Out of Patience and blaming the President for not passing bills?

[ProSense]

Josh Marshall spotlights this comment from a reader: Out of Patience

Let's put the blame for this lack of action and acomplishment squarely where it belongs: Obama. He has noble intentions of "changing the tone" in Washington, but sometimes high-mindedness is simply naiveté. Enough with the Gandhi-esque s--t - it's time to pass some bills that will make a positive impact in the lives of millions of Americans.

Blaming the President for not passing bills? Where the hell does Congress fit in?

Impatience doesn't mean people are entitled to their own facts. It's time for people to stop pretending President Obama is sitting in Washington picking his nose. His actions are

Protecting millions from poverty

Funding Community Health Centers in more than 30 States

Providing COBRA subsidies of 65 percent for laid off workers

Providing tax credits for millions of Americans (real stories)

Improving the economy:

[liberal N proud]

1. Americans have forgotten their civics lessons

They have listened to too much propaganda and now they just repeat the lies.

[Hekate]

9. The adults weren't paying attention in Civics & their kids are "learning" that the Founders...

... were born-agains who just somehow forgot to mention Jesus in the Constitution.

Civics, like math and science, is just boring and irrelevant. It's much better to be invincibly ignorant.

Hekate

[impik]

2. He did tons of other things. Whatever he can do

by himself - He's doing.

[WhiteTara]

3. let's CALL and BLAME the right people

the republicants. Here are their phone numbers
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

It's really fun and cathartic. Tell them what you really think. Maybe hold back a little, but let them know how gross they are. THEY need to hear it...much more than our President.

[bvar22]

6. The Republicans are irrelevant.

In 2008, the American People gave the Democratic Party:

*The White House

*A Large majority in The House

*A filibuster proof MAJORITY in The Senate

*A HUGE MANDATE for CHANGE.

Don't you think it is pathetic to be whining about "Obstructionist Republicans" and blaming THEM.
The American People MADE them IRRELEVANT.
WE did OUR job!
The ONLY person in America who cares what THEY think is President Obama (or so he says).
The Republicans do NOT deserve a seat at the table.

The Republicans NEVER had these kinds of majorities to pass their agenda.
The REAL problem is INSIDE The Democratic Party.
and unless or until THAT problem is admitted and addressed, it won't be solved.

[WhiteTara]

7. they are not the least bit irrelevant.

They are if not in fact, preceived to be the reason nothing can happen. Let's push back.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

[asdjrocky]

8. +1

[HopeOverFear]

4. Yeah, who the hell do you think you are, Obama?

What makes you think you're so much better than US that you'd think we'd want to be civil in politics? FUCK YOU! If I want to get revenge and be the progressive version of teabaggers, than got dammit, that's MY BUSINESS!!! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!!

:sarcasm:

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[butterfly77]

10. Everyday I hear this garbage about..

how Obama needs to do this or say that when everyone knows why we can't get anything done it is,the Bluedogs who are really republiCONS but everyone likes to pretend that they are being fiscally responsible they are full of shit.

Where in the hell was their fiscalcality (if that is a word) when Bush was in office. It wasn't there because they are really republiCONS and it doesn't matter what Obama says or does they will vote with their party the:RepubliCONS..

Once the healthcare summit begins watch and wait to see which new Bluedog/RepubliCON shows up for the cspan cameras with some nonsense bill or amendment.

Then watch the silly ass media ask the Dems why they can't get anything done and they will begin their bullshit again about how the President needs to say something stronger or in some particular manner.

This little game was played throughout last year.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

14. Excellent Points

I would LOVE to hear more people ask Senators like Landrieu, Bayh, Nelson, Lincoln, et. al why they are so obsessed/focused on "fiscal responsibility" now while most of them did little or nothing (but usually enabled) Bushco and the Republicans' spending habits during the previous 8 years in office. I recall very little hand wringing over "the deficit" and very few demands from any of them for Bushco and the Republicans to explain how their programs were going to be paid for and for them to NOT use measures like reconciliation to ram legislation through over the objections of a recalcitrant minority (in that case, THEIR OWN PARTY!). If not for the numerical advantage that their nominal membership in the Democratic Party brings us, I'd just as well kick them out of the party and let them try to go Republican.

[butterfly77]

17. They don't have to try..

to be republiCONS they are already they like to pretend on certain bills that they are progressive and believe in what most Dems believe in.

When the rubber meets the road they show up with some damn bullshit amendment or something else to slow everything down and get things off track so we can keep talking about it for months.

