Our AWOL president

[Cyrano]

I voted for Barack Obama in ’08 with enthusiasm and high hopes for a better world.

The vision of a current day Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in my mind in ’08.

I’ll vote for him again in 2012 because he’ll be better than any Republican alternative.

The vision of the lesser of two evils will be in my mind in 2012.

Obama has been silent on far, far too many issues, letting them be fought out in the congress and on Fox “News.” There’s a phrase for that. It’s called “lack of leadership.”

Why is Obama AWOL on the most critical issues of the day? Why isn’t he doing anything aside from making “inspiring speeches?” Where are the Dems of yesteryear? How the hell did we get here? And what the hell is our alternative?

[SidDithers]

1. pffft...nt

Sid

[dionysus]

21. .

;)

[SidDithers]

39. Love it!...

:thumbsup:

Sid

[Aerows]

64. This person

has as much right to state facts as anyone else does. I understand that you don't like it, but many people that voted for Obama don't like what he is being silent upon.

Does that stop making us Democrats? No, but it does make us less enthusiastic. Obama needs to step up to the plate - "I'm not as bad as the other guy" is a shitty platform to run upon.

[dionysus]

65. stating "opinions", not facts. and as this thread is an example of, he's perfectly free to do so.

[we can do it]

2. Selling Out Our Public Schools With Jeb Bush?

[EnlightenedOne]

3. He is playing his role

The message for our time and for us is to stop looking for a savior. No one can save us but ourselves - and that's as it should be. Obama is completely powerless without the people behind him. Its not up to him, its up to us. Although, I believe in my heart and soul that Obama is secretly doing the happy dance inside of himself.

He's handcuffed and tied - its up to us to break him free, not the other way around.

[rocktivity]

10. DING DING DING! EnlightenedOne, you're our grand prize winner!

Obama is completely powerless without the people behind him.

He HAD the power of the people behind him, and he didn't even TRY to use it. I can forgive me for trying and failing, but not to not trying.

:(
rocktivity

[EnlightenedOne]

17. DOH

And here I thought I won a prize!!!

The people did not really stand up until Wisconsin. Millions did before the Iraq war - but the Patriot Act passed without much of a whimper from the people, and then the Tea Party outshouted health care, etc. To my mind - this is the first time the regular folks came out in force and have not backed down.

[Cyrano]

19. Yep. The people have come out in force.

You've hit it right on the head, EnlightenedOne. "... this is the first time the regular folks came out in force and have not backed down." And our AWOL Prez is nowhere in sight.

[EnlightenedOne]

23. I have to agree with those here though

that say he needs to stay out of this one "for now".... and its worked. If Obama had gotten involved heretofore, it would be made all about him, and not about the real people who are being affected. It would be every little word he uttered, torn apart and misconstrued, and the movement might not have grown if everyone sat back and said - well, the president's handling it.

Not that Obama hasn't really disappointed me on other issues, because he has, but on this, I'm thinking he is making the right call. It may be coming to the point though where he may have to act on Walker breaking the law. That one I don't know enough about to know if he can interevene.

[walldude]

50. The Patriot Act was passed in the middle of the night

in a "special session". The vote came so fast no one even had time to read it. It also came just a few weeks after 9/11 and the "people" were still in shock.

It's not the fault of "the people".

[librechik]

32. perfect response for the optimists

and I mean that in the best way possible

:hi:

[BlueIris]

4. Lack of leadership is a nice way of putting it.

Void of leadership is the term I've been using here for what's going on.

IMO, he wants to stay silent because he is averse to doing anything that involves the slightest real risk to his precious image (as he sees it, anyway.) And he doesn't care if any of us, or the majority of us, think he looks like a weak, ineffectual non-leader as a result.

How did we get here? Caring more about image than substance. More about image than preparation. And not caring nearly enough about the stranglehold CorpMedia and other elitist influences have on the discussion, which greatly limits which candidates will be declared viable. What do we do about it? Pick someone else, and hound that person every day he is in office with the reminders of the failures that came before him, in the vain hope it will sink in.

I don't have a lot of um, er, hope that this will motivate the next guy to do his job, though.

[EnlightenedOne]

5. The presidency and its previous powers

were sold out by the last administration before Obama ever walked in the door.

Isn't it obvious now that we are almost a completely facist government? He's powerless and only doing what he can behind the scenes in my opinion.

