Tuesday Reads
Posted: December 7, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Barack Obama, Dan Rather, Ed Rendell, Herbert Hoover, Norman Solomon, Robert Kuttner 50 Comments
Barack Obama communes with the ghost of Herbert Hoover
Good Morning!!
I just have one question this morning. Does President Obama read? If he does, there is no way he could miss the fact that he has blown his chance for a second term. Back in January, he told Diane Sawyer:
“I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,”
Sorry Barack, you’re not even going to be a mediocre one-term president. You’re working on being Herbert Hoover II. You’re destroying the country, and a lot of people are waking up to that reality and beginning to ask how on earth we can get rid of you. Some cases in point:
For the Obama presidency, moral collapse has taken on the appearance of craven clockwork, establishing a concentric pattern — doing immense damage to economic security at home while ratcheting up warfare overseas.
By the end of the weekend, a deal was just about wrapped up between the president and Republican congressional leaders to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
On the spin-cycle agenda this month is yet more reframing of the president’s foggy doubletalk about Afghanistan. Strip away the carefully crafted verbiage and the picture is stark — with plans for a huge U.S. war effort in that country for many years to come.
At the end of a year with massive U.S. military escalation in Afghanistan, parallels with the Johnson administration’s unhinged Vietnam War are hard to miss. Conjectures about an inside-the-Democratic-Party challenge to Obama’s re-nomination are now moving from shadowy whispers to open discourse.
Clarence B. Jones, Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University (H/T Wonk the Vote) Time to Think the Unthinkable: A Democratic Primary Challenge To Obama’s Reelection You need to read the whole thing, but here’s just a sample:
It is not easy to consider challenging the first African-American to be elected as President of the United States. But, regrettably, I believe that the time has come to do this.
It is time for Progressives to stop “whining” and arguing among themselves about whether President Obama will or will not do this or that. Obama is no different than any other President, nominated by his national party. He was elected with the hard work and 24/7 commitment of persons who believed and enlisted in his campaign for “Hope” and “Change.”
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist nor have a PhD in political science and sociology to see clearly that Obama has abandoned much of the base that elected him. He has done this because he no longer respects, fears or believes those persons who elected him have any alternative, but to accept what he does, whether they like it or not.
It is time for those persons who constituted the “Movement” that enabled Senator Barack Obama to be elected to “break their silence”; to indicate that they no longer will sit on their hands, and only let off verbal steam and ineffective sound and fury, and “hope” for the best.
Robert Kuttner, who once hope Barack Obama would be the next FDR:
Let’s stop pretending. Barack Obama is a disaster as a crisis president. He has taken an economic collapse that was the result of Republican ideology and Republican policies, and made it the Democrats’ fault. And the more that he is pummeled, the more he bends over.
So what can we do about it?
the choices boil down to these:
*Let Obama continue to undermine the economy, the real Democratic Party, and the New Deal-Great Society legacy.
*Do a ton of grass roots organizing to put pressure on the administration to change course and in the meantime to back real progressive leaders. The one time in recent memory that something like this worked was in the successful campaign to have Elizabeth Warren appointed interim head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The trouble is that the Warren appointment was something of a one-off. Though progressive pressure can produce an occasional decent appointment, it is not capable of compelling Obama to grow a spine.
*Run a progressive candidate against Obama in the 2012 primary. At a recent meeting of the Democracy Alliance, most of whose private donors and trade union backers were big Obama supporters, the two White House emissaries were ripped apart. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka was severe in his criticism of the White House failure to promote a real jobs and recovery program. Co-panelist Austan Goolsbee appeared weak and ineffectual, like his President.*
[….]
Yet if we are to be spared an awful decade, both economically and politically, either Obama needs to grow a backbone; or some other Democrat could well challenge him in 2012. Either course will require the progressive community to stop crying in our beer and to get out and organize.
Politics Daily: Dan Rather is predicting a primary challenge to Obama.
Former “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather is predicting that if the Bush tax cuts are extended for two years (as now appears likely) President Obama will face a tough primary challenge from the left.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Jansing & Company,” Rather said:
“This is a political nightmare for Barack Obama as president. The more-left portion of his party hates this with a passion. And politically, within his own party, if this goes through, Barack Obama will be in a position to have his shirttail on fire, his back to the wall, and the bill collector at the door. Which is metaphorically a way of saying he’s almost guaranteed — if this goes through — to have a serious challenge in a Democratic primary for president in 2012.”
