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Subject: Balance, please
In the spirit of balance
and counterpoint, I hope you will include the attached toon (from the
SF Chronicle) in your blog.
Bart, you helped many of
us through the dark time of Dubya, as we stood united against a common
enemy,
and for that I thank you. But the 24/7 anti-Obama ranting of
BartCop is a real downer, and unfair to boot.
I'm trying to get him to wake the hell up and he's 15 months into his nap while our house is burning.
He's not the villain! He's also not Clinton, and that's both good and bad.
He has different strengths and weaknesses, and tactics.
True, Clinton was a fighter and Obama just wants everyone to get along. Right now, we need a fighter
more than we've ever needed one. Obama's governing style has brought him nothing but kicked-in teeth
and a smaller army and his army is shrinking with every passing day.
He has also achieved more, legislatively, than any president in recent history (don't take my word for it
--read Rolling Stone magazine, and others), with the help of Nancy Pelosi (who has also graced BartCop
in tutu, if I remember correctly). He may not be the shrewdest politician ever, but look at what he's accomplished!
You're kidding, right?
You can make a list of his great accomplishments, but even if that list is a mile long,
how does it matter when he's down 30 points with Independents?
Obama is on the road to disaster - could it be more obvious?
Even if he's doing everything super-great, if the public hates him we're in deep trouble.
The Republicans are rolling over Obama like a freight train - that has to stop.
So I find the constant bashing of Obama (e.g., "why can't he learn") to be presumptuous (it sounds like
what you criticized Robert Parry for, i.e., mindreading), counterproductive, and pathetically nostalgic for
a Clinton era that had its share of disappointments. And did not produce health care reform.
Katie, you do a terrible injustice to Obama by comparing him to Bill Clinton.
Clinton has two Superbowl rings where Obama is struggling to get a first down.
If Obama's alleged learning disability isn't the answer, what is?
I'll entertain any theory you have besides, "He's doing a great job."
We live in a country that elected or almost elected the embodiment of gross ineptitude and corruption
not once, but twice. Obama is president of those dummies, too, not just smart people like you and me
(you can just stop pretending your IQ is under 100, BartCop--you don't fool me for a minute).
We are in the midst of the worst economic time since the Great Depression, and embroiled in two
unwinnable wars. Climate change threatens disaster of cataclysmic proportions. The opposition party
thinks it's ok to risk nuclear holocaust just to get ahead politically. Our President Obama is smart and
fighting for all the right things, against great odds. Can't BartCop cut him some slack once in a while,
and give praise where praise is due?
Katie T, San Francisco Democrat
What I'm hearing is "Please stop listing
the facts and tell us Obama is a winner."
The facts are Obama is HATED by almost half the country
and MOST Democrats have lost their faith.
A third of the GOP think he's a Muslim and a fourth think he's been
sent by al
Qaeda to destroy America.
You can say "That's a shame" or "He doesn't deserve
that," but facts are facts.
No matter what my opinion is or your opinion, Democrats are losing ground every day.
If Obama doesn't change soon and drastically, he will
almost certainly be impeached
and we'll probably have President Palin for the next eight years.
What's YOUR opinion, reader?
Should Obama be told to wake up and come to work?
Should we urge him to fight harder or to reach out to the GOP more often?
Should Obama be a enemy or a friend to the Bitch and the Boner?
Should we be cheering the president on or shaking him awake, trying to get him to join the battle?
Subject: Balance, please - Reply
One thing I've learned from growing up (in an orphanage) is that the bullies won't quit
until they get what they want or until you give them back in kind.
I was four when I first met Sister Loretta. Within a very short time I realized that nothing I could do
would appease her. No matter how much I strived to be 'good', follow her ever-changing rules, or tried
to appear pious by going to church every am. before school, her attitude towards me didn't change.
The other nuns thought I was headed towards sainthood but she wasn't impressed. Even at that young age
I realized that I had to protect myself from her and fought back in any way I could think of. What I learned
from her is to stand up for myself even when I'm likely to lose the fight because while early on she got the
best of me, as I got older and more creative that reversed and I eventually owned her. She was ferociously
mean, unforgiving, and a punishing bully, and most of the other kids were petrified of her. For some reason,
I never was and I still haven't figured out why they never stood up to her - what did they have left to lose?
I see the Dems. and Obama in that same position after the last election - what do they have to lose?
It seems to me that Barack Obama is like one of those orphanage kids when it comes to rethugs, it's been
depressing to see his reaction to all the crap that has been thrown at him - his accepting it, refusing to fight back
and not standing up for himself - and more importantly, not fighting for his base, who have believed in him,
been behind him 100 percent from the beginning and still have his back.
He's my president too, no matter what, but I'm not going to sit back quietly while he caves to rethugs
on things that are important to me. I had so much hope when he was elected, I really thought he would
do great things and that he would thwart the rethugs at every turn, but slowly over the past two years
I've come to realize that he doesn't have gumption and the rethugs always get the upper hand with him.
It's been disheartening.
Re: the Horsey toon - Reality is a bitch. Whether or not Kathy believes it, the way he is depicted in that
toon is the way most Americans including a lot of Dems who still support him - are starting to see him
and if he can't find the will to change that then we have to find a way to make him. Even liberal pundits
have recently started saying these things about him on the teevees. And that's one of the reasons why
I'm such a big fan of bartcop.com, because you've been saying it all along and have always called out
President Obama when he has capitulated to the rethugs.
And thanks for continuing to fight for Bill Clinton - Kathy T. didn't seem too concerned about his
depiction in that same toon - she doesn't seem to be cutting him any slack for all the legislation he
passed or for balancing the budget and leaving us with a surplus. When Obama was first elected I
expected huge changes, I was a total believer, but at this stage, I'd just settle for him being more
like Clinton. No matter what you think of the Big Dog, at least he fought back and after losing
the House he may have moved closer to the center to save his political life but, in my opinion,
Obama allowed himself to be moved to the right by rethugs even before the last election,
without a fight, and for absolutely no benefit that I can see. It's mystifying.
I've been to tons of left/liberal sites on the internets that blindly defend Obama but following the
crowd has never held much appeal for me. I can't go along to get along when I feel strongly about
something. And I strongly believe that Obama hasn't lived up to his promise. Sure, he has legislative
achievements, but we lost the House because for some unfathomable reason he chose not to fight
and if not for the Tea Party we would have lost the Senate too, and had we lost it, much of what
he's done could have been reversed by the rethugs. Someone has to wake this guy up before 2012
or we will lose the Senate and possibly the White House. Tell Kathy that there are worse things
than an 'anti-Obama rant', like watching our new rethug-teabagger president being sworn-in.
What we need is more rants because if President Obama isn't persuaded to change course soon
that's probably gonna happen. That's where we're headed. Who thought voters would elect a rethug
congress so soon after Dubya?
Personally, I confront on a daily basis friends, family members, and Facebook friends who fervently
believe Obama is a Muslim - that he wasn't born in the United States - that he's a socialist and a myriad
of other bullshit lies that were allowed to fester. I get emails from them when they hear any new rumors
about him to ask me if they're true. I send them back proof from sites like Snopes.com that they are
made up bullshit - most end up believing the bull anyway but by responding to them I have changed
a few minds. That's what you do on your site everyday just by listing the facts.
Who can say how many minds you've changed by speaking the truth?
(withheld)
Here's my opinion on that, Bart!