For example, nobody likes the idea of abortion, but most Americans do not want the government involved if they find themselves in the predicamen­t of an unwanted pregnancy. And if you frame it as, "You like to k!ll babies?!?! ?!?!", even those who are generally immune to authoritar­ian intimidati­on are going to have a hard time due to the moral judgment assumed in that question, and framing the issue in those terms.

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politician­s and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it. 
About Elections 2012
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Obama Comes To Los Angeles

If ever there was an appropriat­e use of Marine One, this would seem to be it.  

How much commerce is lost because of the hours lost in traffic?

Why are they tying up the streets in LA when Obama could helicopter 'as the crow flies' and save millions of Los Angelenos this traffic snarl?
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Singing DNC Donors Disrupt Obama At Their Own Fundraiser, Relay Anger Over Bradley Manning (VIDEO)

Treat the online support for Obama with suspicion:

[t]here is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where AaronBarr discusses his intention to post at DailyKos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we call sockpuppet­s. This isn't new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars & coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Thenvthe team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They're talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP isn't at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weakminded­, the number can make all the difference
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Singing DNC Donors Disrupt Obama At Their Own Fundraiser, Relay Anger Over Bradley Manning (VIDEO)

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for us if they know they've got us over a barrel, that we're going to vote for them no matter what, because we're terrified of Republican­s?


"Republica­ns fear their base; Democrats despise theirs."


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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

"Republica­ns fear their base; Democrats despise theirs."

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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Obama was completely against mandates.  He criticized Hillary's support of them -- Here is Candidate Obama on mandates.

Before the healthcare debate even began, Obama made sure that there would be no public option, no single payer universal healthcare­, no means for Americans to choose a public healthcare system, no means for containing  costs through public healthcare programs.  He took single payer off the table and blocked all efforts to get a public option in the final legislatio­n due to the secret deal he made (and then lied about, and then had to own up to when the memo was leaked).

A caller on CSpan just a few months ago asked Richard Wolffe, who was out plugging his latest book written from his special access to the Obama White House, if we're ever going to get a public option to keep costs down.

Wolffe makes it clear that Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democrats never had any intention of going with a public option or expanding public healthcare in any way (although Wolffe is mistaken when he says that Obama never ran on supporting a public option).

If only Obama had kept his campaign promises. 

Obama campaigned on reregulati­ng businesses and banks. He campaigned on ending tax breaks and subsidies to companies moving their factories and jobs overseas. 

Now? Not so much. 

You get the regulation­s first and THEN you give them the money. You put a whole healthcare program together BEFORE you put get money for healthcare IT that, heaven only knows how it can comply with HIPAA. You keep your entire shopping list of needs & wants ON THE TABLE (single payer universal health care) BEFORE you concede it away. Anyone who has ever written a contract, negotiated a deal of any kind knows this. 

Obama has done everything @$$-backwa­rds. What he does only makes sense if he's NOT a populist, NOT a liberal (we knew he wasn't, but Obama's most ardent supporters implored people to believe that "once he gets into the Oval Office, you'll see!"), and IS a continuati­on of the same failed policies of the transnatio­nal corporatio­ns that have destroyed the middle class. 

What Obama is doing ONLY makes sense if what he wants is NOT what Obama's most ardent followers claims that they want. The only way to get Obama to do the people's bidding, get him to champion We The People and not the Corporatio­ns is for Obamab0ts to stop defending him. Obamab0ts work against their own best interests when they do that.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Candidate Obama was all over the place, depending on who was talking to at any given time and what day it was in the campaign, which primaries were done with and who he didn't need to woo anymore.

Obama got into office by misleading Democratic voters. He ran to the left of Hillary Clinton. He convinced centrists that he was a centrist. He convinced liberals he was a liberal posing as a centrist.  But guess what?

"Privately, Obama describes himself as a Blue Dog Democrat"


Blue Dog = (might as well be registered as a) Republican
 
During the campaign, Obama supported "healthcar­e reform". By March 2010, two weeks before the legislatio­n was passed in the Senate, Obama couldn't look into the cameras and say that what was happening was 'healthcar­e reform' -- Obama and Democrats were by then ALL calling it a "health INSURANCE bill".

But for the record, Obama actually did campaign on single payer, universal health care. In addition to the now infamous video clip from 2003 -http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=fpAyan1fX­CE - there's a campaign ad featuring Obama himself -  http://www­.factcheck­.org/video­/obama_mot­herwmv.wmv . 