[DJ13]

14. "The presidency and its previous powers

were sold out by the last administration before Obama ever walked in the door."


No, Bush/Cheney consolidated the power of the WH to such a point that most anything could have been accomplished had Obama dared to try.

And before someone comes back with the boilerplate response "Obama knows what powers are constitutional and couldnt use the Bush approach" remember, Obama also intends to continue the most unconstitutional parts of Bush's Patriot Act, so obviously he isnt a strict constitutionalist in any sense of the word.

[EnlightenedOne]

15. BUT

Bush/Cheney WERE the corporate/oil/banking/wallstreet/pharma military industrial complex. So - the powers they accumulated in my opinon were passed on through de-regulation and financial windfalls for all the above. Not necessarily "government" power. I for one think Obama runs very little - certainly not the military industrial complex or the new Hilter-esque Homeland Security in charge of the Patriot Act and Guantanamo, etc. Obama tried to get Guantanamo closed down and he couldn't do it.

Anyway, I'm getting busy, just my gut-feeling opinion I'm throwing out there for consideration.

[TheKentuckian]

66. Zero effort was put into closing Gitmo, the entire thrust was on relocating it.

Not even in the ballpark of the same deal.

[Horse with no Name]

27. Condensed down to four words

Believing his own hype.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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

[craigmatic]

7. I understand why he's staying out of WI. But I look at it this way

if they had passed a card check law when they actually had congress the repubs wouldn't be emboldened to do this now. As far why he's not involved in the protests I think he feels like this is a state issue and if he got involved it would overplay his hand and turn public opinion against it.

[Cyrano]

11. It's not just WI. At least half a dozen other states are trying to

kill off unions -- which in turn will kill off what's left of the middle class.

We are under a full scale attack from those who own us and own virtually everything else. They have declared full scale class war on us, our standard of living, everything we aspire to, and everything we own or hope to own. And Obama is AWOL in this war.

FDR faced far worse than Obama is now facing. And those who are oppressing us today are exactly the same people (in spirit) as those who oppressed us during the Great Depression. FDR did not crawl into some White House bunker and try to "stay out of the way." He declared: "They hate me. And I welcome their hatred." And he fought them. And as a result, we all won.

I'm sick of all of the excuses being made for Obama. His only current interest is getting a second term. And he's somehow missing the fact that the best way to get reelected is to fight for us.

[craigmatic]

68. I agree with you on everything except the last part.

The best way for him to get elected is fighting the repubs. That is true but it looks like he's giving them enough rope to hang themselves. Just look at how fired up labor is and how the people have turned against the teabaggers and their policies. At this rate we might win back congress, some state houses and the presidency.

[Codeine]

8. Any move he made in WI would undermine the unions.

Right now it's workers and unions vs. corporatist Repukes in the state and their puppetmasters. If the President gets involved the Right will make it about him. That doesn't serve the cause of the protesters at all.

[RockaFowler]

9. I agree

But let's keep blaming the President for everything.

[lumpy]

58. Sounds like some people would prefer a dictator who would not

have to go through Democratic procedures.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. He is silent on this --

because he is fully onboard with Rahm's plan to "free" the Democrats from their traditional allies -- labor, women, environmentalists -- so that the Democratic Party can partake in the bounteous trough provided by Big Business come election time.

And until every single Democrat figures this out and dumps these "Democratic" bastards who believe this, we are doomed.

[jaxx]

13. The Dems of yesteryear are dead.

Times have changed and we have a President who is to be trusted. What some call 'lack of leadership' is nothing but ignoring what has been done and what role the President played. No, he's not in your face like the last guy was. And he sure as hell isn't AWOL.

Sometimes I wonder if people got so used to the bush way of doing things that real leadership no longer interests them. Shock and awe or nothing.

[Cyrano]

16. "And he sure as hell isn't AWOL."???

Read a book, Jaxx. Try watching the History channel.

FDR created Social Security, the minimum wage, fought like hell to enable the establishment of unions, and did everything possible to establish oversight of the Robber Barons.

Lyndon Johnson created Medicare, Medicaid, and signed into law the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Both had to deal with a Republican Party that hated their guts and fought everything they were trying to accomplish. But they fought back. And they won. And so did we.

Sorry. By the standards of these Democrats, Obama is AWOL.

[EnlightenedOne]

18. Follow up

Yes, and what did they ALL warn us about? To watch out for the military industrial complex, and corporate power, and too much power in the hands of a few. And this was what - 60+ years ago? They knew what would come under a weak president, and it did. 30 years ago with Regan and Bush/Cheney sealed our fate.

