Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

[Pilotguy]

You hear it everywhere. Democrats are disappointed in the president. Independents have soured even more. Republicans have worked themselves up into an apocalyptic fervor. And, yes, this is not exactly unusual.
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A president in the last year of his first term will always get attacked mercilessly by his partisan opponents, and also, often, by the feistier members of his base. And when unemployment is at remarkably high levels, and with the national debt setting records, the criticism will—and should be—even fiercer. But this time, with this president, something different has happened. It’s not that I don’t understand the critiques of Barack Obama from the enraged right and the demoralized left. It’s that I don’t even recognize their description of Obama’s first term in any way. The attacks from both the right and the left on the man and his policies aren’t out of bounds. They’re simply—empirically—wrong.

A caveat: I write this as an unabashed supporter of Obama from early 2007 on. I did so not as a liberal, but as a conservative-minded independent appalled by the Bush administration’s record of war, debt, spending, and torture. I did not expect, or want, a messiah. I have one already, thank you very much. And there have been many times when I have disagreed with decisions Obama has made—to drop the Bowles-Simpson debt commission, to ignore the war crimes of the recent past, and to launch a war in Libya without Congress’s sanction, to cite three. But given the enormity of what he inherited, and given what he explicitly promised, it remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb. Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama’s long game—and why his reelection remains, in my view, as essential for this country’s future as his original election in 2008.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sullivan-how-obama-s-long-game-will-outsmart-his-critics.html

[Skittles]

1. the chess game

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Tx4obama]

3. Yes, it IS a chess game - but some folks will never acknowledge it.

Like Chris Christie (R-NJ) said the other day: ‘Those Who Underestimate Barack Obama, Underestimate Him At Their Own Peril’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511244

[GeorgeGist]

5. NO it is not a chess game ...

and it is simply pandering to stupidity to claim otherwise.

[Tx4obama]

7. Yes, it IS a chess game - here is one recent example ...

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002125560

[Skittles]

14. sorry, it is not

even if he wins he could have played better

[downwardly_mobile]

17. On old DU2, someone said it perfectly once --

"18-Dimensional Chess" is not very effective in a "Hungry Hungry Hippos" world.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9460873&mesg_id=9461110

(Hat tip to bullwinkle428)

[DCBob]

19. That would be great if things were as simple as a hungy hippo game.

but clearly they are not.

[1stlady]

2. I love it, good article, thanks for posting!!!

[cyberspirit]

4. Refreshing

After all the criticism, the negativity, the obnoxious chatter, the lies, the exaggerations, the adolescent rumblings, finally a moment of relief and truth.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Some adolescents believe ...

it is a chess game that Obama is playing.

[Tx4obama]

8. I am NOT an adolescent. See comment #7 in this thread.

I am 50+ years old - so where are you getting any FACTS from that it is adolescents are the ones that say/believe that it is a chess game?

[dionysus]

22. i feel bad for you.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Andrew Sullivan was a huge Iraq War Cheerleader. It is interesting to read his apologia

for his adoration of Cheney and W, and more interesting to note what he says he thought of those on 'the left' with whom Sully disagreed. This is part of his attempt to explain away his wrongs:
"When I heard the usual complaints from the left about how we had no right to intervene, how Bush was the real terrorist, how war was always wrong, my trained ears heard the same cries that I had heard in the 1980s. So I saw the opposition to the war as another example of a faulty Vietnam Syndrome, associated it with the far left, or boomer nostalgia, and was revolted by the anti-war marches I saw in Washington. I became much too concerned with fighting that old internal ideological battle, and failed to think freshly or realistically about what the consequences of intervention could be. I allowed myself to be distracted by an ideological battle when what was required was clear-eyed prudent."

So he admits that he was not only wrong on the war, also wrong on how he framed the thinking of those with whom he did not agree.
Here is another great quote. I wonder how many here stand with this sort of thinking:
". In 2000, my support for Bush was not deep. I thought he was an okay, unifying, moderate Republican who would be fine for a time of peace and prosperity. I was concerned - ha! - that Gore would spend too much. I was reassured by the experience and intelligence and pedigree of Cheney and Rumsfeld and Powell. Two of them had already fought and won a war in the Gulf. The bitter election battle hardened my loyalty."
Reassured that Cheney and Rummy were in charge!
So he's saying what now? And his standing is? And he was right in the past when?
Sully said this at the time of his 'change of heart': "But what was done to America - and the meaning of America - was unforgivable. And for that I will not and should not forgive myself either."
And yet he still says the same things with the same smug arrogance that he always said. "The left is wrong, always, except when they are so right that in disagreeing with them I will harm America....'
He needs to do penance, instead he just keeps selling his words, no matter what the results of those words.
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/03/what-i-got-wrong-about-iraq/218707/

[Kolesar]

16. That's how I remember Sullivan...eom

[Edweird]

10. "Outsmart"? Just do the right thing and the criticism will end.

[Pisces]

11. A great analysis of Obama's first term. I don't agree with Sullivan on all issues, however, he is

correct that both the right and the far left describe the President in unrecognizable terms.

[JNelson6563]

12. It's not a chess game but a perspective.

Obama tends to take the long view. Too many are unable to do that.

Julie

[alfredo]

13. Both Obama and Sullivan are conservatives. Obama conservative?

Those who think otherwise weren't paying attention to his voting record in the Senate. He is a pragmatic center right conservative. I'd rather he'd be a progressive, but I can live with his actions so far. Some pissed me off, some made me smile.

[Kolesar]

15. No

[alfredo]

21. He's a lot more conservative than me, but that doesn't mean I won't support him.

[DCBob]

18. Well said Andrew.

That is very close to how I feel about the situation.

[Scurrilous]

20. K & R