My apologies to the readers of this forum who attacked Obama . . . you were right.

[mistertrickster]

I was wrong.

I thought his refusal to follow through on promises to repeal DADT and establish civil unions was his just weighing options and picking his battles, but seeing him retreat and pander to the right-wing on everything else too, I can see now it's a pattern--a pattern of avoiding the fight that needs to be fought.

We need to unleash everything we've got on this President we worked so hard to elect.

He OWES us.

Yours in solidarity,

Mr. T.

[jonnyblitz]

1. like somebody else said, we GLBTers were the canary in the

coal mine! :hi:

[mistertrickster]

2. Yup. Who knew that a guy who sounded so liberal could be so DLC? nt

[jonnyblitz]

5. the immediate adulation for somebody new on the scene

based on pretty much nothing but eloquent speechs gave me pause and made me look closely at him from the beginning. what has transpired doesn't surprise me although i didn't think he would be quite this brazenly awful.

[Captain Hilts]

16. I didn't 'get' it then and I don't 'get' it now. nt

[QC]

27. The speeches always seemed very contrived to me. n/y

[jonnyblitz]

29. i never really thought they were all that either but others do. I

have never listened to a full speech of his because he goes "aaaaah" every three words which gets on my nerves.I wanna yell SPIT IT OUT! he plods through speechs.

[QC]

31. His speaking style always seemed very affected to me.

I used to listen to him and wonder where he picked up that down home Southern preacher style: On Waikiki? At his fancy prep school? At Columbia?

[jonnyblitz]

39. oh i am sure he got that preacher style at YALE.

:crazy: :rofl:

Ive never heard him do the preacher thing but i don't listen to his speeches much.

[QC]

57. Oh, it's the preacher deal that made people get all swoony.

Like I said, I always figured it was contrived, so it turned me off more than anything.

Some people can do it for real, Jesse Jackson being but one example, and it's very powerful, but Obama playing the preacher about as fake to me as one of my old professors, a painfully white guy from Princeton who claimed to be an authentic Mississippi Delta blue harmonica player.

Sure, buddy, whatever keeps you busy until it's time for lunch at the club.

[jonnyblitz]

58. I rarely listen to his speechs , especially during the primary.

his supporters here turned me off so bad tp him i had no interest in hearing what he had to say.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

63. I think he's a great speaker...

It's a shame that he doesn't back up his words with actions

[ruggerson]

41. You didn't have them on loud enough

n/t

[QC]

56. Well, that and I had not partaken of the sacrement before listening.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Its not even DLC

Its hard right.

This particular issue is really egregious. THere are many reasonable republicans who are more liberal on this issue than Obama has shown to be.

[WhiteTara]

34. Believe nothing that you hear and only

half of what you see, my mama used to say. I watched him on the stage with all the money guys sitting behind him. Never forget that all politics are personal and when one becomes a politician, they are in it for themselves...no matter what they say.

[jonnyblitz]

42. i completely agree with what you say in your subject line.

it's a variation of "actions speak louder than words".

[Smarmie Doofus]

9. I dunno... a lot of unionized teachers were chirping too. nt

[jonnyblitz]

11. I am glad. they should be chirping considering what he wants

to do with education.

[Smarmie Doofus]

22. They are. The Education forum is the only place on this entire site....

... where President Transformational is less popular than he is here.

But I think DU as a whole is starting to come around now.

[jonnyblitz]

28. i should look at the forum. I made one mild comment in the

Obama forum and was immediately BANNED from it. :o

[racaulk]

3. Thank you for this.

It's a shame that the unrecs are coming in on this, but I guess people don't like to admit (or even realize) that they may have been wrong.

But thank you for taking the time to say this.

Solidarity!

:pals:

[laughingliberal]

4. Is never fun to realize you've been played. I rec'd for you nt

[racaulk]

6. Agreed, and thank you.

:hi:

[MNBrewer]

7. Rec

[queerart]

8. REC (nt)

[mediaman007]

10. That was the knock on Obama before he was nominated. Political

observers said that he compromises too quickly. It was obvious that he wanted a health bill, but didn't want to get his hands dirty.

[NMMNG]

12. Thank you

Though while many like to claim we were "attacking" him, we were merely putting forth criticisms. He's lived down to our expectations of him in every way.

