It isn't just his continuation of the Bush-era signing statements and expansion of Presidential power; his continuation of secret electronic surveillance programs very possibly in violation of the Constitution; his refusal to place additional stimulus (e.g., job creation) over giving the Banksters whatever they want; his refusal to use infrastructure rebuilding projects across the country as a means of jump-starting the economy by providing jobs; his continual giving in to the Rethugs, seeming determined never to stand up to them -- as if he were a caricature of a spineless, liberal politician.
America since December of 2000 has been little more than a string of failures, of manifest greed and judgement so poor as to be truly evil -- an anti-American dream, ending in poverty, inequality and the end of Law and Reason. Our Republic seems bound (our karma? Who knows) to continue spiraling down into a shadow of what we could have been: The beginning of the End Of Empire.
Instead of real leaders, we'll end up being led by a succession of squalid, vicious, anti-intellectual tools of of the Owner class, the Palins and Bachmanns, dreaming of "restoring our greatness" -- as the gulf between the fantastically wealthy and everyone else in America becomes more nakedly apparent than it has been since the late 19th century. Our laws will continue to be determined by men who are (like the blighted Clarence and the smug, rabid Tony) poor scholars and narrow ideologues.
What makes it even more bitter is the past two years of wasted opportunity to Do Right, when the Right was so clear. And Obama's stubborn, even enthusiastic, willingness to do Wrong, when the Wrong was so obvious.
Now, as a continuation of the same pattern of behavior, Obama has said publicly that Medicare and Social Security will be cut (though he doesn't use that word) in reaching a "compromise" with the Rethugs as they threaten to implode the American economy.
If that's so (and I have no reason to believe otherwise, given the evidence of his past behavior), he'll give the Thugs whatever they want, as he gave the Banksters -- but he'll do it without my vote.
From Brian Beutler, Talking Points Memo:
Multiple senior House Democratic aides tell TPM that caucus members were caught off guard by news stories about President Obama's push for deeper deficit and spending reductions -- and particularly about the White House's willingness to cut Social Security as part of a grand bargain to raise the debt limit.Paul Krugman in the New York Times noted,
It’s getting harder and harder to trust Mr. Obama’s motives in the budget fight, given the way his economic rhetoric has veered to the right. In fact, if all you did was listen to his speeches, you might conclude that he basically shares the G.O.P.’s diagnosis of what ails our economy and what should be done to fix it. And maybe that’s not a false impression; maybe it’s the simple truth...And, reposted from The Big Picture, by Barry Ritholtz:
...it’s hard not to get the impression that he is now turning for advice to people who really believe that the deficit, not unemployment, is the top issue facing America right now, and who also believe that the great bulk of deficit reduction should come from spending cuts. It’s worth noting that even Republicans weren’t suggesting cuts to Social Security; this is something Mr. Obama and those he listens to apparently want for its own sake.
On election night [in 2004], I wrote The Tragedy of the Bush Administration. In it, I despaired that:
Once in a generation, the stars align for a political leader. There is this perfect moment – too often based on some enormous danger of long-lasting consequences for generations to come.The rest of that piece went on to lament how George W. Bush was granted that rare opportunity to grab the brass ring, to rise to the occasion — and failed miserably.
Once every half century, the perfect combination of leadership and threat, of challenge and response meet. The leader – imperfect, fallible, yet ready to rise to the occasion – grabs the brass ring.
Think Winston Churchill fighting the global threat of the Nazis, Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence, JFK’s dare to send a man to the Moon...
Here we sit, not half a century later as originally surmised, but a mere six years later. I once again find myself lamenting the opportunities wasted by a US President in response to a great cataclysm. In the case of President Obama, it was his response to the financial crisis. The opportunity for greatness presented itself, and was ... ignored.
The President was swept into office on a wave of Anti-Bush sentiment. The stock market was in freefall, credit was frozen, the recession already 13 months old. As Rahm Emanuel said, “Never waste a good crisis.” A strong leader would have taken advantage of the moment, of the opportunity...
... as the finance sector got larger and more important, it was paradoxically under ever less scrutiny, supervision, and regulation. With that new found freedom from oversight, the banks promptly blew themselves, and the global economy, to smithereens.
What did [Obama] do in this scenario?
• He appointed two of the architects of the crisis to major White House economic positions: Lawrence Summers as CEA Chair, and Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary.
• He made the enormous tactical error of focusing on Health Care Reform, while the banking crisis was still in full flower.
• He failed to marshal adequate resources to respond to the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.
The first item damned him to a mediocre economic team, one that failed to respond strongly to the banks that created the crisis. The second error earned him the enmity of the opposing party. The third error was political, and likely cost him the House, and possibly the Senate.
(Cartoon: Mr Fish, Harper's)
The great irony is that the man who ran on the campaign slogan of Change failed to deliver it in any meaningful way — at least, where the public wanted it — in getting the reckless runaway banks under control, and in stimulating the moribund, post-credit crisis economy...
The opportunity existed to get the renegade banks under control — to reduce their leverage, their recklessness, and to get their hands out of the taxpayers pockets.
That opportunity was squandered, and Obama ended up as a defender of the banking status quo. It is where his presidency could have achieved lasting greatness, and instead was turned into just another elected official, who over promised and under delivered . . .
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