HP: Why, in Spite of Everything, I Still Love Obama

[dennis4868]

Sometimes, you need to go away to keep your love alive. Perhaps it's the change of air. Perhaps it's the change of view. Perhaps it's just the chance to stop and pause. Who knows what it is that melts away the doubts, and the disappointment? But when I gazed at my beloved, at Lake Garda last weekend, I realized that, in spite of everything, my love still burned bright.

Hey, it's true, he looked tired. He's cut back on the jokes now. He's cut back on the smiles. But when he stepped out, in my hotel room, or perhaps I should say on the giant flat-screen telly in my hotel room, I felt a stirring that wasn't like the flicker of excitement you have on an early date, when fantasies blaze, and hopes soar. What I felt was something calmer, but also stronger: the sense that I, or perhaps the 65 million Americans who voted on my behalf, had chosen well.

skip....

He might, for instance, have been thinking about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first Act he signed when he became president, and which offered basic protections against pay discrimination for women and older workers. He might have been thinking about the healthcare reform bill, which he passed a year ago, and which meant that 32 million Americans who didn't, in the world's richest nation, have access to a doctor, now did. Or the START treaty he signed with President Dmitry Medvedev, which cut, and committed both countries to continue to cut, the world's stock of nuclear weapons. He might also have been thinking of the $798bn economic stimulus plan he launched in 2009, which almost undoubtedly saved America from greater economic disaster, or the Wall Street reform bill he passed last summer, which aimed to protect ordinary Americans from abusive financial practices, and taxpayers from future bailouts, and which represented a victory over some of the most powerful lobbying forces in the land. He might have been thinking of the fact that he created more private sector jobs last year than George W. Bush did in eight years.

The entire article is here....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-patterson/why-in-spite-of-everythin_b_840966.html

[tabatha]

1. K&R went to 0.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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

[demosincebirth]

3. +100

[ReggieVeggie]

4. so, you love HuffPo or hate HuffPo?

which is it?

[brentspeak]

5. A foreigner's groveling tribute to a President she can't vote for

and whose policies and cave-ins she can't be affected by.

[Nedsdag]

7. Well, last I checked we weren't living in a police state.

Look, you thought Obama was going to be this superliberal who was going to enact every progressive program and everything was going to be hunky dory. Reality has set in.

I knew Obama was a pragmatist. Apparently you did not.

[RandomKoolzip]

9. "At least it's not a police state!" is setting the bar pretty darn low.

[brentspeak]

11. No, I did not think Obama was going to be a "superliberal"

That became clear two years ago when then-Sen. Obama gave a passionate speech on the Senate floor urging passage for the passage of TARP.

"I knew Obama was a pragmatist."

Then you "know" very little; Obama is not a pragmatist.

FDR was a pragmatist. Truman was a pragmatist. Eisenhower and JFK were pragmatists. Obama is merely a corporatist.

[Little Star]

18. yep!

[Bryn]

22. Ditto!

[TheKentuckian]

13. Maybe we aren't living in the ultimate possible extreme of a police state

but we have made more moves toward that end than we have moved away from it or even treaded water.

We are certainly no less a police state than we were under Bush and there are reasons to believe it has come closer, not the least of which is the power Obama has claimed completely outside of the Constitution to completely end around the justice system and order the murder of US citizens with trial or even charges. A power that the next full blown fascist will expand on.

Or how about formalizing and reinforcing the indefinite detention horse shit?

Or reauthorizing the heinous Patriot Act?

You are a frog boiling away in ever hotter water who will not admit reality until a new one is firmly in place.

No brown shirts marching the streets and universal check points yet so all must be well seems to be the thinking here.
Perhaps nothing short of a ruler with funny facial hair and lines for ovens will wake you up from fantasy and the Pollyanna world view.

[Union Scribe]

8. I imagine distance makes it easier

For example, I find Daniel Tosh funny, but if I lived with him and had to endure an endless string of devastating pranks, it'd probably affect my opinion.

[dionysus]

12. poor you.

:cry:

[Armstead]

6. So the Huffington Post is credible now? I though it was under the bus

[QC]

10. When they say nice things about Obama, they are credible.

Kinda like Gallup. Positive Gallup poll results get waved at the president's critics like talismans for warding off evil spirits (872% of liberal Democrats support the president!!!!!) while less flattering polls are dismissed with knowing eye rolls, since everyone knows Gallup is a right wing propaganda mill.

[Ter]

14. Sorry, I can't love anyone who supports war, torture, and taking away civil liberties (Patriot Act)

You're more than welcome to, however.

[VoteProgressive]

15. I am glad you are happy, I am not. I fell for all the promises and the....

"Change the face of Washington" stuff.

I drank the koolaid and feel stupid for it.

He is 1000 times better than McCain but not the guy I worked for.

Gets my vote in 2012. Thats it.

I'll donate my $2600 to real progressive house and senate candidates.

[WiffenPoof]

16. I Can't Even Imagine....

...all of the new born cynics that have resulted from actually believing our President during the campaign. For me, this is the greatest damage done since the election. People believed...they had "hope" for "change." Maybe they got into politics for the first time believing that we actually had power. I wonder how many will swear off participating because of extreme disappointment.

-PLA

[Runework]

19. cynicism is a necessity

when understanding politics

[polichick]

21. I especially hope the younger generation refuses to give up its power...

...and votes out every single corporate whore, Republican and Democrat.

[Hutzpa]

17. Huffington Post link! No Thank You

find another link and I will visit but my bandwidth is not going to Huff Post/AOL/Time Warner/whatever
corporate is sponsoring them. I prefer to spend my time on viewing/reading from sites/links that seeks
my interest.

[Ramulux]

20. This is sad

I really feel bad for this woman. I wish I could engage in this kind of self-serving delusional nonsense and actually believe in it.

People like this woman are the reason why the democratic party is dying and doesn't look like its gonna get better any time soon. Its pathetic watching people try to justify all his terrible mistakes and decisions and focusing only on tiny little victories like the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

"Yeah I know he gave away billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, but he helped repeal DADT, he must be on our side!"

She needs to wake the fuck up and start actually paying attention to what Obama is doing.