Obama is acting EXACTLY as he said he would, why such drama?

[debbierlus]

Frankly, Obama was FAR from my first choice, however, I lined up and helped get him elected. I never had a honeymoon or star struck phase with Obama because, frankly, he didn't really represent the direction I wanted government to take. He doesn't support a single payer health care system, he is for limited off-shore drilling & buys into the myth of clean coal technology. He wasn't a vocal advocate for changing our criminal system. He didn't put out any revolutionary ideas (simple things such as using hemp as a crop for sustainable fuel). He ran a very mythical -in the middle campaign- a phrase I think is bs because when you poll Americans on their views of supposedly 'left' policy ideas, Americans are VERY much to the left. The right has painted common sense and fairness as a crazy view and made the word 'liberal' a connotation of filth. And, many people (even those who hold the same BELIEFS as the 'crazy left' talk about the progressive wing of the democratic party as some fringe element. And, they repeat the rights very own talking points.

Imo, Obama is acting exactly as he said he would...so why the surprise? Lieberman as chair of Homeland Security. Reid & Pelosi now retain their leadership seats in Congress. There is no real talk of Bush accountability.

Don't get me wrong. Obama is a dramatic improvement over Bush. But, he ran on the premise of saving the broken corporate system (his acquiesence & support of the disastrous bailout told that story, and it wasn't because of the political risk from the people that held him back on doing the right thing there; it was retaining the goodwill of the corporate press & true powers that be that did). That system needs to fall, and America needs to rebuild something new. Big pharm & HMO profits need to wacked at the knees and brought down, not be the foundation of a new system (I live in MA, & the new health INSURANCE program that the national one will be modeled after is two years away from financial insolvency). It wasn't Obama's fault, however, ANYONE trying to win the position of the Presidency in this climate has no choice but to make such devastating concessions. Otherwise, they wouldn't ever be allowed to rule by the corporate puppet masters. Obama did a great job given the circumstances and the rules of the game. However, the circumstances and rules of the game still SUCK.

Our job didn't end with the election of Obama. Our job has just begun. We need to hold OUR party responsible for representing the people. Obama is not a rockstar and we are not groupies. We are activists. And, as such, we have to do the rough work of speaking out when the dems cave to corporate power. Never forget, Joe Biden voted for the bankruptcy bill, a horrendous and unethical piece of shit legislation with the intent to make people slaves to the corporate loan system. Obama decried progressive activists in their work to stop Alito from obtaining the bench and filibuster the nomination. These are realities.

I am sure I will be flamed and pegged as anti-Obama. I am not. He received hundreds of dollars in donations from me, and I did phone calls for him. I did thing knowing all the above to be true, and it wasn't easy. However, once I accepted that change happens slow and that my progressive shangrala is a dream for the future, I was able to see that this is the man who is the leader for the reality of now. It is up to me, and all progressive dems like me, to form that future for ourselves.

[bdamomma]

1. I am willing to give the man a chance.

but then again, our job is not done. Thanks debbierlus.

[iamthebandfanman]

2. our job is never 'done'

make no mistake about that.
so long as progressive/liberal ideals arent being celebrated and talked about...our work is NEVER done.

politics doesnt end after an election... unfortunately ;)

[Forkboy]

6. I think we should accept that we're almost always going to be behind the 8 ball on this.

Because we believe in fairness, for the most part we extend that to those we disagree with. They don't even make believe that they care about fairness, so any tactic goes. For us we're always trying to walk that fine line between going after them, but doing so fairly. It's our blessing and our curse, but if we give up on it and become like them we give up the very thing that we're fighting them for in the first place. :)

[iamthebandfanman]

14. fairness would imply justice

and unless justice is served to those who didnt play fair(ie didnt do what was in the best interest of the entire country, just themselves) then i see no reason to walk a fine line...
i agree that we need to govern from the middle, but there must be some sort of punishment for not doing so... or else whats to stop it from happening again?

either we believe in fair government or we dont.

either way we should stop any extremism from ever taking complete power...

but thats not to say that the base of both partys shouldnt be entitled to some candy for getting them into power... you can infact give some things to the base and still remain fair.
theres nothing wrong with give and take.

the only problem is, will they give or just continue to take?

youve got the democrats who NEVER give to their base, and then you have the republicans who GIVE EVERYTHING to their base.
i dont think progressives are asking for the latter...we just want a chance to be heard and our ideals actually considered.

youd be hard pressed to find any administration that openly did things for the progressive/liberal sect of the party.... now on the right, thats a different story all together...their problem is they give to much.