Rather went on to add that “the perception of [Obama] is that he won’t fight for anything.” He also noted: “Many of the heavy contributors to the Democratic Party are beyond shock about this happening, and are saying to themselves, ‘This guy . . . has about four to six months to turn the perception of him and the party around or we’ve got to start thinking about somebody else in 2012.’ “
Wrong, Dan. We have about two months to find someone to run against this guy now or we’re doomed.
I did find one prominent Democrat who thinks the talk about primarying Obama is a bunch of hooey, good old Ed Rendell.
Outgoing Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told Salon in an interview this afternoon that he does not think “there’s any chance of a serious contender mounting an effort against the president.”
Rendell offered two reasons for his belief: First, any primary challenge would be “too hard to do — it costs too much money.”
And, second, Rendell believes that Obama has checked off enough boxes on the progressive scorecard to keep any challenge from the left at bay.
“Has he achieved everything that he wanted to achieve — or that [the progressive base] would have wanted him to achieve? No. But given the state of the filibuster rule in the Senate, I think he’s done well in moving the ball forward in a lot of areas, areas he doesn’t get credit for,” Rendell said, rattling off a list of Obama’s accomplishments: not only the healthcare bill, but also the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, credit card reform, student loan reform, and the extension of insurance to low-income children in the S-CHIP program.
Hey Ed, what could be more expensive than keeping Obama? He’s already given away the store. God only know what he’ll cave on next. The country is going down the tubes and you want to keep this tool in office?
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Ed rendell must be trolling for a job with the administration. He is done in January, and in this job climate, his best bet may be Obama. That is how awful this economy is! There has to be a primary challenge if we are to survive. There is no alternative. The biggest problem is trying to convince Hillary to do it…NOW!
I don’t think that is going to happen. We need to be realistic. Hillary is exhausted, and she is also tainted by her association with Obama’s policies. She has made it clear several times that she will not run for President again. Recently she even said she plans to leave public life.
I agree with this. Sadly, I think Hillary’s time has came and went.
I guess that should be “has come and gone.” Even at my age, grammar sometimes eludes me.
Ed rendell must be trolling for a job with the administration
Well good luck with that Ed…you made Obama sweat too much in ’08. Forgetabourit..I think Ed may go into TV after leaving office …TV commentating is what he’s been doing for two years…since BO was installed and all politics as we understood the term, ceased. Now we have actors ( and bad ones ) not representatives…
Yep, no amount of sucking up will erase the fact that Ed supported Hillary.
Suburban Guerrilla » Blog Archive » Getting ready
There is a linked statement from Elizabeth Edwards that she released…I think many of you would probably like to read what this brave woman says. Makes you put things into perspective.
Today is Pearl Harbor Day…”a day that will live in infamy…”
James K. Galbraith at HuffPo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-k-galbraith/whose-side-is-the-white-h_b_792473.html?view=screen
Fantastic presentation by Galbraith. Thanks for the link. I never read HuffPo otherwise.
Wall Street is ecstatic about the tax cut deal that will bankrupt the government and lead to “savage cuts” (Krugman) in Social Security and Medicare.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0726246420101207
I just posted this link on the Julian Assange arrested post, but thought I would post it here too.
WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates | News | guardian.co.uk
it is a live blog updating all that is going on with the arrest, including links to news stories as they are published.
Thanks, Minx.
If this is what “hope and change” looks like I’ll take a pass.
For those who drank the Kool Aid and pushed this inept idiot over the finish line the results are more than disappointing. For those of us who openly questioned his suitability from the outset, the results have been validated.
From the chants of “The One” to a “tingle up my leg”, their most be little joy in Mudville when the same man just easily sold out to the side that forced us into this quagmire.
Someone from our side must march up to the WH now and demand that he not run in 2012. Otherwise we are looking at a complete GOP tsunami that will strengthen both Houses along with it and that only spells more and more disaster for the 98% still hanging off the ropes.
Primary challenger or no, the Democratic Party is toast in 2012.
The unity pony has dumped a giant steaming load in the Democratic national headquarters lobby.
oops some one said unity pony!! I had to drag him out of retirement!!
haha
He runs and runs but gets nowhere.
