You could see Obama furiously spinning the tax cut deal in his press conference yesterday: it’s a necessary compromise! This country is built on compromise!
I’m getting tired of Obama always telling us he deserves points for compromise, as if compromise were the only option. Of course compromise is the only option if you never fight for anything in the first place. It’s one thing to compromise after you’ve been negotiating with someone for a long time; it’s another thing to signal before you even begin negotiating that you’re willing to compromise with an opposition who is not willing to do the same.
What did the country get out of this? What did Republicans give up? The Republicans gave in on unemployment benefits, which they would eventually have conceded anyway. It was just a bargaining position. They know how to negotiate; the Obama White House does not.
I am so tired of this.
Obama thinks he’s such a masterful leader. But he’s not. True leaders think creatively. They look at the chessboard and say, how can I rearrange all these pieces to achieve my goals? If they don’t like the chessboard, they create a new one. They make up new rules and get other people to agree to them. Obama should be on prime-time TV every night, telling the American people why the Republicans are wrong and he is right. The Republicans want to block unemployment benefits? Fine — Obama should go on TV and say, Look at what the Republicans are doing, and all because they refuse to make rich people pay the same tax rates they paid during the Clinton era. They claim they’re concerned about the deficit and yet they have no way to pay the $900 billion cost of these continued tax cuts.
Obama doesn’t do any of that. He’s completely passive. He never even tries to fight. Over and over again, the Democrats let Republicans frame the debate, even on issues where the Democrats have the more popular position. And over and over again, the White House negotiates against itself.
This White House is pathologically afraid of political combat. It’s so afraid of poisoning the political well, when actually, nobody cares about the damn political well. People don’t care about political discourse; they just want results. You can turn off the TV or close the newspaper, but you can’t turn off your economic situation.
Obama just cares about things that most people don’t really care about. He needs to come back down here to Earth where the rest of us are.
And what was that attack on progressives when he stated he would not be held to some “abstract ideal”? Um, hello, Mr. “Hope”. Mr. “Change”? I am disgusted I bought into even a scintilla of belief in this man and his lofty abstract ideals back in 2008. I guess “hypocrisy,” “cowardice” and “compromise” are concrete enough ideals for him to get behind all the way. I’d love to see that Shepherd Fairey poster redone with the words “I won’t be held to some abstract ideal” at the bottom.
Agreed.
I don’t really consider myself a far-lefter — I don’t read Daily Kos or Firedog Lake, etc., and I didn’t abandon Obama at the first sign of disagreement in 2009. Nobody expects a politician to accomplish everything they promise.
But you do at least except him to fight for those things. Barack Obama is pathologically afraid of fighting. I am just about done with this guy.
I agree with your general criticism,, but is seems to me that everyday people care a hell of a lot about healthcare and now unemployment benefits …. two things he’s managed to make progress on.
You talk like you think raising taxes brings in more money. It doesn’t. It just slows the economy down, and you end up collecting less money anyway. The people who pay those taxes get a vote. They can refrain from investing, defer income, take their vacation instead of working, and a host of other micro and macro decisions that will lessen their tax burden.
Jeffrey: true. But for everything he achieves, he seems to bungle it. Majorities of Americans supported creating a the public option and ending tax cuts for the rich. Those should have been easy wins. A good president would have used the bully pulpit to achieve those things. He’s setting the bar really low for himself. He tells us he wants A, and instead of fighting for A he prematurely says he’ll go for B. He just doesn’t have the fight in him. He’s simply not an effective president.
Taruna: I respectfully disagree; Bush Sr. and Clinton raised taxes, and this brought in more money, giving us a surplus, and the economy didn’t slow down. W cut taxes, and the economy slumped along pretty slowly for eight years.
I’m curious how and when taxes became the President’s responsibility instead of Congress’s.