Why do so many people dislike Obama already?

I've been away from DU for the most part in the last month or two.

I've noticed something: people are turning on Obama.

After eight years of George W. Bush, how could they think Obama could get it all done in two or three months?

What is the deal here?

Which is usually always the case with Democrats and the MSM.

with earmarks." Loaded with earmarks. Loaded.

I usually have my radio on NPR, but I thought that such an obvious exaggeration could only be on one of those stations that airs Limbaugh.
Later I googled "loaded with earmarks" and not only did it confirm that I was, indeed, hearing such slanted news on NPR, but that CNN, the Wall Street Journal and so many other local news sites were using that exact expression to describe the bill.

It seems that the mainstream media really want the American people to dislike Obama.

Once something is said or written in the media, its impossible to take it out of circulation.

Just think about how the specter of ACORN continues to live in right wing fantasies.
ACORN took down the US economy.
ACORN is going to get a bunch of stimulus money.
ACORN is an earmark project.
ACORN got Obama elected by cheating.
ACORN is behind the Obama's push for socialism.
ACORN, ACORN everywhere thanks to Palin and McCain's reckless, factually incorrect comments that were never refuted by the media.
ACORN will live on for years and years as some sort of liberal bogey man creeping around every legislative and electoral corner.

desperate.

"LOOK. LOOK. OVER HERE. We hate Obama"

And hope someone will listen.

Well, that and "no taxes".

They're just looking for *some* way to revitalize an ethically bankrupt and philosophically void political party.

In short, don't pay it much mind.

and until obama supporters get his back once in a while by calling complaining boycotting or picketing those 1000 stations and their local sponsors they're just going to keep on going at it, enabling the rest of the media to join in and those flat earth GOP senators to keep obstructing.

that's basically all limbaugh and sons do all day long- obstruct and attack- they have nothing useful to contribute except tax cuts for billionaires and more drilling and those local stations, licensed to use the public airwaves for public benefit, are doing a great disservice to their communities by keeping a bunch of ignorant fools on who have been wrong about everything important the last twenty years while we headed for this cliff. instead of warning and offering solutions they were making excuses for the worst president in history, like a pack of paul reveres in reverse.

for him is still in his corner. I really don't understand any logical person turning on him unless they really didn't support him in the first place.

It's in their dna.

Or the RW media in general? Those are about the only places where Obama is not popular.

Some people don't like his plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan.
Some are unhappy with aspects of the bank bailout.

Turn off the false noise machine.

You say you went "out into the world". Could you be more specific?

Sorry.

Really.

1) People like to bitch.
2) Those turning on Obama never really liked him to begin with.

And that scares the hell out of them.

68%

there are plus and minuses to this economy really. Once more folks get broadband the whole game changes.

and if he were President, they'd hate him in two months too.

Piss on 'em all.

rather, his actions (especially some cabinet & other posts) have led us to conclude that he is as "centrist/corporate" as we feared.

Those who jumped on his bandwagon early and refused to think he was anything short of Sir Galahad riding to our rescue have been reluctant to express any doubts.

Yeah - he needs more time to accomplish things. But it also looks like some of the things he is trying to accomplish are not very different from what Bush did.

A liberal revolutionary leader he isn't. Better than Bush, sure.

But it doesn't take a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.

tens of thousands of troops there, and escalating the war against Afghanistan, and shoveling trillions of dollars to the financial "wizards" who created the crash, and compromising on equal (marriage) rights for all Americans, and allowing the Bush criminals to escape scot-free is anything but "centrist."

Guantanamo is still open and abusing prisoners. I guess that is a liberal position, huh?

IF, over the next four years, the US recognizes all marriages, brings our military home from its wars around the globe, really moves forward on energy/environmental issues, reins in the robber barons of corporate/financial America, fully funds education through university, increases medical research funding enough to actually prevent disease and find cures, provides single-payer health care to everyone within our borders, I will take back my words.

Until that time, I reserve the right to argue for a progressive America.

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because their corporate overlords are losing money.

its just about demanding more things.
nothing wrong with that.

everyone is allowed to be critical of anyone they want.. especially if they are being aggressive in forcing a more liberal policy... thats what 'progressives' do after all ;)


you should always demand more and keep politicians feet to the fire.
its good for everyone involved.

DU thought-police.

Please do not try to argue that Pres. Obama should do anything that might get the center-right mad at him. It'll cost votes and that cannot be tolerated.