[jaxx]

20. The History Channel? The one biased right?

FDR created SS and it has been built on to be what it is today. LBJ had a huge majority. The Repubs might have hated them and fought with them, but they were white guys. Nobody wondered where they were born, what religion their daddy was.

President Obama got health care reformed passed...it only took 100 years. It will be built on like SS was. He ended DADT and just said he's not fighting DOMA. Must look like piddly shit to some, but it's all a BFD.

AWOL? No way. By the standards of liberal Democrats he's doing a very good job.
This isn't the old days, it's the new days.

[LeFleur1]

25. Old Days

I don't care what day it is. A leader doesn't stand back and watch.
That's what Obama has been doing. He had the country behind him in the beginning and he asked/did very little. He gave up the public option on the health care bill before discussion even got started. The flawed health care bill is the only thing they got done in the Democratic majority.

Maybe he thinks he's already in the history books and that's good enough. I don't know his reasoning for sitting back. In an atmosphere where things are calm and going well he'd probably be fine. But in today's climate we need a fighter, someone who strongly encourages the citizens to do the right thing for their own good. Someone who stands up to the weirdest, most dangerous Republican group ever. Getting along with them is not an option. They don't have any ideas at all that don't involve payback for their sponsors. They are not working in the best interest of the citizens or our country.
They deserve no consideration. Their actions and their words are dangerous to the welfare of the majority of people in our country.

[jaxx]

29. What's he supposed to do, bash heads?

Put out a dead or alive poster?

How many meetings with him have you sat in on? What were the subjects? What did he say at the meeting about Wisconsin, or about Libya?

Really, I don't think the Obama concerns are based on fact.

[Arkana]

36. LBJ had 69 Senate Democrats at one point, if I recall correctly.

[JuniperLea]

30. Well said, jaxx

I get the impression that some people wanted BushCo II, The Terminator, or something. He's taking a dignified approach, and I for one am quite grateful for the stark image change and intense attention to correctness. I don't think people are merely naive, I think they are fueled with impatience and selfishness.

IMHO

[walldude]

51. You call this mess we are in the product of "leadership"?

He's leading us alright... right off the cliff and people are happily following and blaming any problems on... wait for it... THE PEOPLE! Yes it's all my fault! Not The Politicians, Not the Media, Not the President.. it's my fault! Woo Hoo.

[GSLevel9]

22. there's not a "leader bone" in his body.

But there is NO alternative. Any primary candidate would fracture the party and put a Repub in the White House.

So suck it up and SMILE! :D

[Cali_Democrat]

24. I never thought I'd use the words 'empty suit' to describe Barack Obama

But that's increasingly becoming an apt description :(

[Horse with no Name]

26. I voted with the "lesser of two evils" mindset last time

Not sure how I can justify his vote this time. I'm still hoping for a viable primary challenge.

[JuniperLea]

28. He didn't live up to the fantasy of many...

But to those of us who took him as the pragmatic man he presented, he has surpassed expectations.

It's pure fantasy to think any POTUS could do so much with so little support in so short a time with so little to start out with. I'm not quite sure where the hell they get off, but whatever. I prefer to live IRL, and I got more than I expected, more than I voted for.

And when the aggravation of shortsighted vilification sets in, well, that's what ignore and hide thread are for. I don't have time for selfish POVs and lack of big picture mentality.

[uppityperson]

34. +1000

[Cyrano]

37. Let me tell you about my fantasy.

I expected a Democratic president who would immediately open an investigation of the war crimes and the crimes against humanity that were committed under eight years of Bush/Cheney.

I expected a Democratic president who would, by executive order, put a halt to spying on Americans, reinstate habeas corpus, close down Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and all the other torture chambers we don't even know about.

I expected a Democratic president who would bring criminal charges against Wall Street, bankers, and all the other "Masters of the Universe" who created our current financial disaster.

I guess I expected much more from a Democratic president than you expected. What a fool I am. I guess I'll just have to lower my expectations and accept a pragmatic president who "surpassed expectations."

[uppityperson]

38. Fantasies can be uplifting but are still fantasies.

[Cyrano]

44. Okay, I get it. American justice is dead and you're accepting it without a whimper.

[uppityperson]

47. No, I just had more realistic expectations. Why such unfounded accusations?

Doesn't mean I like it or accept how it is, just had more realistic expectations.