The bluedogs/republiCONS are throwing any thing they can into the mix so that they can win in the fall.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

22. I say "try" because there must be SOME reason they don't just call themselves Republicans

Why do they try so hard to maintain the illusion that they are a member of the Democratic Party when they could probably fit in just as well in the Republican Party (maybe)?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. I was mad at Obama for not hitting back hard enough when Lincoln and Bayh

whined about "fiscal responsibility" at the Obama-Senate Democrats meeting last week.

I keep asking this question over and over again--and hoping that the Democratic and liberal pundits would raise the issue:

Why is it that these so-called Blue Dog/DLC Democrats remained quiet for 8 years, giving Bush everything he wanted, voting for Iraq and supplemental spending bills. And yet, they never questioned why Bush/Repukes ran up deficits then. Now all of the sudden they want to hold Obama accountable. I hate these fuckwads. They have absolutely NO credibility.

I really wish that Obama would hit back hard on this point. Direct the point at the Tea Baggers, too. They all have no credibility because they never protested when Repukes were spending like drunken sailors and borrowing from COMMUNIST CHINA to fund their illegal wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and Medicare Part D, a give away to the insurance companies. I want Obama to hit back hard on the Dems on this fact but he's still milquetoast for me.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

25. I wish he would too (and I completely agree with you about the Blue Dogs and "Teabaggers")

but from what I heard he DID stand up to Bayh and Lincoln at the Senate Democratic Caucus meeting, which is a start. He and his administration have, on the balance, been MUCH more aggressive since since the SOTU, so at least it's a start/step in the right direction.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

26. You're right. He's doing better, but he really needs to ask them *directly* why they

were involved in colluding with the Repukes to run up the deficit. He was wrong when he blamed only the Repukes. It was also DLC and Blue Dog Democrats like Bayh, Lincoln, Landrieu, Baucus, Bill Nelson... they all helped to create this mess by caving in to the Repukes. And yet, they are never held accountable for their own votes. I want him to take the issue directly to them. Lincoln wants to work with the Repukes so badly, but the fact is that SHE DID INDEED work with them; she was involved in helping to create the problems we have now because she is a corporate DemoCRAP who believes that Republican economics are correct. She and the Dems who went along with the repeal of Glass-Steagall. They all should be called out on it. We lack credibility when we don't call out these people. And I see that Repukes like David Brooks today on "Meet the Press," tried to blame Dems, citing the differences within the party. And he's right. But we cannot cede that point to the Repukes. We have to make it *before* they can and hold ourselves accountable. The Repukes just sit back and laugh because they can and do take advantage of the ideological factions within our party. They don't have to do anything. They just sit back and watch our party self destruct. It makes me so depressed sometimes because we cannot get our act together. I'm serious that I cannot handle another decade of Republican Fascist Rule and Imperialism. I mean it; I'll be moving back to England if that were to happen. We MUST fight back and fight back HARD against these lies and smears, even when they come from within our own party.

[LWolf]

11. Out of patience? Yes.

Blaming the president for not passing bills? No. I blame Democrats in Congress for not sending decent bills to a Democratic president.

I blame Obama for escalating the war on terror, escalating the war on public education, helping to sink any possibility for single-payer health care before the process even started, for appointing a center-right corporate-friendly cabinet, for his center-right policies.

[asdjrocky]

12. Wow.

Happens every single time. People come into threads, they are unbelievably personally rude, and everything goes away.

It's a certain groups method of shouting "USA USA USA" and all other voices are shut done. This is very effective.

Then of course, all the words, the truth, gets dropped in the memory hole just the way that certain group wanted it to in the first place.

This is a huge mistake DU. It makes me so sad to see it happen day in and day out here.

It's not more civil, it's more sanitary, and void, many times, of the truth.

Go ahead and throw this in the memory hole too, but it doesn't change the fact that this is wrong. Lock things fine, but this is just yucky.

[yodermon]

13. so in the same post you simultaneously

1) criticize congress for not passing bills, and obama bears no responsibility, while
2) obama gets CREDIT for the bills congress actually DID manage to pass ??
Privatize the profits & socialize the losses eh? True to form, carry on.

[DrToast]

18. +1

[LaydeeBug]

19. yup. nt

[CTLawGuy]

29. have you heard of something

called the "veto power"?

