Obama made a goof?

[BeFree]

OMG!

According to some, he did. And boy, are they harping on it. Harping as if they expected him to be perfect. Harping on it as if their world was gonna crash because he made a goof.

Heh

President Obama, it is true, has not made many mistakes. But he's not the Messiah or some other perfect person; he's gonna make mistakes.

Folks need to quit going around like chicken little crying the 'sky is falling' every time he goofs.

Thank you.

[jkshaw]

1. What was the goof?

[AntiFascist]

2. Only when the sky falls on US...

and I'd wager that it wasn't a goof.

[boppers]

3. There's a variety.

There's "Goofs", there's "miscalculations", there's "Fuckups", there's "critical errors", a whole range of things.

Some deserve more attention than others.

[PearliePoo2]

4. Ya know...you just tossed this out there...

and you didn't mention what the supposed "GOOF" was.
Are you for real?

[BeFree]

5. According to some, he did... as stated in the OP

I don't think he goofed. I think it was a smart political decision.

And for that I've been told to STFU. For real.

[PearliePoo2]

6. Maybe I'm just too dense.........

but I don't get what you're saying.
You mentioned "Obama goof" and yet, you decline to say what it is.
After thinking about this (and reading your responses to people questioning you)
......I think you're full of shit......

[Blarch]

20. Yep me to.

Called name, after name.

[Creideiki]

42. Yeah. You're so oppressed.

[Creideiki]

41. I love your username.

So by "BeFree" you mean you should be free, but other people shouldn't.

How...compassionate of you.

Please don't STFU. It's easier to see bigotry for what it is when it's in the open. Sort of like a Klan march through Skokie.

[BeFree]

9. Y'know

It just occurred to me that some DUers may not know about the 'goof' to which I referred.

It was the choice of Warren to say a prayer at Obama's inauguration.

Here is why I think it was a wise political move, and not a goof, or mistake.

Warren represents millions of American's religious views. Millions. And those millions are 'on the other side' of the political spectrum. Obama has promised to reach out to all Americans and include them in 'things'. And Warren, as the titular leader of those 'others' was a smart choice.

Also, by picking Warren, the false idea that Obama is a Muslim will be negated. Imagine the opposite: were Warren to refuse the invitation on the grounds that Obama is a Muslim, the lie would grow.

As it is, Warren's approval and recognition of Obama as the duly elected president is honoring Obama more than almost any other approval from the 'other side' could.

There are some here who reasonably view the choice of Warren as a goof, or mistake.

My Op is an attempt to get them to understand that while they may reasonably view the choice as a mistake, it is kinda whacked for them to keep harping on it.

[Vanje]

47. Whos harping?

......

it is kinda whacked for them to keep harping on it.

You started this thread.
Whos harping ?

[BeFree]

51. Who's harping?

Alright, you have got to be kidding me.

From the day after the election people have been harping on every little thing Obama has done.
I like to harp on the BIG things, like the wars, and the economy.

[Vanje]

54. ?????

I like to harp on the BIG things, like the wars, and the economy.

and thats why you started this thread?

[NJmaverick]

7. Obama didn't make a "goof" he did the right thing

he's willing to suffer the slings and arrows of extremists that are not willing to work toward causes bigger than themselves.

[JoFerret]

28. Is he suffering

for our sins?

[BeFree]

29. Aha!

The Messiah complex rears its ugly head!

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Captain Hilts]

8. Let's see, he's turned on FISA, campaign finance, DC gun ban, and on his gay, Jewish and Catholic

supporters.

[noamnety]

10. and women.

oh, and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

A "goof" is when you accidentally put on one brown shoe and one black. When you do things deliberately, it's not so much a goof as premeditated action.

[Captain Hilts]

11. YES! Women - and scientists...Michael J. Fox and people that would benefit from stem cell research.

[BeFree]

25. Another example

Of how wacky some folks are letting this issue make them.

Following your ideas to its illogical conclusion, one would begin to think Obama is against everybody but white males.

[Captain Hilts]

38. No, you're "wacky." So there! nt

[Liberal Veteran]

12. Let's be honest. Even if you add up the numbers of those in the "I'm offended" category...

...the vast majority of people aren't really in "I feel that Obama was a huge mistake and he stabbed us all in the back" category.