[Cyrano]

52. Sorry, uppityperson. I didn't intend to come down so hard on you.

It's Obama who has crushed my expectations. Although you don't agree with me, I have all but given up hope of ever again seeing a "real" Dem in the White House. And I find this incredibly frustrating, dispiriting and depressing.

[uppityperson]

53. I know what you mean here, incredibly frustrating, dispiriting, depressing

Still working to make changes, but realized a long time ago that few things will happen like I want them to. While the whole system is better than a dictator, still there are a lot of problems with it. Money talks and the little people are manipulated by fear.

[JuniperLea]

62. He never bought into your expectations...

Clearly your expectations come from you, not from anything he ever said.

[dionysus]

40. ..and he should live in a large, magic shoe....

[Cyrano]

43. A "large, magic shoe..."?

I'll settle for Obama to walk the walk that he so eloquently talks about.

I'll settle for Obama to at least try to emulate some of the magnificent accomplishments of Dems who came before him.

I'll settle for him to not give away the store before negotiations have even begun (single payer health care).

I'll settle for what the Democratic Party has historically stood for over the past 80 or so years.

So yeah, I guess I believe that there's such a thing as a "large magic shoe." Too bad Obama doesn't also believe in it. After all, you do need to have a vision before you can pursue it. I wonder what Obama's vision is?

[dionysus]

48. yes, a magic shoe. if the president was able to unilaterally jail the bush admin for treason,

immediately ends two wars, jail the "banksters", and provide single payer, all without the backing of 60 senate votes that he never had, unicorns would be real and i'd live in a large, magical shoe.

here's just one example from your wish list.

bernie sanders claimed there were 5 senate votes for single payer. how on earth you can blame the president for not being able to acheive something that had no chance in hell of even getting out of committee?

[PBS Poll-435]

55. I was thinking more along the lines of...

[dionysus]

56. .

:spray:

[DJ13]

45. How dare you expect him to be the guy he was in the campaign!

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back into my magic shoe.

[Cyrano]

46. Sorry, my bad.

[dionysus]

49. dont think he campaigned on trying bush for treason and imprisoning the "banksters"

now back to that shoe.

[walldude]

54. No but few minutes on youtube and you can see many videos

of candidate Obama vs President Obama.

I get tired of this stupid game. Obama the President is not the same person as Obama the candidate. There is no question or doubt about that. His own words portray this. The only thing in question is whether you give him a pass or not.

No pass from me. We are going off the deep end and he's holding hands with the people who are dragging us there.

[Cyrano]

59. Why would anyone have to campaign on putting war criminals on trial?

Anyone would think that would be a given. Oops, sorry. I forgot that equal justice for all, etc. is just bullshit. Unfortunately, it really is just bullshit. The America that may have once existed is long gone.

[dionysus]

60. with all due respect, i don't think you have realistic expectations.

do you think, outside of DU, the public would get behind trying the previous administration for treason and war crimes? you do realize those offenses are punishable by life imprisonment and death, right? You think any bill of any kind, at all, would happen if that circus was going on? half the country would be outraged. it'd be a government shutdown on steroids.

single payer. bernie, one of the best senators, estimately it had maybe 5 votes in the senate. i trust bernie. even the public option in the more liberal house was watered down to be worthless. in the senate, we had 6-8 DINOs who would have fillibustered a public option.

banksters. as henious as the shit they pulled is, due to 30 years of deregulation and loopholes, it was pretty much all legal. can we throw people in jail just for being greedy assholes?

is the system fucked up? yes. is there reason to be pissed and frustrated? yes. is obama not as liberal as we would like? yes.

look at the big picture. blaming one guy because the whole system is messed up isn't going to change a thing, unless enough people buy the "obama sucks" line that we end up with a republican in the white house, then you'll REALLY have a lot worse.

[JuniperLea]

63. When did he say he'd do any of this stuff?

Please link me.

[JuniperLea]

61. Give him time, FCOL

There were people dying, starving... our entire financial system was in collapse mode... WTF, really? That's all you got?

You don't see what a terrific waste of resources bringing charges against BushCo would be? I have to admit, I was pissed as hell when I realized that the first order of business wasn't to prosecute. Sure, it would have made us feel good... but it's a horrific draw on our resources to do such things, and all the resources needed to be pointed at those about to fall over the cliff.

