If you are anti-Obama then instead of fighting against him lets elect a better congress

[LynneSin]

Although the president will create bills that will be debated in Congress, ultimately it is Congress that sends to final bill to the President to be sign.

I know Obama is not the perfect president, I've seen enough of that here at DU to know I would be preaching to the choir on that topic. But half of the problem with Obama is we have a democratic congress that still caves to the GOP when they should be standing up to them.

If we can get better democratic candidates in Congress then the bills sent to Obama would be ones that make everyone here at DU happy.

Thoughts?

[MineralMan]

1. There's the answer, right there!

The time to start working on the 2012 election is right now. Right in your own district. State legislatures, too.

[DevonRex]

2. That's the only way. KnR nt

[HappyMe]

3. Makes perfect sense to me. nt

[Fumesucker]

4. There's no such thing as a bill that will make everyone at DU happy..

That is a will-o-the-wisp of the highest order.

[LynneSin]

12. True but more of them could be happier

maybe

[Fumesucker]

17. Perhaps if we got the cowbell a little closer to the mic?

:hi:

[handmade34]

5. K&R n/t

[jtown1123]

6. I agree. Although the President is the head of the party so if he's making problematic

decisions or putting out some bad ideas, Democratic leadership will be loathe to oppose him.

[joeybee12]

7. Yup, 2008-2010 never happened.

[LynneSin]

16. 2009-2010 was us making something big out of something that never really existed

that magical number of '60' meant we would have to include people like Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln and the Nelsons (NE/FL) - 4 people who constantly went against the party. For some of them they wanted to come across as the type of politicial that could 'bridge the gap' between Democrats and REpublicans but in reality they just sold out their party (although to be fair Lieberman wasn't a democrat anymore).

[joeybee12]

30. See, that's just an excuse...and if we had 65, you'd be saying, well, not all of

them are reliable Dems, yada, yada, yada. We need a dem at the top who will fight...Obama does not have it in him, never will.

[banned from Kos]

8. I am very proud of Obama - the Senate is in a very precarious situation

its 52-48 (I am deducting Conrad) and we have 23 seats in play to their 11.

WORK FOR the DEMS IN THE SENATE!!! PLEASE!

Claire McCaskill? I love her! Reelect her, Missouri!

[bananas]

9. Pressuring Obama as well as Congressional and local elections are all important

If he's going to cave so easily, lets get him to cave in to us, not Republicans.
Get-out-the-vote will have to focus on congressional and local elections.

[Dragonfli]

10. That has been my plan ever since he made his right wing predilections clear, It's the best we have

I would like the opportunity to vote for a Democrat for the top of the ticket however, I would prefer if one ran for that office as well, Republican or Republican hard is just not a choice I am comfortable with for POTUS and I would prefer not to have to leave it blank.

[Shagbark Hickory]

11. Easier to elect one person than hundreds of persons.

[Maven]

13. So when Obama proposes new free trade deals, it's all Congress's fault?

Thanks, it's all so clear now.

[LynneSin]

18. If I'm correct Obama cannot have new free trade deals if Congress says 'no'

Republicans have always been more united than the democrats and honestly, I've always hated that. I really think our elected officials should vote for what is best for their state and not the party they are associated with.

However maybe it's time the Democrats get a bit more hardcore instead of caving to the Republican demands.

[Doctor_J]

20. And we can also not have one if Obama says 'no'

see how that works? He can, if he has the urge, stand against the right wingers in Congress. What a concept!

[Doctor_J]

19. And floats the idea of raising the Medicare age.

and bashes liberal Dems in Congress

[Maven]

23. And appoints those most likely to destroy the social safety net

to his special committees tasked with inventing ways to "reform" the social safety net.

[Doctor_J]

14. We will not, in the near future, have any better Congress than we had in 2009-1010

At some point the Party Leader is going to have to lead, if anything is going to get done. That was his failure his first two years in office. Between the people who voted him in 2008 and their kids, he had around 90 million citizens to help him undo the Bush debacle. The Limbeciles wouldn't have stood a chance against those kind of numbers. Instead he started appeasing from day 1, and paid the price, and, seemingly, learned nothing.

Unrec this silly bromide

[banned from Kos]

21. I would not want your "help" in anything. Political change is a long struggle

yet you run away at first opportunity.

[RandomKoolzip]

15. My dissatisfaction with Obama or the current Dems in congress will

not provoke me to stay home on election day, nor will it provoke me into silence when I observe what I consider to be bad or destructive decisions on the part of the aforementioned parties.

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. Hear hear. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. I'll vote for any Democrat that earns my vote.

Hell, I might even vote for Obama if he made a sharp left turn and became an anti-war progressive.

[Cheap_Trick]

24. This time we need enough of a majority to overcome the blue dogs

then we can force Obama to move to the left.

[Doctor_J]

26. It's not going to happen, period

We need to make a plan in the reality-based world. Are you saying that without a solid majority of Sanders' and Kucinich's nothing can get done?

[Cheap_Trick]

29. I'm saying that when we did have the majority it seemed nothing got done

and that the blue dogs were spoliers, more times than not.

[Doctor_J]

31. Then you're the one who's given up,

because there will never be a super-majority of left wingers. So if that's the requirement to get ANY pro-American legislation passed, we're finished.

[woo me with science]

27. People oppose Republican/Third Way policies. And this is not an either-or proposition.

Pressuring this President to stand for the values and goals of the Democratic platform is just as important as electing good liberal Democrats to Congress.

[Doctor_J]

28. The factuality of your post seems to have brought the thread to a halt

I think it's better for the fan club to pretend that the president is completely powerless in the current situation. But since we're never going to have a super-majority of Sanders', that pretty much absolves him of all responsibility for these positions he keeps taking.