He must keep his powder dry for... something, I guess. We just have to have faith that everything will turn out OK.

This helps me understand something that has been a mystery.

At least once a day someone posts this, as though it were a new and original thought. We are told that supposedly people are "turning on Obama" - they have changed their minds, they now oppose him when they previously supported him. Then, we are to suppose that people wanted "it all done in two or three months" or two or three weeks or whatever. Then, speculation follows that the Republicans and the MSM are somehow causing people to "turn" or that those who are supposedly "turning" have a hidden agenda or nefarious motives. The nit is phrased as a shift in who does or does not "like Obama" - whatever that means.

But there is no evidence to suggest that either of those are true. Almost all critics and dissenters are talking about the exact same issues they always have talked about and taking the exact same positions. They haven't changed. Nor do I see anyone talking about what should or should not have happened within any particular amount of time.

This has been a mystery. Why do people keep repeating the same idea in the absence of any evidence that supports it, and when we have so much evidence that directly contradicts it?

"What is the deal here?" indeed.

Let's take the same pattern you say that you are seeing, and see if it does apply anywhere. For example, let's rewrite your post to say this -

Why do so many people dislike their former allies already?

I've been away from DU for the most part in the last month or two.

I've noticed something: people are turning on the ideals and principles of the party and those expressing them.

After eight years of George W. Bush, how could they abandon the principles and ideals of the party and turn on their allies after only two or three months?

What is the deal here?

Now it makes sense. The ones who are really "turning" are turning on the principles and ideals of the party and turning on those who continue to speak out for them. They are the ones who are changing. They are the ones who are inpatient - who hoped that by now they would have shut up the critics and dissidents.

It is all projection, pure projection.

I think those hiding behind claims of "support" and "loyalty" - and accusing others of betrayal - are upset with people who have not turned, who have not changed and who continue to speak out just as they always have.

The message is this - "we now have the best we could ever have in power - 'our team' - so could everyone please now abandon all of the causes we have been fighting for, stop speaking out, and stop talking about the principles and ideals we stood for?"

The time thing is interesting, as well. "He has only been president for three days!!" Now it is "he has only been president for three months!" The message there is "be quiet now about our principles and ideals, because later you will get what you want." Of course expressing the principles and ideals has little or nothing to do with what people individually want, it is about what people think is right. That is not something you turn off and on. And it should also be obvious that if no one advocates for the cause, it will be less likely to happen, not more likely. Of course. How could it be otherwise?

No one has said "I expected such and such within the first 3 months." No one has said that. Yet you claim that this is happening and is a problem. You state it as though it were a foregone conclusion, and accepted reality. No doubt it is your wish that people will see your statement as a foregone conclusion, and accept it as reality without doing any critical thinking about it, and in denial of easily observed objective reality.

What we have here is a certain method for misrepresenting the truth that is very effective - a falsehood that is the exact opposite of the truth. Those kind of falsehoods are difficult for people to detect, because they have a familiar shape to them, they are a mirror image of the truth and so they closely resemble the truth, just flopped around to say the opposite. The right wingers and media pundits do this on every issue, with "reverse racism" being the moist notorious example.

Big lies, especially when they are the exact opposite of the truth, the mirror image of the truth, are harder to detect and refute than small lies are.

With so many people spontaneously posting the identical simple minded and deceptive idea, it is a fair assumption that it is coming from a common source. It is also a reasonable assumption that the common source would be the MSM, and after all the MSM has raised that particular method of expressing false ideas to an art form. That makes it interesting that people are accusing the critics and dissenters of being led around by the nose by the MSM. Again, the exact opposite is true.

Fascinating.


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other than yourself? Is it possible that another person might have a different perception of DU, because of the language of posters here, or is yours the only one? What do you consider 'dissent', and what exactly does that involve for you? If you are looking for a different opinion than your own, you won't find much here. I can't wait until he's been President for three months to hear what you have to say then.

I speak consistent with my perceptions, as does everyone else.

Dissent is not a word subject to personal interpretations. People are expressing criticism of the administration. I am calling that "dissent." It does not "involve" anything for me, it is merely a descriptive word that is serviceable in this context, I think.

you don't like call your representatives or anything like that? It's about one-liners on a message board?

When we post on a message board, we are posting on a message board. I post a little more than "one liners" for better or worse.