The group that seems to be the most up in arms at the moment is the GLBT community and even that is fractured between the "How dare he spit in our faces" group and the "Not a good choice, but hardly something I'm willing to wash my hands of Obama over" group.

[Captain Hilts]

13. I thought only Republicans had that "I got mine" attitude. Live and learn. nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

18. Your "personal" feelings aren't borne out by the facts. But, don't let

that interfere with your self-indulgent bashfest. Proceed....

[Captain Hilts]

39. Protecting the interests of others is "self-indulgent?" Live and learn. nt

[snowbear]

14. There are lame threads, and then there are =LAME= threads....

.
.

And I hate to tell you where this one falls BF... but I wouldn't look for it on the "best threads" page anytime soon..

[Vanje]

48. This thread is actually 3/5ths there already.

Theres just no accounting for it.

[Maven]

15. You're finally going on ignore.

Your hypocrisy and willful ignorance show no sign of abating anytime soon.

[snowbear]

16. Just since I dissed this thread, another windbag rated it up...

.
.

Freeps not only love rating up anything that disses our next president, but dayum are they BUTT UGLY!

... And they have bad breath too.


Freeps love to recommend threads that DISS Obama

[BeFree]

22. What grade are you in?

You sound like you just came in off the school yard play field, talking trash.
Hardly one intelligent sentence in your whole spiel.

About what I've come to expect from the Obama bashers, tho.

[pecwae]

23. This is not about Obama

despite what the post states.

[BeFree]

24. That's right

It is about senseless attacks by folks who have nothing better to do, it seems.

After all, Obama's stance on the war on the Afghan people, the surge in Iraq, and his economic measures are far more important than who says a prayer for him. Don't you think?

[Marrah_G]

30. Back on ignore you go.

Enjoy your daily hero-worship.

:puke:

[BeFree]

31. Ignore is for wussies

Hero worship? The man I campaigned for is soon gonna be the president. And I love it that he won.

I'l have plenty to object too as he takes office. Things like the MIC, war and how he handles the economy are more important to me than who prays for him at some ceremonial gathering that is merely a, well, just a ceremony.

C'ya. You'll be back, you can't stay away. No one can for long.

[LatteLibertine]

17. Obama's choice of Warren

is not going to have a profound far reaching unifying effect. It will do little besides alienate some of PE Obama's supporters. He's legitimizing a bigot who actively spreads misinformation and practices discrimination.

I voted for Obama and I support him, however I am not going to quietly shuffle behind him on every decision he makes when I find it grossly offensive.

People should follow their conscience and I don't believe in quietly tolerating wrong doing or those that practice such things. I'll never willingly support or keep company with a person who vilifies and dehumanizes gay people. Not now, not ever. If that makes me an extremist, then so be it.

Gay people are not wicked merely for being gay. They do not need to be cured of being homosexual and their relationships are not like pedophilia or child molestation.

[PurityOfEssence]

19. Thou shalt not question

Besides just being bigoted against religion, I have always been quite wary of personality cults, and ESPECIALLY ones that are largely unfounded.

People are frustrated after having been whomped on by a seemingly unshakable conservative power bloc for the past almost thirty years, and they want to imprint all of their hopes and opinions on this very, very blank slate. Since there is virtually nothing to sustain belief in this man's good intentions other than his word, people are extremely defensive when accosted with unpleasant developments.

My recurring problem with this movement is the religious flavor of it, and at its very heart is a faith and belief in something for which there is effectively no proof. When confronting someone with religious belief about the lack of proof of their contentions, one of the reasons they react so vehemently is a secret, nagging fear that they might be wrong. To the truly faithful, all dissent must be overwhelmed to stamp out any doubt that could weaken the resolve of their fellow believers.

You're right: the Warren choice doesn't gain much of anything. The chorusing acolytes who hail this as yet another glorious act of strategic genius of the champion are just plain silly. Apparently, we've learned nothing from Bill Clinton, and we think that sucking up to the reactionaries will somehow win them over. It didn't work for Clinton, and unless Mr. Obama's mystique is unimaginable, I don't see it working here.