Of course we're used to being called everything in the book, being bullied, being told to "stop ruining it all for the Dems", and so on. I can't say I'm glad others are now experiencing the same, but maybe now that they are they'll understand how we feel when it happens again. And it will....

[QC]

14. The brazen, cynical triangulation of the McClurkin fiasco tipped me off

that Obama was a grifter. From then on I could only watch with a combination of amusement and worry as he became this bizarre combination of fantasy best friend and plaster saint.

[jonnyblitz]

33. that's when I learned how virulently nasty many of his hardcore

DU supporters were and what they really thought of us gays once we angered them with our criticisms of their man. very eye opening. people were proclaiming they weren't going to support our cause anymore because we were criticizing Obama and being mean to them. "you bash obama so no rights for you"

[QC]

35. That was the ugliest time I have seen in eight years on this site.

Bar none. No other squabble here could touch it, and it set the tone for the new DU, a tone that is with us still. I really think this community changed for good when all that happened.

[Kalun D]

38. FIGHT

It was harsh because it was a fight to keep the lid on a corporate contrived fantasy.

After only one year Obama has been exposed as a fraud.

He won't win 2012 unless they use the cheating vote machines.

[jonnyblitz]

44. it seems pretty bad now with the apologists vs the critics.

and it isn't letting up.

[QC]

54. We are now seeing a backlash against more than two years of incessant bullying.

People have finally gotten fed up with being browbeaten and shouted at.

It's like that scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie finally has enough and beats the crap out of the school bully.

[jonnyblitz]

59. the backlash is an interesting thing to behold. I love this thread.

:o

[QC]

61. It's funny, but now that people are once again free to say what they have been thinking

for the past two years, they just can't stop!

[jonnyblitz]

64. some of them are surprising me. nt

[jonnyblitz]

48. let me also add that i agree with what you said about it setting the

tone that is with us still and how it caused the community to change for ever.

[Kalun D]

37. DNC

insiders

More than likely, I still see some of them around.

When it gets this bad and someone still gives blind support, there's probably an agenda.

[BR_Parkway]

49. Yeah, I think I put more people on ignore that week than all of the primaries

and Prop 8 combined.

[jonnyblitz]

60. I only use PM ignore so i don't get hate mail. I am too nosey

to see what these assholes are going on about to put them on complete ignore. i can understand how the shit they are spewing can sap your spirit, though. :hi:

[liberalmuse]

15. There are haters here who don't deserve an apology.

Many have had legitimate criticisms, but there are also quite a few people who've been posting anti-Obama shit every day, several times a day for several months. They get nothing from me. However, there are those who have legitimate criticisms and I apologize to them and only them. The professional haters can go fuck themselves.

[Toasterlad]

26. So...In Order To Deserve an Apology, You Can't Have Posted Previously What Everyone's Posting NOW

That Obama's a big fucking liar.

Only the people who are just NOW realizing that Obama's a liar deserve an apology.

You're a logical being.

[customerserviceguy]

17. Steel yourself for the inevitable

There will be all kinds of noise in two years about, "well, when Obama doesn't have to face re-election, then we'll really get what we want from him."

This whole last year feels like 1977. After eight years of Nixon and Ford, we were ready to believe that anybody other than a Repuke would provide leadership to this country, and we got Jimmy Carter. Like President Obama, his heart may be in the right place, but both men were out of their league in dealing with the forces of lobbyists and Congress.

[mistertrickster]

30. I hear you, but those folks are deluding themselves to think O can win re-election. nt

[customerserviceguy]

36. It will all come down to the state of the economy

in October, 2012. If the tide is seen to be turning, President Obama will get the credit. If not, he'll get the blame. Even if we replace him as the nominee, the Democratic candidate will have an impossible job to hold the White House if the economy is still seen as being in the toilet.

Rethuglican businesspeople are in charge of making sure that not enough people get hired in the next couple of years. They ultimately control all of politics this way.

[Betty Karlson]

50. I respectfully diagree.

Someone who willfully leaves the gay people as second class citizens, in spite of his promises to the contrary, does not have his heart in the right place. (Even if he probably does have one.)

[customerserviceguy]

53. Agreed, his heart is not in the right place

But there are those here who still believe it, even though his actions do not match up with his words. My point is that even if he did think and believe that we're all equal, and that war should be abolished, and that economic misery should be lifted, he really is way too much of an amateur to deal with the forces arrayed against those views in Congress and the lobbying corps.

