Obama's Been Trying to Tell You

[babylonsister]

Obama's Been Trying to Tell You
By fitz2 - June 26, 2008, 2:29PM

Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them.
-"The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama



There is no clearer insight into Senator Obama's political and personal views than his two books. While "The Audacity of Hope" is most definitely a political book, it also has a level of honesty that speaks to the reader. The question is, did people listen?

Obama's not a left winger, centrist, liberal Democrat, conservative Democrat, progressive or any of the other generalizations that we try to use to group us together in defiance of "them." He has always rejected such ideological rigidity in favor of a more pragmatic politics. This is just reality.

For me, that's exactly what I want in a leader. I don't want a president who tries to do everything and does nothing, nor one who appeals only to my views, for I know there are few others out there who would agree with all of them. Instead, I want a leader who I think is smart enough to know what he can do and what he can't. Often times this will mean he goes against my views, perhaps even some of my more fundamental precepts, in which case I will tell him.

But that doesn't mean I'll stop doing what I can to help him get elected, and then to be a successful president, because it's not about me or him. It's about getting our country moving forward again in a variety of areas. If I see him treading water on FISA or even pushing us further into the depths of constitutional crisis, I will tell him, but I will still help him move us forward on a whole host of other issues that are equally important to our country.

To listen to the commentary recently on Obama's position on FISA and even his position on capital punishment, you would think Benedict Arnold had just tried to surrender West Point. I believe this level of fervor betrays a lack of perspective towards our problems and what he can do to fix them. Here's a news flash: the Bush administration has screwed up our government in countless ways; even as president, Obama won't be able to fix them all, and he surely can't as a candidate and junior senator from Illinois.

In addition though, he's also a politician who has to work within the political climate created by the Bush administration's politics of fear. While many here may see through the lies and innuendo this administration has lived by, the majority of Americans have a less informed view, mostly owing to a media that does nothing to help broaden citizens' perspectives.

more...

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/06/obamas-been-trying-to-tell-you.php

[ulysses]

1. disagree with one thing.

he's also a politician who has to work within the political climate created by the Bush administration's politics of fear

This is really where we keep failing ourselves, when we look at the current landscape (smoking and blackened after 7.5 years of Bush) and say, "Ok, how do I work myself into this scenario". No. Change the landscape.

[babylonsister]

2. Do you expect him to do that before November?

And how would he go about it?

He's going for unity, within our party and out, to win in November. That is what he has to do. Then he'll tackle some of the most severe problems. I do like his goals, too:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/26/141649/021

Rolling Stone gets Obama to give the most succinct explanation of his goals as president:

WENNER: "Is there a marker you would lay down at the end of your first term where you say, ‘If this has happened or not happened, I would consider it a negative mark on my governance’?"

OBAMA: "If I haven’t gotten combat troops out of Iraq, passed universal health care and created a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming, then we’ve missed the boat. Those are three big jobs, so it’s going to require a lot of attention and imagination, and it’s going to require the American people feeling inspired enough that they’re prepared to take on these big challenges."

[ulysses]

4. I don't "expect" him to do anything. I do think that the GE

is the best time to bring your own game instead of playing the other guy's.

[Kweli4Real]

13. No...

I'd argue that the best time to bring one's own game is AFTER one gets elected.

[AndyA]

5. If ever there were a time for a candidate to make major changes to the landscape,

this is it.

With soaring gas prices, the most unpopular pResident in history, a Republican Party that has nothing but terror to sell, and an American public that is FED UP with the terror threats, now is the time to blaze a new trail.

People want CHANGE. Big change. Not just the promise of change, which is nothing more than political manure. We don't want to propagate and build on Bush's "legacy," we need to destroy it and take a sharp left turn.

Obama needs to set his standards higher. Bushco has lowered the bar so far you'd have to be a slug to slither under it.

[The Traveler]

12. While I sympathize with your position

I can't really say I agree with your tactics. I ponder now the fact we are talking about Barack Obama and not Harry Potter ... this is not going to happen with the wave of a hand. A generation of systematic propoganda serving right wing interests cannot be undone without time, even after major shocks and revelations. The public must be given access to better information, time to digest it, and that must provide the intellectual fuel of a grass roots reform movement.

Obama and other Democrats have made serious inroads into the public's mind set lately. But the centrist positions of the 1970s are now perceived to be radically left by a public mind drubbed over 25 years by the right wing machine. I think Obama has a shrewd read on how far he can push his movement as a whole based on the public's state of consciousness.

Friend, Bush built on the ill legacies of Reagan and his own father to drive us 10 miles into the swamp. We aren't getting out with a one mile hike, and there are lots of snakes and gators around us. We can't fix everything at once, so we have to fix what is most critical first.

Having said that, regarding FISA, has Obama lost his frackin' mind? Seems to me that is one of the critical things we gotta fix first!

[stillcool]

6. no one person is going to change anything...

I think this is where we keep failing ourselves.

[ulysses]

8. right - which is why I don't advocate

that we all clam up and leave all the change up to Barack. :)

[stillcool]

10. I think we are too easily manipulated...

to do anything of value. We are as much puppets on a string as the media that is quoted ad nauseam every day. It's kind of hard to believe that we the people in our respective states can't even get the 3 human beings in DC we have access to, to do right by us.

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. I agree somewhat

Reading his books led me to respect him a great deal, but something I thought was abundantly clear was that he wasn't far left and seemed to disdain the left/right paradigm ... searching for the compromises that would move our country forward.
Good stuff.

However, in my view this makes him a centrist, whether he like the term or not.
There are issues which transcend left or right and he recognizes this in Audacity of Hope. Personally, I think basic constitutional guarantees rate highly among those issues.
Early on I had the impression that he felt the same way about this as I do but I was disabused of that quite a while ago.

I still respect him based on his books, and on that basis I have hope that he will do some very good, or even great, things.... but I am less than pleased with his current performance.

[midnight]

7. The messages from this primary election I have

received showed me that Edwards jumped out of the box that washington put him in, and Obama is working within that Washington Box-FISA mentality. Ok I will vote for my parties pick-Obama. But my mind will constantly be on why would a man with a law background in the constitution work within the box on this one.

[babylonsister]

9. To win? He's in GE mode; he hasn't been elected yet. nt

[depakid]

11. I guess rationalizations for this behavior were inevitable

Sounds a lot like parents who make up excuses for a naughty child.

Quite condescending to his readers, too.

[Larkspur]

14. I have no intention of reading Obama's book

Not interested. I'm not giving him any more of my money. He can prostitute himself to those "centrist" or is that "corporate" citizens he's chasing after now.