2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWho Believes that ...
Harry Reid's not bring the filibuster rule to a vote (when he didn't have the votes) ... Result: Gun Control bill fails with all but 3 republicans on record opposing it and all but 4 Democrats on record supporting it, making it a 2014 issue (http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251300233), and preventing the recpirocity bill from becoming law (http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251300227);
And, President Obama's offering up a Budget Request Proposal that included the CCPI ... Result: GOP tied up in knots. http://election.democraticunderground.com/10022690945
IOW, these two moves go directly to keeping the Democratic Party on the right side, or rather, strengthen the view that the gop is on the wrong side, of the issues that the electorate will be voting on in 2014 ...
Is ALL the result of happenstance or good luck or the Gods smiling on President Obama?
Come on People! President Obama has a strategy team far beyond anything that we/I have seen.
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graham4anything
(11,464 posts)100 years from now, they will have 100s and 100s of books on this and tributes.
This must be like those born around 1900, and living and seeing how great the world became with all the inventions and innovations in life they probably never dreamed in a million years would happen.
We are living in future history books and future movies.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)we are witnessing a thing of beauty ...
This must be like those born around 1900, and living and seeing how great the world became with all the inventions and innovations in life they probably never dreamed in a million years would happen.
We are living in future history books and future movies.
I wouldn't go that far, because ... well ... he didn't eliminate income inequity, nor did he cure cancer.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)that's what I respect about the President. He always seems to think long-term and cares about getting things done. There was no way that Congressional Democrats would allow CPI, anyway, but he knew that Republicans would never accept a deal with any type of revenue increases in it. They still care more about some dumb pledge from the Garden Gnome than working on behalf of all Americans. By doing the CPI, he has shown to any remaining voters in the middle that he was willing to be the bigger man and put some stuff that he and his party didn't want to on the table, just to avoid gridlock. We should see more people get turned off by the GOP's inability to moderate, and by the time Congressional reapportionment happens, they had better say their prayers.
pscot
(21,024 posts)
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)but lack the ability to articulate why. 
pscot
(21,024 posts)It doesn't describe what's really going down. I find a serious disconnect beween the President's rhetoric and his actions. I think the Country, and indeed, the Planet, are at a crisis point. What we needed was transformative leadership. What we got was a defense of the status quo, and enough of what I perceive as political bait and switch to raise doubts in my mind about what the man actually believes. I see his strategy, to the extent he has one, as a kind of rope a dope. But for the rope a dope to be effective you have to be able to counter-punch. At some point you have to come off the ropes and show some agression. I haven't seen that. I'm disappointed. I'm also troubled by his continuation of some of the most egregious policies of George the 2nd. The keeping Guantanamo open shames us all, and the national security apparatus is a tool that will gladden the heart of some future American dictator. And then there's the apparent complacency regarding climate change, which is probably going to kill several billion people before this century ends. When I've expressed these views over the last few years, I've been mocked for whining because I didn't get a pony, or castigated for hating the President. The general tone has been that this President is above criticism, a view that should be anathema in a Democracy.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)You find a disconnect between President Obama's rhetoric and actions; but look at the results and factor in what is politically possible. I am pretty happy with the result and I do not believe that it is through happenstance that he (and his team) have accomplished what they have accomplished. The positive outcome happens too frequently.
You see a lack of aggression, I see time and again political victories ... I could list them, but you will just deny that they are victories because it did not accomplish everything we desire ... that is not the nature of politics; not in our form of democracy.
You keep bringing up GITMO, as evidence of President Obama's "Bait and switch" and a reason to distrust him ... But you neglect to mention that President Obama signed the Executive Order to accomplish it; but our Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, voted to defund the closure AND voted to NOT allow the detainees to be incarcerated on US soil.
I do have some problems with much of the Nation Security apparatus; but honestly, I'm still working through my own "security/civil liberty" opinions ... on the one hand, I believe we are moving towards a more controlled society; but on the other hand, we DO live with some very dangerous people.
Finally,
No ... I have not seen anyone that holds that the President above criticism; rather, that that criticism be couched in what is politically and factually real.
Much of the criticism tagged onto President Obama IS "pony whining" (that I largely ignore); but more troubling, the vast majority of the criticisms seem to ignore that in this form of government, we have 3 separate branches of government and, though one branch is supposedly "non-partisan/apolitical", the branch of government that actually writes the laws and controls the purse, has two opposing parties and hundreds of individual agenda.
For President Obama, or any President, to act in a manner that would satisfy many of his more ardent critics, he would have at act in a manner that is more offensive to Democracy, than merely not accomplishing what we want.
sofa king
(10,857 posts)The object is to flip the House and gain five more seats in the Senate, which would have been a much taller order had the Dems' plans for 2012 not gone so amazingly well (statistically, Dems should have lost control of the Senate, but they picked up seats instead).
The overall idea is to pry open a single window of opportunity to create real and lasting positive change, in the legislative sessions of 2015 and 2016.
That's why Harry Reid didn't fight for and lose the filibuster rule change this year, because it makes no sense to force that issue while the poltroons still control the House.
If Dems retain control of the Senate, but not a supermajority, in 2015, then the filibuster rule change becomes crucial. If, on the other hand, Dems gain a reliable supermajority in 2015, then it becomes important to preserve the current state of affairs so as not to provide any softening of the rules which would allow Republicans to better interfere.
The last cycle worked amazingly well. Hundreds of lunatic-fringe bills vomited forth from the House were reported in the press, and those bills helped very much to damage Republican Senators. (Gerrymandering protected the House, but their own ruthless policies at home are quickly killing off and uprooting their elderly and ignorant voters, so I expect all of them to be weaker next time.)
It seems to me that all of this hinges on a Howard Dean-style 400 district power play against House Republicans, where every Republican Member of Congress has to run against someone on the November ballot. I have yet to see mention of that plan and do not expect to see it until this time next year, but it will happen...
Or we're going to have to do it for them.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)But you, unlike many here, have faith that there is a plan.
I have that faith because I am willing to recognize the pattern that has been evident since 2010.
