The President is Powerless. Utterly Helpless.

[MannyGoldstein]

There's a group of folks on DU that have been clamoring for our president to end his boundless infatuation with the bankers and wealth, to turn instead to helping the rest of America. (You know... us little people who voted him in to office.)

"But there's nothing he can do!!! He's utterly powerless!!! He needs Congress to do anything more!!!"

"Bull@#$%. The President of the US can do all kinds of things - he just needs to want to do them."

"No-no-no!!! Nothing can be done, nothing at all, only a MoleLibertarianRacistPuristFirebaggerRatFucker would suggest otherwise!!!"

So yesterday our president unilaterally signed a law that will make student loan debt more affordable for many folks. A few days ago, he unilaterally released prisoners from Gitmo.

Were new laws passed that allowed these things to happen? Nah. Instead, our president simply used the same power he's always had - he just decided he wanted to use it now, that's all.

That's really it. The President of the United States has extraordinary powers - if they want to use them. They can make good stuff happen, and they can apply enormous pressure to persuade bad actors in Congress to act responsibly.

If they want to.

If they want to.

When the time came for the Bush tax cuts to end, there was much gnashing of teeth: "We NEED to renew the cuts, the Republicans have us over a barrel! The world will end!" Yet when the Republicans threatened our president's own legacy achievement, ObamaCare, it was all "@#$% you Republicans, just try", the government got shut down and the Republicans folded in no time.

I appreciate that our president is starting a slow shift towards addressing the ever-deepening plight of the folks who don't have co-workers and/or family in the White House. I deeply appreciate it, and I hope it continues and expands. But can we end "The president is powerless! Powerless!" meme? It's utter nonsense.

[BrotherIvan]

1. I think Obama is smart.

I do not have low expectations of the man who was able to run circles around all his opponents in very hard-fought campaigns. I have seen him stand up and wipe the floor with Republicans whenever he wanted to. Because he is smart.

Anyone shouting that Barack Obama is powerless against the Republican clown car or cannot get anything done because of racism from a very small minority of tea idiots is pushing the bigoted idea that minorities are incompetent or cannot lead. I will never support that idea. Having low expectations because of the color of one's skin is one of the deepest insults against that person's ability, intelligence and character.

[Jim Lane]

3. He's smart enough to see that he made a mistake in his first term.

The best evidence that he's smart is that he appears to have realized that his dream of post-partisanship (or of dealing with reasonable Republican or of fill-in-your-own-description) was completely unrealistic.

Even smart people, however, have their predilections. The problem for an executive is that you have to rise above your own predilections -- sometimes you have to be a nice guy and sometimes you have to be aggressive, even downright nasty. Rudy Giuliani is a smart guy who had trouble being conciliatory when that was right. Obama is also smart but has trouble being confrontational.

Obama, the Democratic Party, and the country would have been better off if, right from the start, he had found some of his inner Rudy Giuliani (not on policy, obviously, but on methods). The good news is that he finally seems to be moving somewhat in that direction.

[Phlem]

2. Well,

He has said he's got his pen and a phone......

But I hear you, it's almost like he's not the president of murica because he's so powerless, weak, unsupported, hell there's no way he could win re-election cause he's so powerless......wait