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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf only this man had not been blocked at every step
A wasted opportunity for America in this man, He delivered a lot in spite of the opposition but so much more could have been accomplished.
I will miss his steady nerve. I doubt I will see his like in that office again in my lifetime.
Thank you Mr. President!
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7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)
Hekate
(90,827 posts)...kind of oath: to do everything in their power to make him a one-term president, and to oppose every move he made.
In case you forgot.
7wo7rees
(5,128 posts)
napkinz
(17,199 posts)by Sam Stein
4/25/2012
WASHINGTON -- As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.
The event -- which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured -- serves as the prologue of Robert Draper's much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives."
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) -- who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz.
For several hours in the Caucus Room (a high-end D.C. establishment), the book says they plotted out ways to not just win back political power, but to also put the brakes on Obama's legislative platform.
read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/robert-draper-anti-obama-campaign_n_1452899.html
AC_Mem
(1,979 posts)As one of the greatest Presidents America has ever had the honor of being led by. My heart hurts for what he has had to endure over the past 7 years and it angers me that what the MAJORITY voted for was sabotaged by the hate filled minority.
Hillary will win. I like Bernie, but we will learn the sound of President Hillary Clinton on our lips... And the hate of the right will continue for the first woman President of the United States of America.
shine on.
Thank you.
retrowire
(10,345 posts)and is reviled by the Republicans moreso than any other candidate, wouldn't be blocked as much, or moreso than Obama?
In my opinion, if Hillary wins, we'll get 4 more years of the same crap Obama dealt with.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)The RWers hate Hill more than Obama I think.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)That is Republican policy, or lack of.
demtenjeep
(31,997 posts)he was great
BeyondGeography
(39,380 posts)He has so much to offer this country. He worked with integrity from peak intelligence and did his absolute best. A great man, really.
Ned_Devine
(3,146 posts)...in a long line of historical black eyes. Yet he somehow kept his cool. I have a lot of love in my heart for Barack Obama.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)like those of president obama, continue to ignore the right's best weapon- the 1200 coordinated radio stations that have given the voice of the 1% the volume of 50%.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)nt
certainot
(9,090 posts)rw talk radio is worth 4 bil $/year or so at $1000/hr and 1200 radio stations working against bernie
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Like we got with the 'Grand Bargains'.
certainot
(9,090 posts)much time.
boycotts of all rw stations, protests at these stations, and protests at the universities that support them and keep the talk radio monopoly going are needed.
here's michael savage on bernie in september - and they haven't even started on him. defeatism is ignoring this kind of shit- here are a few excerpts from one hour:
BERNIE SANDERS IS A
Schmuck
Liberalism is a mental disorder, Bernie’s an eg of someone who’s on medication, well he’s on medication obviously in my opinion he should be on severe thorazine in a bug house
He’s a retrovirus, not only a carrier of the marxist virus but he’s actually an infection himself
Schmuck, a lowlife of the lowest order a brooklyn commie, i know the type.... if they were a teacher they’d get fired for sleeping with a student
I knew the type, the grandfather stood on the corner of union square on a soapbox screaming about the wonders of communism even though he fled russia
Schmuck
(Bernie supporters) millennials, morons lived in their parents basement until yesterday
The clinton machine will not let him get there- it will be a pullonium bagel or an exploding knish, there’ll be an accident, a little advice for bernie- don’t jog in marcy park
Liberty university- why would they let this schmuck speak there? let this anti christian communist speak there?
What does that mean raised in a jewish family, non observant? he was a communist descended from jews!
Let him sell body parts, lunatic, too stupid to invest wisely
We're overrun by mexicans and syrians and this schmuck’s talking about income inequality
Steeped in marxism right down to the dirty suit, died in the wool loser, at least he’s not wearing a pantsuit, now if he came out in a pink pantsuit i’d say he has a better chance at the crossover vote
If he won i’d leave the country
Inarticulate lowlife, bad health, lifetime of mariajuana, bad red wine, tofu, probably enlarged breasts from the tofu, emaciated mentally and physically, can’t he get a hair cut? the breath on this guy, halitosis
I want to ridicule him, i want to tear him apart like a cat with a mouse, i’d invite him on the show anytime he wants,
Moron moron moron sick
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)There is a hopeless 20% of the country that will always spout that crap. It's useless trying to reach them or make deals with them. Go after the other 80% and light a fire under their asses.
