Too bad about Obama not being the change we hoped for

[ashling]

[Enrique]

1. Obama isn't sinking

he's starting his second term as President of the United States, thanks to everyone that voted for him both times, including all the liberals that are disappointed in him. He's doing just fine.

The long-term unemployed are the ones that are sinking.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

3. way to miss the point

[Tigress DEM]

51. Huh Huh. I thought you said, "mormon"

First glance, saw the word moron and read mormon instead.


That would have been a bad joke and not so funny as what you actually have in your sig line

[Cali_Democrat]

5. WOW

You don't really follow politics that closely, do you?

You realize that the GOPers are refusing to extend unemployment benefits?

[Phlem]

7. I think maybe that's why he said this

The long-term unemployed are the ones that are sinking.



-p

[Cali_Democrat]

18. And who's blocking the unemployment extension?

[Phlem]

24. If we can't get around the obvious, we can't move forward.

Yes Republicans are at fault for everything, I agree. Obama's been just a saint his whole time in office.

Is that what you needed to hear?

Happy?

-p

[Cali_Democrat]

30. If the GOP wasn't obstructing unemployment extension

Would Obama sign it? Absolutely.

That's the point of the toon, my friend. Republican obstruction is preventing that type of legislation from moving forward.

[Phlem]

32. I get the fricken toon chief.

jeebus

-p

[Tigress DEM]

47. NO Republicans are NOT at fault for EVERYTHING. But the LEVEL of OPPOSITION is Staggering.

Mistakes have been made ALL around. Especially Obama thinking that colleagues he had worked with before and managed to persuade on one issue or another would still work with him as President. They probably even said they would. IN FORMER TIMES and with some people of integrity, such promises might matter, but it's a new and crazier world.

Also, just like with Clinton being hammered every moment while he was in office, it makes Obama work harder just to get ANYTHING done. The Bi-Partisan crap that they get passed doesn't make ANYONE happy in the long run, but it begins to solve problems, paves the way for more solutions. Obamacare will likely lead to single payer in the say way that the attempt at universal healthcare by the Clintons made it a topic we could really start having the discussions about and gave us fuel to hook it to real fiscal responsibility. We've taken the middle man out of a lot of other things. It only makes sense to take the people with a profit motive out of the health care equation. Have insurance pools share the risk but don't go paying out millions so people can speculate and obstruct health care delivery.

[Phlem]

49. "We've taken the middle man out of a lot of other things."

I totally not here to upset you, I'm just wondering do you think the ACA has taken the middle man out of insurance?

-p

[Tigress DEM]

50. No. I'm not upset. Sorry if I seem that way. Just enthusiastic.

NO ACA is only a step. It's a start down the road. It's a way to show feasibilities of various aspects of the government (not for profit) leveling the playing field so that more Americans and at some point all American's can have health care. It's all we could get. It WAS their plan until they decided they didn't like it because DEMs put it on the table.

I'm only saying that a lot of things we fight for politically come in piecemeal because we are dragging people afraid of change and working for corporate interests into an age of reason that acknowledges that the average person has rights and corporations aren't people. We have to regain terrain we once had and unmake Citizen's United and fight on so many fronts at one time that it makes a person dizzy at times.

HOWEVER, I do sometimes hate when we fight amongst ourselves or ridicule Obama considering the huge obstruction he's faced even though I'm frustrated too. I'd like him to do better, but I don't think taking turns slapping him is helping. I think we as a population need to find a cohesive message of what we want and start saying it over and over again so no candidate can ignore it and keep pushing for a better world situation.

[Phlem]

6. +1

-p

[Phlem]

10. sorry bud

sometimes someone doesn't get the point.



-p

[Cha]

15. And, the President Cares about those who aren't getting their Unemployment Extended..

so yeah, PBO is not happy about it.

[Phlem]

29. I know.

I was just talking to him the other day and expressed his disappointment. I had to make sure because the national spotlight is ripe for drama.

-p

[freshwest]

2. ...

In short, if you’re still disappointed in Barack Obama, it’s only because you never understood whose job it was to produce change in the first place....

~ Tim Wise

[BlueCaliDem]

4. Excellent reminder, freshwest. We tend to forget that salient fact

far too often - including me at times. WE are the change we've been hoping for, and on the federal level, change starts in the U.S. House.

[WowSeriously]

12. Really? Then why do we worry who's President?

[Phlem]

25. hey now, we can't have questions around here, just

obedience.

-p

[Tarheel_Dem]

38. Because the president signs legislation into law? I thought that would be obvious, even to.....

the president's most vicious critics, "supposedly" on the left.

[WowSeriously]

42. How Norquistian. We just need a body who can sign legislation.

I prefer a President who uses the bully pulpit to drive the debate, especially someone as gifted a speaker as this President.