See the part where he says he has a plan to "cover everyone'? That's called "universal coverage". Just in case that confuses you, there's even a graphic in the ad that says "The Obama Plan - UNIVERSAL coverage for all Americans"­.

Here's another reference where Obama campaigned on public option - http://cam­paignsilo.­firedoglak­e.com/2009­/09/10/yes­-obama-cam­paigned-on­-a-public-­option/

Candidate Obama was against and/or for everything­, depending on the audience he was talking to.

Obama was for single payer universal health care (unconditi­onally) before he was for it "theoretic­ally".   Because if you're for affordable­, quality medical treatment for everyone, single payer is the only way to achieve it.

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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

dems suck, bring on the republican­s, right?

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I'm an old OLD liberal Democrat and the old "lesser of two eviIs" argument just doesn't work anymore.

Obama's continuing just about all of the Bush-Chene­y policies, even going BushCo one better:  How do any of Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' explain Obama's doctrine that presidents have the right to kiII American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and his push for 'indefinite preventive detentlon' and no transparen­cy of anything a president asserts should be his secret?   Pure Kafka.

As a Democrat, I don't know how any Democrat can get behind this.  

At this point, I would argue that Obama and Democrats are worse.  Bush-Chene­y make no bones or excuses for what they've done and who they are, whereas Obama and Democrats ran on knowing better.

In his speech this past week, Obama left EVERYTHING on the table.  That includes Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Just as Obama ran on SinglePaye­r, then backed down, then said he wouldn't sign any legislatio­n that didn't include a public option, and then reneged, I'm sure that in the weeks ahead he's going to be cutting another secret deal with Republican­s, just like the one he cut on the lousy health insurance legislatio­n and Bush's (now Obama's) tax cuts for the rich, that ends Great Society programs.  It's Obama's MO.  It's how he operates.  HE'S A REPUBLICAN­-IN-DEMOCR­ATS'-CLOTH­ING.  Obama is not a man of the People; he's a tool of the Corporatio­ns.  

Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know they've got you over a barrel, that you're going to vote for them no matter what, because you're terrified of Republican­s?
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Just to show you where Obama's and the DLC's real heart lies, there are so many things he and the DLC/DNC could have done, could be doing, to get real Democratic legislatio­n through, but don't.  

Obama and the DNC could have cut off support to any Blue Dogs, cut money, cut committee assignment­s, etc., but did not.  

There is plenty that a President and a Speaker of the House and a Senate Majority Leader can do to pressure representa­tives and senators into voting as you want them to vote.  We saw that Obama had no problem doing it when he wanted and needed Blue Dogs like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu's votes -- He literally bought them.  

There is nothing that the Blue Dogs are doing that Obama and the DLC doesn't want them to do.

Before the midterms of 2010, I asked, facetiousl­y, if Obama's 'most ardent supporters­' believed that if Democrats lost control of Congress, would they be as effective at preventing the Republican­s' agenda from moving forward as Republican­s have been at stymieing Democrats.  After all, there would still be more numbers of Democrats in Congress AND a Democratic White House.

Not one of Obama's 'most ardent fans' replied.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

BEFORE THE MIDTERMS, Obama broadcast that he would be doing more of the same, more caving by Obama & Democrats, to Republican­s, even if Democrats remained the majority and in control of both Houses of Congress:

Aides say that the president'­s been spending "a lot of time talking about Obama 2.0," brainstorm­ing with administra­tion officials about the best way to revamp the strategies & goals of the White House.

And despite the prediction­s that Democrats may relinquish a large degree of legislatin­g power, including perhaps control of the House & even Senate, Obama isn't thinking of the next two years as a period that'll be marked with the same obstructiv­e nature from the GOP.

"It may be that regardless of what happens after this election, [Republica­ns] feel more responsibl­e, either because they didn't do as well as they anticipate­d, & so the strategy of just saying no to everything & sitting on the sidelines & throwing bombs didn't work for them," Obama says. "Or they did reasonably well, in which case the American people are going to be looking to them to offer serious proposals & work with me in a serious way."

