Obama's critics on the left are heating up and growning in number. That gives me hope.
Maybe if we kick his ass a little bit and his poll ratings go down enough, he'll start thinking that in order to keep his Favored Celebrity status he might want to satisfy the people who put him into office.
And this point needs to be pounded into the minds people who absurdly claim that Obama is a radical leftist and socialist.
Like Bill Maher said: "Socialist?...He's not even a liberal!"
The debate needs a serious reframing. The current paradigm of what it means to be liberal needs to be blown up and explained all over again. Even most self described "moderates" seem to think being liberal means you're pro-choice and think the government should have *some* role in things like the environment and health care.
Finally as we've said before, we need to continually remind everyone that there is a world of difference between 'moderate' Democrats and corporate Democrats. Even in conversation we need to avoid using the word moderate in reference to lobbyist driven chumps like Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad.
But so far I'd say he reminds me of Bill Clinton, except he has more appeal for many right leaning moderates and indes (and the right wing base HATES him, like Clinton but worse because of the racial element).
Relatively/Casually (un)informed moderates love him while many informed progressives become increasingly disenchanted with his (seemingly) DLC ways. The fact that his plans don't seem to be even close to fundamentally reforming the economy in a meaningful way as opposed to just reinflating the bubble doesn't help.
But his rhetoric is much better, particularly on foreign policy.
You say that you're a history teacher. How many of your peers would think that saying Obama is a "closet communist" automatically disqualifies you from membership in that profession?
All of them?
A "closet communist", presumably?
Now you're insulting history teachers everywhere. You've convinced me that you have no idea what communism was and that you are not a rational person.
I keep hoping that somewhere inside you there's a reasonable person trying to claw his way out. It's been a fruitless hope, because you have no idea how far from reality your perspective has strayed. But the good news is that I can no longer hold you responsible for your behavior.
"Maybe if we kick his ass a little bit and his poll ratings go down enough, he'll start thinking that in order to keep his Favored Celebrity status he might want to satisfy the people who put him into office." Or maybe we get Republican progress in both chambers in 2010 and Mitt Romney as the president in 2013. Part of the reason that solidly-purple districts have all been trending D is that Republicans throw out anyone open to the slightest bit of moderation or compromise. The Club for Growth would clearly rather lose elections than elect "RINO's" (anyone to the left of Fred Thompson). Would we rather lose and put the Right back into power? (It's inconceivable, but we all agree it will happen _someday_.)
I am not happy with Obama's performance and even less happy with the performance of the D's in Congress. But that doesn't mean I encourage forcing down their numbers so low that we get R's just so in theory the true American Left might mobilize. The Left DID mobilize in 2006 and 2008 under utterly hideous circumstances (Bush in office, Lott/DeLay/Frist/Hastert, etc., as Republican leaders in Congress). If ever Liberals were motivated to clean house, it was over the last few years. And it got us this set of weak, compromising, terrified D's. I hate to say that the "perfect should not be the enemy of the good", since this has been far from a "good" 6 months for Progressivism. But aren't the stakes too high to gamble on the prospect that Boehner/McConnell/Bachmann/ King/Imhoff et al are suddenly back in charge?
Have Obama not do what the people want.
I think you're putting the responsibility for Obama's poll numbers on the wrong people. It's his fault if they go down.
Most of the faces are the same old crowd that's always been there.
That is the problem.
Campaign finance reform. That's how we can really begin to solve our problems.
