Obama Succeeding - Future Looks Bright

[Velleity]

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Obama Will Win: Why and How His Detractors From the Left and the Right Will Be Proven Wrong

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7595

Before he'd served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted Left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled Right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds --- including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious Rightwing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter --- are sticking with our President. Why? Because he is succeeding.

We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us.

Obama's steady supporters will be proven right. Obama's critics will be remembered as easily panicked and prematurely discouraged at best and shriveled hate mongers at worst...

The Context of the Obama Presidency

Not since the days of the rise of fascism in Europe, the Second World War and the Depression has any president faced more adversity. Not since the Civil War has any President led a more bitterly divided country. Not since the introduction of racial integration has any President faced a more consistently short-sighted and willfully ignorant opposition - from both the Right and Left.

As the President's poll numbers have fallen so has his support from some on the Left that were hailing him as a Messiah not long ago; all those lefty websites and commentators that were falling all over themselves on behalf of our first black president during the 2008 election.

The Left's lack of faith has become a self-fulfilling "prophecy" --- snipe at the President and then watch the poll numbers fall and then pretend you didn't have anything to do with it!

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:

    * An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries
    * Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral
    * The worst economic crisis since the depression
    * America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history
    * A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war
    * A health care system in free fall
    * An educational system in free fall
    * A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)
    * An impasse between culture warriors from the Right and Left
    * A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration…

And those were only some of the problems sitting on the President's desk!

'Help' from the Right?

    The reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far Right, combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious Right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

What did the Republicans and the religious Right, libertarians and half-baked conspiracy theorists --- that is what the Republicans were reduced to by the time Obama took office --- do to "help" our new president (and our country) succeed? They claimed that he wasn't a real American, didn't have an American birth certificate, wasn't born here, was secretly a Muslim, was a white-hating "racist", was secretly a communist, was actually the Anti-Christ, (!) and was a reincarnation of Hitler and wanted "death panels" to kill the elderly!

They not-so-subtly called for his assassination through the not-so-subtle use of vile signs held at their rallies and even a bumper sticker quoting Psalm 109:8. They organized "tea parties" to sound off against imagined insults and all government in general and gathered to howl at the moon. They were led by insurance industry lobbyists and deranged (but well-financed) "commentators" from Glenn Beck to Rush Limbaugh.

The utterly discredited Roman Catholic bishops teamed up with the utterly discredited evangelical leaders to denounce a President who was trying to actually do something about the poor, the environment, to diminish the number of abortions through compassionate programs to help women and to care for the sick! And in Congress the Republican leadership only knew one word: "No!"

In other words the reactionary white, rube, uneducated, crazy American far Right,combined with the educated but obtuse neoconservative war mongers, religious Right shills for big business, libertarian Fed Reserve-hating gold bug, gun-loving crazies, child-molesting acquiescent "bishops", frontier loons and evangelical gay-hating flakes found one thing to briefly unite them: their desire to stop an uppity black man from succeeding at all costs!

'Help' from the Left?

    Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on Election Night turned into an angry mob saying how 'disappointed' they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the 'change'?

What did the Left do to help their newly elected President? Some of them excoriated Obama because they disagreed with the bad choices he was being forced to make regarding a war in Afghanistan that he'd inherited from the worst president in modern history!

Others stood up and bravely proclaimed that the President's economic policies had "failed" before the President even instituted them! Others said that since all gay rights battles had not been fully won within virtually minutes of the President taking office, they'd been "betrayed"! (Never mind that Obama's vocal support to the gay community is stronger than any other President's has been. Never that mind he signed a new hate crimes law which included language punishing hate crimes against homosexuals for the first time!)

Those that had stood in transfixed legions weeping with beatific emotion on Election Night turned into an angry mob saying how "disappointed" they were that they'd not all immediately been translated to heaven the moment Obama stepped into the White House! Where was the "change"? Contrary to their expectations they were still mere mortals!

And the legion of young new supporters was too busy texting to pay attention for longer than a nanosecond… "Governing"?! What the hell does that world, uh, like mean?"

