Discussion for article #229981
The message that I took from this election, and weâve seen this in a number of elections, successive elections, is people want to see this city work," Obama said.
Wrong message. Every politician ran away from Obama and his huge policy successes. The message Obama should have learned by now is the power of the bully pulpit⊠he wastes so much of his power by not pounding the table about his policies and why theyâre good for the average American.
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Thank you Mr. President for having the courage and integrity to accept responsibility.
We will now hear from the leaders of the GOTP who will accept responsibility for obstructing the efforts of the President and putting the wishes of a radical base ahead of the welfare of the countryâŠ
crickets
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All the voting public heard was âfailed policies, failed presidencyâ from the Rs. Very few on the left came out and forcefully refuted that lie and so it stuck. They not only didnât refute it but they ran away from the leader of the party who could have made an articulate, coherent presentation of the facts: lower unemployment, lower gas prices, 10 million more people getting health insurance, etc., etc. Put that failure up against the observable apathy of voters at midterms, and it was to bound to be uphill and sadly be unsuccessful.
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People were telling him this back in 2009 with the stimulus and Obamacare.
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Sad, is probably the best descriptor for the moment.
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The message that I took from this election, and weâve seen this in a
number of elections, successive elections, is people want to see this
city work âŠ
Which people? Not the republicans in congress who have clearly stated that they donât want to see that city work.
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Your comment sadly summarizes the situation. However, there is another sad truth regarding our election process. In my state (Illinois), Bruce Rauner spent $66 million to get elected - a significant percentage of which came from his personal coffers. Money rules democracy.
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Itâs just not in him.
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Two years left, President Obama. I am so grateful to you for the way you have handled Republican obstructionism, stayed cool in the face of bozos shouting âyou lieâ during the state of the union addressâand so much more.
But it is now time to go for broke. Take the kid gloves off. Take every executive action you can. Rely on the veto pen, and donât be afraid to tell Congress they are wasting peopleâs timeâbecause you will veto any nonsense they throw on your desk.
Itâs the 4th quarter. The time for niceties has passed. Progressives are furious. Please reflect that.
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Here are some practical things Obama could do. Obama could issue his Immigration EO, but delay its effective date to give the Republicans a chance to take acceptable legislative action in this Congress. For example, the EO could be issued on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (after Congress has left town), with an effective date of December 24th. This would give the Republican House plenty of time to pass the already-passed Senate bill, if they want to. It would also demand of Democratic constituencies that they fight against what may be a furious Republican counter assault. He could take a similar course on Keystone: after a âprivate chatâ with Mary Landrieu, approve it, but with very stringent safety and environmental protections.
Obama also needs to be much more strategic on the big ticket legislative issues. Linkage should become the Presidentâs mantra on all of them⊠For example, he should explicitly link Trade legislation to an enormous infrastructure bill, which has a decade of infrastructure actions, fully paid for in the bill (Not merely an authorization of appropriations). In fact, I would insist that they actually be part of the same bill.
Similarly on tax reform, the President ought to explicitly link it (and Republican ideas of corporate rate reductions in a revenue neutral framework) to Republican acceptance of Obamacare, which could be reflected in a mutually acceptable bill that makes technical corrections, handles the medical device tax and deals with correctable irritants for mandatory purchase by rich folks, while expanding Medicare availability. Of course, the knee jerk Republican reaction will be to denounce the linkage, but that will be their problem. My guess is that a lot of corporate folks wouldnât have any problems with this linkage, at all, and Democratic constituencies - after taking some deep breaths - would generally be OK with it, too.
Finally, Obama needs to be much more assertive and consistent in making his case and explicitly calling out his opponents. How about âWeekends in Americaâ? Each weekend would start with a Friday afternoon press conference (with big charts showing Obamacare coverage, for example). Then, the president would spend the long weekend (including Monday) in a particular place, including, most explicitly, places in Red America. He could do listening, explaining, speechifying, church going, federal facility and program inspections, college campus tours, and call- ins to radio programs, most explicitly to local right wing radio programs and inviting them to ask him any questions.
