Obama & Chained CPI - Opinions, Please.

[IdaBriggs]

Apparently "Chained CPI" is now formally, officially dead. Opinions on its death vary from "has Obama forgotten what it means to be a Democrat?" to "he's being brilliant, and look! he killed it by proposing it!"

The opinion battle rages - please share your take on this - is Obama a traitor to the Party, or a brilliant strategist who got what he wanted? Do you feel betrayed, relieved, vindicated, trusting, furious, or bored?

I will periodically post the scoring (votes multiplied by scores, divided by poll participants) to give a completely non-randomized non-scientifically valid generic Obama-on-DU opinion poll.

Share your thoughts, please.

5 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Time expired
	10: Obama's Brilliant! He was *NEVER* going to do "Chained CPI", and he made it die by talking about it!
	2 (40%)
	08: Obama is a Good Guy - He probably didn't want to, but if he *had* to do "Chained CPI" there was a good reason. I trust him.
	0 (0%)
	07: Obama is Knowledgable - "Chained CPI" is inevitable. He is doing what "leaders" do - leading.
	0 (0%)
	05: Obama Who? I don't pay attention to the crisis du jour.
	0 (0%)
	04: Obama's an Idiot - he really expected it to pass, and now the Republicans look like heroes for stopping it!
	1 (20%)
	02: Obama's a Sell-Out - he would have done it, and probably still will. We are all FOOLS for electing him!
	0 (0%)
	01: Obama is the WORST EVER - I can't even TALK about how BETRAYED I feel - ARGH! Down with Democrats like him!
	0 (0%)
	Other (Please assign Obama Opinion point value in your explanation - 10 is "good" and 1 is "bad")
	2 (40%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[truebluegreen]

1. you're missing a few options in your push poll....

[IdaBriggs]

4. Yes - I was hoping people would come up with them.

I tried to hit on the "major" ones I keep seeing: either he's a brilliant strategist or he's a flaming idiot, with a few variations thrown in.

In a perfect world people would say, "he's an 11 on this issue" (and then explain why), or give a number with a different explanation for why.

It is a total "push poll" now that you say that. People are being pretty vocal about this issue - it is a hot button.

I am still trying to figure it out myself.

[truebluegreen]

9. Here's the one I'd vote for:

"Obama's a Sell-Out - he would have done it, and probably still will. We are all FOOLS for trusting him."

'Cause I think we didn't actually have the option of not voting for him (which is a good example of what is wrong with our system).

[rustydog]

2. Obama is a cool guy

I"d like to think he is a "Belieber!"

[IdaBriggs]

5. Can you give me a number to go with that, please?

[LuvNewcastle]

7. LOL! n/t

[bowens43]

3. 1 Obama is wrong he really expected it to pass, and now the Republicans look like heroes

Obama is not an idiot but he was played by the republicans yet again. Come 2014, every republican running for office will crow about how they saved Social Security from the ruthless democrats who tried to slash benefits.

[CTyankee]

6. I voted other. I think it was a terrible move on his part but I sure don't know why he did it.

I guess Krugman is right on this: he said Obama wants to be taken "seriously" by the "very serious people." I sure don't have a better explanation.

Didn't he have any advisers who warned him that the repubs would just use this against Dems in 2014, likely not to help win the House and quite possibly LOSE us the Senate? Didn't someone point out that SS is not the big problem facing us now?

This is what I don't understand. It just doesn't make any sense to me...

[IdaBriggs]

8. Can you give me a number to go with that, please?

And for the record, I kind of agree with you - the whole thing doesn't make any sense to me, since Social Security has nothing to do with the budget.

[CTyankee]

10. well, the policy itself is very bad. I won't say that Obama is a bad person, I just don't agree with

his stand and mostly, I don't understand how he could take it.

It's like with Clinton. I had my strong dislikes of some of his policy decisions (DADT and welfare reform) but I voted for him twice and would vote for him again today if I could.

[PA Democrat]

11. I disagree with Obama on the chained CPI but sorry, I'm not going to call him an "idiot"

[tosh]

12. I like Jonathan Alter's view of it:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-11/congress-s-notorious-b-i-g-agenda.html

<snip>

Predictably, progressives denounced the idea. The more intriguing reaction was from the right.

First, Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, who leads the Republicans’ 2014 campaign efforts, told CNN that Obama was “going after seniors.” This aroused Democratic fears that Republicans would once again pander to the elderly, as they did in 2010 by airing misleading ads saying that Obama was cutting Medicare by $500 billion to pay for the Affordable Care Act.

But the politics of entitlements are changing. Even as Walden’s view was endorsed by Bill O’Reilly on Fox News, former Representative Chris Chocola, president of the influential Club for Growth, asked Walden to “clarify” his opposition to chained CPI, which is politician-speak for “retract it now.”

“Greg Walden doesn’t seriously oppose even the most modest of reforms to Social Security, right?” Chocola asked. “With nearly $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, the last thing Republicans should attack the Democrats for is for making the most minor reforms to our entitlement programs.”

Republican confusion on entitlements gives Obama an opening for a divide-and-conquer strategy. By making the budget and entitlement debate more fluid -- less dependent on whether House Speaker John Boehner can hold his caucus -- the president now has more options for finding a “good bargain,” if not a “grand” one, either in the next few weeks or when the debt ceiling has to be raised again later in the year.

[patrice]

13. 5.5 -There's too many different kinds of poison pills in this budget, for the Right and for the Left

I can only guess that the whole thing was never intended to work & the strategy is that we tread water until 2014, since gerrymandering has increased the need for massive turnout by Democrats maybe 10 times over what we needed in 2012.

[NCTraveler]

14. I picked option 02.

Although I do not think we are fools for electing him.

[IdaBriggs]

15. 11 "#" responses, totalling 34.5 = Average 3.1 (rounded) on 04/15/2013 @ 3:02 p.m.

I assigned PA Democrat a "4" (with the "not an idiot" caveat), and couldn't figure out what to assign CTYankee (so, didn't get anything).

Since I am treating "5" as "neutral", so far this is a *very* unhappy crowd.

(Please keep in mind the happy people might simply not be responding?)