Right - and I'm sure "the government" can easily be replaced by something pleasant and fair.
or something less obviously bought-and-sold by corporations/banksters, something, um, by and for the people instead.
obama had us all make it personal when he campaigned like a reformer, now we are supposed to stop attacking his choices? it is not easy to blame obama, it hurts a lot, as it points to how much we needed to believe after the country had 'gone bush' for so tragically long.
attacking his choices and policies shouldn't be interpreted as attacking obama, imo, but rather as holding his feet to the fire, and resisting being made dupes of a system that seems to have swallowed obama, rhetoric, charisma and all, into itself with nary a burp or a gurgle...
he may be the most articulate, charming, distinguished president the USA ever had, but if he doesn't grab the nation's imagination in the way he did campaigning, but better even, (to compensate for all the disillusion since inauguration), i for one will be as angrily disappointed as i remain about phony tony, because there's little worse in politics than to be represented by 'leaders' who purport to be on your side, and who promise the refreshment of real change you can believe in, hijack immense amounts of voter faith and good will, then turn around and do the precise opposite of what they promised. once, maybe twice, but over and over and over?
obama supporters aren't stupid, but the horror of republican rule can't be the only reason to support obama, or it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy...
now it becomes fully clear how two-edged the gift of such soaring rhetoric can be. if he had campaigned more modestly, and then continued to carve a path that split the difference between true progressivism and a real centrist position, (as the campaign trumpeted, and thus proves obama knows what's needed to be done), the costume change is too jarring to be anything but extremely questionable.
fiery superman has changed into mild mannered clark kent, the expensive firework is a wet squib.
nothing personal, o-man. my red flag of too-good-to-be-true right from the dem convention speech that pretty much got him the gig, or at least set the ball rolling.
extending credibility occurred when i saw how dogged a campaigner he was, but if it was just to act as he has, do you really think so many would have turned out to put him there?
if he is a stooge after all, was the purpose just to put a dem in for the wipeout of the economy?
i wish i could still believe, Izzy, i really do. the facts don't lie though, and if it's only fear of worse that he can depend on for a second term, or even a dem congress, then i can't see him affecting much more than he has, which ain't much. it is something, but it's very small potatoes, compared to what we have to deal with barreling towards us at breakneck speed.
if the only dems we can see in power are charming triangulators like clinton, i don't expect their influence to last long or go far.
they say if you dine with the devil, bring a long spoon. i don't see it long enough with obama, and i feel your pain that it is so.
perhaps obama is a bandaid on a tumour, and a stopgap placeholder while the orcs plot their latest farce-as-tragedy, i pray not, but at the end of the day, what exactly is the point of being attached to keeping the band aid if the tumour keeps growing?
i know leaders like obama are one in a million, and this is what pisses me off the most, the fucking waste of such a brilliant mind and orator, dedicated to propping up a failing paradigm using the strength of the poor believers who actually thought his election may have started the beginning of the end of their being screwed by the system.
no such luck, it seems...
a few commenters here expressing their doubts will do little either way to affect elections, but it will keep debate and discussion alive with sometimes conflicting points of view, something perhaps more important long term to us all. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
I'm not interpreting. Policies are an entirely different matter and not part of this discussion. Do you deny that he's being attacked personally? Because that's what I'm asking the question about. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
he has chosen (and was chosen) to serve in the most prominently public position on the planet, in the role with more life and death responsibility than any other one soul.
is it any wonder he inspires criticism, from both wings? that's what you chose with centrism.
that's why 'hedge fund democrat' is so descriptive.
(h/t Bruce)
i agree some of the attacks are personal, and i have gone there myself, and am not proud of it, but his persona is all we can work with, and we'd be remiss as political observers if we were't deeply interested in the psychology of leadership, in its widest historic sense.
couple his public self with our capacity to parse and scry, and it sort of has to get a bit personal.
yet even the most damning of criticisms here at ET have not been mean-spirited, at least imo.
it's the kitchen he chose to cook in, and frankly, no matter how much heat these comments (and those dementedly beckian teabag astroturfers are really mean) may contain, he looks like he's staying the north side of cool, so...
if i were obama i don't know if i'd have the stones to do what needs to be done, so i never call him a coward. i respect him, and like ARG, find him pleasant, especially with his power. there's so one else even laughably close to his votegetting pull, so i wouldn't worry too much about obama personally, hard as it is to believe sometimes, it appears he was more sizzle than steak, what's really important is to work around him, and beyond him, as Bruce so correctly reminds us.
if anyone could surprise me (again!) it would be mr enigma himself, and i could not more want to be wrong about my doubts... i just wish this was all a great novel, not real life, you know? then one could really stop reading once in a while, and let it all go.
but when so much is at stake, and change accelerating exponentially, it's near impossible! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Oh jesus -- really, melo? do you think I'm stupid? or do you honestly not know the difference between a 'personal' attack and attacking policies? Don't be obtuse. It has nothing to do with whether you KNOW someone and you know it. If you truly do not know the difference between "X did a bad thing" and "X is a bad person" then you need more education than I can give you. Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
obama makes me feel schizzy, there you have it...
it's driving me nuts wondering where the american story is going, and it's not my intention to be personal, but i can see the policies are worth criticising, the man...it's just bloggy speculation, pretty close to weightless in the great scale of things.
you can only separate politics and personas so long... my opinions shift constantly, and here at ET i can throw them against the wall and see which stick.
sorry if i offended you, but i don't think anything we burble on about here matters one jot to obama, or the future US elections. we're just backseat driving, s'all.
folks round here aren't too flattering about local leaders either, as you probably picked up by now, lol. trying to keep it as real as can be.
(we're just jealous you got such a rock star.)
he's a big boy, i bet he hears worse things every day than anything here at ET!
peace out
melo ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
