Obama is Finally Free

[kpete]

.........

“Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top.”

http://politicalwire.com/2014/12/20/obama-is-finally-free/

[BootinUp]

1. He's doing very well so far. nt

[woolldog]

2. I just don't get why he waited so long

into his second term to do this

[BootinUp]

3. Perhaps he already planned out what he can do and when

he will do it.

[DFW]

25. I have a pretty good idea why

Obama is by nature one who likes to operate with and within a consensus. He only acted as he did when he had given up all hope that he would ever get to make one step forward without acting on his own. It just flies in the face of how he wanted to get things done. As a constitutional scholar, taking initiatives with Congress, even if it meant painful compromises, was how he saw our form of government operating. It took an abandonment of all hope of Congress being willing to work with him on ANYTHING for him to get to this point.

It is said that hope dies last, but he wasn't going to wait for the funeral. In this, the Republicans miscalculated. They thought he'd remain inactive until his presidency was over, and they could call him the most ineffective president ever. They ignored his record up to now, which, though flawed, can hardly be called ineffective unless all you watch is Fox "News."

Guess what Republicans all watch? THAT'S why they are so bewildered at all he's up to now. They mistook his hope for unlimited patience and weakness, two traits that are indeed attributed to him, but in error.

[Applan]

27. Spot on DFW

Well written.

[DFW]

33. I've had the privilege of spending some time with him

He is cautious and measured (even "conservative," but as defined in English, not as in Foxese), but he is not weak, and has not lost sight of his ideals.

[WhiteAndNerdy]

47. That's the impression I've had.

He is not an impulsive person. He seems to deliberate very seriously before taking action. Unfortunately, it's easy for the public to misinterpret that. I tend to be the same way, and my caution and deliberation are sometimes interpreted as laziness or just not caring by the people around me, and that's bad enough in the life of a private citizen, but a president is expected to act swiftly and decisively. There are times when caution is necessary in politics, but it doesn't look good sometimes.

[certainot]

38. don't forget

can hardly be called ineffective unless all you watch is Fox "News."

talk radio

[DFW]

39. That, too, of course

I call it it cumulatively "National Hate Radio." It has more of an influence on the public than the Republicans in Congress, I think, but it is a factor to be reckoned with, to be sure.

[certainot]

42. i think of it as the lie turd pie under fox's visual icing

i agree with your assessment.

it's his nature to cooperate and compromise. unfortunately the left kept ignoring one of the right's most effective weapons and allowed the 1%'s think taanks to create one loony made-to-order constituency after another. because the left and the administration and the dem party ignored their rw radio buzz machine the MSM and pols were was able to portray that alternate reality as conventional wisdom, as if limbaugh and hannity and spawn had their finger on it as opposed to actually creating it.

if the left ever stops ignoring rw radio as a propaganda tool for the CIA, GOP, COC, and ALEC, the media (inc fox) and republican loon reps and their go-along corporate dems will stop feeling that blowhard wind in their sails.

and obama can really do something with the last 2 years, dems can get a lot more liberal, and win everything in 2016.

[Hekate]

46. Sounds like an excellent analysis, DFW.

I find it gratifying that my assessment of his character, though from afar, seems to be in accord with yours.

Best of holiday wishes to you,

Hekate

[DFW]

48. Thanks, Hekate, and all the best to you and yours as well!

Due to how the calendar is set up this year, my schedule is a mess this week, starting in Germany, going through Belgium and France, back to Germany and ending up in South Carolina. But once I'm in Charleston, I promise not to budge for 6 days, which is sort of a glacial age in my job. A guy I know will be there, and it turns out he is the banjo player in a bluegrass band (how was I to know?), so there will be some Flatt & Scruggs resurrections late into the night in the hotel lobby this year!

