Mr. President: Use the damn bully pulpit!

[jillan]

Snips -


President Obama is the only person in the country with the clout to reframe the debate on public sector unions in a more sensible manner, and he seems to have wrapped himself in a radio silence. One can only assume it’s a deliberate, tactical, decision, an attempt to win back anti-union, conservative independent voters. After all, when the president wants things said, he has a remarkable ability to make himself heard. The chief executive can command national attention simply by calling a prime time press conference, or asking the networks to set aside some air time for a presidential address to the nation. And in Obama’s case, he’s not only the president; he’s also a first rate orator with an almost preternatural ability to get people to see things his way when he really wants them to.

So, how about using that presidential bully pulpit to defend not just Wisconsin’s beleaguered unions, but, more generally, union culture in America? How about addressing the nation tomorrow about what is happening in Wisconsin. Sure, he’d be accused of partisanship -- an accusation that he seems to fear above all others; but so was Roosevelt when he held those devastatingly effective fireside chats with America to sell progressive New Deal policies like Social Security, public works programs, and the eight hour work day – as well as to warn his audience not to be taken in by the reactionary words of moneyed interests opposed to his reforms. At a certain point, politics is, by definition, partisan.

During the Great Depression, FDR unabashedly sided with unions in the great workplace battles of the day, and time and again he used the presidential bully pulpit to take on the moneyed interests whose actions had precipitated financial collapse.

A generation later, Lyndon Johnson used the Oval Office bully pulpit to equally potent, but "partisan," effect when he took to the airwaves to argue the moral imperative of passing meaningful civil rights and voting rights acts.

Today, three quarters of a century after FDR rallied the nation to back his New Deal, a liberal president, with a background in community organizing, is standing largely silent as the single biggest rollback of American workers’ rights in modern times unfolds. It’s shaping up to be one of the great, and most tragic, ironies in American political history

Read the entire piece at:
http://www.salon.com/news/wisconsin/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/03/10/obama_wisconsin_unions :patriot:

[monmouth]

1. I'm starting to wonder about his new "close advisers." They appear

to be pretty conservative. I wish he would stand on his own and stand up....

[yurbud]

28. you don't have to wonder. They are DLC, corporate toadies to the bone. Obama has stood on his own

just not for us.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. I'm sure he would if he wanted to. Guess he doesn't want to. n/t

[Ninga]

16. You hit the nail on the head!

[C_U_L8R]

3. I think he's waiting

and sticking to the adage...when you're opponents are digging themselves into a hole, don't stop them.
Played right, the election-time blowback on the GOP has the potential to be absolutely devastating.

Played right.

[jillan]

4. These are real lives at stake. Not a time to play politics.

[RKP5637]

7. I've been thinking similar, give them some rope and they'll hang themselves, then

by election the GOP will have proven their failures and the masses will be really awake.

[xchrom]

5. Recommend

[fasttense]

6. Our Democratic President doesn't know how to fight back.

He really doesn't. All his life he gave in, accommodated and went along. He never really had to fight. We need to teach him how to fight. We need to get out there in large numbers day after day, just like in Wisconsin.

We are the only people who can teach him how to fight back.

[Tansy_Gold]

17. Oh, he knows perfectly well HOW to fight back. He doesn't want to

He doesn't care. He doesn't fucking care.

He knows what were the right phrases, the right slogans to get us to vote his sorry ass into the White House, riding in on the wave of our hopes and dreams and longing for change. He knows what we want, and he knows exactly how to get it.

But he couldn't care less about us. He doesn't fucking care.

Chineses fortune cookie fortune:

"Leadership is defined by action, not position."

The difference between Obama and McCain is that Obama will smile nice and throw us a few sops here and there and tell us more of the lies that made us feel good during the campaign and tht very very brief honeymood in November '08. McCain and Palin would have just bulldozed everything.

So are we better off? Nominally. But maybe the catastrophes have just been delayed, and they'll hit just as hard, if not harder, because we were lulled into complacency driven by false hope.


Or you can prove me wrong.


TG

[Pholus]

8. At least this is a defining moment. A campaign pledge will be kept or broken in the next few days.

And that will tell me everything I need to know. :)

[Marblehead]

9. I sent him

an email, I expect him to get right on it..

[Pholus]

10. As I mentioned on another thread. I am sending a pair of size 12's today along with a request

that they be used in support of a campaign promise.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. Save the postage. He doesn't give a fuck. n/t

[LiberalEsto]

12. Why should he care?

He's too busy kicking repuke and corporate asses to worry about us peons.

[NorthCarolina]

14. "Kicking",

or "Licking"?

[disillusioned73]

13. I remember him saying that he was willing to be a one term President..

as long as it meant doing what was right for this country and its people... I am anxiously waiting for that type of commitment.

[jillan]

15. I guess he changed his mind. He's acting like he wants to be a 2 term President & will play it

"safe" for the next 2 years.

[Doctor_J]

20. I think he will be surprised

when a big chunk of the 70 million who voted for him last time stay home. All his pandering to Fox will have gotten him nothing.

[Populist_Prole]

18. "Yes we Can", But we won't.

[Doctor_J]

19. Liberal president?

:rofl:

[FlyByNight]

21. They're (Wisconsin union folk) apparently...

a distraction from the White House "win the future" (about as equally vapid as "yes we can") campaign.

:eyes:

[Fearless]

22. He is no Democrat of mine. As far as I'm concerned, he can fuck himself.

[libmom74]

23. +1,000,000

[yurbud]

24. he's using the bully pulpit to side with the bullies and insult his voter base

[Marnie]

25. It is an intereseing contrast that Obama would unleash

Rham and other WH spokes persons to insult Obama's own base for two years, but when it comes to Rick Scott, or Scott Walker, or Death Panels Brewer in Arizona, or secessionist Whorehouse Perry in Texas we get mealy mouthed platitudes, and not even very much of that.

Obama's rope a dope strategy isn't working for his base because we are the one's taking the actual punches. It is out blood that is being spilled, it is our knees that are giving way.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Enthusiast]

27. Too late to K&R, unfortunately.

Great piece. Even many Republicans are angered by the actions of Walker, Kasich and others. I can not fathom how this would not bolster Obama's popularity.