That won't happen with a status quo candidate and it surely won't happen by being defeatist.
certainot
(9,090 posts)if some asshole set up a soapbox across the street from your house screaming that every day all day, and you just walked by with your fingers in your ears, how long would it take for some of your neighbors to start believing it?
that's what 1200 radio stations have been screaming for 25 years about liberals
that is a major reason why this country is now so fucked up
that's why there was so much effective obstruction of obama
that's why we had bush and they could lie us into iraq
that's why they beat public optionand there's been no action on global warming
that's why the 1% have had so much success obstructing reform year after year.
the tea party is the talk radio base- trump and cruz are the talk radio candidates
there's nothing more defeatist than the left's idiotic ignorance of the right's best weapon- that is the biggest political mistake in history
bernie supporters are going to have to chew gum and walk at the same time if bernie's going to win
Egnever
(21,506 posts)He has been spewing that same thing for decades now. Not sure why anyone would take him any more seriously today than they have in the past.
Sure there is a small portion of the country that takes his nonsense as gospel but the vast majority of america doesn't listen to him or care what he says. Not to mention these guys have all been bleeding listeners for years now to the point that more and more stations are dropping these idiots. Hell even Rush is losing stations and he has been top dog forever.
certainot
(9,090 posts)on 1200 radio stations and they will all be doing versions of that
our political history the last 25 years is full of people and ideas that have been swiftboated successfully by the right by total bullshit that only got anywhere because it was loud, repeated often, and most importantly, liberals and dems ignored it until it was well established and enabling the MSM, and the only alternative was playing catch up.
and it's not just bernie- that buzz will win countless close elections for the right all over the country
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)It's a word used by people who don't want to face bad facts, but know damn well that trying to argue that they're false would be absurd, and so resort to cheap tricks to try and persuade other people in joining them in ignoring the obvious truth.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Of people who give up without trying. It's an excuse for mediocrity.
Eyoreism.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)However changing demographics and another loss of the presidency is going to force the GOP to rethink it's strategies. Something they seem to already be doing if you listen to the background noise inside the party.
certainot
(9,090 posts)rw radio emboldens them to try anything and the confidence to think they can get away with it.
their best weapon by far the last 25 years is rw radio and that's why they're so fucked up now with cruz and trump leading- those are talk radio candidates operating in the alternate reality formed with 25 years of unchallenged repetition. the party of lincoln is now the party of limbaugh and it's dragging them over the cliff. but they dragging us over with them because dems and liberals still don't realize the connection. the GOP bigs know talk radio is a huge advantage. the only thing keeping them close is talk radio and it will help them win local /state elections all over the country they would never win otherwise. unless dems and liberals do something about it and stop ignoring it they'll keep using it to obstruct. and we don't have time for it to dissolve away on it's own. and legislation wont help.
boycotts of all rw stations, protests at these stations, and protests at the universities that support them and keep the talk radio monopoly going are needed.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)And has been for decades now.
Lord knows I see enough of it parroted on social media. However if they don't derail trump and he becomes the nominee there is no way in hell he will be elected. RW media or not.
30% of the republican party does not make a president.
Nate silver lays it out well here http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dear-media-stop-freaking-out-about-donald-trumps-polls/
One problem with this is that it’s not enough for Trump to merely avoid fading. Right now, he has 25 to 30 percent of the vote in polls among the roughly 25 percent of Americans who identify as Republican. (That’s something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.) As the rest of the field consolidates around him, Trump will need to gain additional support to win the nomination. That might not be easy, since some Trump actions that appeal to a faction of the Republican electorate may alienate the rest of it. Trump’s favorability ratings are middling among Republicans (and awful among the broader electorate).
We are a long way from the election and there is really only one candidate on the republican side that can stand on the same stage with either of our front runners and not look like a complete idiot at the end and I doubt he will get the nod. If it ends up being Trump the presidency is all but in the bag if for no other reason than the minority vote will show up in droves to keep him out. One need only look at what they did for Obama (waiting in lines for hours to vote for him ) to realize the truth of that.
certainot
(9,090 posts)make sure the guy promising to destroy them will lose. election theft has worked for them before and htey've been able to intimidate/buy/enable msm complicity/silence and convince the masses that that stuff is conspiracy theory bullshit. people just voted differently than they said. the polls were wrong, or your polls were wrong, etc., and americans didn't get in the streets.
the classic PSYOPS known as talk radio gives them the confidence to try all sorts of shit and get away with it.
imo one thing about trump they don't like is the guys who will organize massive election theft and fraud won't be certain they'll be able to intimidate trump into going along with it
Manifestor_of_Light
(21,046 posts)That's statistically predictable violence incited by propagandistic hate speech on hundreds of talk shows.