It’s happening with such swiftness and completeness…that all pretense is over…The One ” in charge” is someone who doesn’t even get us a mess of pottage for trading in our birthrights ( see old testament) ….GOD HELP US ( see both old and new testament ) We are seeing our counrty being blown up before our eyes and not in slow motion
Our older son told me to read Revelations in order to understand this. He may have a point.
But frankly, BB O doesn’t have to read if he never wanted a second term in the first place. It just never mattered what he did or how he did it. In fact the worse he did the better because that would guarantee his not even getting a chance at having to run for a second term.
After all this is work, something he’s not used to doing.
I really think he and his family have had it with the DC crowd and the effort that some are expecting from them.
He figures he put in two years, he’ll be called Mr. President for the rest of his life and have a comfortable income, so he’s outta there! And he gets to keep the puppy.
I wish I could say he’ll be outta here…. I don’t see a real primary challenge from any Dems. No money or or national mechanism out side of Chicago. We saw how primaries can be stolen from the actual winner in ’08.
Hey, your angry…I’m angry…we need to use that to our advantage. Get pissed off, and stand up! Hillary is not going to be an option, we need to find someone to champion the real Democrat principles. This frustration and anger is what motivated the Tea Party crowd, and they are getting some results (you can’t deny that) I think that is why it is so important to get our asses in gear, and start working toward finding someway out of this mess. It reminds me of something my Nana used to say…Shit if your gonna Shit…in other words do something or get off the pot.
Sorry if I am a little aggressive in my tone, it is not directed at you paperdoll, I am just mad about all this.
lol! no problem 🙂
Get mad more often. I agree with you.
Tear ’em up, tiger! Yay! LOL!
Gotta get my aggressions out.
There. I feel better.
Your Nana was a smart woman.
A few little missives I’ve seen lately lead me to believe we should totally count Hill out yet.
Frankly at this stage of the game there is no one else around to run for POTUS
Personally, I don’t think the progs overall will ever, ever, ever accept Hill. As long as they keep fighting her, they don’t have to take responsibility for how badly they screwed up and can continue to try and shift all the blame onto O and how he “betrayed” them.
Really BB? I was worried I was being a bit over the top…I will touch more on this in my Wed. morning post…
The big Democratic donors are fed up with Obama. If we could identify someone and get it to go viral, we might have an impact. Other blogs are talking about it–FDL, Cannonfire, probably plenty of others.
I know, but who will come forward as the person to challenge Obama?
How about Brian Schweitzer, Gov. of Montana?
Hey BB, I think that each of the Front Pagers should pick a legitimate possible challenger to Obama, and post a profile about them, with thoughts and considerations…it would be a good way to start a discussion about working towards fixing our current problem.
Mine’s Amy Klobuchar
How about Kirsten Gillibrand?
Hmph, how did you sneak in up there?
Okay, I guess I’m not the only one that likes Klobuchar … how about this that just got linked at memeorandum?
I always like Bob Graham, Bob Graham – WhoRunsGov.com/The Washington Post
But at 73, I realize that it is more than likely, too late.
One of the things I’ve learned over the years is the we really do get what we expect out of life. Even when we think we’re fooling ourselves.
So if we keep expecting the worse – well look what we got!
yeah but BO is far wrose than even I expected! lol!
I agree with the people I quoted in the post who said it’s time to stop whining and start organizing.
Exactly. It’s time to move forward. Organize!
Organizing – suggest a national person to head it up – who we can trust, a national figure. Then do the states. We have discussed this and got all tangled up as I recall over the last year or so. I have no thoughts of not fighting for my country. I hope we can get past the talking stage this time.
Hm, I know my thoughts, my cynical inter-self is NOT making Bumbles a flagrant Republican – it’s his choice to roll as he does. FWIW. He is far worse than I could ever imagine.
Yes, fight. There’s no way we can let this happen.
After reading more about Hoover, I think we are doing him a disservice to say Barack is emulating him. Hoover did so much more service to the poor. He came up from a literally dirt poor background. He just wasn’t capable of dealing with the situation in which he found himself.
I dunno if that is true of Barack, but I very much doubt he is trying his best to serve the people, all the people.
Despite all that, it’s immediately catchy, so Barack Hoover he is!
I found this insight by Hoover to be interesting. He apparently said that in a democracy leadership comes from the bottom up, in a dictatorship it comes from the top down.
Time to get the old democracy rolling again!
Richard Greener joins the chorus: Obama Must Step Aside — No Second Term
Ahhhh. Reading that was most enjoyable, thanks. 🙂