What it is it you have in mind in the way of action?

with policy, or government actions, I call or write my Congressman, and my Senators, and anyone else who might have influence with my concerns. Perhaps I'm no good at 'dissent' for the sake of 'dissent'. To me, that is ...I don't know what that is. A game maybe?

I have for over forty years worked for dozens of candidates and politicians, canvassed in over 50 elections, and have researched and written position papers on various issues over the years among many other things. I know and talk to hundreds of staff members of various elected officials, have done speech writing, and am in constant direct contact with many politicians and staffers. I have spoken to hundreds of groups about politics all over the country.

Is that what you mean? Not sure what you are saying or looking for here.

I am not talking about "my concerns" by the way, but rather about the desperate needs of people as told to be by thousands of every day people. Calling what a person has to say their personal concerns trivializes what they are saying.



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their 'personal concerns', trivializes what? Obviously your concerns are personal. Your opinion is personal. Unless of course you post here in another capacity...like working for a campaign...or trying to manage perception.

We express our personal opinions, but our opinions are not necessarily about personal things. "Your concerns" personalizes it, and yes, obviously, one's individual concerns are relatively trivial compared to political issues. Saying that someone else is talking about their personal concerns leads readers to see what they are saying as less important than they might otherwise. Of course.

I take exception and object to your insinuation that I am a paid plant of some kind, or that I am deceiving people. That is without basis and is a smear.


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in Obama has been justified..and they appreciate that we have someone who is real and willing to tackle real problems. Not some Orwellian Bullshit like Clear Sky Initiatives.

This is a discussion board..nobody knows what agendas are lurking, if any.

And, some people want what they want NOW and don't have any appreciation for what has been done.

It almost seemed like I had to scroll halfway down the page before finding a thread that wasn't angry at President Obama.

it's a little disconcerting to come here and read thread headlines like:

Huffington Post, Daily Howler, criticize falsehoods in Obama's education speech
"There's No Difference Between Obama and Bush"
Day 50: Obama is a Failure
Cancer Patients Die While "New Democrats" Help Bankers Get Billions
I'm calling for the impeachment of Barack Obama.

Granted some threads just look angry or are posting hateful quotes against Pres. Obama from other sources, but i ask that they try and do it in a way that express the OP's distain for the source..like this:

Typical BS AP/Yahoo headline "Obama signs $410 billion spending bill behind closed doors"

Otherwise , at least to me, it looks like we're promoting all these hateful comments. It's like going to CNN.com and seeing a fairly benign story with a negative quote puled and used as the headline to make the story look worse against Obama.

People are free to post what they want of course, but sometimes i see the OP's point and come here and feel like it's freeper territory only with better spelling.

administration, i.e. Geithner & Vilsack for starters.

He's covered for the bush** admin in the area of telecom spying.

He and his crew have made remarks that sound a whole lot like Bill Clinton's 'in the interests of the country' shit intimating that there will be no investigations of the crimes of the bush** admin.

The 'bailout' that he so he pushed so hard for last (October or whenever) has turned out to be one of the, if not THE, biggest rip-offs in history. (I always knew it was a bad idea. Lots of people did, but a lot went along because Obama was pushing it. Well folks, hope you're happy, we was had.)

Had to be forced into allowing single-payer health care advocates in on the talks about Americans and health insurance.

There's a start for you. Except to say I don't see anyone saying they HATE him. (I really haven't.) Also he wasn't a lot of people's first choice anyway, so we don't have the idea that he walks on water and can raise the dead. So when he fucks up like he has been, we don't say spank me sir, please give me some more.

:thumbsdown:

The giddy heights of adulation simply can't hold in the real world. There was also--and still is--such a vigorous group of extreme admirers on this board who stifle, hector and run off those who don't agree with all of the fantastical and flat-out untrue claims.

To many, he was going to do EVERYTHING, and suddenly tack hard and turn on the reactionaries. Many thought he was quite progressive, and many hammered this claim into the rest of us with endless derision and triumphalism. He's more like what he was ACTUALLY saying all along: a rather middle-of-the-road corporatist. Now, people are disappointed, but it's not ALL their fault: Obama's whole approach has been to be all things to all people, ducking extremely controversial issues, and playing to the group at hand for the other ones. Now he has to choose, and people are feeling suckered. It's largely their own fault, but our President played a dangerous game for which payback is being meted out from every direction.

