Papantonio: Triangulation Won't Work for Obama

[GoLeft TV]

Run time: 07:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN90NdhT_ag   Posted on YouTube: March 09, 2011 By YouTube Member: golefttv Views on YouTube: 2   Posted on DU: March 09, 2011 By DU Member: GoLeft TV Views on DU: 1100

 
When Obama took office, most progressives expected an FDR-type president who would enact transformational policies to help put the country back on track. But we got instead was a mixture of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan that has left both progressives and republicans begging for change. Now that we’re stuck with a GOP majority in the House, the question on everyone’s mind is whether we can expect more Clinton-type compromise from Obama, or will he completely surrender the rest of his term to the Republicans? Mike Papantonio discusses the possibilities facing the president this year with Ari Berman, author of the new book “Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics.”

[Vincardog]

1. Nailed it

[emilyg]

2. kick

[Populist_Prole]

3. There's gotta be another reason.

2+ years of trying to reach out to conservatives has resulted in nothing but getting his hand slapped. Every time. All this bipartisanship and center/right ( at best ) policy hasn't pacified the right wing hate machine even the smallest scintilla. He has to notice that.

Gotta be something else.

- Does he really feel that way? Let's say he does. He still wouldn't shit on the working class with such gusto, if only for a matter of political self preservation.

- Is he being coerced somehow, by the real military industrial power elite?

Sorry, but I'm sensing it's the latter.

[OHdem10]

4. Actually Wall ST and Big Business drive this country. Obama

would have to have a Congress of Real Democrats
with spines of steal to stand up to these powers
and push for real change. We have too many members
on the hill indebted to WS and BB.

[AgainsttheCrown]

10. It's the system...

He was never a threat to it, he was just the most progressive person electable within it.

Thom Hartmann calls him a national Rorschach test. We saw in him our greatest hopes and conservatives projected their greatest fears.

(Of course, their view was delusional given, not only his moderation, but also the conservative nature of the establishment, its rightward drift, and most importantly its resistance to change.)

However we were justified to think that he would be an FDR like figure. Not that FDR was a raging liberal, but he was far more responsive to the left.

Obama's life story made us think that he could challenge the system, but his staff and cabinet show that he has a fundamental belief that the system works and just needs a few tweaks.

In order to achieve these tweaks he has had to move further away from the left and pay fealty to the corporate masters in order to operate within the establishments reality. We are at the point where compromises to achieve reforms produce compromised reform that are mere bandages for gaping wounds.

The healthcare debate convinced me that our system is damn near irreparably broken. Democrats couldn't sell republican healthcare reform to republicans.

He always seeks consensus, but how can you compromise with these corporatist ideologues? Their interest is not in protecting the state, but only in protecting the profits of their plutocratic overlords.

Healthcare was just the most glaring example of an establishment that is so conservative that it can only lead to a collapse. And President Obama is merely able to prop up this house with hollowed support beams. Unless he does a complete 180 course correction, eventually the super-rich will collapse upon us.

[Populist_Prole]

12. Excellent take on things

Your top 2 sentences are a perfect summation of the dynamic going on the past 2 years.

[Enthusiast]

14. Damn! Nice post!

Welcome to DU.

[AgainsttheCrown]

15. Thank you both

Long time lurker...I decided to get involved.

[Enthusiast]

13. Obama is a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Srsly. I'm with you. I have no explanation for Obama. I have suspicions.

[bbgrunt]

5. " it is Obama's chronically divided mind...." k and r

[timefortherevolution]

6. Obama stands for nothing.

[RBInMaine]

8. Ignorant hyperbolic horseshit ! SHAME ON YOU !

[timefortherevolution]

9. Shame on ME? Yeah, shame on someone who knocked on

doors for a candidate who gave the rich two more years of Bush tax cuts.

Shame on a candidate, now president, who cuts off heating oil for the poor.

Shame on a president who continues to wage a 10 year war on a country while my metropolitan city decays to a third world.

Shame on a president who annoits a secretary of treasury who profited mightily from the lies and deception banks hoisted on all of us.

Shame on a president who won't take a stand to end the off shoring of American jobs.

Shame on a president who won't break up too big to fail banks.

Shame on a president who only supported the continue dominance of our health care by monopoly health insurance companies, driven by greed.

SHAME ON YOU!

[RBInMaine]

7. SHAME on this Obama-bashing. Let's see, McGovern was CRUSHED. Carter LOST his 2nd campaign. Mondale

got CRUSHED. Dukakis got his ass whipped. All these "pure progressives" got the shit kicked out of them. But who won TWICE? CLINTON! And now he remains VERY popular WORLDWIDE and his presidency stands at 60%+. Obama's poll numbers are higher now than were both Clinton's and Reagan's at this time. He WILL win re-election, and he will do so with the 90% of registered Dems who support him and a solid majority of Independents who are already having bigtime buyers remorse with the Pukes of 2010. So enough of this fringe nonsense. I like much of what Pap says, but he is WAY off the fucking mark here, and he needs to get HIS mind in REALITY.

[AgainsttheCrown]

11. We always idealize the past

It worked for Clinton because the Republicans overplayed their hand and we had an improving economy, but it was horrible in the long run. Clinton enhanced the War on the 4th Amendment (Drug War) by wanting to appear strong. And enabled our current crises by passing NAFTA, welfare reform and the repeal of Glass-Steagall.

I think those electoral losses say more about the rot in the people, than the rot in their campaign strategies. The Southern strategy is one of the most disgusting tactics employed in the history of this nation. And that, along with the eagerness of whites in the North to "get over" race problems certainly helped Nixon, Reagan, and Bush win.

Clinton was able to effectively play both sides (appear down with issues of race and then completely ignore them when he had to) and really benefited from Ross Perot the first time and a bad candidate the next time.

The Clinton bubble has burst and we've realized that the rising tide lifted a few boats significantly higher. Now everyone else's boats are taking on water and no matter what we do, it keeps coming in steadily to weigh us down.

Triangulation now would be a failed strategy because we're nearing collapse and our economy appears to be diverging to the point where those at the top don't need us anymore.