But that's just me, holding my President's feet to the fire, not simply massaging them.

[Tarheel_Dem]

43. I guess you fit into this group, "on the left". Really loud, really small, and damn near irrelevant

Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala

Green

469,628

0.36%

Roseanne Barr/Cindy Sheehan

Peace and Freedom

67,326

0.05%

Rocky Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez

Justice

43,018

0.03%

They couldn't get to 1% between them, but they're the loudest critics, and very active on the internet.

[WowSeriously]

46. Let me see if I have this straight. Then advise me as to my course of action:

1. We are told to vote for the lesser of two evils, because otherwise the Republicans win.

2. Then we are told to stop making the perfect be the enemy of the good.

3. Then we are told to play the hand we are dealt.

4. Then we are told to stop holding their feet to the fire.

5. What do you recommend I do now?

[Tarheel_Dem]

56. "Irrelevant". You Better Believe It!

[VanillaRhapsody]

52. You don't understand the meaning of Bully Pulpit...

not bully the way we use that term today to beating up on weaker people...

no this comes from Teddy Roosevelt when they used the word BULLY...as in BULLY for YOU! Bully mean agreement! It meant when his party in both houses were all in high hopes and spirits and they are in your corner...they have his back! Where every point the President makes....they reply "BULLY" to that particular policy or decision....etc.

[WowSeriously]

53. I know what "bully for you" means. And I know that in the present tense

not a century ago, it means to use the power of the office to frame the message.

Good God, man, this is the twenty first century, and meanings change.

And you knew that. But thanks for thinking me an ignorant buffoon.

[VanillaRhapsody]

54. How do you pull off Bully Pulpit in THIS environment.....

are you serious...It is not about what HE does...the bully pulpit requires all the Dems are full-throated endorsing his positions...How does he make them do that under all the obstructionism going on?

[WowSeriously]

55. One can remain silent, or one can speak.

I wonder why the President put away his most effective tool after each campaign.

[Tigress DEM]

48. Remember the guy who bankrupted 3 oil companies before he got selected as Prez?

The Chimperor with no pants on?

Yes, we are right to want more from Obama, but we also have to be honest about how hard people are working to make sure nothing he does succeeds.

[WowSeriously]

57. It's easy to get "nothing" done when doing nothing gets your true agenda passed.

The one time the President should have actually done nothing, letting the Bush Tax Theft expire, he couldn't help himself but to do something.

[Tarheel_Dem]

36. Thank You!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

59. +1

[awoke_in_2003]

8. LBJ once said...

If he walked across the Potomac, the headline would read "LBJ can't swim"

[liberal_at_heart]

9. yeah because republicans are holding a gun to his head and making him support Race to

the Top, Common Core Curriculum, and state standardized testing.

[WowSeriously]

13. Exactly.

They also held a gun to his head to make him extend the Bush Tax Theft, and to make him continue to negotiate TPP, and to continue to wage the Afghan War, and to continue to delay the Keystone XL decision.

I could go on but it is all moot. 2014 is more important than continuing to ponder what should have been.

[FiveGoodMen]

28. And worse: the TPP

[hfojvt]

58. they forced him to appoint a Catfood commission too

and they also forced him to sign an extension of the Bush tax cuts, and to make most of them permanent. It's Republicans fault that Obama goes around saying "tax cuts will create jobs, (even if most of the tax cuts go to the rich)."

Actually, Obama never admits to the last part. He simply proposes tax cut policies where far more benefits go to the richest 20% than go to the bottom 60% and he calls those policies "middle class tax cuts" and uses them for his "jobs proposal".

But Obama only does that because Republicans are holding him down.

[WowSeriously]

11. Cute, but not entirely accurate. Sorry.

[ashling]

23. It's not totally inaccurate either

as far as it goes, anyway. With political cartoons - as with modern art - there is a lot left unsaid.

Consider another interpretation . . . is he sinking? perhaps he is staying afloat only because of the elephant, without which he would sink of his own accord.

Of course that interpretation still does not account for some of his former supporters who are disillusioned because their illusions turned out to be merely their illusions.

[Tarheel_Dem]

40. Welcome Back!

[ashling]

41. Thank you,

but I'm not sure I went anywhere . . .however, I will be going to Mississippi this weekend.

[Tarheel_Dem]

44. My bad. I replied in the wrong spot. Sorry.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. I've always thought the "Change" was away from the Bush Years....

Remember that time? Most have tried to blot it from their memory as if it didn't happen.

McCain would have continued the war in Iraq and gone into Iran while spending time at Camp David with Palin.

Romney was the guy that wouldn't go away so he was their designated loser.