[Hekate]

49. Making and sharing live music is one of my favorite things. Lucky you!

[DFW]

50. Been doing it forever

Even after I took on this crazy job that Jason Bourne would have turned down due to excessive travel and long hours, I never stopped taking time out to play music. I have had the privilege of playing for presidents (Ford and Clinton) and jamming with fellow guitarist Howard Dean late into the night playing Leo Kottke's 12 string guitar tunes. Only amputation at the wrist could ever take that away from me.

[DCBob]

52. Well said.

Totally agree.

[joshcryer]

56. Only President in history who has never had a budget passed.

Think about that one. It's always been continuing resolutions.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

58. !!!

So well said, DFW!

The pukes also can NOT comprehend because hope, decency, The Good of the many, are not part of their makeup.

They operate solely by the rule of the jungle...might makes right; flatter the strong, use and destroy the weak.

[uponit7771]

59. +1

[cilla4progress]

61. In addition, he's a community organizer.

I was a community organizer in my 20s, in the VISTA program. How they work is to mobilize communities. They don't do FOR, they do WITH. That is the only way progress is sustainable: motivating the community itself. The proverbial hand up, not hand out.

[MADem]

65. Good analysis. I very much agree! nt

[cstanleytech]

54. Could be alot of reasons why but I suspect

he was being advised to try not to rock the boat to much in order to try and keep the democrats as the majority in atleast the senate but now that isnt a concern anymore he is free to tell the republicans to shove it up their ass.

[madokie]

4. Torment the bastards Mr. President

fuck'm and the righteousness they rode in on

[Cosmic Kitten]

5. "Free" to bury the Torture report and the CRomnibus sellout?

[BootinUp]

6. Thats the best out of your 360 posts

imho.

[Cosmic Kitten]

8. 360! Already? ;~)

[BootinUp]

9. I was being sarcastic though

I think your attempt to attack him in this thread is stupid,

[Cosmic Kitten]

11. Doh! Didn't you sleep well last night?

Why are you being all passive aggressive to DUers?

[BootinUp]

12. I not play the game properly? lol.

[Cosmic Kitten]

13. Hey, want to derail this thread....

Keep up the good work

[BootinUp]

14. 10-4!

[jalan48]

7. Exactly

Let's try and keep President Obama in balance. He's a moderate Democrat. He does not share Warren and Sander's view of Wall St. I don't believe anyone elected President can go against the surveillance state. They, along with the big financial interests are the folks really running the country.

[Cosmic Kitten]

10. Reid used the "nuclear option" to pass CRomnibus...

but couldn't do that for Health Care Reform.

And McConnell has threatened he will go full nukes
when he assumes control of the Senate!
Great work, Reid!

[jalan48]

17. Americans have been sold on the idea

that centrist Democrats are somehow "liberals". This skews the political spectrum to the right making people like Romney and Bush lll look center of the road as well. Progressives are left with voting for the lesser of two evils, which has been the case since the 70's. McGovern was probably the last true liberal to get the party nomination.

[BootinUp]

20. I love these false naratives, lets consider another alternate history

where Democrats made no effort to appeal to voters concerns and we never had a President Clinton or President Obama. So instead we had Bush 1 for 2 terms, then Dole, then Romney. Additionally, we had many less House members and Senators. Sounds rosy.

[LiberalElite]

21. What's false about it? nt

[BootinUp]

23. Whats right about it?

Seriously, my alternate history is what that post begs for.

[jalan48]

22. So how did things get so screwed up?

[BootinUp]

24. Money, power, greed, and stupidity.

We have to fight the best way we can, and there will be mistakes along the way.

[jalan48]

28. Sounds good! Now let's go after those Wall St. crooks! That's a start.

[certainot]

40. the left ignored rw radio

and allowed 25 years of unchallenged repetition with a classic PSYOPS

[maddiemom]

44. You have a point.

[PoliticAverse]

51. They actually had 60+ votes to end debate on the budget bill, no nuclear option was needed

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/12/17/who-voted-to-end-debate-on-the-budget-bill/

[magical thyme]

16. don't forget TPP. Free to sell out sovereignty to United Corporations of the Globe

and the New World Order initiated by Bush I way back when.