Response to Egnever (Original post)
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Stellar
(5,644 posts)Response to Egnever (Original post)
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Akamai
(1,779 posts)Really--this is an utterly ghastly agreement that will deeply harm the average citizen.
Not only is it terrible, but he earlier recognized such agreements as being terrible and in his initial run for the presidency he said he would roll back NAFTA, that unions would be at the table for every future trade agreement, that he would not sacrifice American jobs for a trade agreement, etc. In these promises he was not telling the truth.
Thom Hartmann probably is correct -- that his advisors aren't telling him the truth.
But if this awful, worse than terrible agreement goes through, many of us (who have been loyal supporters) will be negative about his accomplishments.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)is there a specific portion you find to be ghastly or is it just in general?
I think he believes the TPP is good for America and the world in general.
The text is public but it seems that since it has gone public discussion of it's ill's has all but disappeared. One would think if it is as ghastly as advertised the glaring flaws would be broadcast everywhere but I am not seeing that.
I don't know enough about it to take a stand one way or another honestly but every article I read about it's ill's has a lot of condemnation but no citation. It being public now one would think it would be picked apart section by section but I have yet to find anything of that sort.
Akamai
(1,779 posts)SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: THE TRANS-PACIFIC TRADE (TPP) AGREEMENT MUST BE DEFEATED
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a disastrous trade agreement designed to protect the interests of the largest multi-national corporations at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment and the foundations of American democracy. It will also negatively impact some of the poorest people in the world.
The TPP is a treaty that has been written behind closed doors by the corporate world.Incredibly, while Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry and major media companies have full knowledge as to what
is in this treaty, the American people and members of Congress do not. They have been locked out of the process.
Further, all Americans, regardless of political ideology, should be opposed to the “fast track” process which would deny Congress the right to amend the treaty and represent their constituents’ interests.
The TPP follows in the footsteps of other unfettered free trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA and the
Permanent Normalized Trade Agreement with China (PNTR).
These treaties have forced American workers to compete against desperate and low-wage labor around the world. The result has been massive job losses in the United States and the shutting down of tens of thousands of factories. These corporately backed trade agreements have significantly contributed to the race to the bottom, the collapse of the American middle class and increased wealth and income inequality.
The TPP is more of the same, but even worse.
During my 23 years in Congress, I helped lead the fight against NAFTA and PNTR with China.
During the coming session of Congress, I will be working with organized labor, environmentalists, religious organizations, Democrats, and Republicans against the secretive TPP trade deal.
Let’s be clear: the TPP is much more than a “free trade” agreement.
It is part of a global race to the bottom to boost the profits of large corporations and Wall Street by outsourcing jobs; undercutting worker rights; dismantling labor, environmental, health, food safety and financial laws; and allowing corporations to challenge our laws in international tribunals rather than our own court system.
If TPP was such a good deal for America, the administration should have the courage to show the American people exactly what is in this deal, instead of keeping the content of the TPP a secret.
10 Ways that TPP would hurt Working Families
1. TPP will allow corporations to outsource even more jobs overseas.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, if the TPP is agreed to, the U.S. will lose more than 130,000 jobs to Vietnam and Japan alone. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Service Sector Jobs will be lost.
At a time when corporations have already outsourced over 3 million service sector jobs in the U.S., TPP includes rules that will make it even easier for corporate America to outsource call centers; computer programming; engineering; accounting; and medical diagnostic jobs.
•∙
Manufacturing jobs will be lost.
As a result of NAFTA, the U.S. lost nearly 700,000 jobs.
As a result of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, the U.S. lost over 2.7 million jobs.
As a result of the Korea Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. has lost 70,000 jobs.
The TPP would make matters worse by providing special benefits to firms that offshore jobs and by reducing the risks associated with operating in low-wage countries.
2.U.S. sovereignty will be undermined by giving corporations the right to challenge our laws
before international tribunals.
The TPP creates a special dispute resolution process that allows corporations to challenge any domestic laws that could adversely impact their “expected future profits.”
These challenges would be heard before UN and World Bank tribunals which could require taxpayer compensation to corporations.
This process undermines our sovereignty and subverts democratically passed laws including those dealing with labor, health, and the environment.