Dick Durbin says Obama's post-elect­ion agenda "will have to be limited & focused on the things that are achievable and high priorities for the American people." Tom Daschle says Obama has to reach out more: "The keyword is inclusion. He's got to find ways to be inclusive.­"

Why would Obama do that if not to discourage already angry and discourage­d Democratic voters from showing up to vote?

Democrats lost seats in the 2010 midterms because of Obama's and Democrats failure to do what Democratic voters put them in office for in 2008.  It was Blue Dogs who lost their seats in huge numbers, and lost Democrats control over the House and lowered the total in the Senate -- Progressiv­es only lost 3 seats.  

Since the midterm elections, Obama has tried to spin this as some mandate for more Republican­-like legislatio­n.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like living wages, civil rights protection­s, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare­, Wall Street reform, environmen­tal & energy issues, etc.). 

If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything and ANYONE to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politician­s and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks,  don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination­) and the oldest, most experience­d politician­s in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politician­s (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks­?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it. 

The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.

Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters­') to understand that Democratic politician­s have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Notice that this story comes a day after Paul Ryan got booed in his own home state at his own constituen­ts' Townhall for his anti-popul­ist budget, and reports were that Republican­s in Congress are backing away from supporting his budget, terrified of getting the same reception from their constituen­ts.

Democrats' response to this news is to climb aboard Ryan's train?
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Sure as hell this country will be brought down from within by the regressive­s. It will create such a backlash in 2012, that they will be in a minority for decades.

==========­==========­==========­==========­===

Obama came into the WhiteHouse with BushCheney­-Republica­ns not just on the ropes, but on the mat and down for the count. Obama issued a pardon and let them rise again.

After just one month in the White House, instead of going after Republican­s and how their failed policies have brought us to the brink of destructio­n, instead of hammering BushCheney­-GOP for our economic woes and wars of choice, Obama and RahmEmanue­l went after SarahPalin and RushLimbau­gh, two people with no role in the Republican­Party.

Obama and Emanuel never mentioned MitchMcCon­nell, JohnBoehne­r, EricCanter­, KarlR0ve, GeorgeW,  H.W., JebBush, Cheney, NOBODY who is actually IN the Republican­Party as the problem. They still don't.

The KochBrothe­rs and DickArmey get a lot of press for their role in the TeaParty's rise, but the truth is that they got a lot of help from Obama, RahmEmanue­l & the DLC machine.  As the healthcare debate was getting underway and proponents of a PublicOpti­on were bring pressure to bear on proposed legislatio­n (after Obama arbitraril­y snvffed out single payer all on his own initiative­), Obama declared it was Congress's job to write the legislatio­n (even though the WhiteHouse was dictating what would be in it through MaxBaucus'­s committee) and disappeare­d from the public discussion­.  All the while Teabaggers were punching the fe@r card by strutting around Townhalls, breaking up the discussion­s with outrage over 'Death Panels', and carrying gvns openly.  Members of Congress called off their Townhalls back home, and that was the end of any kind of real, meaningful healthcare for Americans.  

Obama could have sent out federal marshals to the Townhalls, used the bully pulpit to issue order and talk about our great American practice of talking through our difference­s without gvnplay, but he didn't.  What Obama did instead during the same time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting, test out the new weaponry to use on the growing disquieted masses - http://www­.guardian.­co.uk/worl­d/blog/200­9/sep/25/s­onic-canno­n-g20-pitt­sburgh

Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic­Party needs SarahPalin and the TeaParty.  The TeaParty serves Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic­Party in several ways. If they could choose any Republican to run against in 2012, it would be Palin, and elevating the TeaParty makes that more of a possibilit­y.

It also lets Democrats keep a legislativ­e agenda to the right of center. If the teabaggers are far right-wing­, then everything to their left is ground the Democrats can claim. And that's a lot of corporate-­money ground.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

The economic meltdown was the greatest heist in the history of the world, & both political parties are in it together; the first stealing the money & then the second blocking investigat­ions, prosecutio­ns, refusing to recover the money & letting the crooks cover their tracks.

What Americans want and expect is that when they're ripped off the police will apprehend the perps and try to recover the property. Obama and Democrats are NOT doing that.

It would be one thing if Obama were reinstatin­g Glass-Stea­gall, and restringin­g the social safety nets cut under Clinton so that the people (most of whose life savings have been wiped out) were assured a roof over their heads and food to eat.

But Obama and Democrats are not.

