State of the Union #1

Tonight, President Obama gives his first State of the Union address. And, as seems to be par for the course with this President, the shit has hit the fan before the fan can even be turned on.

NPR

To basically sum it all up:
1. Supporters are upset about the proposed 3 year spending freeze on certain (and hopefully useless) Domestic programs.
2. 55% of Americans are now against his Health Plan
3. Republicans are pulling the same shit of responding to what they think will be in the speech, instead of waiting for the actual speech to be released.
4. Congressional Democrats have turned into invertebrates
5. Republicans somehow have a 41 vote majority

The way it looks to me is, we have someone with good ideas, good intentions, and great standing, tied his hands behind his back, then blamed him for not being able to grab things in front of him.

That is part of the problem, but you have to admit Obama could have handled things better when it came to the crunch. At times his administration came across as a deer caught in the headlights, and from what I hear even his supporters seemed to be fuzzy on what his plan of action was when it came to healthcare reform. There's a mood of hopelessness hanging over the air today that stands in stark contrast to the message of hope Obama brought with him when he won the presidency.

The plan for healthcare, as far as I could figure, was 1) Tell Congress what he wanted and would sign, 2) back off to let Congress do its job, 3) Get screwed by Congress.

Obama's problem starts with his lack of vision, was compounded by his lack of political will to drive through even his middling policy ideas when the Repubs were on their heels. Now he has completely lost control of the narrative when his biggest asset is his ability to communicate. Obama took over in the middle of a huge national crisis which gave him the opportunity to become one of the greatest presidents in history. Instead he could very well end up being one of the worst.

I have to agree with nearly all of this. I can nitpick a bit, but overall your statement is correct.

I'm pretty sure, short of nuking the entire Eurasian Continent, he'd really have to work at being worse than Dubya.

Well, not worse than Dubya, but he's working his way fast to the bottom 10.

He inherited a situation that could have led to the greatest domestic change in generations and he shit it away very, very quickly. He's just not a leader.

Do you know who else could have told Congress to put together a health care bill and then sat back?

Me.

At this point, he's worthless, allowing ghosts of the past to drive him to defensive politics before anything bad has actually happened. It's the Democrats victimization in full glory, led by Rahm.

Which is why I said "one of the worst" and not "the worst." Dude is on the precipice of a historic disaster and I regret that I voted for him over Clinton. She would have had the the same policy flaws but at least knows enough to hate her enemies.

Starting with Bill Clinton's campaign war room, democrats have aggressively addressed attacks upon their candidates. War rooms exist to not allow negative information to go unchallenged during a news cycle.

Unfortunately once the election is won the same campaign operatives who knew the value and use of the war room move into the White House and develop amnesia and forget the value of defending the candidate or now the policy and message.

The yearly State of the Union address, the occasional press conformance, and public meeting is not enough to win the battle of ideas. Even if the others ideas are stupid or are against the best interests of the general public.

How is having a huge majority in the house and the senate having your "Hands tied behind your back"?

In my mind, those huge majorities are the ones who did they tying of his hands by acting like spineless weasels.

You may have guessed that I'm pissed at Congress.

Having his hands actively stabbing him in the back?

that majority was irrelevant to liberal and Democratic interests when Bush was in office, and it's irrelevant now.

not that i see Obama as being completely blameless for the current lack of progress. he's basically failed to act on health care, and he's actively pursued the retention of Bush-era policies in other regards. he hasn't even managed to complete the wholly symbolic gesture of closing Gitmo.

The fact that it's been as irrelevant with a Democratic president as it was with a Republican shows that he hasn't done all that good of a job so far. Yes, congress has done a terrible job, but I don't think Obama has done anything to stop that.

very true.

And another big problem is that he tried to do too much in his first year. Especially with 2 wars going on, the bailout fiasco and the overall economic crisis.

But yeah, to put it in Steven Colbert's words, Democrats are just pussies...

So,

Obama is the spineless weasel. Congress are like a bunch of cats and the president has to act like a dog. Threaten, manipulate, win over, whatever it takes. Sitting back gets you what it gets you. Being mad at Congress for acting like Congress is like being mad at the wind for blowing.

This post was predictable, and not entirely meretricious. Today, Obama (and strangely Rahm), look too much like Carter and his team during the hostage crisis. Instead of American embassy personnel being held hostage, Obama, his staff, and the American people seem to be held hostage by the cults of the far left and the far right.

Unfortunately, Obama appears either too aloof to engage, or frozen by the shock and awe that was the combination of congressional ineffectiveness and voter impatience.

it's not all bad; the democrats foolishly placed too much emphasis in a majority, and too little emphasis on transparent political negotiation amongst moderates. Perhaps Harry and Nancy were bitter following their treatment from the past administration. i'm hopeful that they can get past that and reignite the process.

Bingo.

And, like Carter, the Democratic Party is tearing apart under him.

HuffPost say pretty much what I believe most of us who voted for him would like/had hoped to see.

What Obama Should Say But Won't

Of particular interest is the need to deep six the whole bipartisan/reach across the aisle bullshit. It's good press during an election, but Congressional Republicans have proven themselves to be a monolith of dickheads.

Showtime.

I pray that this is what we need and that we can all come together as a nation instead of working against each other. Divide and conquer means we too can be divided and conquered. We are at our weakest moment. We must look inward for strength and fairness as well as at our leaders.

Man, could the republicans be any uglier?

Ok, so job creation is this year's goal. How are Republicans going to block this one?