[freshwest]

17. And we're out of Iraq, not at war with Iran, Syria or Libya, we're leaving Afghanistan. We got rid

of DADT, and a lot of other things that people thought would never change. Palin's 'hopey changey' thing is working for us. Obama failed to walk on water and give me my socialist paradise!

But then, unlike some on the right gave godhood to Reagan, and thought Shrub or Romney would be their Messiah, I wasn't expecting that kind of change. If I had, I guess I'd be hiding out in a bunker some place with Beck, LOL.

Some things are better, some worse, and others undecided. Because a lot of people have not decided yet. And the world rolls on by them.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. I just keep thinking of the nightmare we would have had under McCain....

The Right was claiming Democrats had the same talking points as "the terrorists" and were claiming we were traitors.

They just LOVED the idea of telling America there was a threat from within and it was from that kid with Greenpeace.

Because if the Sierra Club wins, the Terrorists win.

Their, "We piss off the Terrorists. We piss off Liberals. Therefore Liberals are Terrorists" argument was repeated in the media. To this DAY I know someone who claims Republicans are "better" and "care more" about national security than Democrats.

[Phlem]

27. Hmmm

I thought we still had troops in those countries?

-p

[okaawhatever]

60. No. Troops in: Iraq 0, Iran 0, Afghanistan 47k, Syria 0 but we have a few troops on Jordanian and

Turkish border. Less than 200 in Jordan and they're planners and civil affairs types. We put two Patriot missile batteries (about 400 troops) along the Turkish border. The Germans and Netherlands also contributed two batteries each. They're there for defensive purposes only.

[pinboy3niner]

16. Just a silly, facetious thought, but...

...where's FLOATUS?

[Kurovski]

20. I got all the ponies.

Every last fucking one.

[RBInMaine]

21. People need to remember their 8th grade civics and that he is only ONE branch of the government.

[davidpdx]

22. Exactly

Anytime we have divided government and people decide they don't want to work together then it screws all of us. That's exactly what has been going on for the past couple years. Filibusters in the Senate and blocking everything in the House. Thank god they finally got the balls to do away with the filibuster for judicial appointments.

There is still a shit load of stuff to do and we are down to a little more than 3 years. We have to win back the House and hold the Senate. It will take hard work. I think some of it will be luck if we get Republican opponents that are complete morons like the senate candidates in Missouri and Indiana. The more they flap their mouths about controlling women and complaining about immigrants the more they'll sink themselves.

[liberal_at_heart]

26. oh, I am holding all the democrats responsible, not just Obama. I would hold the

the republicans responsible but I never vote for republicans so what's the point. I do vote for democrats or I have up until now. Now, if democrats want my vote they will have to start representing the people in this country, not just the rich and the corporations.

[Skidmore]

33. That is just a ridiculous way of thinking.

I have never voted for Grassley or the likes of Steve King in my state but that has never stopped me from giving them feedback or requesting that they support or oppose policies on my behalf. I always ask that my opinions be on the record too. They may never vote the way I want them to but I have petitioned the legislators of my state and I am holding them responsible.

[liberal_at_heart]

45. thanks for the friendly insult. That makes my want to follow your lead.

[Phlem]

31. I thought we were supposed to hold his feet to the fire.

yet every time that happens there's bucket right there to put it out.



-p

[Skidmore]

34. Sometimes his feet are not the ones to be

toasted. Plenty of times you see Congress being given a pass here in the zeal to blame the President for everthing under the sun.

[Phlem]

37. agreed. Also, maybe he should have left all the populist talk out of his race.

Congress is a sham.

I'v been witness to this here in Washington State. Newly minted Democratic Governor Jay Inslee is trying to kill medical marijuana legislation. A law enacted 15 years ago and has been doing fine is all of a sudden an issue. Can't be because the state is legalizing it and big business is getting into it heavy. I'm sure he's looking out for the patients with his push towards "Everybody must pay".

These fuckers just change colors as soon as they get elected.

The way I see it we have three groups to pick from. Democrats, the Third Way, or Republicans.
One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same......

-p

[polichick]

62. It's not that people give Congress a pass - it's that they...

have zero expectations for our corrupt Congress.

[polichick]

61. That was the election rhetoric, as I recall.

[Phlem]

63. I would venture that a lot if not most of it was rhetoric.

-p

[polichick]

64. At this point it's really hard to tell what was truly intended...

and what was utter bullshit. But not knowing for sure keeps people hanging on to that hope thing.

[Gravitycollapse]

35. Not all of Obama's failures can be blamed on Republicans. That would be a ridiculous conclusion.

No doubt, a lot of them can. That doesn't mean we can just point our fingers across the aisle, huff and puff a few times, and go home.

[Phlem]

39. Sure it does.

Just listen to some of the post in this thread. Your conclusion would involve critical thinking and analysis of the empirical data. We can't have that. It's ALL the republicans fault always!



-p