[99th_Monkey]

15. Are these Nervous Nellys the same ones who were second guessing Obama's historic campaign

for the WH, which resulted in his landslide victory? me wonders.

[EFerrari]

3. Some people ARE groupies and that's fine.

It must be nice to have someone to admire that much in the White House for a change.

[xultar]

4. People bought into the impression they had instead of the truth. PURE and SIMPLE.

Obama is not progressive, he isn't liberal, in fact he is lightly more to the right than Hillary Clinton.

That's o.k. with me cuz I knew the shit from the start and it was out there and plain as fuckin day for everyone to see but some chose not to.

I like both Obama and Hillary and Biden was my number one! Hillary my 2 and Obama my 3 and I've got them all! I'm happy either fucking way.

[Forkboy]

11. I think people can be guilty of projecting qualities we see in ourselves onto those we like.

I'm with you. Obama isn't a surprise at all. His record was right there for all to see, and so far he's stayed true to form.

But sometimes people look at someone and want to believe in them so much that we transfer our beliefs about ourselves (real or imagined) onto them. It's just human nature to want those we like to be like us, and it's hard, even for me, who goes out of his way to be asocial most times, to recognize that's what we're doing.

I know people here hate the term "cult" in any form, but there is a cult of personality thing that plays into any campaign. And Obama does have a lot of charisma to spare, no doubt. I don't see people who do this as bad unless it becomes the over riding factor in their choice. And we get to see that here on DU quite a bit. :)

[EFerrari]

16. Damn! You should have bought lottery tickets.

:)

[Autumn]

5. Happy to recommend ,

we are all we have. If we want it done we will have to do our part.

[bdamomma]

8. we need to show this Congress and the next Congress.

that we will be on their backs.

[tblue]

7. I agree 100%. Obama is a good and decent man, but

he is a centrist who wants to include in his decisions entities that are directly responsible for the mess our country is in. He has not shown the kind of courage that I think is really needed in standing up to powerful corporate and even political interests. Not yet anyway.

That being said, I don't think of Obama as the lesser of two evils because McCain/Palin would have only compounded our nation's problems, and Obama will undoubtedly make some kind of turnaround, and that's nothing to sneeze at. Where we have been completely invisible to and unheard by Republicans, at least Obama has in the past fought for working people and others in need.

I don't expect all our dreams for change to come true, but I hold open the possibility that Obama could surprise us and make at least some of the systemic changes many of us envision. I'm hopeful, but my expectations are seriously in check.

[ben_meyers]

9. Actually, when you think about it, so did Reagan, Bush1 and

Jr. And yet people are surprised when that happens.

[Two Americas]

10. no question

I think many people here are hearing things as "criticism of Obama" in the sense of some sort of "disloyalty" or other destructive thing - or they are claiming to - that is not actually that at all, nor is it "surprise" that people are expressing.

I think there are those who want the administration to move to the right, but will not say that openly. Ridiculing and attacking the left is a covert way to advance that agenda.

[IndianaJones]

12. I love what he is doing so far. nt.

[backscatter712]

13. I never did agree on all the issues with Obama.

Granted, the differences are small. I agree with him on most of the issues, and many of the disagreements are in terms of how to approach an issue, rather than the underlying goal.

Still, my first choice on the issues was Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich's problem is that he just couldn't make the sale to the vast majority of Americans.

Obama can and did. He made that sale. Rather than just sticking his finger in the political wind and going with what's popular, or doing what Bush does and sticking up his middle finger, Obama figures out what the right thing to do is, then he uses his skills and those of his staff to sell the right thing to us. That's what some people call "leadership."

He happens to be the smartest guy on the stage - I'm sick of stupid in the White House, so I voted for the guy who was the editor of the Harvard Law Review.

On top of that, I voted for Obama because he is a compassionate person. I'm sick of sociopaths in the White House - I want someone who's kind and decent. I get that vibe from Obama just from watching how he interacts with his family, from how he interacts with regular people including soldier's families, the disabled, etc. Just little acts of kindness here and there sell me on him.

