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Obama’s
big problem is Liberals
by Jonathan Chait
This is a season of liberal
disappointment. Or, rather, another season of liberal disappointment.
Liberal disappointment follows liberal triumph as night follows day.
Its varieties include despair,
recrimination, impotent rage, potent rage, and existential angst.
He
has a point - there are LOTS of liberals who hated the Nineties and our
only recent double-winner.
In full bloom is precrimination, a
subspecies of recrimination that occurs before the fact. In this case,
the liberal argument is that President Obama has blown the 2010
elections by moving too far to the center.
I'd
say every
Democrat believes that.
The right-wing keeps screaming
"Most socialist ever," but how can that be true
when Obama's base is angry
with him for, their words, "giving us Bush's third term."
I say the problem is liberals.
You could be right - but can you make your case?
Let’s first review the indictments.
The most common flaw of the various expressions of liberal
disappointment is a tendency to attribute to Obama power over forces
beyond his control. Liberals
bemoaning the failure of cap-and-trade or the public option regularly
descend into magical thinking
when it comes time to explain where Obama could have conjured
nonexistent votes in the Senate.
Whoa - Obama should have at least as much power as Jim
Inhofe.
Inhofe can close down DC whenever he wants, so why is Obama powerless?
It's my opinion Obama has CHOSEN to be powerless because
the alternative would be
to be tough and he wants to be liked more than he wants a second term,
from my perspective.
Obama has ZERO percent L.B.J. in him and we sorely need a
strong leader right now.
The most persuasive critiques of
Obama center on presidential appointments, which do lie within his
command.
Obama neglected to undertake deep reforms of the Minerals Management
Service that might have
prevented the Gulf oil disaster. He has also left vacant crucial
judicial seats and Federal Reserve
Board positions. But those failures have had little political impact.
When a well blows up for unexplained reasons, a full
review should've been ordered for all wells.
IF Obama
did that, he has failed to make that order widely known.
If the Democrats’ dire outlook owes
itself primarily to the economy, then shouldn’t they have passed a
larger stimulus? Alas, the assumption that Obama could have gotten more
money out of the Senate is
questionable. GOP moderates, who held the bill’s fate in their hands,
whittled down even the $800
billion version. Perhaps, if Obama had proposed something larger, the
moderates—who tend to position
themselves in the middle of any debate—would have simply started the
bidding from a higher point.
I thought this guy was going to make some valid point, but he seems preoccupied with being cute.
Or maybe he was going to make some valid points if my never-ending patience would allow me the
luxury of reading all f-ing day until this guy finally gets to his point.
Sure, Obama can come up with 20 reasons why he couldn't deliver - but what's the real reason?
All his speeches about "Yes we can" have turned into "They won't let me," which is crap.
Things could change, or they
could turn out differently than we think, but so far wouldn't
"He wasn't ready for the job"
seem to be the the most likely culprit?
Hillary said something like,
"What's
he got? Besides a good speech?"
with Obama at the wheel. He's letting the Presidency run him, instead of the other way around.
People like me have been screaming, "When will Obama notice our house is on fire?"
but the house may be too badly burned to save. Do you think if we buy him a bigger hose
he'll consider using it in monster fires that are still to come?
Maybe November won't be as bad as everybody says, but it's so late in the game...
IF Obama runs the second half of this term like the first half,
Democrats may need to start looking for someone else to carry the banner in 2012.