The President's critics Left and Right all had one thing in common: impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure. Then, of course, there were the white, snide know-it-all commentators/talking heads who just couldn't imagine that maybe, just maybe they weren't as smart as they thought they were and certainly not as smart as their President. He hadn't consulted them, had he? So he must be wrong!

The Obama critics' ideological ideas defined their idea of reality rather than reality defining their ideas --- say, about what is possible in one year in office after the hand that the President had been dealt by fate, or, to be exact, by the American Idiot Nation that voted Bush into office… twice!

[Ed note: Did they vote him into office twice? Or even once? That's a question for another article, on another day. - BF]

Meanwhile back in the reality-based community --- in just 12 short months --- President Obama:

    * Continued the draw down the misbegotten war in Iraq
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Thoughtfully and decisively picked the best of several bad choices regarding the war in Afghanistan
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Gave a major precedent-setting speech supporting gay rights
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Restored America's image around the globe
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Banned torture of American prisoners
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Stopped the free fall of the American economy
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Put the USA squarely back in the bilateral international community
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Put the USA squarely into the middle of the international effort to halt global warming
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Stood up for educational reform
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Won a Nobel peace prize
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Moved the trial of terrorists back into the American judicial system of checks and balances
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Did what had to be done to start the slow, torturous and almost impossible process of health care reform that 7 presidents had failed to even begin
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Responded to hatred from the Right and Left with measured good humor and patience
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Stopped the free fall of job losses
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Showed immense personal courage in the face of an armed and dangerous far Right opposition that included the sort of disgusting people that show up at public meetings carrying loaded weapons and carrying Timothy McVeigh-inspired signs about the "blood of tyrants" needing to "water the tree of liberty"...
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

    * Showed that he could not only make the tough military choices but explain and defend them brilliantly
      (But that wasn't good enough for his critics)

Other than those "disappointing" accomplishments --- IN ONE YEAR --- President Obama "failed"! Other than that he didn't "live up to expectations"!

Who actually has failed...

...are the Americans that can't see the beginning of a miracle of national rebirth right under their jaded noses. Who failed are the smart ass ideologues of the Left and Right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proven right in their dire and morbid predictions. Who failed are the movers and shakers behind our obscenely dumb news cycles that have turned "news" into just more stupid entertainment for an entertainment-besotted infantile country.

Here's the good news: President Obama is succeeding without the help of his lefty "supporters" or hate-filled Republican detractors!

The Future Looks Good

After Obama has served two full terms, (and he will), after his wisdom in moving deliberately and cautiously with great subtlety on all fronts --- with a canny and calculating eye to the Possible succeeds, (it will), after the economy is booming and new industries are burgeoning, (they will be), after the doomsayers are all proven not just wrong but silly: let the record show that not all Americans were panicked into thinking the sky was falling.

Just because we didn't get everything we wanted in the first short and fraught year Obama was in office not all of us gave up. Some of us stayed the course. And we will be proven right.

[Velleity]

Response from "the smart ass ideologues of the Left and Right who began rooting for this President to fail so that they could be proven right in their dire and morbid predictions:"

<crickets>

[johnhp]

i do not know that, as a leftist, i want Mr. Obama to fail.  i will say, i would like to see better legislation, but he is not completely to blame for that.

[Velleity]

i do not know that, as a leftist, i want Mr. Obama to fail.  i will say, i would like to see better legislation, but he is not completely to blame for that.

John, I have come across a lot of "The President's critics" on the Left who have "impatience laced with little-to-no sense of history (let alone reality) thrown in for good measure."

I don't think this describes you.

[Observer]

Thanks for posting that, Vel.

I needed a good laugh.

It WAS a joke... right?

[Boffo]

hey Observer

can't you just visualize Vel and johnny holding their hands over their hearts as they read "brad blog"
 

thank God I wasn't drinking milk as I read that lil heart tugger,  I hate when I snort it out my nose.

it would make a good SNL, Nat Lampoon or Onion skit though   kudos, Brad

YIKES!

[Observer]

I often wonder if they actually read what they post, and how much of what they do read, they actually believe.

[Velleity]

Thanks for posting that, Vel.

I needed a good laugh.

It WAS a joke... right?

I can hear you laughing. . .

from the ideological wilderness.

