How Obama Lost His Way

[laststeamtrain]

consortiumnews.com

How Obama Lost His Way

By Robert Parry
January 20, 2010

President Barack Obama spent his first year in office trying to reassure the Washington/New York establishments that he was not going to upset their apple carts too much, that they shouldn’t panic, that he would – despite all the speeches – be more about continuity than change.

And he succeeded. The big banks were pulled back from the brink; the auto industry survived; the stock markets rebounded; a new Great Depression was averted; the national security elites praised Obama’s more nuanced rhetoric as he continued many of George W. Bush’s war policies; even the Washington Post’s neoconservative editorial page editor Fred Hiatt gave Obama mostly high marks for his first year.

“I’d like to interrupt the anniversary-bash-Obama-fest with a simple proposition: Obama has done a good job so far,” Hiatt wrote in a Jan. 19 column entitled “Obama’s first-year success.”

Yet the first major political judgment on Obama’s “responsible” behavior came later that same day in Massachusetts when a little-known right-wing Republican state senator, Scott Brown, defeated Attorney General Martha Coakley by five percentage points to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

It turned out that what Obama had accomplished politically in his first year was to associate himself and the Democratic Party with the widely despised national establishments.

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http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/012010.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Very sad...

in Massachusetts when a little-known right-wing Republican state senator, Scott Brown, defeated Attorney General Martha Coakley by five percentage points to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

[blueknight]

2. after this first year

i dont know if this administration ever "had a way" just a lot of lip service, we bought, hook. line and sinker

[Tesha]

3. I would highly recommend that everyone read the rest of the linked article. (NT)

[BrklynLiberal]

8. It is a superb article...

Yet again we have ignored George Lakoff and his teachings about framing the debate. We have let the RWingers continue to do it.

[Tutankhamun]

4. The idea that Obama was simply naive in expecting bipartisanship is nonsense.

He knew damn well there would be no bipartisanship. He's clearly a corporatist who uses the right for an excuse when his administration screws over the American people.

[Riverman]

5. This is one of the best Analysis recently posted here or elsewhere

He is right that us "lefties" have left the heavy lifting to Obama and similar democrats.

Time to fight!

[ONE PUNCH]

7. obama is to nice.

Thats his problem,he has no fire in his belly and he dosen't get angry enough, if he dosen't show some meaness, and put his foot down, he's going to be a 1 term president..

[DonCoquixote]

6. The one quote that will truly offend some here

Yet, beyond what Obama must do, there is what American progressives must do. They must disabuse themselves of their long-standing role as bystanders. Already, some left-wing critics are churning out opinion pieces that argue that Obama’s big mistake was not taking a purely leftist approach to all problems, as if most Americans are closet Marxists waiting for a call to the barricades.

If the Left wants politicians to act with more courage on behalf of popular reforms, then progressives must get serious about building media and other institutions to make the case to the American people. It’s not enough to demand that Obama do all this heavy lifting.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Perhaps too much responsibility and too many tasks were given over to President Obama.

The only ones who have remained adamant and active are Labor.

[Larkspur]

11. The Left has think tanks. The Brookings Institute is one

but our wealthy Leftists don't want to fund a counter Media. they are still reliving the 1960's

[Rapanui1]

10. We fought for Obama-but Obama never recibrocated

A lo0t of us fought really hard to get Obama elected. However, when it came to the public option, Obama even refused to fight hard for us. In 2012 I definitely plan the same lip service I have received thus far from Obama. I am beginning to belive that Harry, pelosi and Obama are the triad of incompetence

[Larkspur]

12. True quote

Whether he likes it or not, Barack Obama is in a political war – and he is losing.

Obama better chuck his "Bill Clinton" strategy and quickly adopt the FDR one before its too late.