These are just starters. The one thing he shouldnât take away from the election results is that get should be less assertive or that the Democratic Party will be saved by him giving way on key issues.
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Democratic candidates did not embrace President Obamaâs accomplishments. Howard Dean said it well today on Press the Meat:
Republicans ran on âweâre not Obamaâ while Democrats ran on âweâre not Obama eitherâ (I wonât claim verbatim, as I heard the audio only)
If Democratic candidates had embraced the President, his policies and his accomplishments, they would have won the majority of their races, IMHO.
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I think Rauner won because â all in all â he seemed like a decent guy who was more competent than Pat Quinn. I think the Democrats won every other state wide office in Illinois, and Lisa Madigan is - far and away - the most popular public figure in the state. If she decides to run against Senator Kirk, she will win in a landslide.
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Youâre partly right. But in fact Obama has been using that pulpit pretty frequently â but unless you happened to catch one of his appearances on C-SPAN or MSNBC, you wouldnât know it. Because the âmainstream mediaâ thinks its job is to âcover the controversyâ â ie, everything the Republicans say, with no actual reporting on the facts of policy, especially any facts that might reflect well on Obama. And to my continuing dismay and disbelief, most Democrats donât push back on any of that but continue to be cowed by it, leaving Obama out there alone. And hey, everybody knows heâs an unpopular failure, so who listens to him?
I remain mystified that the party has yet to understand the lesson they should have learned back in 1993-94: you canât defend territory youâre running away from.
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In the first place, Pres. Obama, you had nothing to do with your âfailureâ to connect with the repubs. From the very beginning their strategy was to block everything you did no matter what. There is no way you could have overcome that. Even the one time you agreed to give away the farm, they rejected it just because you had offered.
In the second place, itâs about time to get a bit of anger. These people have quite happily let the country go to blazes in their efforts, and that is something decent people donât tolerate.
âHe who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.â â St. Thomas Aquinas
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âIâve got to work on my failure to close the barn doorâ said the farmer after the horses ran off.
Mr. President, the time to address your failure of politics would have been about a year ago. The last thing we need now is a supposedly âDemocraticâ President cutting deals to support right-wing policies, and God knows Congress isnât about to pass any other kind of policies.
Please just sit quietly and try not to make things any worse. Your failure as the leader of the Democratic Party is too obvious for any progressive to expect anything good from you in the 803 days before your failed presidency comes to a merciful conclusion.
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stop watching brian williams the day after he was on letterman saying he doesnât take sides. of course when he ran lisa myers story on how obama broke his promise about keeping on they can keep there old insurance and how bad the website was but never followed up when it start working he never takes side he is so full of it.
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I donât think thereâs any Grand Unifying Theory of why the Repubs swept the table. If we made a list it would be âall of the aboveâ.
That said, I think that people just do not feel any better off no matter what the objective measures of the economy may say.
They donât feel any better off because they arenât any better off. We have severe wage stagnation â assuming one is even collecting a wage. College grads canât find jobs.
They did what they always do: take it out on the party that holds the presidency.
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Mister President, itâs time for you to get mad, goddammit. No Democrat wants to see you in an even more conciliatory posture. Stop standing by when craven people from both parties lie about your achievements to distance themselves from the blah man in the WH. Speak to your accomplishments, and wave them proudly! They were achieved in the most hostile legislative environment ever faced by a Chief Executive in this country â they deserve some rousing attention. Stop waiting for others to deliver it.
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I voted for Obama twice and have no regrets in doing so. If it was possible for him to run again against whatever lunatic the GOP would nominate, Iâd vote for him again.
Having said that, the naivetĂ© he continually displays when it comes to practical retail politics is stunning. Heâs been in office for the better part of six years, and heâs just now concluding that maybe he needs to do a better job of selling his accomplishments?
Mr. President, with all due respect, thatâs way too little and way too late. Youâalong with all the despicable sniveling cowards calling themselves Democrats who ran from you every chance they gotâmade this bed for the next two years, and youâre going to have to sleep in it. Unfortunately, so do the rest of us.
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