We're never going to agree on everything, but I think we'll be just fine with Obama as President.

[FrenchieCat]

17. Great OP BUT due to some of what You stated as fact, that is actually fictional....

It leads me to question how much you actually know about Barack Obama.

You stated....."He doesn't support a single payer health care system, he is for limited off-shore drilling & buys into the myth of clean coal technology. He wasn't a vocal advocate for changing our criminal system."

Actually Obama did support a single payer health care system...but realizes that scrapping what we have and starting from scratch would never pass....nor can it be afforded at this time. He does, however, believe that there is a possibility of walking it backwards towards one though.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/08/19/obama-touts-single-payer-system/

As for off-shore drilling...why do you think he changed that stance mid-election in August, in where he was against Offshore drilling until it became an issue? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25974097/

And why would he look to reverse Bush's executive order of opening offshore drilling, if he was so for it? http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/11/10/obama-plans-to-undo-bush-rules-on-oil-drilling-on-public-lands-among-others/


And I ask.....Is Clean Coal Technology really a myth, or a yet to be discovered science? Perhaps your bias is showing here.

If our scientific community has been so successful in devising clean coal technologies, then why CO2 emissions from burning of coal still remain a thorny issue? Well, that is mainly due to the prohibitive cost of implementing methods for the capture/storing of CO2. Lack of will from the industrial nation’s part is also partly responsible for the non-solving of this issue, even though government funded research on the finding reliable technologies are now pursued actively in countries like US, Russia, and the EU. For example, US’ FutureGen, a public-private partnership project, and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) are a couple of clean coal initiatives under development today.
http://www.physicspost.com/science-article-240.html

As for changing our criminal system, perhaps it is not enough for you, but it is my understanding that Barack Obama had done more to change the Criminal Justice system than most of the other candidates we had running for the top spot.

Judge Him by His Laws

People who complain that Barack Obama lacks experience must be unaware of his legislative achievements. One reason these accomplishments are unfamiliar is that the media have not devoted enough attention to Obama's bills and the effort required to pass them, ignoring impressive, hard evidence of his character and ability.
snip
Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped.
snip
Obama had his work cut out for him.
snip
Obama proved persuasive enough that the bill passed both houses of the legislature, the Senate by an incredible 35 to 0. Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping.

Obama didn't stop there. He played a major role in passing many other bills, including the state's first earned-income tax credit to help the working poor and the first ethics and campaign finance law in 25 years (a law a Post story said made Illinois "one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure"). Obama's commitment to ethics continued in the U.S. Senate, where he co-authored the new lobbying reform law that, among its hard-to-sell provisions, requires lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who "bundle" contributions for them.

I recommend this article to be read in full
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/03/AR2008010303303.html

[Cha]

20. Thanks Frenchie for

bringing some facts on this opinion thread.

[LostinVA]

18. Great OP -- happy to be the 5th K&R

[girl gone mad]

19. I knew he wasn't liberal, but I donated and worked for him nonetheless.

I'm not terribly surprised about his decisions so far, though I am annoyed.

The trouble is that he is bringing in all of these old hands from the Clinton era... but Toto, we aren't in the 1990s anymore. This is a brave new world. I wonder if President-Elect Obama understands how much the world has changed, even over just the last two months.

This country was ready for a revolution, and we got a peaceful, orderly one. Obama has so much weight on his shoulders now. If he can't bring real, positive change then I'm afraid we'll have a completely different sort of revolution. 90s style moderate DLC corporate governance ain't gonna cut it in 2009.

[latebloomer]

21. K&R

i completely agree with you. I am not disappointed because this what I expected. It is a huge relief to have him win, and there will be improvement --damn, it's a vast improvement to have a president who can think and speak! Not to mention the historic value of finally having a black president!

But you're right, one doesn't ascend to that level without agreeing to cooperate with the corporate powers that really run things.

[Deja Q]

22. Unfortunately, some celebrities help engender the idea Democrats=Left=Filth

Either in what they do, and/or how they present themselves when supporting their candidate or denouncing the other.

Technically I'm responding to only that portion of your post.