3.Wages, benefits, and collective bargaining will be threatened.
NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, and other free trade agreements have helped drive down the wages and benefits of American workers and have eroded collective bargaining rights.
The TPP will make the race to the bottom worse because it forces American workers to compete with desperate workers in Vietnam where the minimum wage is just 56 cents an hour.
4.Our ability to protect the environment will be undermined.
The TPP will allow corporations to challenge any law that would adversely impact their future profits.
Pending claims worth over $14 billion have been filed based on similar language in other trade agreements. Most of these claims deal with challenges to environmental laws in a number of countries.
The TPP will make matters even worse by giving corporations the right to sue any of the nations that sign onto the TPP.
These lawsuits would be heard in international tribunals bypassing domestic courts.
5.Food Safety Standards will be threatened.
The TPP would make it easier for countries like Vietnam to export contaminated fish and seafood into the U.S.
The FDA has already prevented hundreds of seafood imports from TPP countries because of salmonella, e-coli, methyl-mercury and drug residues.
But the FDA only inspects 1-2 percent of food imports and will be overwhelmed by the vast expansion of these imports if the TPP is agreed to.
6.Buy America laws could come to an end.
The U.S. has several laws on the books that require the federal government to buy goods and services that are made in America or mostly made in this country.
Under TPP, foreign corporations must be given equal access to compete for these government contracts with companies that make products in America.
Under TPP, the U.S. could not even prevent companies that have horrible human rights records from receiving government contracts paid by U.S. taxpayers.
7.Prescription drug prices will increase, access to life saving drugs will decrease, and the profits of drug companies will go up.
Big pharmaceutical companies are working hard to ensure that the TPP extends the monopolies they have for prescription drugs by extending their patents (which currently can last 20 years or more).
This would expand the profits of big drug companies, keep drug prices artificially high, and leave millions of people around the world without access to life saving drugs.
Doctors without Borders stated that “the TPP agreement is on track tobecome the most harmful trade pact ever for access to medicines in developing countries.”
8.Wall Street would benefit at the expense of everyone else.
Under TPP, governments would be barred from imposing “capital controls” that have been successfully used to avoid financial crises.
These controls range from establishing a financial speculation tax to limiting the massive flows of speculative capital flowing into and out of countries responsible for the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s.
In other words, the TPP would expand the rights and power of the same Wall Street firms that nearly destroyed the world economy just five years ago and would create the conditions for more financial instability in the future.
Last year, I co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Harkin to create a Wall Street speculation tax of just 0.03 percent on trades of derivatives, credit default swaps, and large amounts of stock.
If TPP were enacted, such a financial speculation tax may be in violation of this trade agreement.
9.The TPP would reward authoritarian regimes like Vietnam that systematically violate human rights.
The State Department, the U.S. Department of Labor, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International have all documented Vietnam’s widespread violations of basic international standards for human rights.
Yet, the TPP would reward Vietnam’s bad behavior by giving it duty free access to the U.S. market.
10.The TPP has no expiration date, making it virtually impossible to repeal.
Once TPP is agreed to, it has no sunset date and could only be altered by a consensus of all of the countries that agreed to it.
Other countries, like China, could be allowed to join in the future.
For example, Canada and Mexico joined TPP negotiations in 2012 and Japan joined last year.
Hekate
(90,827 posts)
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)that we were still able to put a man of this caliber in office for eight years!
A miracle that has not once escaped me and has left me feeling immense gratitude.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)if it hadn't happened twice.
Lodestar
(2,388 posts)that it will be excruciating if not impossible to settle for anyone less....
He has elevated us all even as certain elements have simultaneously
tried to drag us down to new lows.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)the first year he is gone. I like things about both Hillary and Bernie but neither hold a candle to Obama in my mind. It will be very hard not to compare them and in a way that is unfair to them both.
eomer
(3,845 posts)He had a Democratic majority in both houses the first two years. There are a number of things that they could have done with just a simple (50%) majority by using the Budget Reconciliation process.
For example, they could have raised taxes on the wealthy. They could have enacted a transaction tax on investors.
Back then and since then Obama and other corporatist Democrats have tried to fool people into thinking there was nothing they could do. It's been a lie all along. Many of the biggest legislative changes over multiple decades were done under similar circumstances using Budget Reconciliation. Democrats in 2009 and 2010 just didn't want to make those changes because they are corporatist and their owners didn't want it.