The repeated willingness with which allies are jettisoned for tactical gain is alarming enough, but the big question is what, if anything, will be an issue where ground will be stood.

What I see is the establishment of religion, and I don't like it.

[BeFree]

21. Religion?

The guy has political credibility, having risen from nowhere to the pinnacle of political power.

And all you can do is dis him and his followers, like me, who are at least willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And infer we are going religious. That's whacked. I for one have criticized Obama, but this Warren stuff is nada.

Nobody has been "jettisoned" "thrown under the bus" or "had a stake driven through their hearts"
Calm down. Take a look around and see that nothing is any different than it was a month ago except that some folks are more wacky, like with your "establishment of religion" bullshit.

[LaydeeBug]

37. should "political credibility" be an excuse to usher in a religious OPPRESSOR?

of. fucking. course. not.

[PurityOfEssence]

49. He has an ability to get elected; that doesn't mean he has any ability to lead

He's spent his career ducking the hard questions and being on both sides of issues. He takes the path of least resistance and cynically uses power blocs (ESPECIALLY religion, as he did in a most ugly way in South Carolina) to go with the flow and get big chunks of support wholesale.

Personally, if I was a steadfast leader with a strong desire to be effective, I wouldn't resign my Senate seat, I'd resign from committees and spend most of my time on the transition, but I'D SHOW UP TO VOTE AND HAVE MY VOICE HEARD AND FELT. Of course, that would mean having to take a stand on the Auto bailout, and taking a stand just sort of "isn't his thing".

We shall see how he performs, and I hope I'm wrong; we need a strong executive who isn't looking over his shoulder and currying favor with every breath, and we need one who is more proud of making clear stands than of being cagy. Anybody who's proud of being a blank slate upon whom people can write their varied beliefs is very dangerous in my book; that's the kind of thing one would expect to hear from a con-artist. That's the joy of getting away with something. In the most charitable way of looking at it, it's a facile reveling in popularity, not a desire to affect change.

Regardless what happens, MANY people are going to be VERY disappointed in this man; it's literally inevitable: he's gotten people to believe he's for totally contradictory things. Supposedly, he's for meaningful health care reform, but it's still at the behest of Medicine, Inc. He's supposedly anti-war, but we're going to spill our blood and treasure with no real plan in Afghanistan. He's going to have to make some hard decisions on FISA. He's going to have to make good on his theocratic promise to radically increase funding to the unconstitutional Faith Based organizations and piss people like me off or piss off the religionists by not doing so. Offshore drilling, coal-fired power, nuclear energy and other environmental disasters seemingly have his approval, yet many think he's some kind of Johnny Appleseed. People will be upset either way. Lots of people will, and this is big news: the dynamic so far has been of extraordinary upsides, with dissimilar people falling love with him UNCONDITIONALLY. People disliking him will be BIG NEWS, simply because it hasn't been seen that much yet.

What's worse is that his whole schtick is "hope" and "change" and joyous newness and sweetness and light, and THAT IS SIMPLY NOT SUSTAINABLE. You may think I'm a spoilsport, but there are killjoys out there who put me to shame, and the feeling of betrayal when Mr. Beauteousness fails is going to be expressed in resounding carping.

Those who want to suck pity for being betrayed are going to get a great big "we warned you" from many of us who didn't want to buy the snake oil.

Fair's fair, though, and it looks like his labor policy and science policy are on the right track. Hopefully he'll chart these treacherous waters well, but this IS NEW TO HIM. Now, he not only has to make a stand, he has to make a lot of them and he has to be clear about them. Most of them, when made, will engender cries of deception and insults that he misled people about where he really stood. It'll be interesting to see how he handles it, BECAUSE THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT HE DID. He was supposed to be "new" and "different" and "honest", whereas this dynamic smacks of classic, old and cynical politics right off the rack. Seeing the champion of truth and light behaving as a typical ward-heeling machine politician may excite some who have a serf mentality and love people strongarming their way through life, but it doesn't sit well with the proffered image of the man.