We are lucky to be sitting here conversing via the InterTubes... we are lucky we aren't all standing in soup lines.

You don't have to lower your expectations... just base them in reality.

[TheKentuckian]

67. A waste of resources? Considering each time the TeaPubliKlan criminals are let of the hook

they come back with gusto and commit even more heinous acts, I'd say an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure.

Resources would be in far greater supply had Prescott Bush been held accountable, or Nixon, or Reagan. Next time will make the crash of 2008 look like salad days.

The wealth disparity and the two tiered justice system will unravel this nation more throughly than any "waste of resources".

Plus, pretending these "resources" went to keep people from falling over the cliff is approaching crazy talk since the foreclosures keep rocking, small banks keep crashing, there is not capital available for new companies, the 99ers were told to fuck off and die, wages are contracting, the wealthy keep their economy destroying tax cuts, and the income disparity keeps growing.

The only thing keeping the soup lines like were common during the Great Depression is that the safety net (as raggedy as it is) has been put into place. We have Social Security, UI insurance, and food stamps. Were it not for these programs we'd see very similar conditions and probably are heading in a similar direction as austerity kicks in, the long term unemployed run out of rope, wages keep getting crushed, graduates cannot get established, and ever increasing percentages of actual resources are funneled into fewer and fewer hands absolutely killing demand.

Our huge structural failings have not been addressed much less been put on a path to correction, we aren't even en route out of the woods but are rather headed deeper in.

[JuniperLea]

69. The Titanic couldn't stop on a dime either...

These fantasy scenarios are really too much.

The resources I'm referring to are the Congress and the Senate, who we need badly right now to remain focused on the tasks at hand. Think about it... if we'd wasted time and energy on prosecutions, the GOTP would be happy as a clam! They'd tie us up in knots for years and years, way beyond Obama's second term even. They would strangle us with minutiae and stall and cry and nothing else would get done.

Seriously, think about it. Play it out in your mind a little further.

[TheKentuckian]

70. How many generations of malfeasance should I project?

[Tatiana]

31. AWOL to some, perhaps, but I suspect he's exactly where he wants to be.

He has, at times, exhibited leadership: on getting tax cuts for the wealthy passed, on closing public schools in favor of charters, on "belt-tightening" for the poor and working classes. Notice that every time he displays some "fire" or real anger, it's in OUR direction, not in the direction of the Chris Christies or Scott Walkers of this country.

This President will never confront the interests that need confronting -- whether it be Wall Street or thuggish Republicans who want to steal away all our rights. There is no line in the sand with him... winning is walking hand-in-hand with the interests that hate your guts and represent more misery for the very people who are struggling in this economy (ala Jeb Bush or Mitch McConnell).

You're right, image is very important to this President. He wants to be viewed favorably, most especially by those that hate him. In fact, I think he probably cares more about the opinion of the racist morons trying to destroy this country than he does about people who are going through hell under the current conditions of this country.

The alternative is to start at the local and Congressional level, electing truly progressive candidates who will advocate for our interests. This may require "primarying" some entrenched fat-cat Democrats. It would be nice if we had an FDR or LBJ, but we don't. We've just got to hope that as a nation, we can send a better set of representatives at the state and federal level to do the people's business. With a better Congress, some of the President's more disastrous ideas (such as his RTTT education policy), will be neutralized and he will likely sign any decent and popular legislation that comes across his desk (assuming he wins in 2012).

[treestar]

33. when you get the job of President you get to decide what to spend the time on

Merely because one citizen like you thinks issue A is the most important does not mean the President does. Do you think a President sits around in the WH waiting to find out what is of biggest concern on DU right now?

It's so easy to determine others' jobs are easy and figure you can do it better. Such people make horrid clients/patients/customers. They are experts on everything.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Exultant Democracy]

42. Same here my 08 vote was hope, my 2012 vote will be damage control.

[ClarkUSA]

57. E.J. Dionne pointed out that "lack of leadership" is the corporate media's latest meme.

He was right, it seems. Thanks for reviving it here sans any facts, only the usual hand-wringing rhetoric, despite the reality of President Obama's many amazing accomplishments against very tough odds:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=621787&mesg_id=621787

"AWOL president" my Democratic ass! What nonsense. I'll pit my facts against empty rhetoric any day. People here seem to think Congress doesn't exist as a co-equal branch of government that creates laws. Or do you think all Democrats just do whatever the WH wants whenever votes are taken?