Believe it or not, a freeper nailed it:

[jenmito]

Hispanics pissed at GOP over DREAM
Gays and lefties placated and back in the Dem fold because of DADT
Moderates mostly happy about “Obama’s tax compromise”

Credit to backscatter712's thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=570256

[Hello_Kitty]

1. I'm so glad to know I'm placated now. eom

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[great white snark]

5. The comment included lefties not the fringe. nt

[Exilednight]

15. I thought us "lefties" were the fringe. Can anyone help me out here, am I

the LOUD left?
Ultra-left?
a Marxist?
a communist?
disgruntled left?

My description seems to change on the thread to thread basis. I wish people would pick just one name calling tactic and stick with it.

[niceypoo]

29. Last week Randi Rhodes was comparing liberals to teabaggers

Saying that each represented the 'extreme' of their side.

[Patsy Stone]

2. Don't worry

Rimjob will zot him soon.

[vaberella]

3. They made Obama sound like a Mastermind. I don't know what kind of chess that was. n/t

[treestar]

6. Even freepers are right twice per day.

[vaberella]

7. Kickers! n/t

[CakeGrrl]

8. I agree with it inasmuch as

President Obama got something for the Left, the poor and the unemployed, and in the bargain got the GOP to show its ass once again.

Yeah, a real closet Republican we have there in the WH.

:sarcasm:

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. What about Log Cabin Republicans?

Could we ever count on them for any issue other that gay issues?

Republicans can still count on their votes, unless right-wingers go into screed-mode.

[backscatter712]

10. For all the teeth-gnashing, Obama does show that he's very disciplined and knows the game.

He'll take several days, or even several weeks of his base screaming and the media dogging him relentlessly if it means he gets the last laugh in the end...

[jenmito]

11. Yup...

despite all the snarky remarks about Obama playing 3-D chess, he's clearly smarter than some here give him credit for. He knows what he's doing.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. What has become obvious: the charges of "on over his head"

are little more than the expression of latent racism. The man can certainly have a lot of charges laid at his feet, but that's clearly not one of them.

It's now clearly marks that I'm dealing with somebody who has let racism get the better of them, if only temporarily: "He's inept!" It's manifestly not true, and there's only one real way for such a thought to enter somebody's head.

[jenmito]

20. I agree...

not only the way some say he's "in over his head," but the unprecedented way some congresspeople disrespect him PUBLICLY.

[political_Dem]

28. [phone]

[jenmito]

30. Thanks! n/t

[political_Dem]

33. No problem. :)

[old mark]

12. I feel strangely....palcated...I feel like smoking a cigarette now....

But will Obama respect me in the morning?


mark

[Dawgs]

13. "lefties back in the Dem fold"

More like wishful thinking of many on DU.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

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

[Chan790]

19. I'm neither thanks.

I complain just about never, it's the ethic I was raised in..."If my life is shitty then I have only me to blame." Effort, not kvetching, changes things.

As for never in the fold, I worked for the campaign in a mid-level position so if I was never in the fold it would both be news to me...and I'd have been the best unconscious plant in history. (I turned down an administration job.) I was aware early-on that he was functionally a center-right candidate, same as Hillary Clinton, but I was blissfully-unaware he was a coward. He really is a coward, that's past debate at this point. If it walks, squawks and acts like a duck; it's not a {whatever the fuck eats elephants}.

No, this presidency is just 3 bridges past a bridge too far at this point. I applaud Obama's success on DADT but he's going to have to do a lot more (DOMA, DREAM, take a second bite at the health-care issue to fix cost-control and services-availability, hands-off on Social Security, raise taxes on individuals and families earning over $1M/yr. dramatically.) to get me back and a lot of that would necessitate a fundamentally different approach and the ability to magically convert the House back to Democratic control (or a much better player of "suicide poker" than we have.) Pragmatism is a idiot's game. Pragmatists are idiots...it's worse to compromise to half-measures having started on the wrong side of midfield than to go hard and lose. (Thus setting a benchmark of your limits for next time.)

Hint: This is what the GOP does and it is why they keep winning ground even under Democratic presidents...not the corporate-media excuse, not the blue-dog excuse or the Rahm excuse or any other excuse. The GOP wins because they're smart enough to "kill" their traitors and hold the line. Compromise is a dirty word for them...they know that all-of-nothing is better than half-a-raw-deal. I know this because I started on that side, I was a CR in college, a CPAC attendee and a Rove acolyte. (I really was a plant then...I wanted to learn their game to use it against them. I now know we can't because many in the Democratic fold would rather be marginalized than play dirty. Me? I cheat at Candyland because the ends justify the means.) I know their game. Their coalition holds together because they have zero qualms about eating their disloyal own...if Ben Nelson was a Republican and acted the way he does, they'd outlaw corn to spite him and make sure the people of Nebraska suffered to send him packing.

