True To His Word

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

Note to critics: Read (or reread) his books. Obama is doing just what he said he would do.

Every old-fashioned American amusement park had a fun house with mirrors that exaggerated your features. One mirror lengthened your legs, another widened your middle, a third made your face a wavy mask. If you stood in the right place, you vanished into endless distorting reflections. Nowadays, the political stage has become America’s communal fun house, and nobody looks stranger than Barack Obama.

The president’s critics on the right deride him as a radical socialist seething with anti-American rage. To them, he’s a frightening success who has transformed the federal government, ruined the economy, and undermined national security. To the left, Obama is a tragic failure who squandered his chance for dramatic change: no single-payer health-care plan, no heated battle against Wall Street, and endless war in Afghanistan. If the president is struggling these days, the critics say, it’s perhaps because he’s out of touch with Americans, and even at odds with his own principles.

Yet Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do. Perhaps the critics should read—or reread—the president’s own books. Dreams From My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006) are the most substantial works written by anyone elected president since Woodrow Wilson (who wrote several books before he won election in 1912). In laying out his philosophy, Obama contrasts the GOP’s excessive individualism with the ideal of “ordered liberty” and the rich traditions of civic engagement typical of America in the 18th and 19th centuries. He also criticizes orthodox Democrats for too quickly dismissing market solutions and too often defending failed government programs. Above all, he criticizes the hyperpartisan atmosphere of contemporary public life.

Almost everything you need to know about Obama is there on the printed page. In contrast to the charges coming now from right and left, Obama is neither a rigid ideologue nor a spineless wimp. The Obama who wrote Dreams and Audacity stands in a long tradition of American reform, wary of absolutes and universals, and committed to a Christian tradition that prizes humility and social service over dogmatic statements of unbending principle. A child of the philosophical pragmatists William James and John Dewey, Obama distrusts pat formulas and prefers experimentation.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/17/obama-is-doing-just-what-he-said-he-would-do.html

[impik]

1. Of course. At this point i'm pretty sure that half the people who voted for him

had no idea who they're voting for.

[av8rdave]

2. Very rarely do most Americans know who they're voting for in national elections

They vote based on name recognition, soundbites and tabloid stories.

Oops...gotta run. Dancing With the Has Beens is on TiVo.

:sarcasm:

[impik]

3. BTW, people should read by James T. Kloppenberg book "Reading Obama"

They'll be a little less ignorant about this president.

[dave29]

4. Been saying this since before the election

read his books

[jaxx]

5. Obama isn't a 'tragic failure' to all of the left, just some.

Those who paid attention knew exactly what we were voting for, and there have been no surprises. People wanted change, well, that's what we're getting. You will not see President Obama yell and scream and act out like a child, you'll see an adult. Seems like a lot of people want him to act like dubya, no brains. That won't be happening. To those who feel so let down, all I see is the demand that he change and be what some want him to be...which would be totally wrong. A malleable piece of clay wasn't elected, a very smart adult was. One who knows where he wants to lead this country...and it's not backwards.

[FrenchieCat]

6. The Audacity of reading and comprehending is obviously not an

American value on either side of the spectrum.
If anyone tells you they are disappointed with this President,
and at the same time indicate that they are a "Reader" and knowledgable about politics,
just know smoke is being blown in your face.

[jonnyblitz]

8. Books written by politicians about themselves are usually

calculated spin. That being said, I DID manage to acquire free electronic copies of both Obama's books for my Sony Ereader. I will most definitely read them after I read the following books which I also own:

The Emperor's New Clothes by Paul Street:
http://www.amazon.com/Empires-New-Clothes-Barack-Obama/dp/1594518459/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290101916&sr=1-2

The Mendacity of Hope:Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism by by Roger D. Hodge:
http://www.amazon.com/Mendacity-Hope-Betrayal-American-Liberalism/dp/006201126X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290102101&sr=1-1

[FrenchieCat]

10. What are these, Anti-Obama books you want us to read?

Thanks, but not thanks! Although I'm sure the Freepers will looooove them.

I'm one of those who would prefer to read what the President clearly stated
long ago in his own words, and comparing that to what he has actually done thus far,
in his nearly 1/2 of his first term.

That should make more sense to anyone who is intellectually honest,
than to read what folks who want to make money by disparaging this President,
and spinning what they think he ought to have accomplished according to them.
I read that shit on DU everyday......from other folks who never bothered to
truly listen to what the President has ever really said unless they didn't like it,
and have decided to judge him as prematurely as possible against their own stated expectations,
mainly based on newspaper articles written by mediawhores projecting their own speculative
analysis as to what the President is thinking, and why it was wrong for him to have
thought these thoughts that these folks made up.

[Clio the Leo]

14. Yes, Obama's book is political spin ...

.... spin that he wrote in 1994 .... before he entered the IL Senate. A book in which he wrote about his marijuana and cocaine use (because that's the kinda thing you want to publicize if you're going to enter politics.)

You keep right on thinking that.

[Clio the Leo]

13. +1 nt

[Enrique]

7. I agree, he promised to be a centrist

so many progressives kept telling me he was some kind of "stealth progressive", that his DLC stance was a grand strategy.

I hoped he was, but it's pretty clear he's not.

[FrenchieCat]

11. I believe him to be a pragmatic progressive...........

considering that he has had to content with an extremely conservative paid-for media holding the biggest microphone, who also just happen to hate his guts on the one hand,

and a bunch of leftist know-it-all critics who sit in the cheap seats doing nothing
more than yelling out instructions while throwing peanuts, all the while knowing damn well
that the only way that what they prescribe could happen is if we lived in an alternate universe,
where there is no opposition......

Thinking of that climate, actually getting anything positive
done under that circus-like atmosphere has been quite amazing
to witness.

[Safetykitten]

9. Great post.

[Pisces]

12. I knew who I was voting for and will vote for him again in 2012 with pride.

[Clio the Leo]

15. Even *I* didn't realize he'd committed to bombing inside Pakistan....

... until I was reminded about it by Alter in "The Promise" tonight.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0132206420070801

Obviously anyone is free to disagree with that strategy, but no one can make the claim that he hid it from us.

[TwilightGardener]

16. Good stuff, thanks.