Religion is my big issue, but it's not my biggest problem with this man. My biggest problem is that he's played the evasive "all things to all people" bullshit better than the grand dame of the ploy herself, Hillary Clinton, ever did. What we need now is anything but that.

One can't and shoudn't be totally inclusive; learn something from conservatives: some people are WRONG and shouldn't be all that accomodated. Lincoln put it best: you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but...

[BeFree]

52. Gawd

I am glad I am not that cynical.
Obviously you want a utopian president. You will be disappointed. You are already.

Obama said that he needs us to change things. Did you hear that?
He needs us to change things.

All you have done is harp on the past and compare the future, which you can't see, to the past. Myopic much? How the hell does anyone get elected to the presidency? He appeals to the majority or steals the election. That's it.

Well, he may not have stole the election but he did appeal to the majority. And that majority used to be awfully racist bigots, but now, not so much. He has shown he can motivate people, motivate them to forget the past, look to the future and work for change.

That was his message, that is his ideal and that's all we have to go on. Now, get to work, damnit. Quit sitting around moaning and groaning and get with the program!

We. We are going to change things. Not just Obama, Us.

[biopowertoday]

26. Giving a bigot the national stage is a major mistake and wise

leaders admit to mistakes. I am waiting for PE Obama to admit that Warren was the wrong choice.

[BeFree]

27. One

Warren was already on the national stage. He's the titular head of the fundies. The fundies can't just be ignored. They're here and they're strange.

Two: there are some sound political reasons for having Warren give his approval of the Obama presidency. Sure, there may have been someone better to do so, but a major mistake? Nah.

[biopowertoday]

32. Him being on the national stage does not justify Obama giving

him the national stage on the day for ALL Americans! ITs wrong!
and two--it IS a major mistake. No two ways about it.

[BeFree]

53. You are wrong

Get over it.

Most Americans, since your point is about a day for All Americans, will be fine with Warren on stage.
Sad, but true. Yours is a minority stance. Pretty much infinitesimal. Get over it.

Ya know, I hate to use that term. It was the same term told me as I fought to make sure people knew Bush stole the election. But here, it fits. What's a bigger item? The stolen elections or Warren on stage. Get over it.

[gollygee]

33. There are "goofs", which are mistakes, and then there are bad decisions

And if you're talking about Warren, then it's a bad decision, not a "goof".

[Mass]

34. And you thought necessary to share this piece of wisdom with all?

Gosh, sometimes I think whether DU is invaded by 3rd graders.\nt

[LaydeeBug]

35. I don't epect perfection, it's just that I won't tolerate OPPRESSION. nt

This is a LOT more than a fucking 'goof'.

[Balderdash]

40. Are you kidding me? Another STFU thread.

We're not going to shut up, get over it.

Obama is my President too, I voted for him and I support him.
Rick Warren is a mistake, at best and I'm hoping that there
is no worse case.

[Lex]

44. I'm going to file this OP under "better late than never."

nt

[NWHarkness]

45. Thanks for letting us know how you feel!

We might not have figured it out from the dozens of posts you've already made on the subject.

[Aleric]

46. Move On™, nothing to see here.

Folks need to quit going around like chicken little crying the 'sky is falling' every time he goofs.

I am really sick and tired of you Move On™ers always whining about Obama being criticized. Are we supposed to ignore every mistake no matter how big? Have we adopted the GOP's 11th commandment - "Thou shalt not speak ill of a democrat"? Why are we even here then? We might was well all shut up and go home until 2012 and wait for the DNC to tell us who to vote for.

If you want to Move On™ then, by all means Move On™. The rest of us are going to hammer out these problems.

[Runcible Spoon]

50. your opinion is New and Interesting.

Thank you for gracing DU with a fresh perspective. We "harpers" will now go mum in awestruck respect for your Brilliant Pontification.

Oh wait...

[mtnester]

55. And look, you made a poo

click

[Onlooker]

56. So, you favor the same approach as the Bush supporters?

For about 6 of his 8 years, every time Bush did something stupid, his rabid supporters would launch scathing attacks against his critics. I don't think that was a good idea. When Obama does wrong, his supporters should speak up. When he does right, his supporters should also speak up.