The only way we're getting a fundamentally different approach is with a different candidate. One who will not play into their hands.

[Ikonoklast]

26. I hate to let you in on a little secret, but pragmatists run things.

While the idealists are thinking great thoughts, the people that actually *do* things are getting them done.

And calling this President a 'coward' says more about you than it does about him.

[jenmito]

27. Great reply

to a long wrong post.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

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

[jenmito]

34. Uncalled for.

[Chan790]

31. There is the crux of our problem...(which is that that is a half-truth, at-best)

Our pragmatists run things, they do pragmatic things to achieve small victories that never seem to add up to large victories. Our pragmatists need to not be elected dog-catcher, let alone run things if that's the best they can do.

Their extremists run things, they hold lines and eat their traitors. They take what we foolishly give away (which is about as much as we win), then they use their solidarity and our defectors to take-by-force large victories from time-to-time.

In the end, things drift ever rightward and towards big money because we can't hold the line. Frankly, the electorate's low expectations are part of the problem. Demand he fight for you, demand accountability for him from the voters and he will preside better. He said it himself: "make me do it." Think sailboats, they too move only in response to force.

I see necessity in pragmatism but pragmatism is only effective when it's mixed into equal quantities of utilizing the bully-pulpit and blunt-force politics. (This is called "Carrots and Sticks" but I laugh more when Eddie Izzard refers to it as "Cake or Death") When has this president ever used either without later caving and doing exactly what he said he would not? I cannot recall...and if you stand resolute for nothing you'll end up with what they give you.

Absolute pragmatists do little but run themselves from office...just like Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush did. Decent pragmatists know it's not really a compromise unless both sides are bleeding...something Bill Clinton and Woodrow Wilson knew. Good pragmatists know that the only truly-worthwhile compromise is the one your opponent has to bloody themselves for and you can take to the people saying "We did it!"...first you bloody their nose, then you offer to compromise and make sure that compromise includes a (their) "pound of flesh". (That's what you learn by studying the approach of TR, Truman, FDR and LBJ.) Politics is bloodsport and playground-rules apply. If you want to hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", go to day-camp. If you want cheer-lead and root for the home-team right-or-wrong...well, it's Sunday, there's football, hockey and basketball on. But if you dislike trench combat, stay the hell away from politics. It's not compared to sausage-making for nothing.

Okay, coward was harsh (but only because he's eaten their lunch once (on DADT)), he needs to do it every day from here on out. Make them be anxious about what they're going to have to bleed over in the House to get what they want past the veto pen. Fortunately, every president learns on the job and I think someone (who I won't call a coward again if he keeps this up.) has finally learned how to twist arms to get what he wants. (Maybe)

[Sheepshank]

23. ya but..

your assumption is that many who post here are actual lefties. I question that. *wink*

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. I am NOT "back in the fold" to much bellying up to rethugs to bring me back into his fold

[jenmito]

21. I don't know that you were ever IN "the fold." n/t

[ElsewheresDaughter]

35. you don't know much then

[mkultra]

24. nor will you ever be.

[The Green Manalishi]

18. The game isn't over until it's over

I, for one, am going to look at the scorecard in 2012 and see what we won or lost over four years. There have been things I liked so far, things I thought terrible, things well and quickly done, things where I wondered if the President and his staff had s contest to see who could keep their thumbs up their asses the longest..... Although I loath sports and sports analogies, what matters is the score at the end of the game.

Getting DADT repealed the long way, the hard way, the more permanent way is not how I wished he would have done it, but I am not POTUS.

Not too happy with the tax bill, but we have to consider that deference to the rich (because 'we' think we can be one of them someday, etc) is a deep part of the American psyche; "the business of the American people is business" still rings true and deep.

The health care mess is ugly, expensive, beholden to all the wrong people and doesn't look like it will work so well, but we're talking Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk here, not the Concord or even the DC-3.

Sometimes I think my pony's gotta be around somewhere given all the horse crap......

[jenmito]

22. I don't get these comments:

"Getting DADT repealed the long way, the hard way, the more permanent way is not how I wished he would have done it, but I am not POTUS."

Why would you NOT want him to get it done the more permanent way? You want the next president to be able to overturn it?

"Not too happy with the tax bill, but we have to consider that deference to the rich (because 'we' think we can be one of them someday, etc) is a deep part of the American psyche; "the business of the American people is business" still rings true and deep."

Do you think that Obama feels that way? He campaigned for years on repealing the tax cuts for the rich, but the Senate wouldn't do it. He had to give a two-year extension for those tax cuts so he could get everything ELSE he DID want for the other 98% of people.

[mkultra]

25. welcome to DU and DADT was done the right way

not the wrong way. The UI extension was more important than the rich. HCR had many excellent changes that have made a big difference in my life. Your listening to the wrong broadcast.