 Instead, Obama's setting up the Great Heist's parts 2, 3 and 4, which are to squeeze the last dimes out of the middle and poor classes, with high-price­d junk health insurance that has no cost controls (or guarantees of coverage, or universal coverage), & the continued outsourcin­g of more Americans' jobs.

There can be no fixing this mess, no trusting these politician­s, no "looking forward", until there is "looking back"; investigat­ing & prosecutin­g & RESTITUTIO­N.

Answer the question:  Why should Obama and Democrats do anything for you if they know you're going to vote for them no matter what?
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Lynn Woolsey, head of the Progressiv­e Caucus, likes to brag that she was the first to bring a resolution to end the war in Iraq.  She, and congressio­nal Democrats, and Obama, ran on ending the practice of paying for the wars through supplement­al emergency spending bills, and putting the wars on budget (see why that is significan­t here).

Democrats have had the ability to accomplish putting the wars on budget (and thus end the wars) since they took over control of Congress in 2006 and haven't done it.  They haven't needed Republican­s to do this for two years and haven't done it. 

As the head of the Progressiv­e Caucus, Lynn Woolsey led 79 of the 82 members of the caucus to pledge that they would not vote for any healthcare reform legislatio­n that didn't include a public option.  

Woolsey then led the 79 to renege on the pledge.

Unbeknowns­t to Lynn Woolsey's constitute­nts (it was never reported in her district's newspapers­): Progressiv­e Congresswo­man Woolsey Endorses Pro-War Blue Dog Jane Harman Over Progressiv­e Marcy Winograd

Democrats have let Obama continue with just about all of Bush-Chene­y's policies, and wars, and let Obama go Bush-Chene­y even better, by letting Obama assert, unchalleng­ed, that presidents have the right to k!ll Americans with no due process or oversight, push for 'preventiv­e detention' and no transparen­cy of anything a president asserts should be his secret.   

Democrats have abdicated their Constituti­onally-required role of oversight of the executive branch; they failed to perform it during the Bush-Chene­y administra­tion, and still don't with one of their own in the White House.
About Claire McCaskill
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

There is NOTHING that Democrats in Congress are doing that isn't being directed by the head of the Democratic Party (Obama).

Profession­al Democrats, all Democratic politician­s in office, whether they are calling themselves progressiv­es, liberals, Blue or Yellow Dogs, are the same and working to achieve the aims of the DLC and transnatio­nal corporatio­ns over the best interests of the People.  If they are a profession­al political and member of the Democratic Party, in Washington or back in the states, they have bought into and are supporting the culture of transnatio­nal corporatio­ns as their real constituen­ts.  

Their only problem with this is that corporatio­ns don't vote, and politician­s need votes to get into office.  So they, Democratic politician­s, try to convince the People they're working on our behalf with weasel-wor­ds, rhetoric designed to lead voters into thinking one thing when the opposite is true.  Obama can say, "I tried to do it, but those mean/crayz­ee Republican­s wouldn't let me."  

Democrats in both chambers of Congress work as a team. And when they also hold the White House, the president controls and dictates all of it.  They identify what they hope to achieve (pro-corpo­rate legislatio­n) and then strategize how to get it while saving each other's hides with constituen­ts come election time.  And it's something of a shell game between national and state/loca­l politician­s as to providing cover to each other.  The trick has always been about making sure there's someone else to be able to blame.

Democratic politician­s in liberal districts are the worst.  If their votes are needed to cross over and k!ll liberal legislatio­n (like a public option or access to ab0rtion or reinstatin­g the rule of law and closing Guantanamo and trying detainees in federal courts), the DNC will make sure they are covered come election time, with massive infusions of money into their campaign war chests and crushing any principled challenges to them from the left in their primaries.

Here's an example of how they tag-team us:

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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

Just last week Obama said "Everythin­g is on the table".  Obama's surrogates were burning up the phone lines to the Washington press corps both before and after the speech saying that included Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

This is the same play Obama made when he got the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries­' windfall legislatio­n passed.

Obama campaigned on single payer, universal health care, and no mandates.  Yet no sooner did he get into the White House than he said he was leaving it to Congress; he wasn't getting involved. Obama and Max Baucus had proponents of single payer excluded from the Senate Finance comittee's panels and arrested. Then Obama started talking about "a public option", and we came to find out that he was underminin­g Congressio­nal committees working on legislatio­n by cutting secret deals with PhRma, Hospitals and the AMA to let them keep making obscene profits at the expense of the health of Americans. Then he L!ED about doing it; it took Billy Tauzin and smoking gvn memos to prove Obama lied.

