I love President Obama, but something isn't right.

[Mike 03]

This is a good man, a brilliant man, a well-intentioned man, and a capable man. But it looks like he is getting worn down, as I most certainly would be were I in his shoes.

But this is no good.

We are engaged in a hopeless and pointless war in Afghanistan and no end is in sight. We need to get out of this war immediately.

President Obama is too nice. There is NO COMPROMISING with the Republican party. They are lying in wait to sabotage this presidency, if they have not done so already. Obama has nothing to gain from cooperating or cow-towing to their demands.

Blanche Lincoln is a perfect example of a well-meaning, very nice politician who self-destructed because in the final analysis she either didn't know, or could not stand up for, what she believed in. She wanted to please the Right and the Left, and in the act of attempting this miracle, pleased nobody and accomplished nothing.

Please, Dear President Obama: Stand your ground. This is a hideous time to be the President of the United States, but I want to believe you are the person for this moment in history, and you cannot accomplish miracles by compromise.

Namaste

[TwilightGardener]

1. He can't accomplish miracles, period. But he can try to get Congress

to pass some reasonably helpful legislation (close to a miracle), which is why I voted for him and will again. Edit to add: the expectations on this man.. holy shit.

[closeupready]

2. He's not allowed to get worn down; he's president.

If he doesn't want the job, he can quit, but he doesn't get to be worn down. Sorry.

[tavalon]

10. They all age rapidly in that position

It's far harder than it looks, I would guess. And it looks damn hard.

[one_voice]

12. Being president doesn't mean you stop...

being human. Granted they have to "keep going" no matter what; but that doesn't mean he doesn't get sick, isn't tired etc. Because he's president he doesn't have the LUXURY of relaxing and healing. He has to work through it.

When we get sick we get to take a day or two to heal, he doesn't. So I don't think it's fair to say "if he doesn't like it he can quit"; he can't fight nature. He's allowed to get worn down, as a matter of fact, I'm quite sure there's nothing he can do to prevent it.

[closeupready]

13. Okay, you and tavalon are correct.

n/t

[lamp_shade]

3. He DID stand his ground. He did the Right Thing. I expected him to. That's why I voted for him.

[Robbien]

4. He is standing his ground, it just so happens he picked the GOP ground to stand on

Watch, he won't give a centimeter to those damned pinko lefties. He staked out the ground to the right of most GOPers and there he will stand.

[yurbud]

5. yep. THIS MODERN WORLD TOON summed it up:

[Skidmore]

14. But he finally go those damned pinko lefties in Congress to

stand up and fight for something. Congress has pissed me off mightily for the past few years.

[DCBob]

6. Despite it all, I still trust the guy. I think the driving factor in most of his decisions..

is his determination to bring this country back together. I think he realizes there is no other option. This country is more divided and more polarized than ever.. perhaps since the civil war. In fact, if things keep going the way they are now we may repeat that horrific part of our history... and that is something we cannot afford.. no matter what.

[gateley]

16. I agree, although I do hold him responsible for letting it get this far. He should

have seen this coming and started the ball rolling a year or so ago. Even if something was torpedoed, keep trying to be able to repeatedly discredit the Republicans' talking points. He could have done a lot of things, I think, but didn't. I empathize with all that was dumped on him when he took office, I empathize with the emergencies (Gulf Oil Explosion) that happened, but I think he should have gathered the Dem Senators and Congresspeople and get a plan going. I could go on, but again, suffice it to say I do hold him responsible for this getting to this point. (I could be wrong, I'm aware.)

But other than that, I still trust him and I truly think he's doing what he honestly feels is best for the country.

[bigtree]

7. he looks fine to me

[marginlized]

8. He's standing his ground ... with the Republicans

And criticizing the progressive left as being too "purist".

Paul Krugman points this out on his blog today:
'There is a case for the tax cut deal, as the best of a very bad situation. But Obama did not help that case yesterday by lashing out at “purists”.'

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/the-sorrow-and-the-self-pity-2/

Argue what you want on his tax policies, but Obama is not compromising. He's being himself.

[cottonseed]

9. Dude. The Senate and House is made up of multi-millionaire politicians that WE all voted in.

He's getting what he can get. And that's shit.

I can't for the life of me figure out how people can look at the composition of our political representatives and not be able to square that with the direction we head.

[dgibby]

11. And the WH is full of them, too. n/t

[guitar man]

15. My mind keeps coming back to this quote

From Bill Hicks:

"no matter what you promise on the campaign trail – blah, blah, blah – when you win, you go into this smoke-filled room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-f**ks who got you in there. And you’re in this smoky room, and this little film screen comes down … and a big guy with a cigar goes, “Roll the film.” And it’s a shot of the Kennedy assassination from an angle you’ve never seen before … that looks suspiciously like it’s from the grassy knoll. And then the screen goes up and the lights come up, and they go to the new president, “Any questions?”

I have to wonder, just how close to the truth this is. It's becoming more and more obvious every passing day that this country is run of, by and for a handful of billionaires and everybody else can go suck it. If that's the case, we can protest, march, campaign and vote until we drop and not ever really change anything :(

[reformist2]

17. 41 Democrats in the Senate should filibuster - Let taxes go up!

Then next year, the same 41 Democrats in the Senate should tell the Republicans that the ONLY tax cuts they'll vote on are MIDDLE-CLASS tax cuts. Let the Republicans squirm. In the end it will be the Republicans that cave.