[FiveGoodMen]

63. Yup.

If he did everything else perfectly, his support of the TPP would still make him a traitor.

And yes, when you deliberately try to put a democratic government under the control of foreign and international powers, you're a traitor.

If he succeeds, the US will never have the final say in anything it does ever again.

[Darb]

30. Whaaaaaaaaa,

Where's my pony?



I don't know where it is.

[Doctor_J]

41. seems to be inflicting as much or more pain on dems as on repukes

[Broward]

62. May be he'll finally get those SS cuts he's been angling for too.

[edhopper]

15. Learn from Clinton

the more he fought them, the less he let them have their way, the more popular he was.

[BootinUp]

19. Ok, now I need to make some popcorn, lol.

You kind of threw the gauntlet down there.

[OhZone]

26. I wish -

he had done this from the start - or, at least, when most of us realized the GOP would never cooperate. Oh well.

[edhopper]

31. For a smart guy

he was a slow learner.

That and i think he just didn't have the same priorities as progressives did.

[jalan48]

32. Yep-Obama as the innocent, naive politician seems a bit much

[joshcryer]

57. I don't recall Clinton "fighting them."

[PoliticAverse]

60. There were 2 government shutdowns over budget fights during Clinton's terms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_government_shutdowns_of_1995_and_1995%E2%80%9396

[sammy750]

18. I love his attitude. To the Republicans he can say Fuck U.

He can take them on and accomplish a lot the next to years. The GOP most likely won't do much, if the past 4 years are any indication.

[maddiemom]

45. The past SIX years.

The concept of the "loyal opposition" grew obsolete with Carter, evolved into open warfare with Clinton, and became unhinged hatred with Obama. Like any cornered, dying animal, the Republican party has turned mindlessly vicious, caring nothing for the good of those they're elected to represent. The few remaining sane minds among them are turned on at showing the least sign of reason. It will take a longer time to return to reasoned government, if not already too late. I'm pushing seventy and can remember when there were many sane and well-meaning Republicans. I'd like to live long enough to see their return. If not, their very deserved demise as a party.

[Fred Sanders]

29. I do not agree that Obama is seeking to torment back the folks that tormented him for 6 years.

What torments him is bad policy and not having yet been able to make good policy.

When you sign up with the Pope to free Cuba you have to be the kind of person tormented by the lack of compassion of your tormentors.

[DFW]

35. That's kind of harsh

This Pope is not like his predecessors.

Besides, what's better? Coordinating a new track with the Pope or a Bay of Pigs invasion?

[SmittynMo]

34. “Hope” and “Change We Can Believe In” ?

Remember back in 2008?

Well, here it comes.

[jwirr]

36. Free with the power of the veto pen, executive orders and the bully pulpit.

[The Wizard]

37. They are about to get the

Samuel L. Jackson version of Obama. McConnell and Boner are about to get the vapors.

[grahamhgreen]

43. "challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget". Bailing out the corrupt

bankers BEFORE the crash they are about to cause is hardly freedom.

[blkmusclmachine]

53. Just wait til January!!! 11-dimensional chess finally pays off...

[sendero]

55. Where was the new attack dog Obama..

... when the house attached an indefensible rider for the banksters to the Omnibus budget.

Crickets.

I'll believe Obama can be tough when I see it and I haven't seen it yet.

[Deny and Shred]

64. Your lack of Pom Poms is showing

Get it straight, this late-in-the-game-when-it-no-longer-matters tough love for Republicans is supposed to overshadow 6 years of non-attack-dog Obama. Now that previous issues have been settled to the detriment of working Americans, you are supposed to lay back and enjoy his newly-found backbone.

This is a pom pom thread - great prez or greatest prez?

TPP? What's that ???

[arely staircase]

66. recommended nt