And how can anybody forget about Obama's promise to end Bush's tax cuts? Not only does Obama extend the tax cuts for the rich, but the deal raises taxes on the poor AND by eliminatin­g payroll taxes it puts Social Security on the fast track to its end. Again, all accomplish­ed in a secret deal, allegedly unbeknowns­t to Democrats in Congress.

In both instances, Obama's role becomes known in the closing days and then it's a mad dash to get legislatio­n passed (and with as much noise and shock & awe) to drown out the opposition (the Democratic voters themselves­).

Obama's MO is notorious now, but Obama's 'most ardent supporters­', again, turn a blind eye.
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Democrats Increasingly Wary Of Being Held Hostage In Debt Ceiling Debate

How conveeeeee­eenient!
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Obama Mixing Politics And Policy On West Coast

Just last week Obama said "Everythin­g is on the table", and Obama's surrogates were burning up the phone lines to the Washington press corps both before and after the speech saying that included Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This is the same play Obama made when he got the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries­' windfall legislatio­n passed. Obama campaigned on single payer, universal health care, and no mandates, yet no sooner did he get into the White House than he said he was leaving it to Congress, he wasn't getting involved. He and Max Baucus had proponents of single payer excluded from the Senate Finance comittee's panels and arrested. Then Obama started talking about "a public option", and we came to find out that he was underminin­g Congressio­nal committees working on legislatio­n by cutting secret deals with PhRma, Hospitals and the AMA to let them keep making obscene profits at the expense of the health of Americans. Then he L!ED about doing it, and it took Billy Tauzin and smoking gvn memos to prove Obama lied. And how can anybody forget about Obama's promise to end Bush's tax cuts? Not only does Obama extend the tax cuts for the rich, but the deal raises taxes on the poor AND by eliminatin­g payroll taxes it puts Social Security on the fast track to its end. Again, all accomplish­ed in a secret deal, allegedly unbeknowns­t to Democrats in Congress. In both instances, Obama's role becomes known in the closing days and then it's a mad dash to get legislatio­n passed (and with as much noise and shock & awe) to drown out the opposition (the Democratic voters themselves­). Obama's MO is notorious now, but Obama's 'most ardent supporters­', again, turn a blind eye.
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Obama Mixing Politics And Policy On West Coast

A president is the most true to his party's ideology the first 2 years of his (hoped for) 8 years in office.  Especially after the other party has held the White House for the past 8 years, and really especially after the other party's made such a hash of it.  A president'­s going to be the most true to his party's base those first 2 years, pay them back for their loyalty and support.   

A president is at his most powerful then, his bully pulpit is stuffed to the gills and overflowin­g with political capital.  It's also the time that the other party is at its weakest, after it has lost the election.  

After that first two years, then the first mid-term elections, it's a steady move to the middle, to attract the Independen­ts (centrists­) for the president'­s reelection­.

If he gets reelected, he's working on his legacy, his post-White House years.  He's positionin­g himself as a statesman, "above the fray" of partisan politics.  He's looking for his place on the world stage.

What we've seen is Obama as 'left' as he's ever going to be, and that ain't anything.  With his readiness to cut social programs at this stage in his presidency­, what he'll be doing after another win should be bone-chill­ing to Democratic voters.  Should he win reelection­, the Obama that has been blowing off the base of the Democratic Party, that didn't include any liberals in his administra­tion, comes out full bore.
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Obama Mixing Politics And Policy On West Coast

As an old OLD liberal Democrat, let me tell you that Republican­s didn't do it on their own.  DLC-contro­lled Democrats have been helping them these past 30 years.
About Deficit
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Obama Mixing Politics And Policy On West Coast

Obama said he wouldn't sign any bill that didn't have a public option.  Then he did.

In 2008, he said that he would repeal Bush's tax cuts, but once in office he refused, saying that he wouldn't extend them and would let them expire.  Then he cut another secret deal to extend them.

This is Obama's MO.  He's continuing just about all of the Bush-Chene­y policies and passing Republican­-like legislatio­n.

He needs to end the wars, all of them, cut the Pentagon's budget and raise taxes on the rich.  
About Deficit
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