[vaberella]

15. What I've come to see is that members of both party look at Obama like Bush.

Meaning...Congress never existed for Bush unless it met his agenda (which it did) throughs lies, manipulation, and or down right ideological support---support blindly. The Left doesn't care about Congress---they want Obama to push sweeping change the way Bush pushed sweeping disaster---in a dictatorial like way. So that means Obama "does some arm twisting", takes leadership by "forcing" congress to do certain things, or "threaten" them with something or other to "get them to follow lock step in Congress". Obama on the other hand...believes in the function of the legislative process and wants Congress to weild the power that it has and do what it has not for party politics but because it cares about it's people/constituents. However, he's dealing with a Congress that is clearly runing willy nilly and basically hates him so they under mine him at every step and those on the left don't realize the function of Congress and how that basically poisons the functionality and role of government. AS such...Obama is to blame.

Whats even more disturbing is that many on the left sound exactly as many on the rght in complaints--alhtough with different root reasons. But if a person was looking in and not having any idea of what's going on they would think they're the same people arguing for the same thing.

This is why a guy in France I'm friends with said...Obama is not really an American president. He's the president of the world..."we like him more than Americans do..."

[saracat]

16. The fact is those democrats that encourage the continuation and expansion of Bush Era

policy while demanding lockstep subservience to the Admin are those that look at Obama like Bush. they demand he be protected at all costs and questioning is not allowed. And BTW, we don't want a President of the world. He was elected president of the United states and I want him to represent us. I care about American issues and American jobs! Globalization brought us NAFTA and no drug re importation. Yeah the rest of the world loved Clinton too. I also liked Clinton as a personality but it is time we take care of ourselves. We need to fix our economy and to guarantee access to health care for all Americans.It is time to end the coporocracy that loves globalization at the expense of American lives.

[vaberella]

20. ~sigh~I'm an Independent that leans Dem.

You even ignore the point of my post and go off on something else (because I don't know what Clinton has to do with my post)--Congress is to blame for a lot of the shit that went on----but even by your post...you blame the President for it all. So this is worthless---and anyway you promote discontent against the guy anyway. You exemplify exactly what I mean--Obama does all wrong...Fine.

[saracat]

24. I was not ignoring your remarks I focused on the statement of your French friend calling Obama

"President of the World". I take exception to that remark.As I explained, he was elected President of the United States and I feel that is where his priority lies. Calling him "President of the World" and the statement about the rest of the world "liking him better than we do" smacks of globalism, which is why I brought up Clinton( who was also very well liked abroad, for much the same reasons) and NAFTA.Of course Congress, specifically the Senate, to a greater degree, has blame to carry in the current mess but that does not absolve the WH from displaying no leadership ability with a majority House and Senate. Both the President and Congress are to blame. The President is the leader of the Democratic Party and he should act like it and expect demands to be met instead of negotiating with his own party. He can deny support to blue dogs who will not vote to support his agenda. But I doubt that he really has a different agenda than the blue dogs and therein lies the problem.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

27. I'm a member of the so-called "Left" that you castigate. My problem is that the Left is always

asked to compromise on everything, and yet we have members of the Democratic Party who represent very small constituencies who are dictating public policy for the vast majority of the populace. The frustration lies with them, but also on Obama when he doesn't stand up and hit back hard on the lies coming from the right. Or, when members of his own party like Lincoln and Bayh repeat the false talking points from the Right wingnuts because they are afraid that they'll lose reelection.

Well, I'll tell you what: it doesn't matter how far right Lincoln becomes; she is going to lose. No matter how much she panders to the Right, she is not going to win reelection. And because she helped to create the deficit mess that we're in by signing on with Republicans on their spending sprees for the last 8 years, she and many other Blue Dogs and DLCers have absolutely no credibility.

So when you sit here with Tweety in your signature blaming Liberals for being angry, please remember that it wasn't Liberals who created this mess. It was people like Blue Dogs LIEberman, Lincoln, the Nelsons, etc., who went along with Republicans on major pieces of legislation. In essence, they are complicit in creating this mess.

Don't take it out on us Liberals; despite our anger, we are the most loyal of ALL Democrats. Blame it on the Blue Dogs, the DLCers and milquetoast DemoCRAPS so worried about kissing Repuke ass.

To the president: Stand up! Hit hard on these right wing lies! Demonstrate leadership PLEASE!!!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. As a political scientist, it makes me want to tear my hair out. But what's so unnerving

is the fact that these so-called pundits and "scholars" ought to know better...

[Clio the Leo]

28. Kick & Rec NT