Conservatives who believed the careful, cautionary stands are pissed off for things that are too lefty for their tastes, and those on the left are seeing all sorts of things that they SHOULD have seen, but didn't: he's NOT a pacifist, much as he was happy to carve off the peaceniks over his misrepresented "opposition" to the Iraq War; he's WAY too religious for many of us, and is injecting too much godcrap into government; he's not going to pursue the Bushies, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone and he's dragging in the same feudalist criminal hacks that Clinton used for confronting the economy.

NOBODY can be that high up in the polls for long; it's just the way it is. There are plenty of ingrates, spoilsports and contrarians to go around even in the nicest of times, but he's driving now, and people are seeing some things they don't like. These are also, simply put, not the nicest of times for many.

To a great degree it's hubris: his supporters--and to a certain degree he, himself--proclaimed him as little short of the second coming, yet he's just a guy, and he's learning in a whole new ballgame. Being an executive is significantly different than being a legislator, and leading is MUCH different than serially currying favor in elections.

He and his people were selling "newness", and there's a bit too much of the same.

Take heart in one dynamic: some of us who have had a very bad taste in our mouths about him from the beginning are finding more and more things to like, but for those coming down off of a huge bender of a high, it's hard to keep the thrill going.

..why repugs hate him. It's their job. Others don't like him because he has not fulfilled the fantasy they created around him during his two campaigns. Living like that is nice for awhile, but the coming back to bite you in the ass is not really worth it. That's why I'm neither angry, nor surprised with the decisions Obama has made so far. I listened to him before he was elected. Thanks.
quickesst

but most people still like and support him.

he is dealing with and some of it rubs off on him. People are freaked. Heck I am freaked. After a article I read that convinced me what those wall street people were really up to I cashed in my 401K.

We are looking at so many messes its inevitable that we aren't going to agree with how he fixes all of them or who he picks to help him do it.

I also think people were hoping he could pull out miracles and he is just one guy, one who is trying his hardest to fix things.

I haven't net anyone who has turned on him.The only thing I'm hearing negative,and this is only from the *I guess he's better than McInsane* voters is how much money is being tossed around.We are spending LOTS of money and it's scaring some people.

I haven't net anyone who has turned on him.The only thing I'm hearing negative,and this is only from the *I guess he's better than McInsane* voters is how much money is being tossed around.We are spending LOTS of money and it's scaring some people.

finally, I may be working my way towards quitting DU. I've tried it many times before, but always came back. Maybe this time it will stick.

that doesnt make them dislike obama

except bitch and moan, however.

If so I expect the pizza delivery people to be busy. On the other hand, if you are talking about valid criticism of his policies and actions, than I expect that is new to you, since this is the first time we have had a Democratic President here at DU.

Of course some people are going to be unhappy. In fact I think most of us are going to be unhappy at some point or another in this administration. No one is perfect. That certainly doesn't mean I am 'turning on him.' In fact he welcomes constructive criticism.

Just my two cents.

Wait, maybe we're using "turning on" in different senses.

"NATIONALIZE THE BANKS NOW!!! OUT OF IRAQ IMMEDIATELY!!! GIVE US SINGLE PAYER HEALTHCARE NOW!!! ARREST W NOW!!!"


ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

We need to learn as a society the virtue of PATIENCE again.

DU is not made up of Freepers...

I think he as done okay overall... maybe a C+

However, I will never agree with him on some things like his education reform and most likely what comes out of health care reform (although that's to be seen).

Oh, and let's not forget the coming Afghan debacle.

Some very bad ideas on all of the fronts listed above.

After so many years of America being characterised as a melting pot, there are some who just can't stomach a non-white in power. Look at Congress. Where are the Muslim Senators/Congressmen? In the UK you have Muslim MPs swaering on the Koran and there's no big hoo-hah about it.

True, if you are really into a specific issue like health care, disagreements are going to seem more significant. However, health care nuts like quite a few of his other policies.

Why would anyone go onto the internet in order to say something positive?

They want to create fear, uncertainty and doubt about him (FUD).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

is???

Sorta related, but in my family, I'm not good enough for my sister. If I could achieve lasting peace in the middle east, and find a cure for cancer in the same day, I still would not be good enough for her.

THere's many people in other forums who are like that with Obama. No matter what he does, he's still not good enough. They're complaining about the national debt after shutting up about it for the last 8 years.

record approval ratings.

One of the most popular presidents ever.

The RW noise b.s. is just loud and annoying.

We have not turned on him.