[Betty Karlson]

65. Maybe Mrs Clinton was right:

the presidency really does not allow for on-the-job training.

[noamnety]

18. Thank you

and I'm sorry - I was already a cynic but I feel bad for people who are now dealing with disillusionment. In many ways that's harder to come to terms with.

[Hydra]

19. As others have said

We're not "attacking," although we have every reason to. We're asking him what he's really about.

Was it all a lie? Or was he simply playing us? Or can he simply not do what he promised in the framework we have?

We have questions. We're told to shut up and obey. Some of us are following the order, and even helping enforce the order.

I think the order is BS. If we're not in charge, then why are we paying his salary? Why are we paying Congress? Let the Corps do it.

[waiting for hope]

20. I saw this type of foot dancing

that he has been doing since the primaries, and I didn't like it then and I don't care for it now. We really needed a LEADER and what we got was a puppet of the corporations. Problem is, most people don't see that our elected officials do not work for us and in three years, another lackey that will play by their rules will be allowed in.

[Kalun D]

21. Shell Game

Obama is not playing chess, he's playing a shell game.

He's a grifter, a flim-flam man, and we're the dupes.

You really have to look back at the very start and tell yourself. If the corporate TV gives you such good coverage then maybe you're owned by the corps that own the TV.

I knew the first couple of months when all the promises went right out the window. Exact opposite of what he promised. The big giveaway to the bankers. And install the same criminal bankers that caused the problem in the positions of power to control banking oversite.

Keeping Gates at defense.
Not closing Gitmo.
Keeping the patriot Act
Keeping signing statements
Closed door meetings with drug companies.
etc etc

It's business as usual in DC, at the expense of the people.

IMHO he's worse than Clinton. At least Clinton balanced the budget which means less of your tax money goes to interest. Now we've got deficit worse than the bush boy.

[Smarmie Doofus]

24. And two and a half wars going at the same time.

The half being the ratcheting up of the propaganda against Iran.


Did you know they *invaded* Iraq and took over an oil well yesterday! Yeah. OK.

How much longer must we take these Iranian provocations.... HOW MUCH LONGER !!!!

It would serve a lot of domestic agendas if the economy... if you can even call it that anymore.... could be gotten off the front page right about now.

>>>>>>IMHO he's worse than Clinton. At least Clinton balanced the budget which means less of your tax money goes to interest. Now we've got deficit worse than the bush boy.>>>>>

[mitchtv]

23. Thanks, it wasn't fun. We lost a lot of good members

I said " watch out when he disappoints them , all hell will break loose". Just another pol was my diagnosis.

[Toasterlad]

25. It's Different When It's An Issue YOU Care About, Isn't It?

[mistertrickster]

32. Well, yeah . . . in the sense that they are all important to me, but I thought that O

was "pacing" himself.

Now it seems he isn't ready to go to the mat on anything.

[mistertrickster]

52. In fact, now that I think about it, repealing DADT would be a fairly easy "win" for Obama

compared to, say, health care reform or cap-and-trade.

It would not only be the right thing to do and fufillment of a campaign promise, it would not only be an important symbolic gesture to show full civil rights for all sexual orientation is on its way, it would be a clear "thank you" to his base and show that he is indeed NOT Bush.

But no, he couldn't even summon the will to do that.

Very demoralizing, isn't it.

[ruggerson]

40. You don't become a transformative President through "bi-partisanship"

You become one by being a strong partisan and fighting like hell for your principles.

[valerief]

43. I never bought the "he can't do everything at once" crap. And the "chess move" baloney

drove me crazy. And don't even talk about "sausage-making!"

What big stuff has he gotten done for working Americans? Only bad things.

I must admit, I was never infatuated with him, so I'm not as heartbroken as others. But we're still shoveling shit against the tide and the shit's winning.

[readmoreoften]

45. Thanks, Mister T. No hard feelings!

:hi:

[RetiredTrotskyite]

46. Absolutely...

no hard feelings. As long as you come to the realisation that is what counts.

[jonnyblitz]

47. this is a great thread to read through, glad you started it.

:hi:

[TexasObserver]

51. Recommend

[La Lioness Priyanka]

55. i dont think i have ever attacked him.i have criticized him and other dem leaders plenty

for being cowards

[newtothegame]

62. No, it's still part of the intergalactic chess game he plays in the cosmos. You'll see. n/t