Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

There is nothing that Democrats in Congress are doing that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less ordered.



When you're the president, you are the head of your political party. When your political party controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, you do what the head of your party tells you to do. The only people who don't understand this are those who have never worked in politics or in government.



Democrats like to hide this from the people, and lend the illusion of democracy (small 'd'), like "herding cats", "no organized party", etc., but that's how it is, and it's the only reason there are political parties.



If you don't get behind what the leader of your political party tells you to do, you're going to find your life really cold and lonely for the duration of your term in office. Come election time, you will NOT have the party organization behind you either at a state or national level, & that is certain de@th for your time in office, not to mention your overall career in politics.



The Democratic leadership could've taken away committee chairs of members in their caucus that joined with Republicans and threatened to filibuster a public option for healthcare.



The DNC could've taken away reelection funds. But it hasn't. Because Lieberman & Blue Dogs (& Republicans) provide cover to Obama & the DLC-controlled Democratic Party, to let them continue to serve corporate interests over the interests of the People.



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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

You're another one who just can't accept that Obama may not be what you think he is, and that you got punk'ed.



You did not answer the question, and it looks like you're setting up the election as a way to justify Obama's moving even farther to the right, trying even more caving to Republicans for the sake of 'bipartisanship'. You would cut off your own nose to spite your own face, rather than hold Obama to account to what he promised, and do the job that is that of a president.



Whether "the people let him down" or not (and I think that's one of the more ridiculous excuses I've heard around here), it would explain why Obama's been continuing just about all of Bush's policies, going Bush-Cheney one better on asserting unitary executive powers for himself (preventive detention, murdering Americans without due process or oversight, etc., continuing rendition and t0rture, cloaking it all in the 'State Secrets'-Act). That's why voters are turning their backs on Obama & Democrats.
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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

The rightwing attacking Obama and their refusal to work in "a bipartisan manner" should have pushed Obama to play hardball and move populist legislation through Congress quickly and decisively. To undo the Bush-Cheney abuses, especially with the tentative hold on a filibuster-proof majority Democrats were given in the 2008 election.



Instead, he let Republicans dictate the pace and shape a debate that was already done and voted on and won by Democrats in 2008.



If Republicans are so bad (and I think they are), why is Obama blocking all investigations and prosecutions into the Bush-Cheney administration? Perhaps if Bill Clinton hadn't done the same thing for the Reagan-Bush administration, we wouldn't have been saddled with Bush-Cheney at all.



When Obama came into power, the GOP wasn't on the ropes; it was down for the count. And Obama issued them a pardon. He expresses absolutely no remorse or plan to do anything differently.



Obama's not the Democrat that you think he is. He's not any kind of Democrat; he's a DINO. And if you didn't like the Republican Party of the last 35 years, the party of Reagan (forget just the past 8), you're going to hate where Obama and the DLC are taking the 'new & improved' Democratic Party from which they hope "to govern for 100 years".
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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

Obama and RahmEmanuel have never gone after the Republican leadership directly. Not MitchMcConnell, not JohnBoehner, not EricCantor, not JohnMcCain (the titular head of the Party, as the last presidential nominee). Because they don't want to offend them.



The White House put its full weight & support behind Blanche Lincoln over the true progressive (& union-backed) candidate in the primary, Bill Halter.



This wasn't unlike when Obama made a deal with Arlen Specter and put the full weight and support of the Democratic machine behind Specter during the 2010 primary in Pennsylvania, trying to buy off (among other alternative candidates Democratic voters in PA might have wanted to vote to have representing them) Joe Sestak. Consider that -- Obama actively went about trying to prevent Democratic voters from choosing their preferred candidate for the US so that a DINO, Republican Arlen Specter, could retain the seat.



Lincoln is 40 points down behind the GOP candidate John Boozman.



Guess who could beat Boozman in Arkansas? Lt. Governor Bill Halter. Because, like just about all Americans, Arkansans would prefer an authentic candidate, even if it's a progressive. We appreciate honesty.



But more progressives in Congress means real populist legislation getting passed into law. Real reform bills, that re-regulate banks and big business. Real stimulus bills, with jobs creation, green clean energy development, and more.



But that's not who or what Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats are about.
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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

Obama, Rahm Emanuel, the DLC, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, all have worked their @$$es off to prevent real progressives getting into office in order get and keep more Blue Dogs in office (Blanche Lincoln is one example of that) while doing everything possible to make sure the GOP got back on its feet after the 2008 election and helping make the Tea Party a viable force to be reckoned with.



Once in the White House, Obama and Rahm Emanuel didn't go after the Republican leadership in Congress, or even the Bush-Cheney administration for their many crimes. No, Obama and Emanuel blocked all investigations into Bush-Cheney, & then elevated the teabaggers, SarahPalin & RushLimbaugh, two people with absolutely no job, no position in the GOP.



Why?



Because that's who Obama & the DLC-controlled DemocraticParty wants to run against, both in 2010 & in 2012. Obama wants to drive a wedge between the base of the RepublicanParty that controls the RepublicanParty (teabaggers) and the rest of the RepublicanParty, move the Democratic Party over even farther to the right-of-center than the DLC has moved it in the last 20 years, in order to attract moderate & conservative Republican politicians and their supporters into the Democratic Party. From there, the DemocraticParty believes it can "govern for 100 years", with the base of the DemocraticParty out & marginalized, just like the Teabaggers that are currently controlling the GOP.
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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

Barack 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 first and foremost, Obama is a lawyer, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word, choosing his words very carefully (lawyer-speak) during the campaign, giving people the sense of what they wanted to hear to get their vote. It's why even among his most ardent admirers, they still argue about whether he's a liberal or a centrist or a moderate Republican.



Doing what is right for transnational corporations is what Obama is about, and trying to sell it as good for Americans is what he does afterwards. He's the epitome of the 1950s Republican, "What's good for GM is good for America."



He did a job on everybody.



Since he took office, and even before with his FISA flip-flop and then the flip-flop on windfall profits taxes on gas.
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Obama Defines Midterm Election Goals On The Campaign Trail

You're another one who just can't accept that Obama may not be what you think he is, and that you got punk'ed.



You did not answer the question, and it looks like you're setting up the election as a way to justify Obama's moving even farther to the right, trying even more caving to Republicans for the sake of 'bipartisanship'. You would cut off your own nose to spite your own face, rather than hold Obama to account to what he promised, and do the job that is that of a president.



Whether "the people let him down" or not (and I think that's one of the more ridiculous excuses I've heard around here), it would explain why Obama's been continuing just about all of Bush's policies, going Bush-Cheney one better on asserting unitary executive powers for himself (preventive detention, murdering Americans without due process or oversight, etc., continuing rendition and t0rture, cloaking it all in the 'State Secrets'-Act). That's why voters are turning their backs on Obama & Democrats.
About Smarter Ideas
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...