Works for me Obs. As long as you're laughing and fantasizing about being effective and having power, it works really well for me.

[Observer]

Enjoy it while you've got it.

It won't last long. The American People are not quite as stupid as you think. You are losing ground every day.

The question is not whether you will soon be ousted. The question is whether you can be stopped before you damage the country to the point where recovery is not possible.

[Velleity]

Enjoy it while you've got it.

This is a profoundly stupid statement. I don't "got" anything. This shows where your head is at. You think it's a game; I don't.

It won't last long. The American People are not quite as stupid as you think. You are losing ground every day.

More profound stupidity. I'm not sure what you regard as "it" or "losing ground."

I do notice that you have nothing substantive to offer with respect to the opening post. If that's not a sign of ideological bankruptcy, I don't know what is.

The question is not whether you will soon be ousted. The question is whether you can be stopped before you damage the country to the point where recovery is not possible.

How do I get "ousted?"

I really hope you rightists have smarter people than you at the helm. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you do.

[Observer]

This is a profoundly stupid statement. I don't "got" anything. This shows where your head is at. You think it's a game; I don't.

You are lying, Vel.

You have been crowing about how you won since the Democrats gained control of Congress.

YOu people have had your run and now it is going to come to an abrupt end. You abused the power granted you by the voting public and although it has taken a while, people are waking up to exactly what you have done and what you are trying to do.

More profound stupidity.

I know, but you have nothing else to offer.

I do notice that you have nothing substantive to offer with respect to the opening post. If that's not a sign of ideological bankruptcy, I don't know what is.

There are a lot of things you don't know, but that doesn't seem to keep you from pontificating about them. I considered addressing the article point by point, but decided it was waste of my time. I guess if it will make you stop crying, I can talk about a few of them.

Here is what Obama faced when he took office-- none of which was his fault:

As I recall, Obama was a United States Senator. Maybe if he wasn't so busy voting "Present" and campaigning for President, he could have had greater input into national policy.

   

* An ideologically divided country to the point that America was really two countries

Obviously false.

   

* Two wars; one that was mishandled from the start, the other that was unnecessary and immoral

I would really like to see the author's credentials and see where he gained his military expertise. He really doesn't know what he is talking about.

   

* The worst economic crisis since the depression

Yeah... All those "Present" votes and absences from the Senate chambers really allowed him to influence the economy, which went south largely because of laws passed by the body of which he was ostensibly a member.
   
 

* America's standing in the world at the lowest point in history

Standing with whom?
   

* A country that had been misled into accepting the use of torture of prisoners of war

An out and out lie. I would like to see any of you produce a single example of US Goververnemt sanctioned torture of a Prisoner of War. Produce ONE.

   

* A health care system in free fall

Not the Federal Government's business.

   

* An educational system in free fall

Not the Federal Government's business.

   

* A global environmental crisis of history-altering proportions (about which the Bush administration and the Republicans had done nothing)

Gibberish.
   
    [/quote]* An impasse between culture warriors from the Right and Left[/quote]

More gibberish.

   

* A huge financial deficit inherited from the terminally irresponsible Bush administration…

How many trillions of dollars has the debt GROWN undfer the Obama administration?


Thje article reads like it was written by Dagon, which of course places it on about a 3rd grade level. It is no wonder you were so stimulated by it.

[Velleity]

Nice bluster and bravado Obs.

[lucy]

Why won't the Fed answer the simple question of where the money has really gone that was supposedly "lent" to unidentified entities?

I posted the hearing in which Bernanke appeared and said just this. No one is allowed to know. Don't you find that rather bizarre?

[Velleity]

Why won't the Fed answer the simple question of where the money has really gone that was supposedly "lent" to unidentified entities?

I posted the hearing in which Bernanke appeared and said just this. No one is allowed to know. Don't you find that rather bizarre?

Nope. It's certainly a turf thing.

The idea is that central bankers shouldn't be subjected to short term political forces or conspiracy theories. It's a sound idea but it's been taken too far, perhaps.

[lucy]

It's no conspiracy issue. It's called truth and candor in what people do with taxpayers' funds.

We deserve to know who is allowed to get financial salvation from our financial ruin.